Page 14 of Firedrake Betrayal
“He’s dying, Patten,” Shep says. “We have to try something.”
“What was the thing that hurt him made of?” Meliah asks.
“We don’t know. Just looked like a small metal crossbow bolt to me. He’s this way.” Shep leads the way to the bedroom, and the entire way, Patten keeps himself tucked behind me, back to causing untold damage to the back of my silk shirt.
I’d tell him to stop, but I know Patten.
“Do you have the bolt?” she asks, heading straight for Brennan’s side.
“Tossed it after I pulled it out of him. Thought it would help, but he’s still in a bad way,” Shep explains.
We all watch from the doorway as Meliah examines the wound on Brennan’s side and the spreading silver in his veins. Suddenly, she no longer resembles the teacher I’d believed her before. She seems older. More serious.
My eyes settle on her pulse as I envision all the blood gushing through her veins.
Then she sighs, and I wrench my gaze from her throat. “This will not be easy.”
“Because you bitches prefer to curse people?” Patten asks.
Meliah’s expression turns blank.
“Sorry,witches. I meant to say witches,” Patten says.
Shep steps between them. “Can you help him?”
Meliah focuses on Shep. “I can, but I will need supplies.”
“And will it take long? We have another priority,” Patten says.
Yes. Finding Jade.
I want her back as much as Patten and Shep. But if I’m having this much difficulty with my hunger, the thought of what I might do to Jade makes me glad she isn’t here. I need to feed,and I’ve tasted Jade before. The thought of tasting her again would overwhelm me before too long.
The witch looks like she’s struggling to believe anything could be more important than saving Brennan. “I don’t know. The poisoning is extensive.”
Shep turns to me. “I’ll go with Meliah to gather supplies while you and Patten find a map so we can work out a plan to search the town for Jade. Maybe she’s closer than we think.”
“Jade is missing?” Meliah blinks.
“Nothing to do with you.” Patten glares at her. “So whatever witchy woo woo trouble you’re after, you’d better not try it. None of us has any patience to deal with it or you.”
“You can trust me,” Meliah says, glancing at Shep. “You don’t need to come with me. I won’t be long.”
“Trust a witch?” Patten snorts. “Yeah, fucking right. Watch your back, Shep. And if I were you, I’d watch your front as well.”
5
JADE
It takes two minutes of sitting on a pile of gold before I remember Dominik’s chain.
I still don’t know how I removed it. Just that I did.
I’d always known there were four elements: earth, air, water, and fire.
Until Dominik.
Dominik told me I was wrong. That those were the four elements for humans, but I’m not human and neither is he. We’re firedrakes, and my mother, who died when I was a baby, came from a royal house.
