5. Ava
AVA
Ava’s cheeks burned hot as Jerrid sat up and yanked her cloak tightly around himself. His own face blazed scarlet beneath the spattering of freckles across his nose and broad cheekbones.
With the unruly waves of hair falling about his shoulders like strands of golden wheat glowing in the summer sun…
He almost looked a little adorable.
At least he might have if he hadn’t threatened to eat her last night.
“This is perfect,” he muttered darkly. “Just perfect.”
She shivered and scrambled to her feet, keeping the tree to her back and the human squarely in front of her. He didn’t seem inclined to hurt her this morning, nor did he seem to have much strength. But she wasn’t going to take any chances.
He glanced toward her, frowning. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
She raised her eyebrows and remained frozen against the tree. “That’s not what you said last night.”
She could still see that massive golden beast at the base of the tree, gleefully toying with his lunch. It had been shocking enough to hear a dragon speak, but the way he amused himself at her expense…
Ava didn’t think she could ever forgive him for that.
Jerrid sighed heavily and picked himself up, hugging her cloak around himself and avoiding her gaze.
His exposed knees and calves stuck out at the bottom of her cloak.
He was tall for a human, well over six feet, with broad shoulders that made it difficult for him to keep her cloak securely closed around himself.
This could get interesting rather quickly.
She’d seen more than enough of him this morning when she had finally dared to shimmy down the tree and toss her cloak over his stark-naked body.
During her apprenticeship with Glamren, the head healer at the palace in Eroth, she’d seen more than her fair share of patients in various states of undress. But this was the first time she had seen a man entirely unclothed.
It had been…honestly…horrifying.
“We need to get to a clearing,” he said, turning in a circle and studying the forest around them. “I have a change of clothes in my pack.”
“Your pack?”
He faced her, knuckles white as he clasped her cloak about his body. “On my dragon. Echo. She has my pack.”
Another dragon?
Ava’s face paled, and she leaned more heavily against the tree. Just what she needed. Another dragon trying to turn her into a delectable midnight snack.
“Echo won’t hurt you.” Jerrid’s voice lowered to a whisper. “She’s quite tame. She isn’t like…”
“Like you?”
Jerrid flinched and lowered his gaze to the ground, and she inhaled a ragged breath. He looked truly remorseful, but she hadn’t known enough humans to know whether he was being truthful or whether this was an elaborate act to catch her off guard.
“I won’t hurt you.”
“Forgive me if I don’t entirely believe you,” she said, allowing a little sarcasm to leach into her tone. “You didn’t present your better qualities last night. And I haven’t been around humans enough to know if this is normal behavior for your lot.”
“I’m not the ‘normal’ case, I’m afraid.” He met her gaze briefly before looking away. “I’m nothing like the peaceweavers you’ve met.”
A knot formed in the pit of her stomach when he referenced the human brides forced to come to Gelaira as part of the peace treaty.
“You’re right. You’re not. Although my interactions with the women at the palace have been limited.
They have their own duties, and I have mine.
I never had a reason to get to know them. Well, other than…”
He tipped his head slightly when she left the thought unfinished.
A sigh deflated her chest. “Other than the girl my brother brought home, but I’m afraid she’s hardly a better candidate than you.”
“Oh?”
“Let’s just say she is difficult and loud. If you two are any indication about humans as a species…I’d rather not get to know any of you, frankly.”
He grimaced. “Can’t blame you after I allegedly threatened to eat you.”
“Allegedly?” Her cheeks grew hot again. “You were very clear on the matter. Your threats were anything but alleged.”
“I don’t…I don’t always remember the things I do when I’m not…myself.”
She sniffed, not believing him. “Forgive me for saying that trust is something you’re going to have to earn where I’m concerned. So, where do we need to go to find this change of clothes you mentioned?”
He shifted his focus to the tree branches swaying above her head. “I don’t suppose you saw any clearings last night when you were up there?”
“No. I wasn’t exactly up there to enjoy the view.”
Jerrid’s eyebrows lowered, but he kept whatever thoughts he was thinking to himself. “Well, give me a moment, then. I’ll go up and take a look around.”
Ava hastily stepped away from the tree and fixed her gaze firmly on the ground. In his current state of undress, she had no desire to watch him try to scale a tree while keeping her flimsy cloak bundled around himself.
