It is my opinion that of all the signet powers riders provide,
mending is the most precious, but we cannot allow ourselves to
become complacent when in the company of such a signet. For
menders are rare, and the wounded are not.

—Major Frederick's Modern Guide for Healers

"Don't I know it." Violet muttered before frowning in thought. "Speaking of menders, none of you ate." Violet said, looking at the vampire. 

"How is that a 'speaking of'?" Sawyer asked, confused. 

"Menders are known as Doctors in their world. And people are allowed to donate their blood to the doctors so they can use it to help other people. Vampires, as in these people, take those blood bags so they can eat and lay low instead of  dropping dead bodies up and down the country. So, speaking of which, why didn't any of you eat?" 

"There's no blood in the fridge." Rebekah said, shrugging. 

"Well I didn't realize I needed to stock up on blood until after we got here!" Lia said defensively. 

"Yeah well-" Rebekah started only for Violet to cut her off. 

"Oh, my, gods. Here!" Violet said holding out her arms, and everyone looked at her in bafflement, causing her to roll her eyes and push up her sleeves, before pulling her hair into a tight bun on top of her head. "Here, eat. It'll be better for us if you all aren't starving and trying to kill us all. Eat." She said, holding her arms out again. 

The vampires all glanced at each other awkwardly, after hearing about her new condition they didn't know if they should. 

"Oh for the love of..." She trailed off, grabbing one of her daggers and slicing at her wrists. 

"Violet!" Everyone yelled in shock. 

"Well, if you insist." Damon said, before spreading up behind her to bite into her neck only for Tairn to shoot fire at him, which he barely missed. 

"Tairn, don't. He won't kill me. He'll feed and then walk away. I'll be fine. I've done it before." She told him softly. 

"That was before you became breakable." He told her and she rolled her eyes. 

"They'll heal me the same way they did Liam. Now, either they eat and stitch me up, or I sit here and bleed out as they all watch before getting up and killing me then everyone else here because they're hungry. I go for the first part of that plan." Violet told him and he sighed, but didn't move to stop Dmaon this time as he bit into her neck, causing her to wince slightly. 

After a moment when she didn't drop dead Rebekah took one of Violet's wrists and cautiously started drinking from it as Caroline started drinking from her other one. And then Tyler joined the party and drank from Violet's shoulder. Davina held out her arm for Kol, and he bit into it as she let Marcel cut her hand and billed some into a glass, before giving her some of his blood. 

After a while the vampires on Violet backed away, and Caroline bit into her wrist and held it out. Violet looked up at her, breathing heavily. 

"I'm fine. I'll be fine." She said, refusing. 

"Oh, grow up." Caroline said, shoving her wrist into Violet's mouth, causing the girl to sigh as she started drinking the blood. And when Caroline pulled away and Violet's wounds healed, she realized, her bones were still the same, causing her to sigh. 

Next was Elijah and Klaus before it was all done. (Unless I'm forgetting someone.) 

"There, done." Violet said, taking a wet wash cloth to the blood to get it off her neck and arms. "Now start it up again." 

Flames of agony engulf my upper arm and chest as Dain carries me through the lower, covered passage out of the Riders Quadrant, over the ravine, and into the Healer Quadrant. It's basically a stone bridge, covered and sided with more stone, which pretty much makes it a suspended tunnel with a few windows, but I'm not thinking clearly enough to take it in as we rush through, his strides eating up the distance. 

"Clearly you are." A voice said. One that Violet knew all too well as she turned around, only to be met with the sight of her sister, Hayley. 

"Hayley..." Violet said, getting up and jumping over the back of the couch to hug her. 

"Hey, Vi." Hayley said, wrapping her arms around her sister, having missed her so much. "Seems like I've missed a lot." 

"And a lot more after that." Violet said, shaking her head as Hayley looked at her in amusement. 

"So what's going on?" Hayley asked, and Violet took her hands and had Hayley do a mind dive, and see everything. "Are.... you... CRAZY?!" Hayley asked, taking a pillow and smacking Violet. 

"Maybe just a little bit." Violet said awkwardly, causing Hayley to groan in annoyance of her sister. 

