Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(91)

Alex kept busy, awkwardly rolling bandages and refilling medicine bottles, watching Henry as he did so. The young healer didn’t take his eyes off Thatcher’s face until slowly his lids drooped and closed, and he slept.

Lani was across the room. Surprisingly, after having taken that spectacularly awful hit in the back from a pirate, she was awake, but completely unable to walk and had no feeling in her legs. No one knew how long that would last, or if she would ever get better. As with Alex’s arm, Henry didn’t have medicine that could fix that.

Alex and Lani exchanged heartbreaking looks from afar, but neither could stand to talk about their fates—not yet. So Alex stayed a safe distance way. Samheed slept in a chair on one side of her bed, holding her hand, and her father slept on the other. Henry and Carina had done all they could for her. Now they had to wait and see if she healed.

Eventually Alex found comfort in going quietly from bed to bed, assisting those who stirred and perhaps needed a sip of water or an encouraging word. Alex wasn’t the only one facing difficulties—that was obvious. They’d struggle together.

? ? ? ?

And then there was Aaron, the only one left still fighting a war. After his visit with Alex he’d returned to his room, but was unable to get back to sleep because of the battle raging in his head. First he sat and thought. Then he paced inside his room. When his blackboard got too nosy and started asking questions, he left and began to roam the quiet mansion instead.

He kept the robe hidden away inside his vest, but touched it now and then, alternately planning out his reign and then cursing himself for doing so, until he nearly drove himself mad.

“It’s what Alex wants!” Aaron found himself saying in the now empty lounge. He sat on a barstool in the darkness, the very stool that Will Blair had once sat upon, though of course Aaron didn’t know that. The only light in the lounge was a bluish glow coming from Earl the blackboard, who was asleep.

Aaron pulled the robe from his vest and looked at it, then he pressed it to his face and breathed in. The fabric was still silky and soft against his skin, but it smelled like sweat from being trapped inside his vest for days. Aaron shoved it back in place with a frustrated groan that woke Earl.

“What’s your problem?” asked Earl, a bit grumpily. “Lounge is closed for the night.”

“Sorry,” said Aaron. He fled to the tubes and went to the mansion entryway, where a glance out the shiny new windows gave proof of the sun rising on a new day. Artimé began to stir.

Aaron turned to look into the hospital ward, expecting to see Alex asleep in his bed, but instead found him up and about, doing what he could to help the people of Artimé.

Aaron watched them for a long time—the way the injured people’s faces lit up when Alex came by their beds. The way he comforted them and soothed their fears. The way they responded to him and worried over his injury as if . . . as if they were all family.

Aaron slipped his hand inside his vest and his face cracked in pain. Something inside him fussed and roiled and wouldn’t settle.

“Good morning, Aaron-san,” said a soft voice from the stairs.

Pain spiked inside his chest as Aaron whirled around. “Ishibashi-san,” he said, incredulous. “You’re here!”

“I fixed the tube,” said Ishibashi with a grin.

“I can’t believe it,” said Aaron. He tried to smile, but his face was strained and his lips trembled. He jerked his fingers away from his vest and shoved his hands in his pants pockets, his heart engulfed in warring emotions. “I’m really glad to see you.” His voice was thin.

Ishibashi came toward Aaron. He squinted, searching the young man’s face. “Something is troubling you,” the scientist said.

Aaron’s vision blurred. He couldn’t deny it. He turned his gaze away.

Ishibashi tilted his head an inch, studying Aaron. His eyes were filled with compassion as he seemed to read Aaron’s expression. After a moment he said quietly, “Your applecorn is exploding.”

Aaron stared at him. And then he broke down and launched himself into Ishibashi’s arms.





A Grand Reunion


After a while, Ito and Sato joined Ishibashi and Aaron, and word of the scientists’ arrival began to spread. Kaylee came running when she heard the news, for she had often thought of the men since her short visit to their island. They were glad to find Kaylee alive and well and in such good company.

The five of them spent a good part of the morning at the kitchen bar, eating breakfast and drinking tea that Aaron made for them—real tea this time. Aaron and Kaylee filled the scientists in on everything that had happened since they last saw them, from Kaylee’s extended stay on the Island of Graves, to the battle and win over Gondoleery, to Aaron constructing dragon wings.

And then it was Aaron’s turn to ask Ishibashi a question. “I worked so hard trying to get that tube to work, and I couldn’t figure it out. How in the world did you manage to fix it?”

Ishibashi smiled. “You had it mostly fixed. All it needed was a spring.” Which was entirely true, though Ishibashi decided not to mention that it was he who had the missing spring all along.

Kaylee leaned forward. “And how did you get from the tube in the kitchenette into the rest of the mansion? Could you see the balcony from the hallway? I’ve only ever seen a wall there. If you could see the balcony, you must be very magical.”