Winged (Aetharian Narratives) (25 page)

She was right—we were alive. That was all that mattered for now. I closed my eyes.

* * *

“Where am I?” I said to the dark skinned Dr. Zaira.

I was becoming familiar with her from the many times she had come into the room to scan my body with her X-ray eyes. She was short, probably no taller than five foot three. Her completely straight, bright gold hair fell to the middle of her back. Her clear blue eyes had become somewhat of a comfort to me during my time in the hospital.

“You’re in a South Aetherian hospital,” Dr. Zaira said, changing out the straps that held my broken body together.

“I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been here,” I said to the high wooden ceiling.

“In two more days we’ll be celebrating your three-week anniversary,” she said.

“Three weeks in a place where everyone hates me,” I said with a sigh.

I glanced at her assistant. As warm as Dr. Zaira was to me, Jaedyn never made the effort to so much as smile.

“I’m surprised I sleep so soundly at night.”

“Jaedyn,” she said to him.

She jerked her head to the door and he exited the room.

“I’m sorry you’re so uncomfortable here, but I assure you that nothing will happen to you.”

“While I’m in here,” I said with a laugh. “What happens when your work with me is done and I’m healed?”

Dr. Zaira sighed. “Yes, there will be problems for you once you exit this hospital.”

I nodded my head. I regretted it instantly when pain shot up my neck.

“That, however, shouldn’t be your concern right now,” she said. “For now just concentrate on letting your body heal. It didn’t appreciate the fall you condemned it to so please stay as still as possible while it does its work.”

“Okay,” I said.

* * *

My eyes snapped open. There was a lot of noise coming from behind the door to the room. People were shouting and I heard a lot of heavy footsteps growing louder. They were coming closer.

“…You don’t know the state of her body,” I heard a frantic woman say.

I had become quite familiarized with the aspects of Dr. Zaira, but it took me a moment to figure out that the frantic voice belonged to her. As many times as she had talked my ear off, I had never heard her voice like that.

“She’s still in an unstable condition and shouldn’t be put under stress at this time,” she said. “
He
smashed
her
into the ground. The state of her body is much worse than his.”

“I don’t care what condition she’s in,” said an angry man.

I knew the voice but couldn’t pinpoint from where I recognized it.

“We need to get questions answered. The boy isn’t talking so we need her to.”

“Please,” Dr. Zaira said, “you don’t understand what her body is going through.”

The stomping stopped in front of my door.

“You’re right, I don’t understand,” the man said. “And like I said before, I don’t care.”

My body jolted when the door was thrown open and slammed into the wall. I clenched my teeth and eyes. Waves of pain shot through me. A huge man came into view and stood over me. His height and build easily rivaled Oak’s. He looked down at me from beneath dark eyelids.

“Well, well,” he said.

I knew without a doubt that he had the most unsettling voice I had ever heard in my life.

“Take a look at those eyes,” he said. His head turned back to the doorway. “I’d like to see them better. Crank her into an upright position—”

“No,” Dr. Zaira said from the door. “Please, her back isn’t finished healing.”

“Fine,” the man said and turned his attention to someone else. “You do it then.”

I heard a few steps taken by a person out of view.

“Jaedyn,” Dr. Zaira said with warning in her voice.

He halted for a moment but then continued toward me. I hear him pick up the detachable lever to the crank from a side table.

“Don’t you dare,” she said in almost a shriek.

“And get her out of here,” the man said. He gave the command to someone else at the door.

“Don’t touch me,” Dr. Zaira said.

There was some scuffling, the door creaked closed, and it was quiet. I already missed her babbling.

“Jaedyn,” the man said, gesturing to the bed.

I couldn’t hear a sound. For a blissful second I thought Jaedyn had finally warmed up to me and couldn’t bring himself to do what the man was asking.

The thoughts shattered when I heard a clicking sound. He attached the lever to the crank and put it into motion. I felt the top half of the bed start to move. My spine felt like a piece of stiff wood being bent with too much force. I was concerned that it was in danger of snapping in half—until the pain took over my mind.

