Page 86 of The Infirmary for Dragon Burns and Midair Mishaps

Vaela stopped suddenly, the hook on her prosthesis having snagged around a scale.

“Yes!” I cried. But my celebration was too soon. The prosthesis came loose from her knee, and Vaela started sliding again. She scrambled around at the last second, clutching the end of the prosthesis with her hands, hanging there on the side of the great beast as its wings flapped harder.

Somehow, Vaela managed to haul herself up, climbing the beast using the prosthesis to hook herself in place. Once she’d crested the top of its back, she wedged herself next to one of those sharp, armored plates, safe for now.

“Get us closer,” I called to Min.

The Wretch curved around suddenly, and Min swerved to avoid a bolt of fire.

“It’s headed for the mountains,” I shouted, looking over my shoulder. Min whipped around as the Wretch lifted into the smoky clouds, moving faster than I’d anticipated.

“It’s going too high!” The beast rose in the direction of the tallest peak. Soon Vaela wouldn’t be able to breathe. She’d lose consciousness, and then there’d be nothing to hold her in place.

I felt sick. But Min didn’t stop, instead curving upward, wings flapping twice as hard.

“She wouldn’t want you to fly that high,” I said, my heart in my throat. The exertion it would take for Min to catch up with the Wretch, to fly at that altitude, it wouldn’t be safe.

Min arched her long neck around, laying one eye on me. It narrowed, and for a beat, it was like I could hear what she was thinking. I’m going with or without you.

29

VAELA

Wind rushed past me as the Wretch climbed into the night sky alongside jagged peaks. I clutched my prosthesis with both hands where I’d latched it around a thick scale, my fingers freezing in the chilled mountain air.

I blinked stinging tears from my eyes, quickly realizing how high we were flying. This was a height I never would have attempted with Min. A height that could have stopped her heart.

And part of me had to admit that it was glorious. The stars looked close enough to pluck from the endless black, and I knew this was what true freedom tasted like. I couldn’t blame the Wretch for fighting so hard to get it back.

I also couldn’t blame Min for constantly wanting to climb her way up these mountains. To taste the sky where the air thinned and where the clouds were nothing but papery wisps. She deserved that even though I could never give it to her.

I turned and stared at the moon, wanting to reach for it.

The Wretch collided with the mountainside suddenly, jolting me from my silly fantasies, and I screamed. It wanted to unseat me. I knew I was like a bug on its back. An unwelcome nuisance that it wanted to squish.

And that was perfect.

If I continued to make myself a nuisance, the beast would forget about the town below and the people who’d caged it, and I could keep everyone safe.

I could protect Eden from the flames.

Just like a wrangler was supposed to.

I sucked in a sharp breath, braced myself against the armored plate behind me, and unlatched the prosthesis, using it as a lever to pry up a massive scale. The Wretch roared in response, shaking as it climbed even higher.

My head spun as the air thinned, and my next breaths were shaky, labored things that hardly filled my lungs.

Uh-oh.

We were already too high. A torrent of wind caught me, and I grabbed my prosthesis, hooking it around another scale lest I be blown off. Fear blossomed in my chest like a painful bulge. Not for the first time in my life, I wondered what it would be like to fall from dragonback. To hurtle toward the ground at an unstoppable speed. Would I pass out before that inevitable collision?

What happened to the girl who’d jump on the back of wild horses? I heard Trystan say in my head.

I scowled into the wind. She fell in love, dammit! And she didn’t want to die up here.

I wanted to spend this evening, and every evening after, with Eden, wrapped in her arms, holding her as the sound of her breathing lulled me to sleep. In my hazy, oxygen-deprived brain, I imagined growing old and wrinkled by her side. I imagined my body aging and my hair going gray, and Eden still smiling in that adoring way from the pillow next to mine.

I wanted all those years together, but most wranglers didn’t get old age. My vision went spotty as the air continued to thin. Eden swam to the forefront of my mind. If I wanted her, I had to stop wrangling.