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I jog next to Dain, who holds a semi-unconscious Violet in his arms as we walk out of the Riders Quadrant into the Healer's. Her right arm is swollen and mangled, and I force myself to keep my blue eyes on the ground so I don't have to look at it.

"Almost there," Dain says through gritted teeth. Oh, thank goodness. I hate running.

"Everyone saw you lose it." Violet squeezes her eyes shut against the pain, and it's all I can do to keep mine open. Other's pain makes me either want to throw up or hurl myself off of a bridge.

"I didn't lose it," Dain protests, and I knock on a large wooden door when we reach it.

"Yeah you did," I say. "You quite literally threw Imogen across the room and scooped Violet up and just ran out of the door. It was quite the spectacle." Although, I think it's strange Dain immediately came to her rescue after she got her shoulder broken and dislocated when he was standing right there the whole time.

Dain kicks the door as Violet murmurs, "Yeah. You shouted and carried me out of there like I meant something to you."

"You do mean something to me," Dain mutters.

Finally, to save us from more awkwardness, the door bursts open and an older woman appears in the opening. "Another injury? You riders certainly are trying to fill our beds to–oh no, Violet?" Gods, how many people does this woman know?

"Hi Winifred," Violet chokes out, and again I have to hold my hand over my mouth to keep from throwing up. I can feel her pain radiating through the air, and I turn my head away.

"This way," she says, her brow furrowed with concern for the younger woman. I trail behind Dain and the healer as she leads us to an empty bed. "Helen, go get Nolon." The mender. If that shoulder needs mending, then it's not good.

"No!" I shoot Dain a startled look at his outburst. I figured he would do anything to get Violet out of pain as soon as possible. Violet seems to have the same thought going through her head, because she stares at him with a mixture of shock and anger.

Winifred gives Dain an exasperated glance. "Helen, this is Violet Sorrengail, and if Nolan finds out she was here and you didn't call him, well... that's on you."

"Sorrengail?" The healer squeaks, staring at Violet like she might explode here and now.

"Get Nolon or he will let his dragon eat you alive, sour face and all, Helen." Winifred ignores Dain as he repeatedly begs for her to not call mender.

But I have no such restraint. "Will you shut up, Aetos?" I snap when Dain repeats himself for the fifth time. "You may be our squad leader, but if you hadn't noticed, your squad member is in quite a deal of pain, and you squawking like a parrot isn't going to help anything. She's getting mended whether you like it or not."

Dain gives me an affronted look and looms over me menacingly. I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow. "You should learn to respect your superiors, cadet. You have no right to speak against your squad leader that way," he hisses.

I roll my eyes. "Oh, boo fucking hoo. I don't care. Shut up, will you?" I turn my back on him, and I smirk at the anger radiating off of the man. I hear him spinning around, and I hope he's leaving, but unfortunately he's simply pulling a chair up to Violet's bedside.

His voice is suddenly devoid of all anger and superiority when he speaks to the partially silver haired woman. "Violet, I know you're hurting, but maybe..." I raise an eyebrow at him and dare him to finish that sentence, even though he's determinedly not looking at me.

"Maybe what, Dain Aetos?" Winifred snaps, her patience finally snapping. "You want to see her suffer?" The healer shakes her head, leaning over Violet and prodding at her shoulder. I wince when Violet flinches, and turn my head away. "I told her they'd break you," Winifred murmurs. "Would she listen to me? Absolutely not. Your mother is so damned stubborn."

Winifred raises Violet's arm and pokes at it a little more with a tsk. "Well, that's certainly broken. And it looks like we need a surgeon for that shoulder. What happened?" Her question is directed at Dain, but Violet answers anyway.

"Sparring," she grits out, but Winifred hushes her before she can say any more.

"You hush, save your energy. Make yourself useful, boy, and pull the certain around us," Winifred says to Dain. "The fewer people that see her injured the better." Dain immediately does what she asks before returning to his seat.

Winifred hands Violet a small bottle of a strange amber liquid. "Drink this. It'll handle the pain while we get you sorted."

"You can't ask him to mend her," Dain pleads to the healer. I resist the urge to slap him across the back of his head.

"The pair of us have been mending her for the past five years." Winifred gives Dain a condescending look. "Don't start telling me what I can and cannot do."

"I don't want to see her in pain," Dain says. Oh really, having a change of heart? "That's why we're here. But if she's injured this severely, surely we can see if the scribes will take her in as a late admission? It's only been a day."

I stare at the man in pure shock. He was asking her to forfeit, to have her nearly fatal trip over the parapet be for nothing? I grit my teeth and prepare to fucking beat his ass. Violet is friends with this guy? But the woman speaks up before I can do anything.

"I'm not going to the scribes." Violet glares at Dain, but the look quickly dissolves when the pain killer hits, and she closes her eyes, sighing.

Winifred and Dain start arguing, but I don't listen, taking advantage of Dain standing and stealing his wooden chair out from under him. The man doesn't spare me a glance as I sit down, and I glare daggers at him, not following the conversation. I jolt out of my furious stupor as Nolon whisks back the curtain surrounding us. "You sent for me my—Violet?" The smile on his lips drops immediately when his gaze lands on the woman.

