Page 8 of The Infirmary for Dragon Burns and Midair Mishaps

She turned and stalked out the door, climbing onto her massive dragon. It coiled across the yard, serpentine-like. Then it launched itself into the sky, sending a wave of heated air to ruffle my apron.

Nisse walked over and nudged my arm. “Fun first day, huh? I think that went really well.”

I exhaled sharply, knowing I was going to have some very stern words for Gunther when he returned. Because stars if I was going to put up with the likes of Vaela Frixsar—one of the most irritating wranglers I’d ever had the displeasure of meeting.

3

VAELA

“You’ll have to do better than that, little fish!” I ducked a sharp spray of water that shot out of the lake. My eyes flicked across the glassy surface, watching for the telltale ripple.

There!

I dodged left, rolling away from another jet. It grazed my left ear this time, and I smirked, tracing that sparkling shape beneath the surface of the water. The ridges along Min’s silver spine drew above the surface as she swam too close to the lake’s edge, a ripple of water coming up to graze my boots.

“Too close,” I called. “That’s cheating!”

A puff of steam rose into the air as she snorted. The only rules Min liked to play by were the ones she decided on. Another insanely accurate spout of water shot from the lake, catching me in the gut. I doubled over, groaning. Min’s head popped above the water. I didn’t know it was possible for a dragon to gloat, but somehow, she managed it.

I rose to my feet. “All right. That’s enough. C’mon, time to get out of here.”

A low rumble echoed in response to my words. Min drifted further away from me, twisting and turning through the water. She didn’t want to leave yet, and I couldn’t blame her. Next to being in the sky, the lake was her favorite place in the world. And frankly, at her age, the water was better for her.

My little minnow.

She’d always loved the water. When I’d found her as a dragonling, still small enough to tuck under my arm, she’d been camped out in the flooded riverbed behind the barracks where I’d completed my wrangler training. Whenever I got close to the river, she’d pop her head out of the water, wanting attention. Eventually, she started bringing me shiny rainbow trout as gifts.

My hope had been that she’d return to her herd and live out her days in the wild. But I’d suspected she’d already spent too much time around humans as a dragonling, naturally domesticating herself. And when she’d started curling up on the stoop behind my barracks each night to sleep, I knew she was mine.

Another rumble left bubbles boiling in the water.

“I understand,” I called, “but you know what happens when we linger.”

Bad things.

She flicked her tail hard, and a massive wave of water came up to splash me. I shielded my bandaged hand against my body, hunching over to stop it from getting soaked. The last thing I needed to do was incite the wrath of that burn nurse tomorrow.

Eden.

Stars, what a nightmare. A girl couldn’t even do her job anymore without being told she was doing it wrong. As if this burn nurse knew the first thing about wrangling. Or armor. Or what the hell I was supposed to be doing with it. She slapped bandages on burns. That’s where her concern with wrangling should have started and ended.

I thought back to the way her eyes had flashed when she’d snapped at me, brown flecked with lines of meadow green. Bits of her blonde hair had pulled from the knot at the base of her neck as she’d flitted about the patient, the loose hairs curling by her temples as she’d worked. Perhaps I’d been a little too quick to judge her—she clearly knew what she was doing when it came to healing.

But that didn’t give her any right to tell me how to do my job. Honestly, for such a petite woman, she was awfully loud and bossy, and maybe that was why I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I needed to stop. And yet every time my hand smarted, my thoughts were drawn back to that encounter like a dragon to a nest.

Gunther had never irritated me to this degree. I wondered if he knew what a menace his new burn nurse was—the way her cheeks flushed the color of sunset when she was irritated. The way her delicate hands curled into angry fists as she stiffened.

I wrenched my thoughts away from the burn nurse as heat prickled at the back of my neck. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to have to throw myself into the lake to stop the spread. With any luck, Gunther would return tomorrow to put me out of my misery.

My eyes flicked right as Min lifted her tail, preparing to douse me with another wave. I pointed a finger in warning. “Revenge will be swift,” I called, the corner of my mouth twitching. “Don’t start something you can’t finish.”

Her tail sank beneath the water, a playfulness returning to her movements as she glided across the lake. When she reached the middle, she coiled, turning circles around herself to create a massive whirlpool. Then she leapt from the water, diving straight into her own funnel.

I grinned at the sight. Seeing a dragon in action, taking to the sky, was always exhilarating. But seeing a dragon play, knowing they were comfortable enough to let their guard down and be vulnerable… Few things could truly compare to earning a dragon’s trust.

“Frixsar!” a harsh voice bellowed. “Get that blasted beast out of my lake!”

“Curse the stars,” I muttered, turning to face Cyrus Goddard. He stomped through the woods behind me, slicing through the underbrush with his scythe. His bushy gray eyebrows twitched as his beady stare landed on Min.