Menacing rocks and an unforgiving ground draw closer. My heart bludgeons my chest so hard it feels like it’ll break through at any moment.
I wish it would.
It would probably be a less painful way to go.
I wait for one more glimpse of my life and loved ones to flash before my eyes, but it doesn’t come. All I see is vast wilderness and a ruthless, taunting fate rushing up to meet me.
Then we collide.
And I do my best to die.
Chapter 2
WOOLEN AND HEAVY. EVERYTHING FEELS too soft, too feathery…my body…my mind. And yet the panic in the reedy feminine whisper pierces through the murky depths I’m shrouded in like a hot lance through dandelion fluff.
“A dragon. They have us tending to a dragon, afemaledragon, like that’s just some normal, everyday, no-big-deal thing.”
“It’s only an issue if you make it one, Gina.”
“Everything about this is anissue, Pete. She’s a dragon. You know, the kind that burned half the planet in the Fae Wars and then declared themselves rulers of everything that didn’t go up in smoke.”
“I’m pretty sure they call themselves drakes when they’re in this human-ish form. And they saved our asses after The Bearing. We’d all be slaves to the fae right now if the dragons hadn’t done what they did.”
“I don’t care what they call themselves. I care that we have one of their females unconscious in the bed behind you, which means The Horde is going to come down on all of us. You know how they are. They’re ruthless when they think they’ve been wronged. Just ask the wyverns. And if there’s one thing that’s guaranteed to incite their wrath, it’s messing with one of their females. I’ve never even seen one before. That’s how psychotically protective they are of the few that are left.”
My muddled mind tries to make sense of what’s going on, but when I reach for clarity, my cumbersome limbs can’t seem to find it in the foggy haze all around me.
“Shhhh, Gina! You’re getting yourself worked up for nothing. The Horde isn’t going to show up and burn the town to the ground.”
“And how do you know that?”
“One, because not all of them breathe fire. Different subgroups, or kiths as they call them, have different abilities—”
“Pete, spare me the lecture. The Dragon Horde is not going to send us their Healers or the dragons that grow flowers and talk to trees. They’re going to send the Thrashers, their punishers and trackers. You know, the massive scary ones who hunt down the troublemakers and show the rest of us why messing with the top of the food chain is a bad idea. Again, do you really need this history lesson after what they’ve done to your own people?”
“This female was brought here because we were the closest trauma center. We didn’t hurt her, Gina. We saved her. And before you go throwingmy peoplein my face, the sorcai that rebelled with the wyverns were dealt with. Rightfully so. That’s the Arcane way. I know you humans like to think you’re entitled to things the way they were before The Bearing, but you morons were the ones who started shit with the fae and almost got yourselves wiped out. The Arcane intervened, like you begged us to, and now you get to fall in line like the rest of us.”
I try to swat away the hissed conversation that’s buzzing around me like a pesky mosquito, but I still can’t get my arms to work like they’re supposed to.
In fact, nothing seems to be working. I’m pretty sure I’m wrapped in cotton and trapped in sand, and it’s making everything too slow and yet somehow too fast.
I do understand one thing though, I should be dead.
I should be, but I’m not.
“Gina, if your prejudice is going to keep you from doing your job, you need to go notify shift lead so they can send someone else in here who can help. We are required by law to report any cases that even faintly look like they’re linked to blood brokers. The fact that the victim is a dragon doesn’t matter. The Horde is sending a team to investigate and collect her, and we need to get her cleaned up so that they don’t fly into a rage and burn us all alive when they see the state she’s in. Now, get to work or get out.”
“Thought you said they don’t all breathe fire,” the woman grumbles quietly. “Can’t you just bibbity bobbity boo her clean with all your superior sorcai magic? I know you’re licensed for it. Why do you even need me?”
“They found some sort of strange magical block in her blood when they were testing it to figure out what she was. Even the higher-ups don’t recognize what it is or why. They don’t want anyone messing with it more than they already have, which means no more unnecessary magic around her. We get to do things the old-fashioned way today. Now, get to work.”
A cold cloth brushes against my forehead, and I groan a weak protest, not liking the chilly touch. A squawk of fright sounds off next to me, followed by the scuffle of feet scurrying around. Harsh worried whispers press in against me like a scratchy quilt, but I lose track of the noise and time as it all grows too fuzzy and too fragile to hold onto before growing quiet.
The sand I’m trapped in pulls me deeper, disarranging my senses even more. I float, both light and heavy for a while, neither here nor there. Until the long past hazy conversation comes back and I manage to cling to a part of it that feels important. The statement tries to escape my grasp. It wiggles and writhes like a slippery fish, but I hold on tight, forcing the words to replay in my mind over and over again.
The Horde is sending a team.
The words are weighted. Heavy. But I’m still floating all over the place, and it’s hard to connect the dots into a picture that makes sense.