"Almost there," he reassures me, his grip firm but careful on my rib cage and beneath my knees as my useless arm rests on my chest.

"Everyone saw you lose it," I whisper, doing my best to mentally block the pain like I have countless times before. It's usually as easy as building a mental wall around the pulsing torment in my body, then telling myself the pain only exists in that box so I can't feel it, but it isn't working so well this time. 

"Well that explains why you caught onto grounding so quickly." Xaden said through their link. 

"I didn't lose it." He kicks the door three times when we reach it.

"You shouted and carried me out of there like I mean something to you." I focus on the scar on his jaw, the stubble on his tan skin, anything to keep from feeling the utter destruction in my shoulder.

"You do mean something to me." He kicks again.

And now everyone knows.

Xaden shook his head. "Like you're any better, Mr. Stormed-into-my-room-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-kill-everyone-in-sight."  Violet teased, and Xaden gave her a deadpan look in return. 

The door swings open and Winifred, a healer who has been at my side too many times to mention, stands back so Dain can carry me in. "Another injury? You riders certainly are trying to fill our beds to— Oh no, Violet?" Her eyes fly wide.

"Hi, Winifred," I manage over the pain. 

"Ever so polite." Hayley teased in amusement. 

"Bite your tongue." Violet said, glaring, causing the woman to laugh. 

"This way." She leads us into the infirmary, a long hall of beds, half of which are full of people in rider black. Healers do not have magic, relying on traditional tinctures and medical training to heal as best they can, but menders do. Hopefully Nolon's around tonight, since he's been mending me for the last five years. 

The signet of mending is exceptionally rare among riders. They have the power to fix, to restore, to return anything to its original state—from ripped cloth to pulverized bridges, including broken human bones. My brother, Brennan, was a mender—and would have become one of the greatest had he lived. 

Garrick glanced at Xaden who shot him a glare, causing the former to sigh. 

Dain gently lays me onto the bed Winifred brings us to, then she leans into the edge of the mattress, near my hip. Every creased line in her face is a comfort as she strokes a weathered hand across my forehead. "Helen, go get Nolon," Winifred orders a healer in her forties walking by.

"No!" Dain barks, panic lacing his tone. 

"What?" Everyone asked, confused, hoping they miss heard. 

Excuse me? 

The middle-aged healer glances between Dain and Winifred, clearly torn. 

"Helen, this is Violet Sorrengail, and if Nolon finds out she was here and you didn't call him, well... that's on you," Winifred says in a deceptively calm tenor. 

"Sorrengail?" the healer repeats, her voice rising.

I try to focus on Dain through the throbbing in my shoulder, but the room is starting to spin. I want to ask him why wouldn't he want my shoulder mended, but another wave of pain threatens to pull me into unconsciousness and all I can do is moan. 

"Get Nolon or he will let his dragon eat you alive, sour face and all, Helen." Winifred arches a silver eyebrow as she ignores Dain insisting again not to call the mender. 

A few people snorted. 

The woman blanches and disappears.

Dain pulls a wooden chair closer to my bed, and it scrapes the floor with a god-awful sound. "Violet, I know you're hurting, but maybe..." 

"If he say's one more stupid thing..." Tairn said in a warning voice. 

"Tairn..." Violet said, worried he was about to do something. 

"Maybe what, Dain Aetos? You want to see her suffer?" Winifred lectures. "I told her they'd break you," she mutters as she leans over me, her gray eyes full of worry as she assesses me. Winifred is the best healer Basgiath has, and she prepares every tonic she prescribes herself—and has seen me through more scrapes than I care to count over the years. "Would she listen to me? Absolutely not. Your mother is so damned stubborn."

She reaches for my injured arm, and I wince as she raises it a couple of inches, prods my shoulder.

"Well, that's certainly broken." Winifred tsks, raising her brows at the sight of my arm. "And it looks like we need a surgeon for that shoulder. What happened?" she asks Dain. 

Imogen grimaced as everyone shot her dirty looks. She didn't think it was that bad. 

"Sparring," I explain in one word.

"You hush. Save your energy." Winifred looks back at Dain. "Make yourself useful, boy, and pull the curtain around us. The fewer people who see her injured, the better."

