Dragon Witch ✔️

26 - Intervention

"Prip-" I yanked off my sweatshirt and covered Eva with it. That was how you were supposed to put out fires, right? Why wasn't it working? The flames leaped through the shirt without burning it. Heat sank into my ankle, more acute than the pain from spraining it.

I smothered Eva in my shirt, trying to suffocate the flames. As quickly as it'd started, the fire stopped. Eva crumbled. Yanking my shirt off her, I revealed a softball-sized pile of ash on my ankle. Eva was gone.

"No, no, no..." I scooped the ash up in my shirt. Maybe Grandma could put her back together. Maybe-

In the midst of the ash, a hot ember glowed brightly. Only, it wasn't just an ember. It was a red egg the size of a cherry tomato. I was an idiot. I was a sleep-deprived, New-Moon-weakened, half-naked idiot.

Shaking off the ash, I pulled the shirt back over my head. I grabbed the egg and stuffed it in my pocket. Eva the phoenix owl should be fine in there. She was putting off a lot of heat, and my sweat pants' pocket should keep her insulated until I got back home. I was so glad Kyton wasn't around to laugh at me for forgetting that phoenixes could regenerate in fire and heal their bonded witch.

I stood and flexed my ankle. It didn't even twinge. Following Kyton's scent, I made my way down the hill and past the barrier. Before long, the scent of fresh fairy blood replaced his trail. It smelled like a lot of blood. He could be seriously hurt. I sped up to a sprint, instinctively dodging thorny vines and low branches.

Before I knew it, I ran into a clearing around a fallen tree. Nestled between the branches was a jar of fairy blood. Kyton wasn't injured, then. Who would leave a perfectly good jar of blood in the forest? I moved closer, fighting to ignore the argumentative voice in my head.

This wasn't a trap. Who would want to trap me? I could find Kyton after I took a drink. There was no reason to rush. He wasn't hurt. He could wait. Someone was shouting, but it didn't matter. I knelt by the jar. This was a dream come true.

Something slammed into my side and tackled me to the ground just as I touched the jar. That snapped me out of it.

"What part of 'don't touch that' don't you understand?" Kyton shouted in my face. He was crouched over me, pinning my shoulders to the ground.

I leaned a little to see around him. The jar was on its side, and the blood was sinking into the ground. An icy spear stuck out of the ground an inch away from it.

"Did I almost get speared in your stupid dragon trap? Did you really think that would stop a dragon?"

He jumped to his feet, dragging me up with him. "The spear's covered in a paralyzing potion, sedative, hemlock, and a dozen other poisons. It would stop a dragon. It would kill you." Shaking his head, he pushed me toward home. "Go back. I need to reset the trap."

I spun around to face him. "Don't be stupid. The moment that dragon flies in here, it'll hear your heartbeat and go after you instead of a jar. Then you'll be frozen by its magic, and it'll eat you. You're coming back with me."

"No, I'm not." He turned away and jerked the spear out of the ground. "I need to do this." 

"Didn't the potion I made work? You said your dad had another month, at least. The monster hunters will be here by then. You can buy some blood from them. Or I'll buy it, whichever you need to make it happen." Either that, or I would get the blood myself when I transformed.

Kyton knelt and fiddled with a tripwire leading away from the blood jar. "The potion worked fine." He paused. "It's been a month, and there's no sign of the hunters. And I can't buy blood from any other source because they'll only sell it to nomahus who've been attacked."