Chapter 25
Carla
I pull the sheets up higher, sighing, and then look down at the drip in my arm.
I’m sure this is overkill.
At least I’m clean and comfortable. I really shouldn’t complain. I flick through the channels on the television, not bothering with headphones. I don’t think I could concentrate on anything right now.
The light through the blinds has gone the dark blue of early evening. It’s still busy out in the hallway. Someone’s trolley wheels past. There’s the distant beep of a monitor and nurses talking.
My feet are bandaged and elevated on a pillow.
I expected the hospital to be reduced to rubble after the Red Dragons attacked, but apparently only the hangar was affected, and I saw the worst of it just before I was carted off by that feral dragon. I’m so glad.
A number of Draig males were injured but were taken to other hospitals. There were only three deaths on the Draig side and many fatalities of dragons from Mistveil.
I wonder how Magma is doing, and not for the first time since we arrived here. He was taken to another part of the hospital. I haven’t seen him or heard anything. I haven’t enquired, even though I’m dying to know.
I’m sure he’s fine.
The door opens, and Robyn walks in.
She’s holding a beautiful vase of flowers. The arrangement is bright and cheerful, in yellows, whites and coral pink, and when her eyes find mine, she stops walking for a second before she walks over, putting the flowers on the bedside table. Then her arms are around me.
“Hey,” I manage.
She doesn’t answer that. She just holds on, her grip tight, one hand at the back of my head, and I feel the full weight of the last two days shift somewhere at the back of my chest.
“I’m okay,” I choke out.
I’m not going to cry. I told myself I wasn’t going to cry anymore.
It doesn’t matter what I told myself because the tears come anyway.
I bury my face in her shoulder. She shakes a little, making a sobbing noise. Then she sniffs once and looks at me and laughs, watery and brief.
“You look terrible.” She swipes at her own face. “In the best possible way.”
“Thanks.” I reach for the tissue from the side table and blot at my face. “You look beautiful and put together as always, which, I have to tell you, is offensive.”
She laughs again and pulls the chair up close to the bed and sits on the edge of it, leaning in, both hands curling around mine where they sit in my lap. Her eyes scan my face.
“Are you okay? Are you really okay? You can’t be.”
“I am. Yeah.” And I mean it. “If it hadn’t been for Magma, I…
” My voice hitches. “I don’t want to talk about it.
It was scary and all one big muddle. We hiked and ran and holed up in little crevices and ate what we could, but we got through it.
I’m fine, I’m out, I’m here, and I really, really cannot believe they’re keeping me overnight.
There is nothing wrong with me that wasn’t fixed by a shower and a decent meal. ” I sigh.
“You got a decent meal? In here?”
“I got a cheeseburger.”
Robyn sits back slightly. “They gave you a cheeseburger? What happened to meatloaf or—?”
“I happen to know a couple of the nurses. I made a plan.”
She laughs, and I feel just a little better.
“You are a resourceful woman when you want something.”
“A woman has needs, Robyn. I’ve lived on nuts and fruit for days. I wanted grease and meat and cheese…oh…and carbs.”
She’s still grinning. “I’m glad you have an appetite. That you’re already feeling better…after everything. Also, it’s a good thing they’re keeping you here tonight. You should rest. Let them keep you under observation. These things matter.”
“I had X-rays. And a full blood panel. And they listened to my lungs for an unnecessarily long time.”
“You can’t be too sure.” Her gaze drops, and she goes still, the humor in her face shifting into something quieter. She’s looking at my feet, or more specifically at the bandaging that starts at my ankles and goes all the way down. “What about that?”
“I was out there for two days without shoes. It happens. I have a few bruises and cuts. The bandages are overkill, just like this drip.” I lift my arm.
“You need taking care of after what you went through. Your feet must be torn to shreds.”
“They’re not too bad. It would have been much worse without Magma.
He carried me over some of the roughest terrain.
