The metal snapped, and his wing jerked automatically, lunging forward as he attempted to find purchase. His wing arced, the black talon glinting in the air, and I tried to jerk back, but before I could, it sliced through my palm. Green blood immediately spurted out.
I felt nothing at first as blood pooled in my palm and dripped down, landing on the metal of the tunnel floor. Shock, probably, but it only lasted a moment before a deep throbbing ache made me swallow a whimper and blink back tears. I fisted my hand against the pain and to slow the spilling blood. Thank the Crystal, I was able to close my hand. Hopefully, it meant nothing too delicate, like my tendons, were destroyed. But my vision wavered at the sight of blood, and my stomach rose up my throat, threatening to send my breakfast tumbling.
Noxlyn’s wings vanished inside his shirt, and he gripped a lower rung, his feet firmly on the tunnel below. His eyes landed on the blood leaking between my fingers. “My apologies. I didn’t intend to harm you.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s not,” he said, his eyes wide. “Allow me to help you to the medbay.”
My first instinct was to say no, but in the end, I agreed because already there was a whooshing noise like air rushing past me in my ears, and my thoughts raced while at the same time feltstagnant, as if trapped in mud. I didn’t believe I would lose consciousness, but if I did, it was much better to have someone beside me.
I shuffled carefully down the tunnel, my hand clenched and tucked protectively against my chest, until I reached the hatch. I slipped out, and Noxlyn was right behind me.
“Do you need assistance walking?” he asked, extending an arm.
“No.”
He led the way to the lift before pressing the button to the correct deck. I followed, swallowing my surging bile and the way the world swayed with each step. The fuzzy noise was growing louder and louder in my ears with every passing moment. Noxlyn remained beside me as we walked, his arm remaining out like he intended to catch me if I fell. It was quite kind of him, but I wouldn’t fall; I refused to. I didn’t need fainting added to an endearment. I couldn’t even imagine. Lieutenant Faint. Lieutenant Swoon. I shook my head. Any form of it would be unacceptable.
When we stepped into the medbay, Noxlyn immediately went to the small office on the side and walked inside without preamble. The open, arched doorway was framed by two windows. I couldn’t see much from my current angle, though if my memory held true, there wasn’t much besides a desk, monitors, and shelves with medical plants. It was Doctor Qinlin’s office. Physician Klars, the Amorian healer who’d been hand-chosen by the emperor to care for Seth and Bartholomew as well as the other humans on board, didn’t have an office in the medbay, since Qinlin had refused to share.
The rest of the medbay was dominated by the color gray. It was the one of the few rooms free of the moss floor and the creeping vines on the ceilings. Three beds with monitors above them were to the right of the door and a single bed was across from me.
When my knees trembled and the static in my brain grew to deafening levels, I sat on one of the beds. I kept my hand fisted as I swallowed against the churning in my stomach. I would not vomit. I refused to. Ensign Puke was no more, and the last thing I needed was for word to get around that I’d vomited from a clean slice across my palm.
After what felt like an eon, Doctor Qinlin strode out of the office and came toward me with a screen in her hand and a harsh expression on her face that made me cringe and hunch my shoulders clear to my ears. She growled at Noxlyn, pointing at the isolated bed, and he obligingly sat down, arms crossing like a petulant child.
“So my kit injured you,” she said, pushing a hand through her short purple hair.
“Kit?” I asked, looking at Noxlyn. I suddenly realized when I’d seen his stern expression before. He looked like his mother. They weren’t the same color—she was a dark purple—but that wasn’t unusual. However, their features were similar with the same long face and ordinary aspect. “I didn’t realize you had a child.”
Qinlin didn’t seem like a parent type to me, though she also didn’t seem like the type to like being the head seeker or doctor on a ship, and she was, so I couldn’t have gotten a true understanding of her.
She scoffed and grabbed a medical wand, scanning my palm. “He sliced one of the tendons. I will have to do surgery. Lie back.”
“But I can move my fingers.”Not my hand. Please, not my hand.I used my hands all the time for my work. I couldn’t lose the full range of motion.
“It’s not a full tear, but I need to repair it before it’s further damaged.” Qinlin absently patted me, and I recoiled from the touch. She often ignored permissions, as they were too muchhassle for her. “You’ll be fine. A week of light duty and maybe two of restricted movement, and you’ll be back to your normal duties. Records state this is your dominant hand, so no firearm training.”
No Monqilcolnen. That was a perk, if there was one in this situation. I jolted as a needle punctured the skin between my scales. The liquid burned, and I fought the urge to whine. Qinlin barely paid attention to me as she held the cylindrical needle to my wrist until it emptied and the needle retracted.
Numbness filled my hand, and my thoughts scattered like clouds in the wind.
“You shouldn’t feel this, but if you do, tell me,” she said before pulling out more instruments. I had a hard time following her as she set everything up. “My apologies about Noxlyn. He has no experience on a ship. His father wouldn’t let him go to space. The man is a moron, but he was a good fuck, which, I suppose, is why Noxlyn is here.”
The first smile I’d ever seen on Qinlin’s face appeared. It was a small thing that barely quirked her lips, but it was there all the same. “I wouldn’t have Noxlyn without him,” she said, pulling the skin of my palm apart. I looked away, queasy. “Me and Fynlincoxmin weren’t courting; we were fuck friends. He’s too stupid for anything else, but he is lovely.
“When I got pregnant, I planned to terminate the pregnancy. It wasn’t the right time in my career for a child, and I never wanted children. Not ever. But Fynlincoxmin begged me. He sobbed and cried for the baby, so I decided to keep it.” She smiled again. “Noxlyn is the best thing in my life. Thank the Crystal he inherited my brain, though.”
I’d never known her to speak so much, but she was successfully distracting me from what she was doing. Perhaps she remembered me passing out more than once from blood when I’d fulfilled my obligated rotation in the medbay.
“But he is rather inexperienced in space. His father cannot be parted from him.” She scoffed. “Fynlincoxmin is mated now, and Zyngid and I had to convince him to let Noxlyn go. Fynlincoxmin hates whenever he is away. He doesn’t even let Noxlyn live out of his house. The man is overly attached. I thought this trip would be good for Fynlincoxmin, and Noxlyn wanted to go.”
“Why?” I forced out of my lips.
Qinlin looked at me for a long moment with a deep frown, then clarified, “Why am I telling you this, you mean?”
I was too lightheaded to respond, but it wasn’t needed.
