I don’t know sea dragon anatomy or their healing abilities, apart from the fact that they heal faster than humans. But surely some of the rules are the same for humans, dragons, and witches? Out here in the cold, Maya could suffer from exposure. We’ll need to get her inside soon.
“Let me through,” a voice calls from behind me.
I scramble back in time to see a middle-aged woman huffing up the path to the Lodge. A leather satchel swings madly at her hip, and she looks like a woman on a mission. This must be Nurse MacLeod.
“Your parents are right behind me,” she informs Jack as she kneels beside Maya. “Now tell me, what happened?”
Cora, who has pulled herself together enough that her voice wobbles only a little, explains the events of the past five minutes. “His tail came out of nowhere,” she concludes. “It hit her right across the ribs, and she flew back. She’s breathing funny, and I don’t know what to do.”
Juniper grips her hand, and they stare at the nurse with hope in their eyes. But Nurse MacLeod’s face remains grim.
“We can’t lift her yet,” she announces. “If she has a spine injury we could end up hurting her more. We have an hour, maybe, before her injuries start healing themselves. If they heal wrong, she might never walk again.”
She leans over Maya’s side and gently palpates her ribs. Maya lets out a feeble whimper, her hand twitching at her side. Her eyelids flutter, and she blinks at the sky, her pale face tight with pain.
“Hey, sis.” Jack crouches next to her to get in her field of vision. “Try not to move, okay? Can you tell us what hurts?”
The nurse continues with her sweep of Maya’s body. “At least two ribs are cracked, if not broken. Can you take a deep breath?”
Maya’s chest rises, but she groans, her eyes darting around in a panic. “Hurts.”
Fuck.
“Maya?” A woman’s panicked voice rings out over the clearing. “Baby, where are you?”
Jack stands and turns in the direction of the village. “We’re here, Mom.”
Two more figures rush closer. It’s Jack’s parents. I retreat farther away to give them space. At their terrified expressions, a wave of guilt swamps me: I’m the reason their daughter got hurt. Sure, I didn’t hurt Maya, but Ward came here for me, and she was only collateral damage.
“Mom,” Maya croaks. “I can’t feel my legs.”
In the silence that descends over the scene, my stomach flips over, and I fight to keep down the bile rising in my throat. A spine injury this bad might require massive surgery, and even then the results would be uncertain. If she were a human, that is. But Maya is anything but, so who the fuck knows how her body would heal?
“Can you set the bones so they heal right?” Jack’s father asks the nurse. “There’s got to be something we can do.”
The woman’s lips compress in a tight line. “Vertebrae can’t be set like that. We need to get her to the clinic first. We’ll do an x-ray, then we can decide on what to do.”
Her voice suggests that there might not be many options, however. Ty and Jack run into the Lodge and return moments later with a door they must have unhooked from the kitchen. Aiden disappears for a minute and reappears dressed, then helps the other two move Maya gently to the door. She whimpers, then passes out. I have no idea whether that’s good—at least she’s not in pain any longer—or even more terrifying.
The men lift the door and slowly make their way down the path leading to the village. The nurse and Jack’s mother hurry on ahead, likely to prepare the clinic, while Cora and Juniper follow the strange procession, still holding hands.
Several people remain in the clearing, gawking, and I want to shake them by the shoulders and scream: ‘This is what you caused!’
A man faces me, and I suddenly realize I’m all alone in the presence of sea dragons who’d demanded my exile—or worse—just half an hour earlier. I scamper down the path behind Maya’s stretcher, too afraid to remain alone in the big, empty Lodge. For a moment, I think about grabbing Princess Penny first, but she’ll be safer inside, and besides, the clinic is no place for a Pomeranian.
I catch up with Cora and Juniper as the men place the entire door on the examination table in the modern, surprisingly well-equipped clinic. The smell of antiseptic hangs in the air, reminding me of my own excursion to the ER just days ago. The x-ray machine hangs from the ceiling, and Nurse MacLeod shoos everyone out as she snaps it into place.
Several minutes later, she throws open the door. “It doesn’t look good.” Her gaze darts from Cora to Juniper and settles at last on Jack’s mom. “Four of her vertebrae are shattered, and I think one of the broken ribs might have nicked a lung. It’s…” She runs her fingers through her short hair. “We might consider taking her to a human ER. But…”
Jack’s father lets out an anguished groan. It’s the sound of an animal in pain, and my insides clench at it. There must be nothing worse than this for a parent.
“Would the plane ride hurt her even more?” Aiden asks. “Do we even have time to take her to Anchorage before her injuries heal up wrong?”
Jack gapes at him. “You’d take her to a human surgeon? That would mean…” He swallows convulsively, his handsome face pale as chalk. “Humans would find out about us. There’s no way they wouldn’t notice.”
Aiden looks like he might be sick for a moment, and he grips the doorjamb so tightly, his knuckles turn white. “It’s my fault she got hurt. We need her to get better, then I’ll deal with the fallout.”
A touch at my elbow has me glancing around over my shoulder. Ty stands right beside me, his face pensive.
