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“I’m dying,” I whispered, and a tear rolled down my cheek and collected in my hair along with the others.

“I want to help you,” he admitted.

It sounded like saying the words out loud gave him pain—but that pain was nothing compared to what I was going through, so it meant little to me.

“So, please, do. I’ll die here. I’m dying now. I can feel it. The burning… it’s already spreading through my arm.”

His handsome features contorted in a grimace as he fought with himself. Something was still holding him back.

“What do I have to say to convince you?” I asked.

The candle didn’t provide much light, so most of his face was cast in shadow when he looked away.

“There’s nothing you can say,” he muttered. “You have no idea what’s at stake for me.”

“More than my life?” I asked before I winced, grinding my teeth.

I had to control my breathing. I just had to. The more panicked I became, the faster my heart raced and the faster the toxic blood would spread through me.

“That might be how they see it, yes.”

“But it’s not how you see it?”

“What do you think?”

“I think you worked hard to get me out of that car—and you could’ve died, too. The last thing I remember was the mud sweeping the car up and pushing it toward the edge of the road. I was close to the edge. And I bet the car’s somewhere on the forest floor, huh?”

“I wouldn’t know. I didn’t hang around long enough to find out.”

“No. You flew me here. I remember a little bit of that, too.”

“What’s the point of reminding me of these things?”

I would’ve shrugged if I could’ve moved without screaming. As it was, I needed to stay perfectly still if I wanted to speak clearly. I couldn’t move and speak at the same time.

“Because you’ve tried so hard to keep me alive. You can’t let me die like this.”

“There’s nothing I can do. I can’t run the risk of somebody finding out where you are.”

“And I just told you I wouldn’t tell.”

“And I’m telling you if it means nothing to me that you’ve promised this, it’ll mean even less to my family. They already hate me for bringing you here, or they will.”

I couldn’t leave. Asking to leave was a waste of time. If he was tough, the rest of the would be tougher.

I wondered how many there were. With my luck, a hundred. All dragons.

His eyes lit up. “I could bring your healer here. Just tell me where to find her, and I can use a blindfold. She won’t ever have to see where we’re going.”

I wanted to jump at the suggestion—but it was no use. I could see why he didn’t want to let me leave when it put it that way.

I wasn’t about to let any strangers, especially a bunch of dragons, know where my kind lived. We kept ourselves secret for a reason. My heart sank.

“It’s useless,” I whispered before squeezing my eyes shut.

Two more tears trickled out when I did. At the rate I was crying, I’d die of dehydration before I rotted.

“That’s no good, either?” he asked.