Dragon Witch ✔️

33 - Fountain of Healing

I growled, hating the hunter for making me hurt him. If I'd been alone, I would've run. But he'd threatened me in front of my fairy. He shouldn't have done that.

Another hunter charged at me, this time with a partner in tow. I let instinct take over. The next few minutes were a blur of painful strikes and counterattacks, cries of pain and snapping bone, red cloaks and red blood falling to the asphalt.

The last hunter fell. I turned back to my fairy. He wasn't alone. I'd moved too far away, and a hunter had snuck past me. She stood over my fairy. She had a knife in her hand, a knife meant for my fairy.

I covered the distance between us in two long strides. The ground fell away as I leapt at the hunter. Slamming into her back, I brought us both crashing down. She screeched and jabbed her elbow into my stomach. Wheezing, I dug my nails into her neck.

The dagger sliced my thigh, but it was just one more burning pain on top of everything else. I sunk my fangs into her shoulder. The changeling part of me knew what to do. It knew how to pump venom into a victim. It knew the venom would paralyze in seconds.

The hunter shuddered and stiffened. I tore myself away, fighting the urge to deal the killing blow. My fairy needed to leave here. He was a water pixie. He needed water to wash off the iron and replenish his strength. The park was closer than my territory. We would go to the fountain.

I leaned over my fairy and gathered him in my arms. He trembled, his breaths faint and wheezy. If anyone saw him, they would take him away. That couldn't happen.

Keeping to the shadows and unoccupied roads, I carried my fairy three blocks to the park. It was empty at this time of night. The fountain at its center was simple, just a single spout forming a watery mushroom over the fountain's basin. I climbed over the rim of the basin and laid my fairy in the water. Crouching at his side, I held his head above the surface.

"Here, water for you, my fairy," I murmured, wetting my hand to wipe off my fairy's face. I cleaned the blood from his forehead and the iron powder from his cheeks.

His skin was a pale blue. Much too ashen. I'd taken his blood, his magic. Most of it, I'd used to carry him here, but a little magic still buzzed inside me. Every instinct I had told me to keep it. But he needed it more than I did.

I leaned close to my fairy and nipped his shoulder. Instead of venom, I sent magic through my fangs. Exhaustion rolled through me. It dragged me back and down into the water. Black spots clouded the edges of my vision. It took all I had just to brace myself against the fountain's spout and keep my head above water.

Kyton sank.

No, no- After all I'd done to get us out of there alive, he couldn't just drown now. I pushed off the fountain's spout. 'Push' was a generous term. My torso slid off the spout, and there was nothing I could do as my head sank below the water. My arms were worse than wet noodles. They were charred, bruised, stabbed, scraped, soaking wet noodles.

I guessed there were worse ways to die than drowning in a fountain. Eating a friend and choking on their bones was definitely worse. If I was going to go, better now than after turning into a fully-fledged dragon and trying to kill someone. All I could see was black. I let my eyes close.

***

Someone slapped my face. "Come on, wake up."

I groaned. The sound burned in my rough throat, raw nostrils, and aching chest.

"That's better." Soft hands held my head out of the water lapping around my neck. "Isn't it easier to breathe without water in your lungs?"

My lungs felt like pieces of soggy charcoal. At least passing out and drowning would've been peaceful. I forced my eyes open.