He jumps to his feet and quickly complies, drawing the blue fabric around us to make a small but effective room, separating us from the other riders who have been brought in.

"Drink this." Winifred brings out a vial of amber liquid from her belt. "It will handle the pain while we get you sorted."

"You can't ask him to mend her," Dain protests as she uncorks the glass. 

What happened next was in a flash, one minute Dain was in his chair and in the second he was in the air, being held up by Klaus. 

"Nik!" Violet yelled, standing up as everyone jumped slightly. 

"Niklaus!" Elijah yelled in warning. 

"Uh oh." Was all Hope could get out. 

"Take one step Elijah I'll tear his head from his body." Klaus said, gripping Dain's throat. "Who do you think you are? Refusing help in the name of Violet?" 

"She needed... to leave." Dain choked out. "She's too fragile. She'll die." 

"Hold your tongue, or I'll tear it from your gaping mouth." Klaus told him, glaring. 

"Put. Him. Down. Now." Violet told Klaus, she might be angry at Dain but she didn't want him to die. 

"You need to learn about the art of politics, love. You gain support by killing your detractors!" Klaus said, gripping harder on his throat. "Didn't I tell you this when you became Queen the first time around?" 

"The marked ones might not like me that much, and Dain might be an ass, and my mother might think I'm weak. But these people, including Dain, are my family. Let him go. Now." Violet said to Klaus, her eyes narrowing. 

"You see? There's your queen." Klaus said, looking around at everyone in the room. "Powerful, fearless, and, unlike me, merciful." He said, throwing Dain across the room, before turning to Violet. "These people need to show you more respect. How you handle them now is up to you." 

"Nik, this isn't New Orleans." Violet told him, frowning. "These people don't hate me because I have a birth right they want. They hate me because my mother killed their parents. They're a difference. I won't get their respect if I kill them when I get pissed off. You know that's never been my way. Revenge, protection, mercy, that is my way. Not mindless murder. You of all people know that." 

"Not when it comes to a place like this. In a place like this you have to become me." Klaus told her, getting closer. 

"In a place like this, I have to stay myself. The second I lose who I am, is the second I'm no longer worth anything anymore. I am, and always will be, myself. I won't be someone I'm not. And after nearly 18 years, you should know that by now." She told him, turning to go back to her seat, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. 

"I do know. And I know that whether you're a werewolf, hybrid, or human, you can protect yourself. But you do need someone you can trust-" 

"And I won't get that by mindlessly killing people, Nik." She told him softly. 

"You won't get it by going soft either." He told her. 

"I'm not soft. But I'm not a mindless animal. I'm a predator, but I don't have to be a killer." 

"You already are one." he reminded her. 

"I've killed people, I'll admit it. And some of those deaths haunt me more than anything. But let me be very clear, Nik. I will protect my own before anyone else. And if that means killing a few people who were stupid enough to try and threaten those I care for, then so be it. But I'm not going to kill someone for the sake of them having pissed me off." She said, yanking her arm away from him and turning to walk away. 

"Little Wolf-" He started and she turned to him. 

"I will take my life in my own hands! And I will not be bullied by any of you!" Violet said to him, her voice raising slightly. 

"And that's why you're a Queen. In any and every lifetime. Even if you refuse to accept it." Klaus told her before walking away, leaving her standing there awkwardly before turning to go back to her seat. 

"Well if he's not..." Tairn's voice said in her mind and Violet quickly turned around, just as Tarin was biting into Dain's arm. With how small Tairn was at the moment it looked like a puppy being playful, but even then Violet knew better. 

Dain let out a cry of pain as Violet ran forward and pulled the dragon off of him and put herself between them. 

"Did you not just hear a word I said?" Violet asked him. 

"I did. I chose to ignore you." Tairn answered simply as Violet sighed in a bit of annoyance. 

After everyone calmed down Violet wrapped Dain's arm, refusing to let anyone use vampire blood to heal him, wanting him to know what it felt like for her in the moment he refused her help, even if it's not exactly the same. 

"The pair of us have been mending her for the past five years," she lectures, bringing the vial closer. "Don't start telling me what I can and cannot do." 

