Colt
A
dull ache sat in my ribcage for hours. After the girls were locked away and my father was bandaged up and treated for the bullet in his kidney by one of the dragon healers—and Muriel, who had since stopped resisting—I was left in my corner of the cavern with the nameless child. Nobody else wanted to take care of her. Nobody wanted to be responsible for letting her die and facing the consequences when Lothair returned. It was inevitable that whoever was watching over the child by the time her body failed would take the blame. After she had her first bowel movement and I figured out how to change her diaper, I swaddled her in the blanket again, bottle-feeding her like I’d seen my father do. She still wasn’t happy. Her ear-splitting cries kept everyone in the mine awake.
It was ap
