by Haley Ryan
And I had to figure out how to survive long enough to warn my family.
The time for hiding was over.
Weldon took to the air, flapping slowly overhead as he bent his neck to observe me, probably imagining me squirming in fear and discomfort beneath his predatory gaze.
When he drew back his head and sucked in a breath, I yanked off the robe, threw it to the side, and changed, only an instant before I was hit with a stream of bright orange fire that crackled with heat and rage.
The crowd roared, whether in objection or excitement it was impossible to tell. But when the fire finally died and revealed me sitting calmly on the sand of the arena floor, all sound fell away to nothing.
Weldon dropped back to earth, shock and horror mingled on his dragon face.
The crowd simply stared.
I cocked my head up at them and laughed. Even in the midst of my fear and frustration, it was one of the more satisfying moments of my life.
“You… this is… a trick. You should be dead. You’re not even…” Weldon’s mental voice was reduced to stammering incoherence.
“Maybe I should introduce myself again,” I said, raising my voice to be heard over a new chorus of shocked murmurs. “My name is Kira. I was born Kirasha-li-Tairen, and my life has been a little unusual, for a dragon. Yes, I can speak in this form. Yes, I am bronze, and no, I have no idea why I’m not quite normal size.”
For the moment, they were surprised enough to listen, and I was going to take advantage of it.
“I was raised more or less as a human. I spent most of my life being kept ignorant of who and what I really am in order to keep me safe.
“So all of this is almost as new to me as it is to you. I didn’t come here planning to take over your world. I didn’t come here to disrespect your traditions or take away your future. I came here to meet you all. To find out what it really means to be a dragon. And if this”—I pointed to Weldon—“is the best of dragonkind, I think I was happier pretending to be human.”
I picked out the faces of my family and focused on them.
“I came here today to lose,” I said, and at that, I clearly heard Lady Tairen’s gasp. “I appreciate all you’ve done for me, but I’ve discovered that I don’t need your approval or your acceptance to be content with who I am. So I decided to forfeit, but when I got here, I discovered that Weldon didn’t intend to win with honor. He intends to kill me, and believes there is some impending event that will allow him to escape the consequences of that. So I guess what I’m saying is…” I glanced at Weldon, then back at my brothers, and locked eyes with Callum. “Guard your backs.”
Which was when Weldon lost it and attacked me again.
There was chaos all around me—I sensed my brothers were on the run, and could feel seething outrage and confusion emanating from the entire crowd. But I couldn’t afford distraction.
Could Weldon really kill me? I honestly wasn’t sure. My scales protected me from most things, but no one had ever stopped to assure me that he couldn’t simply rip my head from my body. I was going to have to fight. Going to have to hope that everything Ryker and Draven taught me would be enough.
So when Weldon’s jaws snapped shut, I wasn’t there to be caught in them. Adrenaline and rage gave me even more speed than usual, so I darted beneath my opponent’s belly and snapped at the tendons of his hind leg.
When my teeth caught and tore flesh, it was a bit of a shock. I’d fought real battles before, but only against shadow beasts. They had little in the way of physical bodies, so I’d never felt my teeth catch on sinew or bone. Never really tasted blood. Never heard a howl of pain from my opponent when I landed a blow.
So I froze, just long enough to spit out the disgusting taste in my mouth, but also long enough for Weldon to kick me all the way across the arena.
I barely folded my wings before the impact slammed the breath right out of me, and by the time I got to my feet, Weldon was already on top of me again. His enormous forefeet were about to crush me between them, so I took the only way out—up. My claws caught on his nostrils, and I managed to heave myself onto his head, where I scrambled over and off, taking flight from the top of his neck.
And just like in my practice fights with Ryker, I was almost immediately batted out of the air by a well-aimed tail.
For the next several years—probably minutes, but more like lifetimes in terms of sheer exhaustion—that same scenario played itself out. I kept barely ahead of Weldon’s attacks, making little dents here and there, but for the most part only escaping disaster by the tiniest margin, or by virtue of my bronze armor. I’d lost most sense of up or down, along with any hope of relying on actual tactics. I was just trying not to die.
And as I picked myself up yet again and searched frantically for my next move, it hit me with bizarre clarity—I was no warrior.
Not in the sense of fighting spirit, or willingness to confront challenges. I would fight for what was mine to the very end—just not like this. I wasn’t meant to find my purpose here, in the heat of battle, facing down my opponent with fang and claw.
I didn’t know yet what I was meant for, but as long as I fought Weldon on his terms, I would always lose. And I wasn’t ready to die at the hands of a coward and a bully.
So when he came for me the next time, charging across the sand with almost palpable rage emanating from every pore, I didn’t dodge. I didn’t strike or fly.
I reared back and poured every bit of my frustration and determination into a jet of pure white flame.
It caught Weldon full in the face, and he screamed.
Howled in anger and in pain while his agony was echoed by the shrieks of the watching crowd, and I could hear their fear along with it.
What kind of monster was I, that I could burn another dragon with my fire?
I no longer cared what they thought. I only wanted to end the fight.
