Maez pushes one of the arrows through my thigh, and I can feel my blood draining from my body.
I snarl.
“Shh,” Charlie soothes. And it’s the steady, deep blue of her eyes that keeps me grounded. That allows me to tolerate the pain.
Tears are dripping down her face and onto mine by the time Maez works on the arrow that has lodged itself in my gut.
“You’re lucky this wasn’t a little to the left,” she murmurs. “You may not have made it back here.”
Charlie lets out a sob, and I ignore the pain as I soothe her. “I would have made it back to you,” I reassure her, and she gives me a shaky smile.
The next minutes are agonizing. Finally, finally, Maez pulls away. “I’m finished,” she says. “Can you shift?”
“No.” It is difficult to admit that I’m too drained to reach for my other form. I would heal slightly faster in my winged form, would be more able to protect the females under my care.
“Shh,” Charlie says as I attempt to move. “It’s okay, Dragix. If you can’t shift now, you can do it later.”
I nod, fighting the rage. For the first time in centuries, I am…weakened.
And I know why.
Too much time in two-leg form has consequences. Slower healing being one of them. Yet I will never regret spending time with Charlie. Never regret touching her skin, kissing her lips.
“I’ll be right back, okay?” Charlie murmurs, glancing at Maez.
Maez nods. “I’ll stay with him.”
We sit in silence as I gaze up at the sky.
“I have never seen you so wounded before,” Maez says.
“I am weaker,” I reply and meet her gaze. She nods, obviously understanding what is happening to me.
“Will you tell Charlie?”
I frown. “No. And you won’t either. She will feel responsible for this.”
Maez frowns at me and opens her mouth—likely to argue—but we both turn our heads as we hear Charlie panting and cursing.
She appears, walking backward and dragging a mattress with her.
Maez gets up and helps her maneuver the mattress close to me.
“I wanted to bring a larger one up here, but there was no way I could get it up the stairs,” Charlie says apologetically, still slightly breathless. “I figured this might be more comfortable.”
I smile at her. The sun will be going down soon. “Will you stay with me?”
She nods as Maez helps her push the mattress next to me. “Do you need help?”
I give her a look, and she throws up her hands with a grin. “Fine. God forbid I damage your fragile male ego.”
It takes all my remaining energy to roll onto the mattress, which is stuffed full of feathers. I’m panting and covered in a fine sweat by the time I’m lying on top of it. Part of me is enraged at this new weakness.
The other part of me wonders if I can convince Charlie to lie with me.
I glance at her. “Will you lie on this mattress with me?”
She nibbles on her lip. “Is that what you want?”
“Of course.”
She finally smiles and sits on the edge of the mattress. I reach out, and she yelps as I pull her down until my arm is wrapped around her and she is lying on my chest.
It aches, but the feel of Charlie in my arms is worth it.
Maez smiles at us. “I will leave you alone. Let me know if you need anything.”
We watch the sun go down, and I slowly feel some of my strength return to me. Charlie is draped over me, obviously tired, but she brushes her hand over my chest, dancing over a large bruise.
“I’m still confused as to how it could be worth it. How the loss of so many of their men could be worth some armor and potentially some greater healing abilities,” she says.
I shrug and instantly regret the movement. “There will be someone powerful at the top. Someone who wants to use my scales as a symbol. He will use them to make armor, which he will wear in front of his people, and he will tell them that he can now heal anything, that he is immortal.”
“But he won’t be. He’ll just have your blood. And it won’t do anything…right?”
“His people won’t know that.”
“It’s insane. The loss of so much life for a symbol.”
“Leaders will always need symbols for their followers—the people too stupid or too cowardly to choose their own paths. People looking for an excuse to hurt, to destroy, to kill. It would never occur to those men to question their orders. To choose to be more than mindless soldiers. To not attack the biggest threat to their safety.”
Charlie nods against me, and her voice is small when she lifts her head. “Are they still here? In your territory?”
“I killed them all,” I tell her.
She leans over and kisses the tip of my nose. “Of course you did,” she says, and her tone is satisfied.
I smile at her. “Wicked female.”
She kisses my lips. “They came into your territory. Tried to kill you. Scared the life out of me. All because they want your scales, your blood. I’m not sorry that they’re dead. I’m only sorry that they didn’t know better than to attack in the first place.”
“I am not unaware like my people were.”
Charlie studies my face, and I wonder what she sees. “What do you mean?”
“We lived on this planet for thousands of years before the Braxians arrived. When they landed in their metal ships, we did not think anything of it. They waited until the longest day of the year—when we are all together, the night when so many younglings first take to the sky, the elders ready to catch them.”
“Oh God.”
I nod. “I was one of those younglings. But I had been practicing in secret. When they began shooting the younglings out of the sky, the elders rose, went hunting.” My throat hurts at
