My whole body is whirring inside, a combination of post-pleasure headiness and adrenaline that’s responding to the tension in the air, so taut it feels like the nearby pines are quaking from it. I feel Rainier’s hand on the small of my back, then curled around my side, pulling me into him protectively, and my heart thuds in my chest at the response I have to both dragons.
“I think Anna actually enjoys company other than yours quite nicely,” Rainier says, and Griffin’s expression blazes with anger. The pale-red aura around him seems to grow thicker, and even my skin feels warmer, like the air itself is getting hot.
If I don’t do something, say something, I can sense that all of this could go very bad.
Suddenly, I can hear the beating of wings, but not giant dragon wings, smaller ones. I look up and see a dark figure flying toward us.
As it gets closer, I can tell it’s Seth, his black coat whipping in the wind, two smaller dragon wings on his back carrying him with surprising speed.
Looking past him, I can see from our spot on the hill the city of Arcwood. I glance in the direction of Silver’s tower and gasp. Where there used to be a giant stone house, I can see a great crater of stone and rubble, and one side of the tower is missing.
Did Griffin do that?
As Seth gets closer, he slows. But right before touchdown, his wings disappear and he tucks into a haphazard roll before stopping facedown on the ground.
I rush over, worried as much about him as I am the others. But just as I get there, he pushes himself up off the grass, rolling onto his back, and his vivid green eyes are bright as he gives me a reassuring grin.
“You’re here,” he says matter-of-factly as he sits up, resting his arms on his knees. “I guess it makes sense why Griffin was losing his shit since he couldn’t sense your presence anymore at the tower.”
“Are you all right?” Rainier calls to us, still squared off with Griffin.
Seth just waves a hand at him.
“I’m fine. Just catching my breath.” Then he looks back at me and talks in a low voice meant for me only. “Being partially shifted is good for getting around. Saves energy.” He smiles at me, but I can tell he’s feeling weak.
“None of this would have happened if you hadn’t double-crossed us,” Griffin shouts at Rainier, jabbing a finger forward at him.
Rainier just stands impassive, arms folded, silver hair whipping from a breeze that my skin can’t feel but my body senses is swirling around us nonetheless. It makes my nerves tense uncomfortably.
Seth lets out a groan. “I can’t say I blame them for it coming to this, but I know it’s not going to help anything.” He gets to his feet, brushing himself off. “Hey, Griff,” he calls out, “whatever happened to apologizing to Anna and trying to make up?”
“Shut up, Seth,” Griffin says, not taking his eyes off Rainier.
Seth just shrugs nonchalantly. But I notice him moving close to my side.
What was he saying about Griffin wanting to apologize? I remember the things he said, how he’d said them in anger. Griff is complex like that. You’re never sure exactly how he’s feeling.
Except right now. Right now, he’s definitely angry.
“You have no right to do whatever you want with Anna,” Griffin practically spits at Rainier. “Taking her places like this that could be dangerous. Doing… things with her that you have no right doing.”
“Oh, so she’s yours now? Not just something you’re glad to have taken off your hands?” Rainier’s calm is starting to falter as his long fingers drum again his bicep. His crossed arms are flexed and showing off taut muscles that, though not as overwhelming as Griffin’s, are impressive nonetheless.
“I… I made a mistake. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let go. Ever.” Griffin turns to face me for a moment, and I can feel his contrition, feel how much he really does care about me.
Even if he’s entirely misguided sometimes.
“Which is why I’m going to finally kick your fucking ass and get Anna out of this hellhole you call a town,” Griffin says, facing Rainier again, pounding one fist into the other so hard it sends a small blast of air toward us that lifts my ponytail for a moment.
Case in point.
“Don’t pretend to be the only chivalrous dragon in the Blur. I promised to keep her safe as well,” Rainier says.
“And so did I,” Griffin says darkly. “Even if that means safe from you.”
