Dauntless: Book Two in the Luckless Series by Cari Z

Author:Cari Z [Z, Cari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-09-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

They made it back to Forge by dawn the next day. It was easier to move down on the plains, but not without dangers—both areas had their share of monsters, and sighting a mass of silver, insectoid crix on the horizon had spurred Ladon to speed up to a lope, despite how it worsened his pain. Upon returning to Forge, they checked in with Jack; he knew the most about dragon medicine, and it might be dangerous for Ladon to shift back into Lee before getting an assessment of his wing.

“Damn foolishness,” Jack grumbled to himself as he unwound the bandage. Evan winced as the wound reemerged. He’d done his best, but the cuts wept blood and lymph, and the whole joint looked swollen. “Fighting from the ground—there’s no quicker way for a dragon to get himself into trouble.”

Evan bit his tongue and kept his silence long enough for Jack to guide Ladon through some easy movements, watching the wing base the whole time. “Mostly superficial,” Jack said at last, and Evan exhaled a sigh of pure relief. “The bites didn’t sever any of the tendons, but just like with humans, those heal more slowly than muscle and skin. Even with your magic,” he continued to Ladon, “I wouldn’t fly on this for another two weeks. If you can change back, that’ll probably help—the wound will be transferred inside the shoulder, which will be easier to immobilize than an entire wing.”

Ladon nodded, then shuddered. A moment later he was in his human form, wearing simple clothes and no shoes—a testament to his fatigue, Evan knew. Lee was somehow able to bring whatever he wore back and forth between shifts, but he was usually more put together than this. The bleeding was worse than ever, and Evan winced when he saw the mess of the wound gaping on Lee’s back, but Jack just nodded.

“Let’s clean and stitch this, and then you can get back to your boy.”

It felt like forever before they finally made it back to their rooms. They were both exhausted, dirty, and bloodstained, but Jason and Charlie were still asleep when they got back, and neither of them wanted to run water in the shower and risk waking them. They stumbled into their bedroom instead, and Evan eased Lee down so that he was lying on his stomach, his head resting in the dip between Evan’s shoulder and chest.

“Sleep,” he murmured. “You need it.”

“We both need it. But Jason…”

“We’ll wake up when he does.” They always did. “It’ll be all right.”

They fell asleep fast, and had a few hours of solid slumber before Jason ran into their room. Evan woke up at the first sound of footsteps, but Lee was still down hard. Evan smiled at Jason, but Jason didn’t smile back. Instead of his normal ebullient welcome, he stayed silent, tears glistening in his eyes as he crawled onto the bed next to Evan.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “About what happened with Wayde.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Evan whispered back.

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