Page 61 of The Infirmary for Dragon Burns and Midair Mishaps

“I know,” I said. And I did. I hadn’t forgotten her asleep on the chair next to me, hunched at odd angles as she kept her bedside vigil. Her concern for me had pulled her away from other work. “Go on. Don’t let me keep you from your responsibilities.”

She tucked her arms against her chest and shifted by me, careful not to let our skin brush, and I itched to reach for her. Itched to tell her how much I meant what I’d said before. I wanted her, and I didn’t want to let her go.

But I, more than anyone, understood the weight of responsibility and what it meant to drop everything to do something that might save a life.

Eden had definitely saved mine the other night. I could wait a little longer for her.

20

EDEN

“I think the key to a good coating is finding something fast drying and long-lasting,” Nisse said to me, holding up a dragon scale to the window as she examined it closer. The bracelets on her wrist rattled. We were locked away in the apothecary together, mulling over my armor conundrum. “What did you say you already used?”

“Honey, lemon leaf and beeswax.”

She hummed. “I wonder if the acid in the lemon leaf is somehow breaking down the bond, making the salve weaker than it should be.”

“You’re saying it might be having the opposite effect?”

The door suddenly banged open, and I yelped, diving over the dragon scales we’d laid out on Nisse’s work bench, flapping around as I tried to gather them to me.

Nisse jammed the scale in her hand behind her back, attempting to hide the evidence of what we were doing. But when she saw Vaela standing in the doorway, she sighed heavily and rolled her eyes.

“Geez, wrangler,” she complained. “Can you at least knock? You almost gave me a heart attack.”

Vaela looked a little sheepish. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

I released an uneasy breath, hand pressed to my chest, waiting for my pulse to regulate. I didn’t know why I expected the kingsguard to come busting through the doorway of the infirmary when there were none currently in town, but the more I worked on the armor, the more I feared being discovered.

“I tried at the cottage first,” Vaela said, her gray eyes narrowing as she took in the varying bits of armor scattered around the room. “Then I heard voices in here and thought I’d check.” Her lips pulled into a thin line as her gaze caught mine. “I hadn’t realized you were telling other people about the armor?”

“Only Nisse,” I said with a shrug. “I, uh, didn’t really have a choice.”

Nisse snorted, threading her hand through her short hair. “She kept stealing ingredients from the store cupboards and I knew it wasn’t for a patient.”

“Plus,” I continued, “I figured she might actually have some ideas on how I could improve the protective coating.”

“Right.” Vaela nodded once, jaw set tight. It looked like she was biting down on something more she wanted to say. “I guess…” She pulled a bag of fresh scales from the satchel strung over her shoulder. “There’s no use in hiding these then.” She plopped the scales down on the workbench. “Min collected them herself. Plucked them all from her nest this morning.”

I couldn’t help smiling at the thought. If Min hadn’t already been growing on me, I would have positively adored her now.

Nisse dove for the bag, sifting through the scales to sort them by size. “It’s fascinating to think of the things we could do with dragon scales, isn’t it? Especially the ways they might influence healing. Not that I would ever consider using them like that,” she hurried to say, laughing uneasily as she looked between us. “I would never risk the wrath of the king. But… one does wonder about all the things we’re missing out on because a few people control what should belong to everyone.”

She glanced from me to Vaela, her eyes widening. Did she know Vaela’s brother was a member of the kingsguard? Did she have the same fear I once had? That Vaela would turn on me, ratting me out to her brother, bringing the wrath of the king to my doorstep.

“Again, not that I would ever⁠—”

“It’s okay,” I said. “You’re right. The kingdom should be free to use the scales in a way that helps everyone. If the dragons are willing enough, if they no longer need the scales, then why shouldn’t we be allowed to bolster our armor and brew tonics and…” I threw my arms up. “Who even knows what other uses the old scales might have? One man shouldn’t have a monopoly over all that.”

Nisse let out a relieved breath. “Well, I might not be brave enough to experiment, but I’m glad to be helping you.”

“And I appreciate that,” I assured her.

Vaela stiffened beside me. I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. It had been our secret for a time—the armor. Perhaps it felt like a betrayal to her that I was sharing it with Nisse now. That’s not how I’d meant it, but there was something like frustration in her eyes. Hurt too, maybe? Or perhaps this was all in my head, and I was reading into something that wasn’t there.

Anyway, it was for the best if she pulled back. That’s what we both needed to do. And to make that happen, I needed to draw a clear boundary. Whatever she thought was happening between us, whatever feelings there might have been, couldn’t be.

I knew what it was to live through heartbreak. I’d lost my parents. I wasn’t prepared to lose someone else I cared about. A heart could only take so much trauma before it stopped beating. That was a fact.