"Yeah!" 

Dain slides one hand under my back, the other under my head, helping me slightly upright so I can get the liquid down. It's bitter like always as I swallow, but I know it will do the trick. He settles me back on the bed and turns to Winifred. "I don't want her in pain—that's why we're here. But if she's injured this severely, surely we can see if the scribes will take her as a late admission. It's only been a day."

As his reasoning for not wanting a mender sinks in, my anger is able to pierce through the pain long enough for me to bite out, "I'm not going to the scribes." 

"So stubborn." Elena said, shaking her head. 

"I'd rather be stubborn and dead than a push over and alive." Violet napped at her sister who sighed. 

Then I sigh, closing my eyes as a pleasant hum races through my veins. Soon there's enough distance between me and the pain to think somewhat clearly as I force my eyes open again.

At least, I think it's soon, but there's a conversation going on I clearly haven't been paying attention to, so it's obviously been a few minutes.

The curtain whips back and Nolon walks in, leaning heavily on his cane. He smiles at his wife, his bright white teeth contrasting his brown skin.

"You sent for me, my—" His smile falters as he sees me. "Violet?"

"Hi, Nolon." I force my mouth to curve upward. "I'd wave, butone ofmyarms doesn't workand theother feels realllllyheavy." Good gods, am I slurring my words? 

Everyone snickered in amusement, finding it funny as hell. 

"Leigheas serum." Winifred offers her husband a crooked smile.

"She's with you, Dain?" Nolon turns an accusing look on Dain, and I feel all of fifteen years old again, being hauled in because I broke my ankle while we were climbing somewhere we shouldn't have been. 

"You always have been one for adventure." Mira said, shaking her head in amusement. 

"I always want what to what will kill me in the end." Violet said, shrugging in amusement. 

"I'm her squad leader," Dain replies, scooting out of Nolon's way so the mender can get closer. "Putting her under my command was the only thing I could think of to keep her safe."

"Not doing such a good job, are you?" Nolon's eyes narrow.

"It was assessment day for hand-to-hand," Dain explains. "Imogen— she's a second-year—dislocated Violet's shoulder and broke her arm." 

"On assessment day?" Nolon growls, cutting away the fabric of my short- sleeve shirt with his dagger. The man is eighty-four if he's a day, and he still dresses in rider black, sheathed with all his weapons.

"Hermotherwasssss. OneofFennnnRiorson's sepppara—sepppara— sssseparatisssts," I explain slowly, trying to enunciate and failing. "And I'mmmmmaSorrengail, so I getit."

The corner of Imogen's mouth tipped up, she destroyed the girl's arm, yet the only thing she says in response is 'I get it'. This girl was so far from her mother's daughter... Maybe she would be worth following after all. She thought, looking from the book to Klaus and then to Violet. Maybe the hot fast killer guy was right. Maybe she is meant to be Queen... 

"I don't," Nolon grumbles. "I've never agreed with the way they conscripted those kids to the Riders Quadrant as punishment for the sins of their parents. 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 certainly shouldn't have to suffer for the honor of your mother. General Sorrengail saved Navarre by capturing the Great Betrayer." 

Xaden rolled his eyes, every time he heard someone defending what happened he wanted to kill Dain. Just Dain. Which was weird but it was working for him. Probably why his shadows was still creeping up on the squad leader. 

"So you won't mend her, right?" Dain asks softly so he can't be heard outside the curtain. "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 in 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."

Tairn let out a low growl and Andarna didn't look any happier hearing this. And, surprisingly, neither did Sgaeyl. 

"I'mnotgoingtothesibes." So much for not slurring. "Sibes," I try again. "SIBES." Oh, fuck it. "Mendme." 

Everyone snickered despite the horror going around. 

"I will always mend you," Nolon promises.

"Just. This. Once." I concentrate on every word. "If. The others. See I need. Mending. Allthetime, they'll. Think. I'm weak." 

"Which is why we have to use this opportunity to get you out!" Panic rises in Dain's voice, and my heart sinks. He can't protect me from everything, and watching me break, watching me eventually die is going to ruin him. "Walking out of here and going straight to the Scribe Quadrant is your best chance at survival."

