Fight or Flight

Chapter 25

Enola

The familiar nightmare of frozen helplessness and slashing swords faded, to be replaced by an awareness of the soreness in my side and wings. On top of being stabbed, I had also pushed my wings far too hard by taking Simon to that human town, and my body seemed determined to make sure I knew it took issue with both of those problems. I opened my eyes and lay in the soft light of the crystals around me for a few minutes and tried to summon the energy to get back up.

It was hard to tell how long I had been asleep, but I doubted it was more than an hour or two. The bandage over my wound looked bloodier than I remembered – though it was hard to tell in the pinkish light coming from the crystals – but not bad enough to have come from a full night of sleep. I heaved myself to my feet and slunk over to the healer's kit, gathering up the supplies I would need to clean and redress the wound.

I shook my head as I remembered the damage my own claws had done to my shoulder. That had been stupid. I doubted I had done any permanent damage, but without any magic to heal myself with, it was going to hurt for a while. So now on top of having wings that were sore from the recent trip to the human city, I was also going to have to deal with the pain from where a colossal idiot had jabbed her claws into my shoulder and ripped out a chunk of flesh.

No. It was the fault of that human who had stabbed me. Like everything else, my problems always came back to a human. A greedy monster out to steal magic from me, even though I was already out of magic to steal.

Still, I should have reacted better. Ripping the knife out like that had been stupid. And my shoulder would remind me of that for days and weeks to come. I should have...

I sighed as I dipped a clean cloth in the jar of salve. I should have just let Simon help. He seemed to be the only human in their entire species that even pretended to give a smidgen of concern for my well-being. He had already proven he would not demand something of me for his aid, other than maybe some annoying questions at the next dinner. If I had just stayed still like he had asked, he would have pulled the knife out, and that would have been it. I might still have some pain in my shoulder, but it would not be anywhere near as bad.

What am I going to do with him?

That question echoed in the silence of my den as I took off the old bandage and went through the motions of cleaning the scabbed-over injury. And when I tore another strip of cloth and bandaged the wound up again. And when I packed all the supplies neatly back into their compartments beneath the saddle. And when I sprawled out on the floor and recited the healing spells I knew, practicing a vital skill that I could no longer actually perform.

Because a Wellspring had helped me.

The smart thing to do would be to make Simon leave. I was in danger while he remained. If the stories I had been told about Wellsprings were true, it could still be decades yet before my magedebt was cleared. If something happened again, and I ended up owing a debt to Simon on top of the one I already owed... it could be a century before I had magic again. If I ever did.

And he had lied to me. He had come with this fake story about being curious about me, when really he was just curious about that other Wellspring and her letters. If dragons were a danger to Wellsprings, or if we represented safety for them. All the help he had tried to give me, all the favors he had done, all the kind dinners we had shared... they had just been a greedy trick from a self-centered human. Just like that herald who had tried to give me a cup so he could trick me into leaving my home, or the Wellspring that had tried to free me so I would fight the naga, or any of the numerous other humans I had met over the years. Simon was no different from them. I had let him into my home, and the entire time he had been scheming how to use me. He was just like every other human I had ever met.