She wasn’t even sure if she’d ever be able to wear the thing again.
It only took him about ten minutes before he dropped back to the ground, muttering to himself. “There’s an opening about half-a-mile north of us.”
She pursed her lips, rubbed her arms briskly to warm them, and then followed several paces behind him as he forced his way into the forest. He didn’t say another word until they reached the clearing, which was fine by her.
He motioned for her to stay back as he moved to stand in the center of the small clearing.
It was only a couple dozen yards wide, boasting nothing but short brown grass and small rocks. A few roots from the nearby trees forced their way out of the soil, creeping up around the rocks and making the ground uneven.
Jerrid put two fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly.
Ava took another step back and waited beneath the shelter of the trees, her heart pounding as she searched the gray cloud covering above for signs of a dragon. After the events of last night, she wasn’t at all keen on coming face-to-face with another dragon.
They only had to wait about five minutes before a sleek beast with scales the color of rich maple syrup dropped out of the cloud blank. The dragon plummeted toward them at an alarming speed. Something about the beast’s flight pattern looked off.
The incline of her descent was too steep, too fast.
Moments later, the dragon slammed into the ground so hard, the impact knocked Ava backward. She pinwheeled and grabbed for nearby branches to keep herself on her feet, goose bumps prickling across her flesh. Should she simply make a run for it?
She spun on her heel to do just that.
“Shades, Echo, what happened?”
The alarm in Jerrid’s voice halted her in her tracks, and she couldn’t resist the temptation to look back and discover what had happened.
The majestic dragon lay in an awkward heap on the ground, a huge mound of reddish-brown scales and sharp talons. One wing draped across her heaving body, the leathery flaps ripped and shredded and oozing crimson blood.
The healer inside Ava gave a lurch of dismay. She was halfway across the clearing before she had a chance to second-guess herself. She slowed her approach as she drew closer, afraid to startle the beast and get herself eaten for her troubles.
“What happened to her?”
Jerrid kneeled beside his dragon, one hand pressed against her gasping flank. “I don’t know. I can’t understand her. She’s frightened. And in so much pain.”
Ava shifted to get a better view of the dragon’s wing. It was mangled so badly she wondered how the poor creature had even managed to fly at all.
“That wing looks bad, Jerrid. Really bad. What could have done this to her? A myrk hound?”
The skin on the back of her neck prickled as she recalled her close encounter with those violent creatures only a couple of nights ago.
“I don’t think so.” Jerrid stood and let his trembling fingers lightly rest on the outermost curve of the dragon’s wounded wing. “Those gashes are too long, too deep. I don’t think a myrk hound could do this.”
Ava wasn’t so sure: she and her friends had barely escaped with their lives when Talos set a pack of his hounds on them.
And Omarie…
Her heart twisted in her chest, drawing unexpected tears to her eyes.
She pursed her lips, not sure if she really wanted to ask the next question burning on her tongue. “Another dragon, then?”
Jerrid shot her a sharp look, his eyes narrowing in a dangerous way that reminded her of the reptilian gaze of his dragon self. “What are you implying? I didn’t think there were wild dragons in these parts.”
“No. We don’t have dragons in Gelaira.” Ava drew a shaky breath but forced herself to continue. “Other than you.”
His lips parted in something that resembled a snarl. “Are you implying that I did this to her?”
“Not necessarily. But you yourself said this is not the work of myrk hounds, and you’re the only other dragon around at present.”
“I didn’t do this!”
She took a step away from them, her jaw tightening. “But you also said you don’t remember what you do when you’re…when you’re not yourself.”
The dragon whimpered, a puff of smoke erupting from her nostrils. Ava’s heart gave a sharp twist, and she forced herself to step closer to the wounded creature again. It didn’t matter who or what had done this—as a healer, her job was to help the wounded dragon.
They could worry about what happened later.
She ran her hands over the dragon’s wounded wing, analyzing the depth of the jagged gashes in the thin membrane that ran between her wing bones. Several places had been ripped clean open.
“She needs stitches,” Ava said in a low voice, “but I don’t have any supplies. We need to find help.”
Jerrid laid both his hands on the dragon’s head, cradling her face in his fingers. “I saw some ruins a couple of miles farther north of this clearing.”
Ava froze, her hands also resting on the dragon. “Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?”
“It wasn’t important. We were looking for a clearing, not abandoned ruins.”