I glare at Dain and choose my words carefully. "I'm not. Leavingtheriders. Just so Mom. Canthrowmeback. I'm. Staying." I turn my head and the room spins as I look for Nolon. "Mend me... but justthisonce." 

"You know it's going to hurt like hell and will still ache for a couple of weeks, right?" Nolon asks, sitting down in the chair beside my bed and staring at my shoulder.

I nod. This isn't my first mending. When you're as brittle as I was born, the pain of mending is only second to the pain of the original injury. Basically another Tuesday. 

"I don't know how you do it." Rhiannon said, shaking her head. 

"By remembering a lot of people have done through far worse." Violet said honestly. "And if they can get through that, I can get through this." 

"Please, Vi," Dain begs quietly. "Please switch quadrants. If not for you, then for me—because I didn't step in fast enough. I should have stopped her. I can't protect you."

"No shit." Xaden scoffed. 

I wish I'd figured out his plan before taking Winifred's potion, so I could have explained better. None of this is his fault, but he's going to shoulder the blame just like he always does. Instead, I take a deep breath and say, "I made mychoice."

"Get back to the quadrant, Dain," Nolon orders without looking up. "If she was any other first-year, you would already be gone."

Dain's anguished gaze holds mine, and I insist, "Go. I'll findyouat formmmmation inthe morning." I don't want him to see this anyway.

"I don't want anyone seeing me that way." Violet said, pulling off the bandage from her arms, Caroline's blood having already worked its magic in healing her again. 

He swallows the defeat and nods once, then turns and walks through the separation in the curtains without another word. I sincerely hope my choice today doesn't end up destroying my best friend later. 

"Ready?" Nolon asks, his hands hovering above my shoulder.

"Bite down." Winifred holds a strap of leather in front of my mouth, and I take it between my teeth. 

"Here we go," Nolon mutters, lifting his hands over my shoulder. His brow furrows in concentration before he makes a twisting motion. 

White-hot agony erupts in my shoulder. My teeth slice into the leather as I scream, bearing down for one heartbeat, then two before blacking out.  

"I always did prefer the black out, than staying awake." Violet said, trying to make a joke to get rid of some of the tension. 

It didn't work. 

... 

The barracks are nearly full by the time I make my way back later that night, my throbbing right arm cradled in a light-blue sling that makes me an even bigger target, if that's possible.

Slings say weak. They say breakable. They say liability to the wing. If I break this easily on the mat, what's going to happen if I get on the back of a dragon? 

"He's gonna be a menace. Flinging me off every five seconds." Violet said and everyone looked at her baffled. "What?" 

"You still can't keep your seat?" Mira asked and Violet shrugged. 

"Can now." Violet said, glancing at Xaden who winked back at her. 

The sun has long since gone down, but the hall is lit by the soft glow of mage lights as the other first-year women get ready for bed. I offer a smile to a girl who's holding a blood-speckled cloth to her swollen lip, and she returns it with a wince.

I count three empty bunks in our row, but that doesn't mean those cadets are dead, right? They could be in the Healer Quadrant just like I was, or maybe they're in the bathing chambers.

"You're here!" Rhiannon jumps off her bed, already dressed in her sleeping shorts and top, relief in her eyes and smile as she sees me.

"I'm here," I assure her. "I'm already down one shirt, but I'm here." 

"That's what you're thinking about? Your shirt?" Hayley asked, frowning, and Violet shrugged. 

"It was a nice shirt." Violet told her, causing Hayley to sigh as everyone else looked at her in bafflement or amusement. 

"You can get another at central issue tomorrow." She looks like she might hug me but glances at my sling and backs up a step, sitting on the edge of her bunk as I do the same with mine, facing her. "How bad is it?"

"It's going to hurt for the next few days, but I'll be fine as long as I keep it immobilized. I'll be all healed up before we start on-mat challenges."

I have two weeks to figure out how to keep this from happening again.

"I'll help you get ready," she promises. "You're the only friend I have in here, so I'd rather you didn't die when it gets real." A corner of her mouth lifts in a wry smile.