But as Weldon cowered on the sand, I realized the fight was only just beginning.
“She’s an abomination!”
“What have you brought here, Tairen?”
“It’s a weapon, not a dragon!”
Shouts from the crowd began to echo around the arena.
“Sit down!” Lady Tairen snarled, jumping to her feet and staring around her fiercely. “Respect the sanctity of the challenge, or get out.”
It was too late. Three dragons shifted, then five, hovering over the arena as half the crowd scrambled for cover.
Lady Tairen strode down the steps towards the sand, followed by Callum. Declan stood frozen at the edge of the arena, Ryker beside him as if to protect him from what was coming.
“End this!” someone roared. “Or we will!”
I saw Lady Tairen preparing to shift. Saw Callum watching the sky, grim and implacable.
Of all of them, I suspected he was the only one who recalled the warning I’d shouted to watch their backs.
But for what?
And in the midst of the chaos and the shouting, I forgot my opponent. Forgot that he was by no means defeated.
Too late, I returned my attention to Weldon, just as his teeth closed over my head and pricked the scales of my neck.
“Nothing can save you now,” he whispered in my mind. “Bronze or not, I will enjoy tearing your head from your body.”
“You’ll still lose,” I snarled back. “No one can save you from Lady Tairen after this.”
“Maybe not,” he said, and his mental voice echoed with mingled hurt and resignation. “Maybe they aren’t coming. Maybe I’ve been betrayed. But at least you can still die today, and the threat you pose to all dragons will be eliminated.”
I sucked in one last breath before he bit down on my neck.
The pressure almost made me black out, and as shadows formed before my eyes, I suddenly heard with startling clarity the voices of my family, crying out in shock and pain. I heard a dragon roar of devastation.
And with that last breath of air, I clung to consciousness just long enoug
h for one last telepathic scream.
“Stop!”
It stopped.
All of it stopped.
The pressure on my neck was gone.
The screams of the crowd were silenced.
The five dragons who’d taken wing fell from the sky, crashing to the sand around me like so many dead ducks.
I pulled my head free and looked around, gulping air as I realized that my last desperate gamble had worked.
Whatever had happened to Ryker and Declan and Draven—I’d done it again. It hadn’t been a fluke. It was a bizarre ability, no matter whether it was mine alone or a natural part of being a bronze dragon. And I’d just blindsided everyone with it right after they’d reacted violently to the power of my dragon fire.
They were going to be furious.
And I didn’t care.
I crossed the sand in silence to look up at Lady Tairen, who watched me out of stunned blue eyes.
“This challenge is over,” I said, and I knew everyone could hear me. “I don’t care whether anyone approves. I don’t care whether anyone thinks I cheated. Whatever this power is, it’s who I am, and I’m not ashamed of it. Weldon meant to kill me, and I’m not ready to die. So I don’t apologize, but I do quit. Quit, forfeit, whatever you want to call it. I’m done with this challenge, and I’m walking away. Everything that happens from here on out is dragon business, and I’m not really one of you, so I’ll leave you to sort it out.”
“To my brothers...” I couldn’t bring myself to look at them. “I love you. But I think we all know I can’t stay. Win or lose, it would never have worked.”
I searched the ground until I found the spot where my robe had fallen and lifted it from the sand.
“Be free,” I whispered telepathically. Then I shifted, wrapped myself in the robe, and left the arena as the world fell apart behind me.
I dressed mechanically, surrounded by the sounds of arguing and fighting, half expecting the building to catch on fire at any moment. I was too numb to care—with shock, with pain, with exhaustion.
There were bruises around my neck that I suspected even shapeshifter healing would take some time to deal with.
And bruises elsewhere.
It was all too much, and I wanted to go home.
So I left—walked away down one of the paved paths as Lady Tairen’s roar shattered the air behind me.
I heard my badass mom start kicking some dragon rear, and just kept on walking. Trudging, really. One foot in front of the other, following the path until it met a road, taking that in the direction I needed to go, hoping I would eventually reach my room.
A green dragon flew above the trees over my head, and I ignored her. Probably Skye, looking for me.
I didn’t want to be found.
Someone came after me. I could hear their footfalls on the road, catching up to me, until they stopped about ten yards away.
I didn’t turn until I heard my name.
“Kira!”
I should have felt something when I heard Draven’s voice, but all the feeling seemed to have burned out of me. And anyway, I didn’t quite believe it until I spun and saw him there, looking like he’d run all the way from Colorado.
He was sweating, bare-chested, lungs heaving, wings drooping. But his eyes were bright, and lightning danced across his fingertips.
“What do you want?”
He stared at me like he hadn’t seen me in a year.
“I thought…” He seemed to be struggling with words. “When I got here, and I didn’t see you at the arena, I assumed the worst.” He looked like he’d been through hell and back. “I thought you were dead.”
“I’m not.” I didn’t have the energy for much more than that.
“Kira…” He was shaking, I noticed, but I couldn’t decide what it meant, so I turned around and kept walking.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
My feet slowed.
“I was a fool and a coward.”
I wasn’t going to argue with that.
