Page 17 of The Infirmary for Dragon Burns and Midair Mishaps

“Maybe she’s looking to be fulfilled by a pretty dragon wrangler,” Nisse said lightly, averting her eyes and sipping her drink.

What? My gaze cut in her direction as a laugh caught in the back of my throat. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m just saying,” she said. “Vaela doesn’t usually make a habit of lingering around the infirmary. She’s more of a drop-the-patient-and-go kind of person. I don’t think I’ve seen that much of her⁠—”

“Because the holes in her hand are flirting with infection!” I said, cutting her off.

“Someone’s definitely flirting with something,” Nisse muttered. “I can’t be the only one who noticed the tension between you two?”

“Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm,” Seraphine agreed, hiccupping again.

Talani groaned, looking like she wanted to smack her head off the table to free herself from this conversation. I might just join her.

“The only thing I want is to see the back of Vaela Frixsar,” I said. “Riding away from the infirmary.”

Seraphine nodded sagely. “She’s got a rather nice backside.”

“Seraphine!” Nisse cried, covering a laugh with her hand. Talani looked perplexed. A wave of heat nipped at my cheeks.

“What?” the woman said. “Have you seen those leather trousers of hers? I should ask her how she gets herself in such shape, but I suppose it’s from hauling herself up and down that dragon every day. And I don’t fancy doing that much work. Perhaps I’ll just get myself a pair of leather trousers, too.”

Nisse threw her head back and cackled. “And to think I was going to let Poppy come tonight.”

Seraphine wiggled her eyebrows. “You know what they say about dragon wranglers anyway.”

“The good ones die young?” Talani said.

My heart thumped unevenly in my chest.

Seraphine scowled at her. “Psssh… No.”

Talani shrugged. “It’s true.”

I grimaced. She didn’t know how right she was, and a dark ache flared inside me, rooting itself behind my ribs.

“Look, nice backside or not,” Talani said. “It’s best everyone keeps their distance from that one. The thrill isn’t worth it in the end.”

Seraphine sighed and patted my hand. “Don’t listen to that spoil-sport.”

I managed to laugh it off, unbothered. But I didn’t need Talani to tell me about the fate of dragon wranglers. I still remembered the charge nurse at the academy saying that a dragon rider’s fate was inevitable. The very beasts they tamed would one day claim their lives.

Wranglers were no different.

And if anyone knew the truth of that, it was me.

“What a sad life,” Nisse mused, an air of melancholy in her voice.

I hummed in agreement just as a dark shadow swept overhead. A rattling wind whipped across the courtyard, snuffing out several of the candles.

And then, with a thunderous crash, something came skidding off the roof of the pub. I yelped as it dropped onto an empty table, crushing the wood before rising to its clawed feet and turning the table remnants to ash with one heated breath.

6

VAELA

It was a dragon.

That’s what had everyone’s trousers in a twist. And by the sounds of it crashing about outside, it was pissed.