out the lie we’d come up with. It sounded wooden and rote even to my ears, but I pushed forward with it anyway. “I got a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school in England. My parents are making me go.”
Skye snorted. “Your parents are loaded. What do you need with a scholarship?”
I looked around the park, trying to think of what to say. “Did I say scholarship? I meant I got admitted and they didn’t think I would. It will really help me get into a good college and medical school, so they’re putting their foot down about it.”
Skye’s face went from amused and disbelieving to confused and a little angry. “Okay, so England. We can video chat, and you’ll be home in like two years to go to college. Maybe we can work on going to the same one.”
Leave it to her to try to be optimistic. We’d been best friends for so long, she couldn’t conceive the rest of our lives apart.
Well, neither could I. Especially with the burning that was still on my right forearm, which worsened now that we were together.
“Sure, yeah,” I said, but we both knew I was lying.
Skye’s eyes registered betrayal as she recoiled. “So, that’s just it?” I watched her chest rise and fall as she tried to hide her upset.
I pretended I couldn’t hear her heart beating out of her chest, and backed away. “I’ll see you around, Skye.”
I had to get away from her. Her pain spurred my own and I barely made it back to my family’s land before I shifted, my dragon taking the reins and launching us into the air. Once upon a time, shifting was painful for dragons, but painless shifts was another byproduct of having a clan witch. She spelled each of us once a year to have painless shifts. What would we do without Sammy?
My parents were somewhere nearby, flying. We were able to communicate telepathically, and I couldn’t stop myself. I’ll never forgive you.
I tried not to think about how much I hated them, but it came through anyway because, within a few seconds, awareness of them disappeared from my mind. They’d shifted back, probably unable to stand feeling my pain.
Good. I hoped it haunted them.
1
Skylar
Eighteen Years Later
“Put that under your pillow.” I handed the teddy bear to my patient. Kendrick was eight and about to have his appendix out. “If you get scared, tell the teddy. He’ll keep your secret.” The little guy was nervous, but his big brother was out in the hall, waiting for me to finish my presurgery exam. I was fairly sure Kendrick was too worried about his big brother thinking he was a sissy to be honest about how terrified he was about the surgery.
Kendrick grinned at me with a couple of missing teeth. “Thanks, Nurse Skye.”
I winked at him and went into the hall, typing the info into my tablet. It would notify the surgeon that I’d completed the forms needed, and his mother had signed everything.
“That’s it for me.” I plopped the tablet down on the charging station and plugged it in. “All the paperwork is caught up, and I’m going to lunch.”
The ward clerk gave me an amused look. “So eager to escape the floor?”
Laughing, I held up my hands. “Of course not. But I am starving.” Normally, I worked in the primary care clinic on the other side of the hospital. When the peds floor had requested an extra half-shift so their head nurse could go to yearly sexual harassment training, I’d volunteered.
Why not? I had nothing better to do, and I loved my job. After telling the rest of the team goodbye, I headed to the cafeteria. There was a cafe on my side of the hospital, and I almost always stopped there. Today, I’d come to the cafeteria on this side. Someone had mentioned they had taco salad, which I loved.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see anyone I knew, so I grabbed a small booth and played a game on my phone while I ate. This was preferable to going home and cooking for one.
A woman’s voice behind me had my ears prickling. “Have you seen him yet?”
I didn’t mean to listen in, but they were in the booth directly behind mine. I couldn’t help it.
“No,” a new voice said. “But I heard he’s gorgeous.”
I took a big bite of my taco salad and tried to mind my own business. It wasn’t easy.
“Dr. White had to go on emergency leave this morning, and…”