Page 33 of The Infirmary for Dragon Burns and Midair Mishaps

Eden didn’t answer. She simply started walking again. I hurried to fall in step beside her. Min brushed through the trees behind us, her stumbling steps sending tremors through my body as I wracked my brain for what in the stars Eden could be doing with the scales.

She didn’t seem to want anything that was too small, like the scales that gathered along Min’s nostrils or by her claws. Nor did she seem to want any scale that looked like it had been roughed up during a dragon skirmish. And she seemed delighted when she found a hand-sized scale—the kind that usually wrapped around Min’s belly.

“So, a kingsguard and a wrangler,” she said before I could come up with an answer. “That’s quite an impressive family tree. Do you have another brother in politics?”

“My father, actually.”

Eden shook her head. “I was only joking, but of course you do. It must be nice to see your brother. I expect you don’t get to visit very often.”

“It’s been almost two years this time,” I said, and only now did I realize how much I’d missed him. Wrangling kept me busy. It kept me from longing. I’d always looked up to Trystan. When I was a girl, I never imagined we’d live and work so far from each other.

“And your father?”

I shook my head. My father probably couldn’t care less if I perished in these mountains wrangling. “I send the occasional letter. I don’t imagine he misses me much.”

Eden glanced at me in surprise, her expression curious. “How could he not?”

“Trystan has always been the one he was proud of. I was the failure. The one who arrived too early, who took my mother’s strength. She passed shortly after I was born from complications, and I always suspected my father never truly forgave me for that. Then, after my accident…” I felt the prosthesis lock up as we walked and kicked out to loosen the joint. “He never expected me to amount to much and put all his time and energy into my brother.”

“And yet here you are, wrangling to keep an entire town safe. How could he not be proud of that?”

“Because he still sees me as unpredictable and foolish. He’d much prefer me to be behind a desk in the capital, where he can keep an eye on me. But I was always too willful for him to control.” I stopped suddenly, realizing where we were. A glimmer of blue reflected through the trees. “We’ve gone too far.”

Eden stared ahead. “What do you mean?”

Min made a whining noise, lifting her head in the direction of the lake longingly.

“We can’t,” I insisted.

Eden turned to me, perplexed.

“This land and the lake on it belong to Cyrus Goddard,” I explained quickly. “He doesn’t take kindly to dragons that draw too near the water.”

“Min likes to swim?” Eden guessed.

I nodded. “She loves it. It takes the pressure off her heart.”

Her eyebrows twitched. “What do you mean?”

“Starshots, that’s what Min is… Their hearts beat four times faster than any other dragon. It’s what gives them such speed in the sky. But because of that, her lifespan is⁠—”

“Shortened,” Eden said with sudden understanding. “I never realized.”

I bit my cheek as a swell of emotion caught me off guard. Maybe it was all about Min. Maybe it was talking about my father to this practical stranger. Maybe it was because I longed to see my brother more than our lives allowed. “I’ve been trying to get this land from Cyrus for a few years now,” I said, scratching at the back of my neck. “He only ever seems angrier about the inquiry each time I ask.”

“Is there no other water in Ember Ridge?”

“Deep enough for Min to swim?” I shook my head. “The closest lakes are up in the mountains, but the effort of getting to them defeats the purpose of any benefits.”

Eden hummed softly. “It seems silly, but I’ve never really thought of… Well, I never guessed that a rider might outlive their bonded dragon.”

“It’s rare,” I said, reaching for Min. “Humans don’t often bond with Starshots. So it’s not widely discussed.” I held my other hand out to Eden. “Here.”

She stared at me like I was holding a prickly pear. “What?”

“Just trust me. Give me your hand.”

She stepped forward, placing her palm against mine. Warmth threaded up my arm. I tugged her closer to Min, lining her up and gently encouraging her to press her ear to Min’s chest.