The Immortal / Fourth Wing

Chapter Eleven

POV: Violet Sorrengail

"Absolutely not!" One general shouted loud enough that I could hear her all the way from the little medical station that had been set up at the end of the bleachers for riders. It was nothing but a row of a dozen tables and some flown-in supplies to tide us over until we could get to the Healer Quadrant, but at least the pain medication was taking effect.

Two dragons. I had...two dragons.

The generals have been screaming at each other for the last half hour, long enough for a chill to settle in the night air and for an instructor I've never met to sew up both sides of my arm. Lucky for me, Tynan mostly sliced through muscle but didn't sever it. Unlucky for me, Jack was getting his shoulder examined about a dozen feet away. He strutted over from the back of an Orange Scorpiontail to record his bond with the roll-keeper, who'd kept doing her job regardless of the generals arguing on the dais behind her.

Jack hadn't quit staring at Tairn across the field.

"How is that?" Professor Kaori asked quietly, tightening the straps around my splinted ankle. There were about a million other questions in his slashing, dark eyes, but he kept them to himself. "Hurts like hell." The swelling made it nearly impossible to get ,my boot back on without losing every single lace to its widest position, but at least I didn't have to crawl across the field like a girl from Second Wing who had broken her leg during dismount. She was seven tables back, crying softly as the rider field medics try to set her leg.

"You'll be focused on strengthening your bonds and riding in the next couple of months, so as long as you don't have trouble mounting or dismounting" - his head tilted as he tied off the straps of my splint - "which, after what I saw, I don't think you will - this sprain should heal before your next round of challenges." Two lines deepened between his brows. "Or I can call Nolan -"

"No." I shook my head. "I'll heal."

"If you're sure?" He obviously wasn't.

"Every eye in this valley is on me and my dragon - dragons," I corrected myself. "I can't afford to appear weak." He frowned but nodded. "Do you know who made it out of my squad?" I asked, fear knotting my throat. Please let Rhiannon be alive. And Trina. And Ridoc. And Sawyer. And Xandor. All of them.

"I haven't seen Trina, Tynan or Xandor," Professor Kaori answered slowly, like he was trying to soften a blow. It didn't.

"Tynan won't be coming," I whispered, guilt gnawing at my stomach.

"That is not you kill to take credit for," Tairn mentally growled.

"I see," Professor Kaori murmured.

"What the hell do you mean you think it needs surgery?" Jack bellowed from my left. "I mean, it looks like the weapon severed a couple of ligaments, but we'll have to get you to the healers to be sure," the other instructor said, his voice infinitely patient as he secured Jack's sling. I looked Jack straight in those evil eyes and smiled. I was done being scared of him. He ran back in that meadow.

Rage mottled his cheeks in the mage light, and he swung his feet over the end if this table and charged toward me. "You!"

"I what?" I slipped off the end of my table and left my hands loose by the sheaths at my thighs. Professor Kaoris eyebrows jumped as he glanced between us. "You?" he murmured.