Page 27 of Ensnared
A fight I know I can’t win.
“No!” Coral shouts. And then she stabs me.
She stabs me? Why would she do that? She did it in my leg, right where Sammy hit me. Against the cottony feeling of departure, there’s now a bright spot of misery. It blooms up hard and quick, and I gasp for breath.
Coral slaps me next. “No, you can’t leave. We can’t do anything without you. You have to do what you told us you would do, what you want us to do. You have to fight. Right now. Breathe. Sit up. Get better.”
I draw in one more ragged breath, though it feels like more than I can bear. Now that I’m trying, all the misery is back and it’s worse than I remember. My eyes are burning. My skin’s on fire. My lungs ache and throb and they feel thick, like they’re full of water. My arm feels like it’s been strapped to electric wires and a current is being forced through it constantly. I force my eyes to look downward and I can see that it’s streaked with dark lines. I try to swallow, but I can’t even do that.
“I’m going to get Axel.” Coral stands. “He promised that he’d protect us, and you’re about to die, and he didn’t want that to happen.”
“I hope my death wipes him out. I hope he’s so incapacitated that the other dragons take him down,” I whisper. “That’s when you should leave. Run as far and as fast as you can.”
“How long has she been like this?” Axel strides into the break room like a dark angel, his hair longish, his eyes bright. When my siblings all freeze, he asks much louder, “How long has she been like this?”
“Days,” Coral says. “Three days. She’s dying—I had to stab her leg to revive her.”
“You did?” His hands ball into fists at his side. “You did the right thing.”
“You said you’d protect her,” Coral says. “You suck.”
His eyebrows rise. “I swore to protect you. She was supposed to protect herself, but I guess she didn’t do that very well, did she?”
“You just stuck us in here and left.” Coral’s not backing down. It’s cute, but it’s not very smart. The little fluff we rescued barks once from where she’s standing behind Coral, and then she whimpers.
“I hate that beast,” Axel says.
“You’ve never even met her,” Coral says. “She hates you too, though, just like I do.”
“Can you fix her?” Sammy asks.
Axel can’t understand him, so Jade clarifies. “Can you heal her?”
He sighs. “I’m going to try.” He moves closer, and my siblings part like the Red Sea, seemingly trusting that he wants what’s best for me. I suppose if they’re going to trust any dragon on earth, he’s the one. He’s the only one my death would harm.
“She’s been poisoned with dragon venom,” he says. “How could that be?”
“The dragon your friend killed,” I rasp.
Of course, he has no idea what I said.
What happened?
Right. He can speak to me in my head. I wonder whether I can talk back in the same way. I grit my teeth and think words and try to push them toward him. Green dragon in human form clawed my arm.
Did it work?
I pry my eyes open to try and see.
He’s nodding ever so slightly, so I’m hoping that means he understood.
“I had no idea what that would do to a human,” he says. “It appears to be bad. I’m not sure any other humans have attacked a dragon and lived.” It may be my feverish delusion, but he almost sounds proud.
“What can you do?” Coral asks.
Axel shrugs. “Among the blessed, we’re either strong enough to heal ourselves or we aren’t.”
Fabulous. I’m clearly not. Get ready to have a few bad days when I go.
