Page 13 of Power of Draken

“Get the hell out of here, Chambers,” Kai orders. “Not your circus.”

Collin gives Kai an incredulous look. “But I can help. She’s hurt, and I’m a healer. And a squad leader.”

“Yerra not her squad leader.” Gripping the back of my knees, Kyrian pulls me up against his chest in a bridal carry, falling in beside Kai as the pair head toward the main hall.

Everyone with a brain gets the hell out of their way. Everyone without a brain is already dead.

I grit my teeth together and try not to whimper from pain or die from humiliation. It’s an equal battle on both fronts. “Where are you taking me?” I ask.

Kai stops at the innkeeper’s desk and unceremoniously helps himself to a set of keys beneath an unoccupied pegboard sign. “Room four.”

Not exactly what I meant.

“Chambers,” Kai calls over his shoulder as he leads us toward the stairs. “You are still here.”

“I am.”

“Then you are now head maid. Get this shithole cleaned up.”

I swear I can hear Collin seething all the way up.

A few minutes later Kai opens the door to a less than savory room four. It’s decorated in faded puke yellow, with upholstery that looks like it houses whole families of many legged creatures. Frowning in disgust, Kai kicks a wooden stool toward Kyrian, who sets me on it with more care than I expect.

“Why exactly did you give that moron a squad?” Kyrian asks Kai.

“Someone whined to leadership.” Kai gives me a look that’s a mix of distaste and piercing assessment, as if he knows I might have spurred that request into motion. “If Commandant Ainsley wants a dead squad, who am I to argue?”

“Don’t underestimate, Collin,” I say. “He is an asset to any squad.” I don’t know why I’m arguing with Kai. I can’t seem to make good life choices around him. Especially when it comes to keeping my mouth shut.

“And yet it didn’t seem that you and your friends invited him to join your little escapade today.” He gives me that glacial look again, the one that chills my blood. “Or did I miss something?”

The chill spreads from my blood into the pit of my stomach. He saw Ellie and Trish. My heart pounds but I manage a blank stare, as if I don’t know what he is talking about. “I was alone. Maybe things would have gone differently if I wasn’t.”

Kai’s hand drifts to his necklace, his thumb rubbing over a small iridescent pendant that same way it had during formation. “We don’t have all night,” he tells Kyrian. “Deal with the alchemist.”

Kyrian crouches in front of me and pulls out a dagger, balancing the blade on his knee. For a fleeting moment, his assessment of me turns cold, as if he is evaluating an enemy combatant he’d rather be questioning than helping. Then his cocky irreverent mask is back in place.

“Ye look worried I’ll cut off your fingers instead of your shirt,” he says.

“Am I right to be?”

Kyrian smirks and I hate how even that small gesture transforms his face from captivating to breathtaking. “What good would a fingerless alchemist do me?” Giving no warning, he pulls the shards of glass from my side, moving so quickly I don’t even have time to jerk away before it's done. Then he spins his blade with a flourish. “Now for the fun part,” he says, cutting away the remains of my shirt off—together with the chest binding beneath it.

Whatever dignity I have left pools somewhere around my feet. I don’t know where to look as my breasts suddenly fall bare for the azure twins to see. The right side is bloody but the left peaks in the cold, and I can see Kai’s gaze drifting to it.

“Pig.”

He lifts a brow. “You want me to pretend you don’t have nice breasts?”

“I want you to pretend to be professional.”

“Like you were while absconding without leave to stroll the slums in the middle of conscription unrest?”

“In my defense, I forgot this was conscription season.”

“Your defense is stupidity? Seriously?” His face flushes with anger.

“Give me your kit, Grayson,” Kyrian orders before Kai can say more on the subject. Their pecking order is definitely a fluid kind of thing. “And get over here to hold her still. I don’t need to stick myself while stitching her up.”

---