Page 115 of Dragon Me Through Space

Zeke growled and hovered by the side of my bed as I took Wayne’s hands, pivoted my body, and slowly slid off of the bed to stand on my feet.

A strange coldness ran up my right side as I put pressure on it, causing me to hiss in shock and jerk my foot up.

Zeke reached out and grabbed my waist like he thought I was going to fall over.

“Pain?” Wayne asked.

I shook my head. “A cold, like, electric feeling went up my leg.”

“Can you try putting pressure again and let me know if it happens again?” He kept his hold on my hands to keep me steady and his eyes were fully focused on my leg.

Carefully, I put pressure on my right foot, but this time there was no coldness or anything. I just felt the cool tile beneath my foot, the same as my real left foot. “Nothing that time,” I explained quickly. “I can feel the coldness of the tiles.”

Wayne smiled and nodded. “That’s perfect! Can you try walking?”

“Wayne,” Zeke growled.

“We won’t let her fall,” Wayne said and glared at him. “You can help catch her if you’re so worried.”

There was obviously something going on between the two of them, a hostility that hadn’t been there before the Games.

“What’s going on between you two?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Zeke lied.

“One small step at a time,” Wayne said as he refocused on me, his face softened while his hands tightened around mine. “As slow as you want to go.”

Shifting my weight to my left foot, I raised my right, moved it forward, and slowly set my right foot down until I had full pressure on it. It was a slightly odd feeling, not quite what my brain was used to, but there was no pain and I could put the full weight without issue.

I took a couple more steps, Zeke’s hands hovering right over my hips as he walked behind me, before I stopped and looked up and back at him over my shoulder. “No pain at all.”

Zeke released a breath and nodded, but didn’t move.

Pulling gently, I took my hands from Wayne’s grip, and before they could stop me, made a jump from Wayne to land beside Preston.

Preston’s hands shot out to grab me at the same time Zeke had followed my movements and grabbed my waist.

Laughing, I turned and smiled at Wayne. “You did great, Wayne. Thank you.”

“There are plenty of modifications we can still make,” he said quickly. “We’ll go over your options later.”

“Let’s get you changed, so we can take you out of here,” Preston said as he released me to grab a bag I hadn’t noticed sitting on a chair by the door. He pulled out a change of clothes and set them on the hospital bed.

“We’ll wait outside,” Gage said and pulled Wayne outside with Preston immediately following.

Zeke still held my waist, his eyes down on the floor.

“You okay, Giant?” I set a hand on his chest, getting him to raise his eyes to meet mine. He looked conflicted.

“Wayne’s mad at me for the same reason I’m mad at myself,” he whispered. “I failed you. You almost died and I couldn’t, no I didn’t do anything about it. The water was full of blood and those creatures, but I couldn’t see you. I wanted to dive in there and grab you, I should have just dove in, but⁠—”

I turned around to face him fully and set my hands on each of his cheeks. “You didn’t fail me. I agreed to participate in the Games. I knew the creatures that would be in the water would be dangerous even if I hadn’t known they would be luscas. If you’d gotten into the water, you could have been hurt by them unnecessarily.”

“I’d rather die than let you get hurt again,” he whispered and bent practically in half so he could rest his forehead against mine.

“My injury is not your fault. It’s none of yours. Who’s to say that this wouldn’t have happened with one of the creatures you normally use? I could have messed up fighting those as well.”

He growled and wrapped me up in a bone crunching, warm hug. “I’m never letting you put yourself in harm’s way again.”