"Hi Nolon," she mumbles with a lopsided smile. "I'd wave, butoneofmyarms doesn't workand the other feels reallllllllyheavy." I hold my hand over my mouth in an attempt to conceal my snickers.

"Leigheas serum," Winifred says with a small smile.

"She's with you Dain?" I see the accusatory look the mender gives my squad leader, and I lean back in my chair with a small smirk, folding my arms across my chest. I shouldn't delight in my squad leader getting in trouble, but something about Dain just makes it really hard not too.

"I'm her squad leader," Dain says. "Putting her under my command was the only way I could think of to keep her safe." I press my lips in a thin line, and have to force myself not to say anything more to the man. You're already probably going to be sentenced to a month of kitchen duty for earlier. Oh well. I'd rather have a six months of kitchen duty if it meant I could talk back to the rule-following annoying-as-fuck Dain Aetos. I don't even know what it is about him that makes me want to punch his damn head off, but I just do. Rylan did say I have unnaturally violent tendencies. Too bad for Dain, I guess.

"Not doing such a good job, are you?" Nolon says as he walks over to Violet.

"It was assessment day for hand-to-hand. Imogen—a second year—dislocated Violet's shoulder and broke her arm," Dain says in an attempt to redeem himself.

"On assessment day?" Nolon says, and I can hear the fury underlying the words.

"Hermotherwasssss—" Violet attempts to explain, her words slurring even worse now. "OneofFennnnnnnnRiorson's sepppara—sepppparaa—ssseppparaatisssstss. And ImmmmaSorrengaaail, so I getitt."

"I don't. I've never agreed with the way they conscripted those kids to the Riders Quadrant as punishment for the sins of their parents," Nolon mutters. "We have never forced conscripts into that quadrant. Ever. And for a very good reason. Most cadets don't survive—which was likely the point, I suspect. Regardless, you shouldn't have to suffer for the honor of your mother. General Sorrengail saved Navarre by capturing the Great Betrayer."

"So you won't mend her, right?" Dain murmurs. I grit my teeth. This guy just doesn't quit, does he? "I'm just asking that the healers do their work and let nature take the time it needs. No magic. She doesn't stand a chance if she goes back there in a cast or has to defend herself while her shoulder heals from reconstruction surgery. The last one took her four months. This is our chance to get her out of the Riders Quadrant while she's still breathing."

I jolt to my feet. "For someone who's all about following the rules, Aetos, you're not doing a great job of it. Besides, stop talking about Violet like she's not a grown woman who can't make decisions for herself." Dain glares daggers at me, and I hold his brown gaze with my icey blue one. I hope he can see the pure flame in my eyes. Asshole.

I see Violet give me an appreciative glance out of the corner of my eye as she speaks up. Or tries to, at least. "I'mnotgoingtothesibes," she tries. "Sibes. SIBES." Still glaring at Dain, I can't let myself laugh. "Mendme."

"I will always mend you," Nolon responds, but Violet shakes her head.

"Just. This. Once." There's a noticeable pause between each word as she attempts to enunciate them clearly. "If. The. Others. See I. Need. Mending. All the time. They'll. Think. I'm weak."

Dain gives me one last glance before tearing his gaze away from mine. "Which is why we need to get you out! Walking out of here and going straight to the Scribe Quadrant is your best chance of survival." Gods, for someone who considers himself Violet's friend, he doesn't seem to have a lot of faith in her.

Clearly my outbursts aren't effective at getting Dain to shut his ass up, so I sit back down in the wooden chair behind me and settle for gritting my teeth in annoyance.

"I'm not. Leavingtheriders. Just so Mom. Canthrowmeback. I'm. Staying." Violet glares at Dain before turning her gaze to Nolon. "Mend me, but justthisonce."

"You it's going to hurt like hell and will still ache for a couple of weeks, right?" Nolon asks. Violet nods, her gaze determined.

"Please, Vi." I'm getting ready to drag my squad leader out of the Healer's Quadrant and throwing his ass off the parapet. "Please switch quadrants. If not for you, them for me—because I didn't step in fast enough. I should have stopped her. I can't protect you." Has it ever occurred to you, Aetos, that she doesn't necessarily need a guard dog her whole life?

But Violet shakes her head yet again. "I made mychoice."

"Get back to the quadrant, you two." Nolon's words are directed at both Dain and I, but his hard gaze is on my squad leader. "If she was another first year, you would already be gone, Dain." Dain gives Violet a pained look, and I turn my gaze to the woman as well.

Her gaze flicks between the two of us. "Go. I'llfindyouat formmmmation in the mornninggg." I nod, awkwardly patting Violet on her good shoulder. I've never been great at showing affection.

I clear my throat. "Yeah. I'll let the rest of the squad know you're alright." Not that Maize will care, but I don't care about Maize either. She nearly killed me on the parapet. Violet nods in response. I walk past Dain without another word, harshly shoving my shoulder into his as I do.