“No,” he says.
“Wrong answer.”
“Sera.”
“Don’t Sera me. You’re bleeding.”
“So are you.”
“Yes, and I’m very irritated about it, but my wound has already been tied shut by the most judgmental hands on Tajss. Yours hasn’t.”
“The system is waking.”
“And if you keep dripping blood all over these old channels, maybe it wakes faster.”
That stops him. Practical fear, my beloved little crowbar.
His jaw tightens. “Briefly.”
“Look at you, learning to compromise.”
“I dislike it.”
“I know,” I say, unable to keep a small smile off my face.
He lowers himself onto a broad stone ridge near the pool, keeping one eye on the draining water and the other on me. I kneel behind him before courage can notice what I’m doing and run away.
His back is massive. That’s a very unhelpful observation.
Wings folded tight. Dark scales scarred and ridged. Muscle shifting under skin as he braces one hand against stone. He smells like mineral dust, blood, clean danger, and something distinctly Kavor, something my body has become far too interested in cataloging.
The torn place near his wing is jagged but not deep enough to threaten him. Probably. Zmaj bodies are built infuriatingly well.
“You should have told me this reopened,” I say.
“You saw.”
“I saw because I looked.”
“Yes.”
“You’re supposed to say thank you.”
“For looking?”
“For caring enough to look.”
The words escape before I can stop them. I freeze, my hand above his wound. Kavor goes still. Well. Good. Wonderful. Apparently my mouth has chosen today as its independence festival.
The cavern hums beneath us. The blue roots around the pool pulse softly. My bandage answers once, then settles.
Kavor’s voice comes low. “Thank you.”
Oh, that is worse, I think as my heart skips.That’s so much worse.
I tear a strip from the edge of a clean wrap in his pack, because if I keep sitting behind him with my hand hovering near his blood and that thank you between us, I’m going to do something reckless. More reckless.
I clean the wound with as little water as possible. He doesn’t flinch until I get near the wing joint. Then his whole body locks.
