by Meg Xuemei X
“Never,” Blaze said.
They must have spoken about this while I had been with Elvey.
“I don’t have much to offer,” I said. “I have only an hour in my Fae form. And when it comes to the intimacy you desire….” I flushed.
“You have everything to offer,” Iokul said quietly. “We’re happy with whatever form you take, as Rai said.”
The brothers shared another agreeable look.
“We just hate seeing you suffer when you change,” Blaze said.
And fate had decided what we had wasn’t true love?
CHAPTER 19
The first light came too soon, yet it was indistinguishable due to the dim light on Pandemonium. Rai had left with half of the men to scout the arena to prevent a possible ambush.
I paced in the chamber as anxiety rained down on me. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Iokul’s skill with the sword. All the dragons in the room had told me that no one had ever defeated the ice dragon in a duel, but I still had a dreadful feeling about this.
The demon captain must have known that none of the dragon princes could have their formidable full strength since they couldn’t shift. Elvey obviously knew about me and my companions more than we knew about him and his demons. Thus, Fomorian challenged us to a duel when we were at disadvantage.
The demons didn’t perceive such a thing as honor.
Last night, we had brainstormed about Fomorian’s possible weaknesses and his strengths, but all of those speculations were only guesswork.
Iokul wasn’t around, and I constantly looked at the entrance.
Elvey had posed himself as my enemy, but he was right about dueling being our best opportunity to have a chance at surviving and escaping the planet.
“He’ll be fine.” Blaze came up to me after he polished his blade. “Iokul always needs some meditating time when he faces a formidable opponent.”
Just then, Iokul stalked in with a confident smile.
He walked directly to me and brushed a kiss over my scaled lips. “Wish me luck, honey.”
“Cross my heart,” I said. “And may all our strength be yours.”
I did not stay behind in the chamber as the princes had insisted. It didn’t matter.
The duel was only a prelude to an all-out war.
My monsters marched with me to the arena. We no longer had great numbers after the war with the Archangel Gabriel, his witch, and the wolves. The conflict with the demons and the hunters had also reduced some of our numbers.
When we arrived at the destination, I noticed that all of the remaining clans of the City of Nine had come. We used to have nine clans. After the Wickedest Witch’s coven and the wolf shifters left, the dominant ones were vampires and a gang of mixed species, who were former criminals and militants.
I swept my gaze over the vampires on the south side of the spectator seats covered by green moss. Desdemona and Jasmine were missing in their rank. The Vampire Lord could never leave his tower, and the Vampire Princess was nowhere to be found.
Kruid cannibals snarled on the eastern edge of the arena. They had no allies, though they’d served Akem when he’d been around. To Kruids, everyone was meat.
So far, no clan charged the other clan or the new aliens.
They’d wait until the duel was over.
They gave me a wary look, not expecting me to mingle with the dragon men. I usually minded my own business in the jungle while the clans fought over the territory in the City of Nine.
The hunters from the Fallen Star—only seven of them left now—stared at me with hunger and anger. Hunger because they still wanted to bring my heads to my grandfather to claim the inheritance to Danaenyth dynasty; anger because the demons had stripped their right to duel.
I was sure they’d strike at the end of the combat.
Those hunters never gave up their prey, and they had for sure marked me as one.
The demon horde also fixed their glare on me with hatred, as if it was personal. Somehow, I had a feeling that some force from another place and another time was seeing through the demons’ black eyes.
We joined Rai and his scouts and took the corner of the spectator seats opposite to Elvey and his demon army.
Elvey wore black armor, yet he looked more like a playboy with his tousled lavender hair than a warrior. His gaze landed on my Furies as soon as we entered. Involuntarily, he smiled at me, and I stared back with ice and steel.
My chilly, wintry expression didn’t faze him even a little bit.
I averted my gaze, not wanting to acknowledge him, and scanned the rest of the arena for lurking threats. I needed to focus only on Elvey and the demons, since my two other egos were already patrolling the air.
