Page 65 of The Lost Child

“I forbid it. You can’tleave. There is a blood curse I had set on you. You left before, but you came back. You’ll do it again. Dogs always return to their master. The witch said—”

I squeezed and he stopped talking, a vein bulging in his forehead. I didn’t care if I was sick for the rest of my life like I’d been with the witches or even if it eventually killed me. That would still be time I was free to make my own choices, and not enforce his.

“I am not your dog any longer.”

I threw him at the soldiers, who descended on him. I turned away, blocking out his screams and diving through the doorway where Nerissa’s scent was the strongest. Every step was agony as nausea threatened to overcome me, but it was manageable. I ignored it and focused on putting one foot in front of the other, one step at a time. I’d crawl if I had to.

Finally, I made it to the captain’s quarters.

A grisly scene greeted me: a dead man lying in a pool of blood with no boots and the window broken open. The wind had already wreaked havoc on the small room. Bloodstained papers and maps flew everywhere as the wind danced around the cabin.

Where was Nerissa?

I rushed over to the window and looked down.

No.NO!

I bellowed in denial, and dove headfirst down to her. I shifted quickly as I fell, my wing muscles screaming in pain as they flared too fast and I fell too hard. It was difficult to aim and balance as the world spun around me, the effects of my disobedience raging through my body. I refused to give in and forced my wings to stay open. I landed haphazardly on all fours next to Nerissa on a large, flat rock.

Anywhere else, at any other time, she could have been sleeping. Her eyes were closed, and her body was draped artfully over the stone, one hand lying gracefully off its edge. She was wearing a dress of all things, but it was ripped and torn in many places.

I reached out to her, then stopped. I didn’t know where she was injured. I knew that when I was injured, the last thing I wanted was people moving me. I’d been hurt worse sometimes by the other pirates just dragging me around than from my actual beating.

I leaned over her head and sniffed before I even realized I was doing it, and felt overwhelmed by information.

Broken collar bone. Bruised lungs. Fractured legs. Internal bleeding. Desperation.

We couldn’t stay here as the wind buffeted us, the waves rising higher and higher. Was high tide yet to come? What if the water got high enough to knock Nerissa off? Even if I did manage to get us down and to safety, there was no one here to help.

The only answer was clear even if I didn’t like it.

I’d have to fly her across the sea and back to the witches. Was I well enough to do it? Would I grow too sick in the air and plunge both of us to our deaths?

I had to at least try.

As gently as I could manage, I slid my arms under her legs and her back. I tried to settle her in my arms with as little shifting as possible, but even unconscious she moaned in pain. I felt secure knowing she had no back or neck injuries. Luckily, the rock was big enough that I would have the three steps needed to get a running leap off the edge. We were high, so getting airborne should be easy.

I grit my teeth, clutched onto Nerissa, and leaped out into the sea.

* * *

“There is nothing we can do.”

I took the urge to strangle the witch with her own entrails and stuffed it deep, deep down. This witch was the only help I had. She’d confirmed all of Nerissa’s injuries, but said she was in a coma and unlikely to wake. The internal bleeding I’d smelled was coming from her head, which she must have hit when she fell.

I thought several times during the journey I would fall and give in, nearly passing out at least twice. But I’d pushed through, and I’d made it. The moment Nerissa’s back touched the sand, I’d shifted to my human form, breathing in deeply as the sickness faded.

And now this witch was telling me nothing could be done!

“How is there nothing? She has healed me before!” I proclaimed, pointing one claw at Nerissa’s too-pale form. We were back in the head witch’s hut, and Nerissa looked so small bundled up in furs as she was, and nothing like the fierce warrior I knew her to be. “You heal her NOW!”

I had to talk a lot to these witches, and I was growing weary of it. I’d never had to say so many words before. Nerissa knew what I meant to say just by looking at me.

An ache throbbed in my chest that I didn’t think had anything to do with the blood curse.

“Draken mates heal each other. She tried to break the slave bond when she mated with you, but it is incomplete. Now the only one who can heal her is her blood mate–you. It supersedes everything. I can keep her from dying by forcing a stasis, but it won’t last forever. You must figure out what went wrong in your bonding and fix it.”

Her words were conciliatory, but her eyes flashed with a momentary anger. I had battled many great warriors before, and I knew fury in the eyes when I saw it.

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