The physician came behind me, and my heart pounded despite myself. I wasn’t brave enough to look in the mirror.
He gently tugged away the shirt from my skin, it seemed to cling for a second to the wounds before it ripped away. I breathed in sharply through my nose, and the room went silent. Blood must have leaked from the bandages and glued my skin to my nightgown. I wondered who had put me into the soft white material I was wearing now. If it had been my sister. If Jaik and Talisyn had helped her. I couldn’t think about that right now. Imagining how my men had brought my sister and my broken unconscious body here made me want to tear up.
I couldn’t cry, not in front of all of them. I couldn’t imagine my dragon royals ever cried. I couldn’t be weaker than they were.
Arren took a step toward me, as if provoked by the healer, who shrank back, dropping my gown. I turned to Arren, confused why he was acting protective when he always seemed to despise me. “Stop being scary, Arren.”
Jaik and Arren exchanged a look. “Go on,” Jaik ordered the healer, who stepped forward again uncertainly.
I pulled my gown up in the back until it was around my neck, trying not to wince, making sure it covered my breasts. When I looked up, the room’s eyes were on me and it all seemed too silent, but it was my sister’s gaze that drew my attention. Her eyes were wide with horror.
“Hanna,” I said softly. Her wide eyed gaze rose to my face. “You know that none of this was your fault, right? It was never really about you. They took me for a reason.”
Branok cut his eyes toward me and I was reminded that we didn’t know the physician in the room that well. I needed to keep my thoughts to myself until we were alone. I just didn’t want Hanna to see me hurt anymore. I didn’t want her to think it was her fault.
“Hanna,” Lynx said suddenly. “Branok always takes it upon himself to give orders to the servants for healthy food for meals. The man adores oatmeal, I can’t help how boring my twin is. But I can show you where to find my cake stash.”
Hanna was about to say no thank you, but I begged her with my eyes to just go. She sighed and rose from her chair. “I’m not a child, Honor.”
“Of course not,” I lied. “We’ll talk later.”
She nodded. “We definitely will.”
Lynx opened the door for her, then followed her out.
Maybe he was just being kind to my little sister, and not kind to me, but for me the two things always felt like the same.
“It’ll be easier with the bandages off completely,” the healer said. “If I can see the wounds, I can concentrate my power.”
“That’s fine. I’ve never been particularly modest.” I managed to keep smiling, but my body had gone taut as a bow.
He lifted the gown past my shoulders. The men didn’t respond, but I caught Jaik’s hands folding into fists.
If it were possible for him to bring Henrick back, just so that he could rip his head off more slowly this time, I was pretty sure Jaik would have taken the opportunity.
The healer rested his hands lightly on my skin, but just that tentative touch screamed.
My teeth gritted so hard my jaw ached, and I ground out, “How bad is it?”
“Oh, you’ll be fine,” the healer began, but Arren cut him off.
“Henrick flayed off most of your skin and started working on the muscle down to the bone,” Arren said. Leave it to Arren to tell me the ugly truth, but it made me feel better, honestly. I’d rather know what was real. “It’s a good thing Lynx was able to use a spell to deaden the pain.”
“This is deadened?”
“You kept screaming in your sleep before he did.”
I used to scream in my sleep when I was a little girl. I remembered my parents coming in to check on me, and my mother falling asleep on my bed, her hand gripped in mine. She’d worn a dozen rings on her slender fingers, and I used to rub my thumb over them in a pattern that helped soothe me back to sleep.
“I didn’t know Lynx had any kind of healing magic,” I said lightly, “that doesn’t really seem like a dragon royal sort of thing.”
“I’ve got all kinds of gifts,” Lynx promised, though he seemed distracted, more focused on the healer.
The healer’s hands moved across my back, and an electric tingle of magic ran over my skin.
“There’s a brand?” he asked.
I nodded and drew down my collar.
He rested his hand over the brand. Cool magic tingled over my skin. I looked over the healer’s shoulder and saw Branok staring over my head with a pained look on his face, as if he were trying not to look at my breasts.
“How many times will it take?”
“Perhaps a dozen. You’ll need to rest each time.”
“We’ll see to that,” Jaik said, with his usual bossiness that made me feel a rush of exasperation and warmth all at the same time.
“I’ll get you set up in your room,” Branok told the healer. He moved with the jerky impatience that seemed to come over him when he had to be close to me for very long. He strode out of the room, followed by the physician, and then it was just Arren, Talisyn and me.
“Thank you for coming to my rescue, Arren,” I told him,
He turned his cold gaze on mine. Once upon a time, I would’ve found that look unsettling, but now I knew that was just… Arren. “I did what I had to do. It wasn’t personal.”
“If that’s what you have to tell yourself,” I said sweetly. I glanced around at the others. “I have some questions.”
Jaik pushed my bowl toward me. “Eat your oatmeal and I’ll answer.”
“Are you just recreationally bossy?” I demanded. “I’m hungry but you make me want to starve myself just to spite you.”
Jaik sighed, then sat down across from me, propping his chin on his hands. He looked at me as if watching me eat gave him pleasure. “I’m just saying that we can talk while you restore your strength.”
I pointed at him with the spoon. “I think we need to talk about this situation. What we’re going to do next.”
Jaik glanced at Arren, irritation in his eyes. Someone had been talking out of turn. Jaik hadn’t wanted to get into the great debate of what we should do next until I’d had time to heal, but there was so much we had to figure out. Arren crunched into a strip of bacon as if he didn’t notice Jaik’s ire, but it was all pretend; they were so attuned to each other.
I had to figure out how I was going to reintroduce Lucien into the fray.
“If you stay here,” Talisyn said, “then we’ll be able to protect you.”
“Except how are you going to protect me when you’re not even here?” I asked. “When you go back to the Academy.”
“We wouldn’t be gone long,” Jaik said. “The Academy is leaving for maneuvers in the north, we’d be able to come see you every day.”
Arren shook his head. “Because after a long day of training, what everyone really wants to do is fly here to listen to all of you banter as if you think it’s cute.”
“I know you think we’re all cute,” I told Arren.
“We have to go back,” Jaik said, “if nothing else, we need to find Lucien.”