From their perspective, the sight of the wrecked spaceships clustering and overlaying one another was an eyesore. I returned my attention to the demons.
Elvey leaped into the clearing in the center of the grandiose coliseum, as lithe and predatory as a panther.
“Friends and enemies and scavengers,” he said, his richly masculine voice booming over the field. “We won’t need any more words for a duel like this, so I give you Dragon Prince Iokul and Demon Captain Fomorian. They’ll fight to death for the rights to claim the Fury Queen’s heads and Mistress. Winner takes it all, and loser loses his head and more.”
No one cheered, but sneers and snarls echoed in the wind.
As soon as Elvey withdrew, Fomorian entered the ring, carrying only a broad sword. He braced his feet apart, ready and eager to cut down anyone in his path.
Bloodlust clouded his onyx eyes.
His demon minions cheered and blew a war horn.
Iokul tossed aside his gold-bronze shield and stalked toward the ring, his narrow sword flashing white light.
The dragon men roared his name, drowning out the cheers from the opponent’s side.
Both duelers wore armor that fit them like a second skin.
While I’d been trapped on this backwoods planet, technology and magic had upgraded in other worlds.
My gaze followed Iokul. He was a giant of a man, all muscles and fearsome strength, but the demon captain, who was at least eight feet tall, towered over him, especially with his long, black horns.
As they advanced toward each other, promising death, and nothing else, my heart pounded in my tightening Fury throat, and my claws were slick with sweat.
I hadn’t said a prayer to the universal God ever since I’d been whisked to this planet, but now I was saying it, God, wherever you are, preserve Iokul, and I won’t whimper about carrying my curse to eternity again. I’ll pay any price.
In the ring, Iokul and Fomorian didn’t exchange any words. They charged each other with their swords striking out, white blade against black.
The blades crossed each other, the sound piercing and ringing.
Both duelers had great footing and were equally fast.
They tore apart and lunged toward each other like two crashing waves. Fomorian sliced his black sword toward Iokul, intent on beheading Iokul with one swift swipe.
My claws sank into my thick palms. Blaze and Rai, on either side of me, tensed like a whip.
Iokul bent his head just as the enemy’s blade passed an inch from his neck. While he tumbled away, his sword whirled through the air, slashing though the demon’s armor and opening a gash on his leg.
Fomorian bellowed in rage as his black blood streamed out, his charcoal eyes turning blood red.
The dragon warriors around me roared their cheers, but the demons on the opposite of the arena shouted their insults at Iokul.
Fomorian lunged at Iokul with a sequence of combined jabs and hacks from different angles, faster than anything I had seen. Iokul was on the defensive now with the rapid attacks. He parried and ducked swiftly.
Fomorian brought down his dark blade toward Iokul, taking advantage of his towering height. Iokul spun away, but Fomorian had anticipated his move and chased to the spot where Iokul would be. The tip of the demon’s sw
ord pierced through Iokul’s chest armor, but before the blade went further in, Iokul flew back and avoided the fatal strike. If he had been any slower, he’d have been impaled.
Only an extremely powerful dragon shifter could have that move, even though his dragon was caged.
Fomorian was broader and taller in size, but Iokul was more agile.
Just as I thought Iokul could use more evasive maneuvers and keep cutting the demon captain here and there to weaken him, Fomorian was already regenerating. He was healing faster than a dragon could.
Blaze cursed profusely.
Iokul had realized it. That was why he didn’t go for the small cuts. He was circling his opponent with all sorts of tests to find the demon’s weakness to deliver a fatal thrust toward our enemy.
Iokul lunged and withdrew, thrust and jabbed, as if poking a big bug.
Then he focused on dodging Fomorian’s sword overhead and kept attacking the demon below his waist. Slashing and slicing. It was as if his very intention was to cut Fomorian’s leg to disable him.
They jabbed and blocked. Lunged and withdrew. Their eyes, silver against red, never left each other’s. Iokul fought silently, but Fomorian snarled like a wild animal.
