Chapter 15 #2
“Brushed up on your smithing?” I teased.
That got the ghost of a smile out of her. “Yes.”
“So how’d you end up working as a burn nurse again?”
“I was passing through a town one day and there was an accident with a wagon and a wild dragon. There were a lot of injuries to contend with. Gunther was the healer in charge at the time—this was before he’d settled in Ember Ridge.
I stopped to help, and I guess he liked what he saw in me.
I was still young, but he was impressed with my knowledge and my skill and offered to start a proper nursing apprenticeship. ”
“Gunther’s a good man,” I said, voice thick.
“I think he saw how sad I was,” Eden said, “and took a chance on me, giving me the stability I’d been yearning for.
After the apprenticeship, he wrote me an amazing letter of recommendation that got me hired as a nurse at the rider academy.
He supported me when I had no one else in the world, and I’ll forever be grateful for that.
” Her smile was soft, her words sweet but laced with old melancholy.
“I’m glad you two found each other.”
“Me too.” Her eyebrows pinched together. “I always say that my mother made me good at tending burns, but Gunther made me great.”
“She’d be proud of you,” I told her. I didn’t know a thing about Eden’s mother besides what she’d told me, but there was no doubt in my mind that any parent would be happy to boast about all she’d accomplished.
“I hope so,” Eden said, catching her bottom lip between her teeth. “Sometimes I think about her and wonder if she would go back and choose to live a different life if she could. One without my father.”
“You mean fall for a different man?” I asked, running my hands over my knees. “I don’t know if love works like that.”
Eden looked slightly puzzled. “All I know is that loving my father ruined my mother. That love ultimately took two lives and stole both parents from me. Was that worth it?”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I didn’t know what else to say.
She shrugged. “It’s the curse of loving a dragon rider.” Her lips twitched. “I suppose that’s why all the drinking songs warn of it.”
“Drinking songs are mostly silliness,” I said.
“And yet sometimes there are truths hidden in those rhyming words. Wisdom that shouldn’t be ignored.” She cleared her throat. “To love a dragon rider is to lose them.”
“Not every rider ends up with the same fate,” I said, voice rough. I didn’t know why my chest ached so badly.
“The last thing I promised my mother was to never fall for someone like that.” Eden frowned down at her sketch. “She made me swear it one night. I was barely awake. Now I wonder if it had been her strange way of saying goodbye.” She shook her head. “Anyway, hopefully that answered your question.”
I leaned against the back of the rocking chair, my body feeling heavy.
“I do understand, you know. Doing something because there’s nothing you’re better at.
After my accident, my father tried to push me into academic pursuits.
He said there was no place for me on a dragon.
I was destined for some desk job in the capital. But I knew how rubbish I’d be at that.”
“How did it happen?” Eden asked. She glanced up suddenly. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I don’t mean to pry.”
“But you mean to pry a little,” I teased.
She lifted her fingers in a measure. “Only a little.”
I closed my eyes, taking myself back there. “I was nine years old and fancied myself a horse trainer. I was out one day, messing around with one of the horses, practicing my tricks.”
“As one does,” Eden said.
The memory turned spotty. “From what I remember, my leg got tangled in the reins, the horse reared, and I tumbled off. The shock and adrenaline gratefully blacked out the worst of it. But Trystan tells me the break was so bad, my leg so twisted, that there was no saving it. The healer was worried about infection, so my father made the tough call to amputate.”
“Do you resent him for it?”
I shook my head. “No. If the infection had set in, it would have killed me. He gave me my best chance. But perhaps he resents me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you know my mother died shortly after giving birth to me.” Eden nodded. “And here I was, once again forcing him to experience a horrible situation with a healer. Making a tough call.”
“That’s not fair,” Eden said. “You were a child and it was an accident.”
I shrugged. “Trystan says the same thing. But my father and I have always struggled to maintain any sort of relationship. After I rejected his attempts to put me on track for a councilor’s position, he washed his hands of me.
But I knew I’d never make him proud like that, schmoozing my way around the palace gardens.
And I’d never live up to Trystan in my father’s eyes. So I did what I knew I could do best.”
“Wrangling,” she said.
I nodded. “I’d always been able to tame a wild horse. How different could dragons be?”
Eden laughed. “Very different, I expect.”
I grinned. “As a girl, it seemed like a reasonable comparison. I wanted to be great at something. I knew I’d never run the fastest or jump the highest or even excel in armed combat.
I have a weakness that can be exploited.
But in the air… It’s different. Sometimes I think I was born to fly with Min,” I said.
“And she’s made me a damn good wrangler.
Because to bond and ride a dragon, all you have to do is have the guts to hold on. ”
“Doesn’t that terrify you?” she asked.
“Of course.” I laughed, the sound echoing like a pleasant buzz in my chest. “I’d be a fool not to be afraid every time I got on dragonback. But there’s also something freeing about facing your fears.”
“You’re incredible, you know that?”
I flushed at her compliment. “The dragon bond is what’s incredible.
These beautiful, intelligent creatures are capable of an immense amount of destruction, and yet they also have the capacity for tremendous love.
Min wakes up every day and chooses me to be her rider.
” It’s all I’d ever wanted. My gaze flitted over Eden’s face.
At least, it was all I’d wanted until recently.
“I feel very lucky to be able to wake up each morning and do this job with her by my side, knowing there’s nothing I’m better at in the world. ”
And in that way, Eden and I were the same.
She got to her feet, carrying my prosthesis back to me. “I’ve taken the measurements I think I need.”
I nodded, standing to get the fit right as I fastened the prosthesis back in place. She was closer than I expected when I straightened. I could feel the heat of her breath. Smell the honey salves on her hands.
“Are you going to tell me what you have planned?” I asked.
“I’d rather it be a surprise,” she said.
Her lips were the color of pink roses. I couldn’t help looking at them.
Her gaze flickered over my face, and for one ridiculous second, I considered pulling her close and kissing her.
“Thank you again for the new dragon scales. I’m excited to get back to work to see if fresher scales burn the same way the older ones did. ”
The honey overwhelmed me, and a thought occurred. “Have you ever considered coating them with something?”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“In something that soothes burns.”
“Like a protective layer?” she said, catching on quickly to what I was saying. She squeezed my arm. “Vaela, it’s brilliant!” Her grin was so wide I couldn’t help but smile in response.
“Why do you sound so surprised? I’ve only knocked my head a couple of times wrangling. This old brain is still capable of the odd good idea.”
“It’s a fantastic idea!” She drummed her fingers against her lips.
Those lips I shouldn’t be looking at. “Perhaps I could paint the scales and soak the leathers. I’ll raid Nisse’s store cupboards and see what ingredients I can find.
” She nodded to herself. “Yes… This could make all the difference. And then I’ll need to test it. ”
“I could return tomorrow night,” I offered. “With Min.”
“Would you?” She sounded so hopeful.
“Of course.” As I stepped away, the feeling of being parted caused a physical ache in my chest, but the thought of returning kindled hope like a flame. “Until tomorrow.”