“I was afraid, and I left you, right when I should have had your back.”
“You were recalled,” I whispered, my lips moving in spite of my resolution not to speak.
“That shouldn’t have mattered. None of it should have mattered.”
I heard him coming up behind me, and my feet stopped moving without my conscious permission.
“When I saw them fighting back there…” His voice shook. “Kira, I don’t know what’s happening between us. But I do know that I can’t walk away from it. It’s too late, and even if it wasn’t, I don’t want to walk away.”
I felt a shiver run down my spine, and my body began to tremble with emotions run riot—emotions I couldn’t name and didn’t have the will to control. I didn’t have much strength left, and would soon be fighting just to remain standing.
“I don’t care who your family is,” he continued. “I don’t care what titles you have. I just want to know whether you can forgive me long enough to figure things out.”
I whirled to face him. “Figure things out? What does that even mean? What do you want, Draven?”
“You,” he said simply.
My knees locked me in place.
“Why?” I was too stubborn, too bruised, to let him in that easily. “Because of the gryphon mating thing? Because I think we covered the fact that that’s not enough. I need to know what you want. And whether I’m enough for you just as I am.”
He took a step nearer. “I want you, Kira. That’s it.”
“Well, that may not be all you get,” I snapped, pointing back at the arena with a shaking hand. “I don’t know if I won or lost back there. I don’t know who’s going to come after me, hungry for blood or revenge. I don’t even know what my family is going to say after the chaos I’ve left behind me. If you really want me, you’re getting all of that too. Are you strong enough to handle it? Or are you going to cut and run the first time someone challenges me again?”
I half expected him to be angry or defensive, but he only nodded. “You’re right. I ran, and I will regret it for as long as I’m still breathing. But I meant what I said. I don’t care about any of that. Not because I’m pretending it doesn’t exist, but because it’s a part of who you are, and I want all of you that you’re willing to share with me.”
That was about all it took to get my heart’s attention. Was I really going to forgive him for leaving me?
“But you’re not the only one who comes with baggage,” he insisted. “The reality is that I’m far more gryphon than I ever believed. I know what I feel—I cared for you long before the mate bond happened between us—but I also know my nature is going to complicate things. If you choose me, no part of this will be easy.”
I snorted in spite of myself. “Have you ever known me to do things the easy way?”
The tiniest of smiles creased Draven’s lips, as hope dawned in his eyes. “No. And I hope you don’t plan to change that.”
“My mother would probably testify to my complete inability to do so.”
We both seemed to run out of words at the same moment, and stood there beneath the pine trees, half a step apart, unsure of ourselves, unsure of each other.
On the one hand, as exhausted as I might be, I knew what I wanted. Draven, with all his complications, was the only man I could imagine standing beside me as I faced the uncertainty of my future.
On the other hand, we had a lot to learn about each other. What we had now was mutual respect, and a whole lot of attraction (at least on my side). Would that be enough to survive what was coming? Would the fledgling bond between us hold up when my family—and his—decided to stand in our way?
I’d asked him to accept me for everything I was, but was I willing to accept him just as fully—with his unpredictable abilities and the strange power of the mating bond?
I found the answer in my memory, from the first time we ever flew together. I even recalled the disgust on his face when he figured out why I was so nerv
ous.
I closed the half step between us, still trembling, and looked up.
“Remember what you said, the night you carried me over the city?”
His whole body seemed to freeze.
“You said you wouldn’t let me fall.”
And he hadn’t, really. Not at any time since then. Even when he had to leave, he’d been brave enough to explain his decision and tell me goodbye. And it had taken him less than twenty-four hours to realize he was wrong and come back for me.
“Did you mean it?”
One of his hands rose to slide along my cheek, tuck my hair behind my ear, and cradle my head as I tilted it back to look into his eyes. The other curved around my waist, warm and solid, pulling me towards him as surely as gravity.
“I meant it all,” he said, his voice low and rough, his silver eyes fierce. “I will always find you, and I will never let you fall.”
I’d imagined being kissed, but I’d never imagined the fire that swept over me at the first touch of his lips on mine, scorching every nerve and sending my heart straight into orbit. He was gentle and slow at first, as though he knew just how overwhelmed I was, but then the fire claimed us both, and we collided as everything we’d fought to deny was suddenly set free.
My arms went around his neck. His arms tightened until my feet left the ground, and I was floating in the euphoria of finally kissing Draven. Finally being free to touch, to taste, and to feel—feel the heat of his skin against my fingers, feel the beat of his heart against my chest.
For a few endless moments, I forgot the challenge. Forgot my injuries. Forgot everything I’d been running from and just let myself drown in the softness of his lips, the rasp of his lightly stubbled jaw, and the cedar chocolate familiarity of his scent. I could have drowned in them all and been happy, but eventually, we had to breathe, and he finally set me down.
But he didn’t let me go, which was a good thing, because my body had officially had enough. After the beating it had taken—physical and emotional— and the shock of seeing Draven again, I simply had nothing left to give.
So as my shaking legs began to give way, I reached up and gripped Draven’s shoulder with weakening fingers.