I was somewhat proud of myself. I was doing a good job of not giving the man the satisfaction of hearing me wail in pain. But midway, my back emitted a loud pop and I couldn’t help but yelp from surprise and pain.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the man said.

The cranking came to a stop, but there wasn’t a shred of sincerity in his voice.

“Am I making you uncomfortable?”

I blinked the tears out of my eyes and refused to let another sound come out of my mouth.

“Jaedyn,” he said. “Continue.”

I braced myself for the bed to start moving again. But it didn’t. I opened an eye and peeked at Jaedyn. I could now see him from my nearly sitting position. His hand was frozen on the handle of the crank.

“That pop…” he said, staring at the crank.

I wasn’t sure if I was imagining things, but I thought I heard worry in his voice. I opened my other eye and turned my head to him. If I wasn’t mistaken, I could see apprehension on his face.

“She’s Winged,” the man said. “Whatever it was, she’ll live. Now finish cranking the bed.”

Jaedyn’s eyes lifted to mine. I put a slight smile on my face. I hoped that it thanked him for his concern and told him to go ahead and finish. The message was received. He closed his eyes and with much effort started cranking the bed again.

I closed my eyes, too, when the bed was put back into motion. Teeth and fist clenching replaced my need to scream. When I thought I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore, it ended.

“You’re a very brave girl,” the man said in mock approval.

I let out the air in my lungs and tried to breathe out the pain surging through my back.

“But bravery isn’t going to make things better for you right now,” the man said. “What will help are your words. How many of your people know where the cabin is?”

I didn’t speak. The word “cabin” resonated in my head, making me realize where I had heard his voice. At some point in my semi-consciousness his voice had found me at the cabin and asked what I was doing there.

I didn’t answer his question, though not for the reason he thought. I didn’t know who knew about it or how Dresden had found it for that matter.

“How many?” he said again. His face lowered to mine.

“I—don’t know,” I managed to get through my clenched teeth.

“How can you not know?” he said. “You’re the Dragonfly, aren’t you? Doesn’t that give you the privilege of being the head of the military? Technically, you outrank that tight-lipped boy in the other room,” he said with a nod to the wall on the other side of me. “Did you not lead him there?”

I realized he was talking about Dresden. I looked to where he nodded. It had not occurred to me to ask where he was or if I could see him. I had assumed they would separate us. He could be on the other side of the wall or several rooms down.

“Answer my question.”

The demand brought my attention back to him.

“I didn’t lead anyone there,” I said. “I don’t know how he found it.”

“Do you know who I am, girl?” he said, anger rising higher in his eyes.

He leaned on the bed, making my body ache at the slight movement.

“I have a chair in the Southern Council and while you’re with us I can make very bad things happen to you.”

“Others wouldn’t allow those things,” I said, thinking about Oak and Kaia.

“Tell me the truth,” he said. “I need to know who’s coming after my daughter.”

A flash of a sweet face with the same color eyes as his filled my vision for a moment.

“You’re Adeline’s father,” I said. Her face flashed before me again. They had different shades of blond hair but the same nose.

“Yes, I am,” he said. “And I need to know what has to be done to protect her.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what went wrong.”

“Them taking you to that cabin is what went wrong.”

I shut my mouth. There was nothing more to be said.

“Fine,” he said. Pushing himself off the bed, he walked toward the door.

Jaedyn followed him. His eyes were fixed on the ground.

“I’d give my life to protect your daughter,” I said across the room.

The footfalls stopped and the man turned to me again.

“That means nothing to me,” he said, opening the door, “coming from a person that can’t die.”

He turned and both of them exited the room. The door slammed behind them and I finally let the tears flow down my face. He was right. Coming from me, that was an empty promise. Lighter feet ran down the hallway and the door burst open.

“Emma, are you okay?” Dr. Zaira said, running into view. “What did they do to you, love?”

“I’m okay,” I said.

