Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

I only smiled, my heart thudding, my motions weak, hands shaking. “It’s a good lie. You knew it was a lie, but it made you feel better anyway, didn’t it? Because you trusted me. Because you knew I would do everything in my power to make sure you would be okay, so now it’s your turn. You have to comfort him.”

Mark watched me for a moment before turning back to Letak whose eyes were slowly closing. “Hey,” he whispered, leaning over him, “Kyra won’t let anything bad happen to you. Don’t be afraid. Be kind always, be brave in the face of fear, and help when you can. Fear doesn’t have to make you weak, fear can make you strong. She taught me those. Pretty good, huh? So, you don’t have to be afraid because she’s the smartest person in the world. She knows everything.”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat and turned back to Cole. “Um…” I shook my head, my mind fuzzy. “You have to cut it open, Cole, and put the Lop eggs directly onto the bone, and then you have to seal it up with the Asilos Root.”

“I found the injury,” Trick said, voicesteady.

I started rubbing the Asilos Root on my own arm, my eyes finding Trick’s. “What is it?”

“Deep gash,” he explained. “His intestines are close to spilling out.”

My stomach twisted as Letak cried out, Mark’s voice getting louder. “How long?” I asked, making sure Mark was okay.

“Eight inches.”

“Is there any bubbling? Any rancid smells?”

“Just sulfur.”

“Okay,” I breathed out, turning back to Trick. “Good. That’s good. Take the Muskes and Varian and carefully squeeze each of them, let the drippings fall into his cut. It’s gonna sting.”

“I don’t think he will mind, Angel.”

“No, not him. It’s gonna sting you,” I told him. “They’re both incredibly acidic, found in the depths of the Conery in the Vampire Court. Midst of the Frozen Lands.” I shook my head. He didn’t need to know that right now. “It’s going to burn.”

Trick eyed me before he turned back to the wound and held the vegetable and the fruit above the gash, one in each hand. He squeezed, immediately snarling when the juices dripped through his fingers.

“Don’t be a baby,” Cole chided.

Trick shot him a glare, the vein popping from his temple.

I looked back to my own wounds, the rain preventing the root from drying. “Shit,” I mumbled.

“Here.”

I gasped, looking up to find the male standing aboveme holding out a quickly dampening cloth. I jerked my arm to my chest, heart racing. Shit.Shit.

The male, his eyes a little more blue than Mark’s, were kind, soft. “I won’t tell,” he promised.

I swallowed, but I couldn’t hesitate. The cloth would be soaked soon, so I quickly took it from his hand and turned away, muttering a thank you as I turned back to Letak. It was fine. I didn’t know him. It meant nothing.

I ran the cloth up the length of my arm, watching as the boys got to work, the woman still carefully inspecting his wings. “How are they?”

The woman gently folded the right one in, leaving the left spread out, unable to fold it in with how Letak was laying. “I think he’s just tired. How long was he flying in the storm?”

“Since the beginning of it,” I explained as she stood. “The demons were spooked, and they all took off. We were up there for some time, dodging the flyers, but the tycrons, they weren’t supposed to be here until the end of winter. They’re the ones that attacked. Something is causing their habits to shift. Those three scars, a tycron attacked him when he was a kit, I killed that one.” Again, they didn’t need to know all of that, but I couldn’t stop rambling.

“You killed one up there too,” Mark beamed. “You shot him right in the eye from the back of Letak! Mr. Cole, how cool is that? She killed a tycron from Letak’s back in the middle of a storm! Isn’t that amazing?”

Cole turned to me, looking quite impressed. “Thatiscool, Mark. You’re cool, Kyra.”

I glared at him. “Are you done?”

He smiled brightly. “With the injury? Yes. With the childish awe? Nope.”

My glare fell as I tried to see Letak’s leg. “Are you sure that you put enough Lop egg in there? You got enough root? I know Talaroe, I can get more. Use all you need.”

Everyone looked up at that, giving me different expressions of confusion and question. “It’s enough,” Cole assured me. “I even wrapped his leg.” He pushed himself to a stand, ruffling his feathers to shake away the droplets, although it was useless. “Thanks, Nick,” Cole nodded behind me as he walked over. He crouched down beside me. “How are you doing?”