"I'll try my best not to." I grin through the throbbing ache in my shoulder and arm. The tonic has long since worn off, and it's starting to hurt like hell. "And I'll help you with history." I brace my weight on my left hand, and it slides just beneath my pillow.  

There's something there.

"We'll be unstoppable," Rhiannon declares, her gaze tracking Tara, the dark-haired, curvy girl from Morraine, as she walks past our bunks.

I pull out a small book—no, it's a journal—with a folded note on top that says Violet in Mira's handwriting. One-handed, I open the note.  

"Uh oh." Mira sighed. 

Violet,

I stayed long enough to read the rolls this morning, and you aren't on them, thank gods. I can't stay. I'm needed back with my wing, and even if I could stay, they wouldn't let me see you anyway. I bribed a scribe to sneak this into your bunk. I hope you know how proud I am to be your sister. Brennan wrote this for me the summer before I entered the quadrant. It saved me, and it can save you, too. I added my own bits of hard-earned wisdom here and there, but mostly it's his, and I know he'd want you to have it. He'd want you to live.

Love, Mira.

"You didn't burn it?" Lilith asked, horrified. 

"No. And we won't." Mira told the woman, "We need something to hold onto, even if it's something as small as this." 

"I see where you got your idea from then, Violence." Xaden said and Violet gave him an amused look 

I swallow past the knot in my throat and set the note aside.

"What is it?" Rhiannon asks.

"It's my brother's." The words barely make it past my lips as I open the cover. Mother burned everything he owned after he died, as tradition dictates. It's been ages since I've seen the bold strokes of his handwriting, and yet there they are. My chest tightens and a fresh wave of grief sweeps through me. "The book of Brennan," I read along with the first page and then flip to the second.  

Mira,

You're a Sorrengail, so you will survive. Perhaps not as spectacularly as I have, but we all can't live up to my standards, can we? All kidding aside, this is everything I've learned. Keep it safe. Keep it hidden. You have to live, because Violet is watching. You can't let her see you fall.

Brennan.  

"He seems like a good guy." Hayley said and Violet sighed. 

"He was." She said sadly, putting her head on Hayley's shoulder, causing the hybrid to sigh and put hers on top of Violet's. They might have been fighting when Hayley died but she would always love her sister, and it broke her heart to see her so sad. 

Tears prick my eyes, but I blink them back. "It's just his journal," I lie, thumbing through the pages. I can hear his quippy, sarcastic tone as I skim over his words, as though he's standing here, making light of every danger with a wink and a grin. Damn, I miss him. "He died five years ago." 

"Oh, that's..." Rhiannon leans in, her eyes heavy with sympathy. "We don't always burn everything, either. Sometimes it's nice to have something, you know?" 

"Yeah," I whisper. It's everything to have this, and yet I know Mom will toss it in the fire if she ever finds it. 

Rhiannon sits back on her bed, opening her history book, and I fall back into Brennan's history, starting on the third page. 

You survived Parapet. Good. Be observant the next few days, and don't do anything to draw attention to yourself. I've sketched a map that shows you not only where the classrooms are but where the instructors meet, too. I know you're nervous about challenges, but you shouldn't be, not with that right hook of yours. The matches might seem random, but they're not. What the instructors don't tell you is that they decide challenges the week before, Mira. Any cadet can request a challenge, yes, but instructors will assign your matches based on weeding out the weakest. That means once the real hand-to-hand starts, the instructors already know who you'll be up against that day. Here's the secret—if you know where to look and can get out without being seen, you'll know who you're fighting so you can prepare.  

Violet and Mira shrank into their seats as everyone looked at them. 

"Brennan made us do it?" Violet tried sheepishly. 

I suck in a breath and devour the rest of the entry, hope blossoming in my chest. If I know who I'm fighting, then I can begin the battle before we even step on the mat. My mind spins, a plan taking shape. 

Two weeks, that's how long I have to get everything I'll need before challenges begin, and no one knows the grounds of Basgiath like I do. It's all here. 

A slow smile spreads across my face. I know how to survive.  

"Uh oh." A few people muttered. 

"What did you do?" Alaric asked and Violet gave him a smile of amusement. 

"Patience, dear teacher. All in due time."