At that, Griffin stomps the ground so hard the entire hill seems to rumble and shake. I watch as a deep crack shoots forward from his foot, headed straight toward Rainier in a jagged bolt of torn earth.
Rainier’s expression doesn’t change as he simply waves his hand slightly, and a split second later, a wall of rock shoots up to shield him.
Like something out of a disaster movie, the crack crawls up the wall in moments, splitting it in half, then stopping. The wall breaks asunder and tumbles to the ground in front of Rainier, who still appears perfectly composed except for the muscle I can see above his left brow, ticking with some unknown emotion.
They shouldn’t be fighting like this.
“Sometimes fighting is the only way out of a problem,” Seth says quietly. “But then again, who am I to talk? Fighting got us in this mess in the first place.”
When I look up at him, I can see his bright-green eyes darken, looking beyond the fight to something far in the past. I recall what Rainier said only minutes ago about how wrong things went last time they fought.
Someone needs to do something.
Rainier is now dusting something from his shoulder, looking entirely unaffected. “Don’t bore me with parlor tricks, Griffin. If you came to fight, please try not to underwhelm me.”
Griffin’s brows lower, showing his rage at Rainier. The red aura I first saw around him seems to be getting brighter with each second. He steps over to a nearby pine—a tall tree at least thirty or forty feet high and wider than I’d be able to put my arms around—and literally plucks it out of the ground like a flower with the wrenching sound of bark and roots tearing as he raises the tree above his head like a three-story club.
But just as he swings it down, Rainier lifts one hand, and the tree stops in midair. Before Griffin can do anything, the tree whips around, reversing direction and slamming down onto him with a deafening smash into the soft earth.
I gasp, horrified at the fact that Griffin is buried beneath yards of tree trunk and branches.
“Don’t worry. He’s okay,” Seth whispers next to me. “Red dragons are made to take an ungodly amount of punishment.”
Whereas Rainier has telekinesis. I remember the people in the square being lifted when he saved us from the mob.
Still, a tree feels like a much bigger object than a few dozen people.
“You’re losing your touch, Red. Maybe I was right about you from the start.” Rainier scoffs.
It’s like he’s a completely different person. The “fake” person that Griffin warned me about. The person he is when he’s around other dragons.
When it’s just me, I can feel the vulnerable part of him. That part that feels, even loves.
But not right now.
Rainier takes a step forward as the tree pushes up, then rolls over, and Griffin emerges from the tree-shaped indent in the ground. His face and clothes are stained with dirt and grass, but otherwise, he looks unharmed.
Incredible.
“No.” Griffin strides forward, filling the space around him with rage and muscle. “This place has changed me. Anna has changed me. But you? You’ll always be the same fake prick.”
It’s Rainier’s turn to look peeved, and suddenly, big rocks the size of TVs and one as big as a small car start lifting out of the ground magically. And then they’re flying at Griffin like small comets.
But Griffin reacts instantly. Only, instead of dodging, he’s punching. Punching through the rocks, making them splinter into rubble and dust. But with his bare fists.
How is this even
possible?
And with each explosion of debris, Griffin moves forward another step as Rainier’s silver eyes blaze with cool, icy anger, not letting up on the barrage of projectiles.
My brain doesn’t even know how to comprehend what’s going on as the last, heaviest rock thunders forward, only to be smashed apart into two pieces as Griffin comes to a stop only a few yards from Rainier.
Now they’re standing in the middle of the clearing, which is no longer quiet or peaceful.
“Stop it!” I call out in frustration. Seeing men that I care for fighting makes my world turn upside down.
Maybe I should—
“Stay back!” both Griffin and Rainier turn to say to me, almost in perfect unison, as if they’d heard my thoughts about intervening. And then their gazes are locked on each other again, Griffin looking furious at Rainier for speaking to me like that. And Rainier, though calmer, looks pissed at Griffin for the same.
“I guess we settle this like dragons,” Griffin says.
“Like dragons, then.” Rainier agrees in a low voice.
