Page 76 of The Wild Zone

He fumbled to catch it.

“You should be fine in no time.” Zuri glanced at the clock on the wall, the way I used to do in third-period English class, willing time to move faster. “Now if you’ll excuse me, my shift is almost over.”

“You okay?” I asked her. “You seem…”

I wasn’t sure how to finish that thought: anxious, nervous, ants in pants?

“Yep.” She turned away. “Hey, Lee, Will, I’m leaving early. No more patients.”

Will looked up from his work and smiled at Lee. “She’s out of patience. Get it? She meant patients like the people, and I meant patience like the virtue!”

Lee did not look amused. “Hee-hee. Ha-ha. Keep working, Will.”

As Will pulled out another spine, his patient Elam yelped. “Can you be gentler?”

“Oh, sorry,” Will said, not sounding sorry. “Next time, maybe don’t pick a fight with a prickly pear dryad.”

Lee Fletcher marched over to join us at Harper’s bedside. He studied Harper and then Zuri. “What happened to him?”

“Cut his lip open on a rock,” Zuri said. “I gave him an ice pack and some nectar. Now if you don’t mind—”

Lee shouldered past her and inspected the wound. “Why is his mouth orange?”

I cleared my throat. “Oh, that’s my fault. We tried a lavender-and-ambrosia paste first, on the way over. It made a fun color.”

Will looked back at Zuri. “So you gave him nectar on top of the ambrosia he already had? Did you ask him why his lip was orange, or if he’d taken anything before he arrived?”

Zuri cringed. “No?”

Harper stopped in the middle of slurping his juice pouch. “Should I spit this out?”

Lee smiled politely and held out a trash can. “I would. Unless you enjoy spontaneous combustion.”

Harper spit into the trash can. “That’s too bad. It tasted like my favorite Philly cheesesteak.”

I shuddered at the thought of cheesesteak juice, but I supposed it wasn’t any worse than Sunkist-flavored rice tea. At least the swelling on Harper’s lip had faded.

Zuri put her hand on Harper’s arm. “I am so sorry! Are you feeling okay?”

He accepted a glass of water Lee gave him and nodded. “I’m fine. Besides, spontaneous combustion wouldn’t be the most embarrassing thing to happen to me this morning.”

Lee gave Zuri a stern look. “I know healing isn’t your favorite thing about the Apollo cabin. You want to get back to combat training. Fine. But every camper deserves our undivided attention.”

Zuri ducked her head. “You’re right. It’s just—”

“No,” Lee said. “No exceptions, Zuri. We give every injury the same quality of care.”

Zuri furrowed her brow. “Okay, but it’s just a busted lip. He’s fine.”

“He might not have been,” Lee said, “if you let him drink too much nectar and he burst into flames.”

Ouch.

Harper and I exchanged nervous glances.

“You’re right,” Zuri said again. Her eyes flashed like knife blades. Her skin started to glow. “I don’t belong here. I’m only good for hunting, not healing.”

Lee rested a hand on Zuri’s bare arm. I could feel the heat she was radiating from across the hospital bed, but it didn’t seem to bother Lee. “You belong in here, too,” he said. “Healing is a major part of being a child of Apollo. Everyone counts on us to make them all better, and I’d like to think we do.”