Free Mechanical Hearts (Skeleton Key) by Nicole Blanchard, Skeleton Key

sleep for a hundred years, find a way home, and I’d stick to being boring for the remainder of my life.
    Adventure isn’t as fun as it’s cracked up to be , I concluded.
    “When you wake up, I’m going to kill you,” I muttered to Ezra’s unconscious body. “Some pirate you are, letting a woman steer your ship.”
    Ship was an overstatement.
    The capsule looked nothing like Port Arliss. For one thing, it was pitifully small, and for another, it was the definition of abandoned. Even from a distance, I could see the overgrowth choking the exits. It was like a glass jungle, and I feared just what we would find inside.
    I managed to maneuver the pod as close as I dared without running straight into the side. There was a godawful screech as the pod dragged along the side of the glass. For one, long, tension-filled moment, I was certain I’d punctured a whole in the side and we’d drown in the flood. Then we lined up with the airlock and the pod came to a stop.
    My breath released with a whoosh. At least I hadn’t killed us.
    With the airlock secure, I turned to face Ezra and saw with shock the wound at his head was furiously seeping thick, dark blood.



Stranded
    E ven though I ’d dealt with injuries of every possible nature from skinned knees to gunshot wounds, the sight of him broken and bleeding and vulnerable shook my sense of calm. My normally steady fingers trembled as I scrubbed back his matted hair to investigate the bleeding.
    Head wounds bled a lot, but even though I knew the facts, the treatment, my heart still skipped a beat when my hands came away soaked and slippery with crimson.
    It wasn’t terribly deep, but he’d need stitches whenever we got back to Arliss.
    If we got back to Arliss.
    I made do with the sleeve of my shirt to wipe away most of the blood. It still trickled in a steady stream, but no longer gushed. As I brushed his hair the way I did with Phoebe when she’d had a bad dream, I tried to rouse him. I was worried if I didn’t, then he wouldn’t wake up at all.
    “Ezra,” I said softly. I tried shaking him a little, but not so much that it jostled him. “Ezra, wake up.”
    He moaned, and his eyes fluttered beneath translucent lids, but he didn’t wake.
    “Ezra,” I said, more loudly that time. “We’re here.”
    He cracked an eye open. I’d never been so happy to see someone so annoyed. “Bloody hell, you don’t need to shout.”
    Relief was swift and sweet. “I thought you were dead for a second there,” I said as I slowly helped him into a sitting position.
    “I must be, because this is hell,” he groaned. His fingers probed the wound, and he winced. When he spoke, his voice was almost amused. “Did you hit me?”
    “You may have a concussion,” I said. “I think you hit your head when we were trying to save those guys.”
    “Great,” he fairly wheezed.
    “The good news is we made it to the capsule without crashing.”
    “Are you sure?” he asked. “It sure feels like we crashed.”
    “I’m sure your hard head will survive, but we better get you out of here so I can take a better look at you.”
    I eased backward to help him get to his feet, but my back came in contact with the close wall of the pod. There wasn’t much room to move around, but I managed to steady him as he swayed in front of me.
    He brushed my hands away. “I think I’m old enough to walk on my own.”
    He took two steps around me and promptly swayed into the wall.
    “Sure, you can.” I wrapped an arm around his middle and we inched toward the airlock. “You didn’t seem to mind me doctoring you before.”
    “You didn’t seem to enjoy my pain as much before.”
    I couldn’t help my smile as I watched him carefully get to his feet. “Watch the step there,” I said.
    He turned back to glare at me as he squeezed through the small opening to the air lock. Our bodies brushed, and my breath caught in my throat. In the small space it was hard for me to ignore his already imposing