” I stop and look at the flowers on the bedside table.
“How is he? What do you know? I’m a little worried, but I knew no one would tell me if I enquired. It’s not like I’m family or anything.”
She squeezes my hands before she lets them go, sitting back more fully in the chair.
“Ridge and Flint went over to see him when I came here.” She tilts her head. “As far as Ridge told me, he’s doing well, all things considered. He has a couple of broken bones. Three ribs and a collarbone, as well as some cuts and bruising.”
The wounds on his chest and back were deep. Especially the one on his chest. That was no cut. It was more of a slash…to the bone. I watched the blood soak down over my own skin. There was not much I could do for him out there.
“Shifters heal fast,” Robyn adds, reading something in my face. “Faster than you’d think. He’ll probably be discharged tomorrow, same time as you. Maybe a day off after that; he’ll be fine. Two, three days tops and he’ll be back at work.”
“That’s incredible,” I say. The human side of my brain still can’t fully grasp it. “He really went above and beyond, Robyn. Getting me out of situations and more than once.” I shake my head. “He could have been killed helping me.”
“Magma is a good male,” she says, then she narrows her eyes a little. “It sounds like you two got quite close.”
“It was a lot. Life-or-death situations have a way of fast-tracking things.” I smooth the blanket across my lap.
“We became friends. He’s a good guy.” The word “friend” doesn’t quite fit.
Then again, friends don’t have sex with friends.
“Are we still moving ahead with the peace treaty? With Mistveil? After everything? It seems like we are.”
“We are. They were worried we’d back out after the attack.
I think everyone was worried.” She exhales.
“No one predicted something like that. Not on this scale. I heard from Councilor Reed that they suspect that word was leaked to the feral males about the frontline moving. Someone wanted this to happen so that the peace treaty would fail. Someone wanted it to fail.”
“That’s a scary thought. People died.” I look out the window. The blue outside is deepening. “Flint mentioned four females were taken.”
“Five, counting you, but so far only you were found and brought back. The others are still missing. Three shifter females and one human.” Her voice has lowered, and her eyes darken.
“That’s awful. I can’t imagine what they must be going through.
” Something happens behind my eyes that I was not expecting – a hot sting – and I blink against it.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. “I know what it’s like out there.
On that island. Those males…” I stop. My lip is doing something, so I bite down on it for a moment.
“Those males are… They’re…animals… They… ” I can’t finish. It’s too much.
“Oh, Carla.” Robyn leans forward and puts her hand on my arm. “Are you sure nothing happened to you personally? I’m asking because I love you, not because I’m prying. I’m here for you. Whatever you need to say, you can say it to me.”
“Nothing happened. I got lucky.” I say it steadily.
I mean it. “I got very lucky.” I think about the moment in the clearing when I was on the ground, and those five males were drawing sticks, and I think about the second Magma stepped out of the tree line.
How different everything could have been.
“I owe Magma a lot,” I say. My voice is quieter than I meant it to come out. “More than I know how to account for.”
Robyn’s hand is still on my arm. “He won’t want anything from you.”
I feel a pang because she’s right.
I look at the cheerful flowers on the bedside table and feel worse somehow. What the heck is wrong with me? I need to stop this.
I’m home.
I’m fine.
Magma is going to be fine.
“Thank you for these,” I say. “They’re beautiful.”
She puts her arm around me and squeezes once, carefully, and I lean into her.
“You’re okay,” she says. “You’re actually okay.”
“I am. Thank you for coming to see me. I feel so much better.”
“It’ll take some time to get over an ordeal like you had. Go easy on yourself. Take a few days off work. Actually, you should probably take a week.”
“I will not.” I give her what I hope is a dirty look. “The best thing for me will be to get right back into routine.”
She gives me a look.
“Really, Robyn. I mean it. Don’t make me stay home for a whole week. I’ll need two days, tops.”
“Okay, but if you change your mind and—”
“I won’t change my mind.”