“I’m going to lower you back down as gently as I can,” she said.

I relaxed my body and let the bed straighten it out again. The pop wasn’t due to my spine snapping in half like I’d thought. I was sure I’d be in great pain right now if it had been. If anything it might have been a pop I needed. The tight feeling that had been in my back for days was gone now and I actually felt a little better.

“Emma, please,” Dr. Zaira put the crank’s handle away and looked down at me. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Worry shined from behind her eyes. I watched them look over my body to make sure nothing had been disturbed too much.

“Yes,” I said, looking away from her.

She watched me for a moment more. I wondered if she were able to see something that told her all I wanted to do right then was cry.

“All right,” she said. “Everything seems to be fine. I do not think you were ready for that yet. Let me know if you need anything.”

She walked to the door and left the room.

I heard the door close and I completely broke down.

* * *

Dr. Zaira sighed. “Well, you’re just about done healing.”

We made our second lap around my floor of the hospital wing. She watched every part of my body work, scanning past my skin to make sure all my bones, muscles, and tendons were working the way they should be.

People stared at me when I wobbled by. “You don’t have to sound so depressed. This is good. Right?”

She motioned for people to stop staring and get back to work.

“I’m not depressed. I’m anxious about releasing you. The Council is going to take you into custody and will probably throw you into a jail cell the moment you exit the building.”

“I’m sure that will make many people much happier,” I said, raising my voice when we passed the watchful eyes of a few more workers.

Jaedyn was standing among them, but he kept his eyes averted. From what I had heard Dr. Zaira had given him a very hard time for what he had done to me.

She looked at me. “Are you not worried? Emma, no one around here trusts you. They won’t believe anything you say to them.”

“Why should I care what they think?” I said.

These words, where my high school problems weren’t the main focus, felt strange coming out of my mouth. I shook my head to clear it of the sudden déjà vu.

“Because they are the ones that will be jumping at the opportunity to lock you up,” she said.

“Why would they do that when it was one of their own that brought me here in the first place?”

“Emma, the Council rules by democracy,” she said, trying to explain. “What one of them says has to be supported by others. You and Oak could talk yourselves silly and yet not get anything accomplished if the others don’t agree.”

“You trust me,” I said.

I was surprised when she smiled.

“Yes, but only because I’ve come to know you over the past weeks. I’ll admit that I questioned admitting you into my hospital because of who you were and the fact that you were somewhere no one thought you should be. But as a doctor I decided I couldn’t turn you away while you were in that state.”

That didn’t make me feel better.

“Gee, thanks,” I said.

“Emma,” she said, ignoring my sarcasm. “I watched you turn into someone I never thought I’d allow myself to see you as. I didn’t want to like you, let alone trust you. But over time I found myself doing so.”

I looked at her.

“You grew on me.”

That
did
comfort me.

“How?”

“Because you were dead when you came to me. When they brought you here I took one look at your shattered bones and malfunctioning organs and told them that there was no way I could do anything for you. Then I saw the fat pockets on your back and realized you were Winged, which meant that you would indeed live through the ordeal.”

“So as a doctor you felt obligated to put me back together.”

“At first, yes,” she said. “At first I kept my distance and made sure all I did was my job, but something happened to me while I watched you heal. Watching you mend your bones was like watching society fix itself. I could see you repair our future as I watched you repair your body. That’s when I realized that all of us had the absolute wrong impression of you.

“Then you opened those gorgeous, green eyes. I saw change in them.”

I smiled. The words straightened my body and made me walk a little taller.

“I felt truly ashamed of myself for jumping to conclusions,” she said, her voice shaking.

I stopped and put my hand on her arm, so she stopped, too.

“Thank you,” I said, giving her a hug.

She was surprised by the gesture but embraced me.

“I’ll make sure that they see me in the same way,” I promised.

She guided me back to my room.

“I’m going to make my rounds,” she said, helping me back into my bed. “I’ll check on you one more time before I leave for the day.”