Iokul whistled and whirled his sword in the air to insult and lure the demon captain to come to him. Just when Fomorian reached his side in a flash, his black sword swinging sideways to cut Iokul in half from the chest, Iokul leveled his sword and pushed it forward to show his might instead of sliding aside.
The white steel clashed against the black sword, and both blades vibrated.
If I had foreseen that my mate would duel a demon today, I would have demanded the Archangel leave his angelblade as an extra payment to me. The angelblade was the most lethal sword in the whole universe, and the Archangel would have given me the sword since he’d do anything to get his mate out of this planet.
The duelers broke apart, but not before Iokul kicked Fomorian on the knee with a breaking force.
Fomorian staggered half a step back, and Iokul spun in the air, his sword swinging toward his foe’s neck. Fomorian lowered his head and blocked the blade with his horns, sparks of fire bouncing off them before a trail of smoke emitted from them.
The smoke wafted toward Iokul’s face faster than the wind.
“Foul magic!” I shrieked.
At the same time, Fomorian thrust his sword toward Iokul. My mate twisted away, but not quick enough as the demon magic trapped him.
Fomorian’s black sword pierced into the Iokul’s rib cage through his side.
I rose fully from the stone seat and shrieked in rage, and many eyes from the spectator seats fell on me in panic. I sneered and shrieked. There was no need to fear me going berserk. Everyone here was a monster.
My other Furies patrolling in the high sky screeched, as my fear and wrath reached them.
Blaze and Rai rose on either side of me, drawing swords, ready to charge into the ring.
Iokul pulled himself out of the black sword. He’d been wounded badly. He wouldn’t last long. Blood poured out from his side.
I wouldn’t let the demon captain slay my dragon prince, my mate.
Who gave a fuck about the duel rules?
I was ready to shoot into the arena and bite off Fomorian’s head.
But Iokul leaped high and spun ninety degrees in the air, his sword plunging toward Fomorian while the demon was still laughing. The white blade with red runes glowing on its razor edge thrust into Fomorian’s armored chest, piercing flesh and tissues, and right into the center of his fucking heart.
Fomorian looked utterly shocked. Iokul had concealed how fast he could move, even in the grip of the demon’s dark magic. Iokul pushed his sword further into Fomorian’s chest with a victorious roar.
Blaze and Rai joined his warrior’s roar, “We won the day!”
All the dragons around roared in triumph.
We would carry Iokul off the battlefield and fix him soon.
Tears of joy and pride wet my scaled eyelashes, and I thought my Fury form had no liquid.
My eyes found Elvey. He shook his head, staring at me intensely and expectantly, as if he was waiting for me to do something more significant than shrieking and crying.
The demon cheerleaders’ shouts of anger and curses suddenly turned to cheers.
On our side, Rai cursed profusely, as did Blaze and the rest of the dragon warriors.
I snapped my attention back to the ring.
A wave of black smoke poured out of Fomorian and slammed into Iokul like a black train. It sent him colliding to the ground and pinned him down.
I hadn’t expected that. It couldn’t be. We’d all seen Iokul impale the demon captain. Fomorian should have stayed down. He was dead.
Fomorian dragged out the sword buried deep in his chest while Iokul struggled against the foul smoke. Fomorian stalked toward Iokul, the white blade dripping black blood.
He towered over Iokul. “Fool,” he pronounced. “I have no heart. My queen took it a long time ago. While I belong to her, I can never die.”
Iokul had pierced the demon’s heart, yet he still lived, which only meant either he had no physical heart, or he didn’t need his heart to live.
Spitting, he raised his black sword and Iokul’s white sword over Iokul’s chest. “Now die, dragon!”
Howling in rage, Blaze and Rai tossed their daggers at Fomorian and charged toward the ring. The daggers dropped in midair. Fomorian raised a hand, and streams of black smoke rammed into the two princes, holding them to the ground.
Fomorian would kill them all.
And I’d lose all my three mates.