Then suddenly, there’s two giant, magnificent beasts appearing from behind shimmering veils. Rainier and Griffin.
Side by side, I can see the red dragon is larger, more spiked and ferocious-looking. But Rainier’s silver dragon is almost as big, just sleeker and more aerodynamic.
Seth’s hand shoots to the side, in front of me, and he backs me up until we’re at the edge of the clearing, giving a little more room.
But I don’t want to move away from these dragons. I only want to be closer to them. To stop this somehow.
Even if I have to risk everything.
“Don’t go getting ideas there, dragon heart,” Seth mutters. “If there are two dragons who I wouldn’t want to be around when they fight, it’s these guys.”
“But why?” My voice is raspy, my words dry like sand in my mouth.
“They blame each other and themselves for this whole mess, when in fact, they should be blaming me. But there’s no sense in telling them that now.”
Griffin’s huge front talons rear up, then smash into the ground as he lets out a sky-splitting roar. Rainier, as if responding to the challenge, does the same.
And all hell breaks loose.
Suddenly, Rainier’s wings are beating, taking him swiftly off the ground as Griffin lunges forward, snapping large, sharp teeth and missing just barely. But instead of taking off, he turns his head and breathes a long arc of flame into the sky.
Part of it catches Rainier’s wing, and the silver dragon loses his lift, falling and crashing into the ground at the other side of the clearing, making the earth rumble under the impact.
Griffin seems to grin to himself as he turns to advance on Rainier, who isn’t moving for some reason.
Please don’t be hurt…
Griffin’s great beast lumbers over to Silver, then raises a claw into the air. But before he strikes down, he hesitates for a moment, as if unsure.
Then suddenly, a silver blur of scale and spikes shoots forward, slamming Griffin in the face and knocking him backward. When it stops moving, I can see it’s Rainier’s tail, and he gets up out of the dirt, seemingly fine except for the singe marks on his left wing.
“Cocky bastard,” Rainier says as Griffin recovers from the strike. “That was for destroying my home.”
“I was showing you mercy, dumbass,” Griffin replies, his low dragon voice ringing in my ears.
“You were just falling into my trap, imbecile,” Rainier says with a scoff.
Griffin growls, furious, and as he opens his mouth, I can see red and yellow and white heat emanating in his throat.
But before he can breathe his fire, suddenly a cascade of trees is rocketing toward Griffin in a great volley of wooden missiles. They pound into his side, his neck, his tail, and I look past the fight to where trees are coming out of the ground, levitating for a moment, then plummeting down onto the red dragon.
Griffin snarls as wood splinters and the ones that miss him bounce away or stick into the ground like so many giant javelins. But what he can’t see is that while his attention is turned, Rainier charges, whipping his giant tail forward once more. Only, this time it connects with Griffin’s side, knocking him over entirely just as the trees stop falling, and I can see pain flash in his fiery eyes as he collides into a rock wall that juts out just before the edge of the cliffs.
“That one’s for hurting Anna, you pathetic excuse for a dragon,” Rainier exclaims, his tone toward Griffin as cold as frozen-over metal. Beyond them, the crashing sound of waves settles over the momentary silence.
Before it’s interrupted by Griffin charging at Rainier.
“And that’s for trying to steal the dragon heart from me, you pompous nut,” Griffin shouts, his voice probably carrying for miles and miles as he headbutts Rainier in the side, sending them both onto the ground before they quickly get back up onto their four armored legs.
And now they’re facing off once more. One last time. I can sense this is it.
They’re going to do it, aren’t they?
Both of them take in deep breaths, silver and red eyes unblinking, unflinching, ready to breathe destruction on the other.
I want to move, but my feet won’t cooperate. Like the primitive, animal part of me knows I’m in the presence of two gigantic, raging monsters and for my own survival, I should run away.
But deeper within, like a thread woven into the fabric of my being, I can feel something pushing me into action. A part of me that feels so strongly about each of these dragons, that sees them as part of me and me as part of them. And I can no longer just stand back.
