“Thatisthe bare minimum,” I agreed, grinning and taking his hand.
“I just want you to know, I really do appreciate what you said yesterday. About staying,” he said, his voice soft.
My throat felt dry as I tried to swallow, searching for the words. With him so close, only a few inches away, it was difficult to form a single thought, let alone a sentence.
“I meant it,” I spoke finally, nodding once. “I’m here until the horde is better.”
A strange expression washed over Grey’s face.I couldn’t parse out whether it was relief or regret, but before I could ask, he was leading me out the door.
I’d only taken two or three bites of my sandwich when Kellan came running through the door. “Is Healer Rowan here?” he shouted, his breathing short and fast. Upon hearing my name, I put the food down and looked across the dining hall.
A few people looked around, their eyes landing on me. I raised my hand, given my mouth was full of the delicious sandwich Ma had rustled up.
As Kellan jogged over, I swallowed, wiping my mouth. “Is everything okay?”
He was pale, his eyes wide and panicked, and all thought of food disappeared. Something was wrong. “You need to come quickly. Rory’s gotten worse again.”
My stomach dropped, my heart stuttered, and my skin went cold. I shook my head, almost thinking this was some kind of sick joke. But Kellan looked terrified.
“What do you mean, Rory is worse?” I quickly discarded my plate and stood so fast I nearly tripped over the bench. The kid had been better, practically one hundred percent. He had onlyjustgone home. He had even been giving me attitude. How could he have gotten worse all of a sudden?
Kellan led me out of the room, and I vaguely heard Grey at my heels, naturally he was following to see what was happening. “We have no idea. He was doing so well, and then this morning, he’s just… He’s bad again, likerealbad. We took him straight to your clinic, thinking you’d be there, but…” He trailed off.
I silently cursed. Clearly, I had picked thebestpossible day to sleep in with a dragon cuddle buddy.
“You did the right thing, taking him to the clinic,” I said, trying to provide some level of reassurance.
“What do we do,Miss Rowan?”
“Don’t panic. I’m going to look him over. Everything I could possibly need is at the clinic.” I sprinted behind him, breathless.
I could only go so fast, and I knew it was starting to irritate Kellan in his panicked state, but he didn’t say anything. He paused every few strides to wait for me to catch up.
“Forgive me, Rowan, but there’s no time for slow humans,” Grey said, reminding me he was there. He scooped me up bridal style and took off into the woods with impressive speed.
A fifteen-minute walk turned into a three-minute one, and thank fuck for that. The trees whizzed past me faster than if we’d driven.
Still, my stomach was swirling. I wasn’t sure if the nausea was because of my worry for Rory or the speed. But we made it to the clinic in record time. I didn’t even bother thanking Grey as I dashed through the entry, past reception and into Rory’s room.
“Leah, Donald, what happened?” I headed straight to the bed where Rory was lying on his side in the fetal position, clutching his stomach.
His mom shook her head. “I don’t know. He was fine last night, and then this morning, he started vomiting and couldn’t even stand.”
After picking up the stethoscope from the small table next to the bed, I quickly checked Rory over. His skin was pale and clammy to the touch.
That wasverybad. Dragons tended to run hot, so when they were really sick, they would chill—the opposite of humans in most cases. Rory’s skin was also a sickly green color, and he clutched his stomach, clearly in pain, groaning every couple of seconds as his body obviously fought against something.
“What did he eat last night?” I probed his abdomen gently, and he hissed as I touched above his stomach.
“I gave him chicken nuggets because that’s all he’s been wanting lately. But he’s eaten them the last few nights with no issue. This isn’t because I haven’t been feeding him enough vegetables, is it?” Leah asked in a tightvoice.
That almost made me laugh, a mom’s concern about veggies.
“No, Leah. He’s not going to get sick because he’s had chicken nuggets. I think any child who’s recovering from something like this deserves all the chicken nuggets in the world.”
Rory groaned, trying to turn over, but I had to stop him, lifting one of his eyelids. His pupils were dark and bloodshot, slightly dilated.
“Can you tell me anything else?” I released his eyes, assessing his tonsils and tongue before looking at Leah.