My dragon, who had been bound by the curse for nine centuries, roared in rage; it was a terrible thing to watch as she fully awoke, rose to power, and shattered the cage.
The shift was instant, and it was glorious.
My scales of blue and scarlet glimmered under the gloomy sky, my tail swept mightily, and my wings spread to their full-length magnificently.
I opened my jaw, my fangs sharp and my fire hot.
Fire poured out of me making its way toward Fomorian. Dragon fire was hotter than anything, hotter and more potent than my Furies’ black fire. It should have melted the demon captain to wax, but thick, black smoke twirled around him like moving walls, shielding him.
My dragon fire dissipated against the attacking waves of smoke.
Fomorian turned his red gaze toward me. Fear and rage gripped me at the same time. It wasn’t the demon captain looking at me, but someone who had the scent of the great evil I’d encountered in the great hall in Elvey’s illusion.
It hadn’t been an illusion at all.
“It can’t be,” the evil incarnation peering through Fomorian screamed with pure hatred and madness. “You can’t break the curse. You must die!”
Black smoke gushed out of his eyes and shot toward me like black lightning just as I lunged at him from the air.
My two Furies, who hadn’t returned to me when I’d shifted, dove in front of me with shrieks and blocked the smoke. The waves hit them, turning them to dust immediately.
I roared in grief and pain and wrath.
Yet my dragon remained unharmed.
A flash of light blasted in front of me.
“You’ll not touch her!” Elvey roared, and swung his sword with lightning speed, the blade with glowing arcane symbols piercing the demon’s shield of smoke.
Fomorian’s head lopped off. It tumbled to the ground and rolled to face up toward me, his three-foot-long, black horns dulling.
The evil withdrew from the demon’s eyes as it lost holding to its host, who was truly dead this time.
“Fomorian had no heart,” Elvey said to Iokul as the black smoke of magic left the ice dragon prince. “The only way to kill him was to behead him.”
Iokul looked at Elvey warily, went to pick up his sword, and staggered toward me to defend me.
I hovered above Elvey with a hiss in my dragon form, and h
e looked up and smiled at me.
“Hello Daisy,” he said slyly. “Sorry to disappoint you. I know it’s anticlimactic. A hero usually makes a great speech before he puts down the bad guy, but Fomorian carried a spell that could render me useless. I didn’t want to give him the upper hand and put myself at disadvantage, so I had to go with a sneak attack.”
“I’m not going to blame you for being sneaky,” I said, pulling my lips back in half a snarl. “But you could have killed Fomorian before he hurt Iokul!”
“What big teeth you have, Daisy dearest!” Elvey called, pretending to cringe from me. “And your breath is hot with fire.”
I closed my mouth, my jaw clenched at the insult.
If it wasn’t because he’d saved Iokul, I might have let him taste just how hot my breath was! Then I felt my dragon’s cheeks flaming. No, I wasn’t talking about kissing. I was referring to my dragon fire singeing his—
No, I didn’t want to ruin his masculine beautiful face, but I could burn away the curls at the top of his lavender hair. It would grow back.
“And I’ve always had a thing for a fierce, formidable woman who possesses fire,” he said, an amused smile dancing in his vivid blue eyes. “Anyway, if I’d killed Fomorian sooner, your dragon might not have showed up.”
I had a hunch that he was using this duel to push me to the edge to set my dragon free. He was playing with fire.
“Iokul could have died!” I said.
“I was willing to take the risk,” he said.
I narrowed my eyes. “At the risk of my mate’s life?”
He looked at me darkly. “And my own life. If you hadn’t broken the clutch of the curse today, you might never have been free. We only had one shot, and I wouldn’t let it be wasted.”
When I’d thought he could be my friend or more, he’d shown me an enemy face. And when I’d nailed him solidly as one, he’d turned out to be an ally.
I sighed inwardly. Elvey would always be unpredictable, dangerous, and mysterious, a man with his own vendetta.
Before I could further question him about my curse and its origin, the demon horde bellowed and jumped from the spectator seat into the arena. “Traitor!”