So I go forward.
“No, don’t!” Seth’s arm reaches for me as I sprint away, narrowly missing me.
But I can’t stop. A part of me would die if something happened to these men. Somehow, I just know it.
I can feel heat radiating from both of them like they’re building up more dragon fire than they’ve ever used before. The warmth touches my cheeks and the skin on my arms and neck as I rush into the clearing, trying not to trip on the scattered debris.
I don’t even know why I’m doing this. Part of me knows this is insane.
But doing the right thing sometimes is.
Rainier sees me first, shock and worry in his gaze as I can see waves of hot energy and white light moments from spewing forth. Then Griffin’s red, slitted irises dart to me, and surprise and anger and horror show in his expression even as fire escapes through his nostrils, his mouth shut tight as if he’s trying to hold back a second longer.
“Stop! Please, stop!” I cry out, holding my hands up at both of them.
I prepare myself to be incinerated by dual dragon fires, and I close my eyes, bracing for everything to be over.
Then suddenly, I’m jerked upward.
And I’m… floating?
Am I dead?
But then the sound of a maelstrom of flames erupting beneath my feet snaps me back to reality, and I look down to see that I am no longer on the ground. Below me, I can see the rapidly shrinking shapes of Griffin’s and Rainier’s dragons, both with their heads turned to the side as red and white cones of burning heat erupt from their mouths, directed away from each other.
Away from where I was just a second ago.
And then I realize I can’t see my midsection. Rather, I can feel something holding me, and I can hear heavy wings beating just above me.
Dragon wings.
Rainier and Griffin look up at me, look at whatever is carrying me, and they both start to take off. But before they can get off the ground, a giant, glittering gold dome surrounds them, something that looks like a forcefield, and they stop.
“Dammit. Byron!” Griffin screams furiously, blowing fire into the sky, which bounces off the half-circle-shape walls covering them.
Rainier doesn’t speak, just looks up at me, care and legitimate worry in his silver eyes.
Then I hear chuckling close abo
ve me. A deep, throaty rumble that makes my skin crawl.
And we disappear into the clouds.
30
Anna
As we rise into the sky, I’m not sure if I was just saved or kidnapped. Maybe both.
I think this is the same creature that picked me up in the forest when we had just exited the vendor’s cabin.
It feels similar to then, at least, which means the creature carrying me just happened to show up to kidnap me again at a time that worked better for me than he might have known.
I stare at the clouds as we fly through them, a thick mist all around us. A glimmer of something golden catches my gaze, and I look over to see something large flying in the clouds next to us. Between clouds, it sparkles.
As we exit the clouds over a huge forest, I realize it’s a golden dragon. Huge, more the size of Griffin than Rainier, who is slightly smaller.
It’s so shiny and metallic that it almost looks like it’s made of liquid metal, though its form is fierce and strong, with spiky wings and glittering scales.
Beautiful, I think, and then I jolt unexpectedly when the creature turns to look at me with sparkling, molten-gold eyes.
I look above me, unable to see what’s carrying me. I guess it must be a dragon as well.
“No shit,” a low voice rumbles all around me.
“Don’t read my thoughts,” I say quickly, wondering if it will work on this dragon.
There’s no answer.
We fly a good distance over the huge forest, past a mountain range, and over to the other side. I gasp as I see a vast burned forest. Craggy, black trees. Nothing green for miles. We fly to the edge of that forest, and the air is smoggy. Everything here feels a bit dirty, and in the distance, I can see an industrial-looking settlement where the buildings almost look like they are built amongst giant piles of garbage.
Definitely not the best place to be in this world.
We fly past the city, and I’m relieved when I see a foggy forest again, similar to the one where I met Griffin. The trees look a little different. They’re taller and more aspen than pine, but they’re grayer too, like they’re coated in a layer of fine ash.
Bad Dragons: Special Edition Complete Series Page 21
