Page 54 of Dream Reaper

She needed to find a way to stop the bleeding, some way to…cauterize the wound? She stared at her own hands and thought about how Princess Persis had used her magic to heal Prince Haryk. She’d poured her magic into him to protect him from his nightmares. Maybe she could use her magic in a similar way. It wouldn’t exactly be healing…

But it’s the same concept, she whispered to herself. If Persis could do it…

Maybe she could find a way to put her flimsy magic to good use. She dropped the corner of her skirt and pressed her bare hands against Dragon’s injury.

“What are you doing?” Brynja asked.

Ava ignored her, closing her eyes as she willed heat into her hands. Heal him. Stop the bleeding. Heal him. Stop the⁠—

Brynja’s gasp tugged her out of her focused state. Opening her eyes to slitted cracks, she could see the warm heat of her blue flame flickering around her fingers. Dragon roared angrily and tried to shift away from her, but Ava pressed harder into his side. She imagined pouring herself into him, giving him her strength and her fire.

Stop the bleeding, stop the bleeding, stop the⁠—

Brynja yanked her backward. Ava fell onto her bottom with a thump, flames crackling around her fingers as they slid away from Dragon’s scales. Beneath the place where her hands had been now sat a blackened hole curling with thin wisps of smoke.

The stench of charred flesh wafted in the air.

Ava held her breath. Was it still bleeding? She began to count automatically. One, two, three…

A trickle of blood oozed through the freshly cauterized skin.

“You stopped me too soon!” she barked at Brynja.

The human girl ripped off her own overshirt to reveal a stained and tattered sleeveless blue tunic beneath it. She handed the wadded-up overshirt to Ava, who immediately pressed the new material to Dragon’s wound. He hissed, molten breath teasing the top of her head.

“Please don’t roast us,” she said to him.

He huffed in response. “You’re the one doing the roasting!”

For some reason, she didn’t think he would try to roast either of them, at least not voluntarily. What made Dragon dangerous was that his instincts seemed unpredictable. As unpredictable as his relationship with Jerrid. It was hard to believe that they were one and the same, a single being and not two separate living things.

It was as if there were two souls in one body.

Just like Brynja had said.

Ava slanted a look at her and wondered if she really wanted to know the answer to the question she was about to ask.

“If you’re right about the nightmares”—like she was right about Jerrid and Dragon—“I would like to know something. Did anyone else dream about something…inside the forest?”

Brynja’s mouth thinned into a taut, white line. “Something that talked to you? Taunted you?”

Ava’s chest tightened, and she exhaled sharply. Yes, exactly that…

They exchanged a long, measuring look. Ava tore her gaze away first to see to Dragon’s wound. The blood had finally stopped trickling over her hands.

“I’m going to need something to stitch this up.”

Brynja braced her hands on her knees before shoving herself to a standing position. “Speaking from experience, it would be easier to stitch you up, you big scaly monster, if you’d shift back into the naked fellow.”

Ava bit down on her lip as a thready chuckle escaped the dragon’s mouth.

“But not nearly as fun for me,” he complained.

“You saw how well I stitched up your sister over here,” Brynja said, waving a hand toward Echo, who continued to watch them through weary but attentive eyes. “Do you want to have scars to match?”

“Scars are a badge of honor for mighty monsters.”

Ava rolled her eyes as Brynja left, laughing as she circled the campfire and disappeared into the shadows. It was such a masculine thing to say. Somehow, she expected that Jerrid would probably agree with the dragon.