Nik shuddered as the dragon’s gaze hovered over each of them. Beside him, Joe reset his footing, easing his right side away to hide the severity of his injury as Gale loomed overhead.
The dragon bellowed. Hot, rank, smoky breath rolled over them as the creature grunted and clicked.
Joe tilted his torch, illuminating Nik’s face. “This man is my Kotahi, blood and mind bound to me.” He pointed the torch at Connor. “And this dragon chooses to stand beside me as second.”
According to Connor, another dragon could legally stand as Joe’s second to aid him due to Joe’s current handicap—being trapped in human form. But with both of them stuck as humans, and Gale very much a six-ton dragon, Nik didn’t see how having a second set of hands would help much.
Gale shook his patchy gray mane. The air around him wavered, like looking through the heat of a campfire, before the dragon shrank into human form. He was taller than Connor, with sallow skin and dark brown hair that threatened gray at the temples. His smile sent a shiver down Nik’s spine.
“I am not unreasonable.” Gale spun, addressing the dragons in the circular theater above. “This crystal pup was too young to fly in the competition, yet in the interests of sept harmony, we didn’t object. Now this insignificant toddling has delusions of being king.”
The grays roared in protest, while the rest of the dragons sat on their perches, quietly watching.
Gale turned back to Joe, his gaze hovering over the wound he’d ripped into Puff’s hide with his own claw. “I give you the chance to step back and rejoin your people without retribution, runt.” He glanced at Connor. “All of you. Our numbers are small. We should not be fighting among ourselves.”
He’d said that almost like he gave a damn. Hate seethed across the bond between Nik and Joe, but the boss managed to keep his cool. Well, on the outside, at least. Inside, his mind whirled, cataloging each possible weapon a human could use against a dragon, noting the ledges above, the torches within reach, the chain running along the floor, anchoring Anna’s ankle to the platform behind Gale, and counting the distance and how long it would take to get to her.
Nik had to give the kid kudos for bravery. The only thing Nik was looking for were the exits.
Joe waved his torch, casting mottled shadows on the lower walls. “Gale is a dragon murderer and not fit to be king.”
Okay, that was a bit blunt and to the point, and not at all what they’d discussed him saying. Connor glanced at Nik and reset his footing. Nik agreed, the kid needed to keep to script or he was going to get his head bitten off before he made his point.
The cavern erupted in growls and hisses from all angles.
Gale’s eyes narrowed. “You better have proof to back that up, boy.”
Joe quaked inside, but stood his ground. “When the dragons took flight for the Seventeen Year, Gale and his sentries knocked Elor from the sky.”
A collective growl rumbled the room. The section of yellowish-gold dragons clawed at their perches.
Gale sneered. “Ridiculous. Stand back. Your adolescent foolishness will only stay my patience for so long.”
Joe pointed to the gilded dragons. “The golds had a strong contender this Seventeen Year, and the grays knew they couldn’t outfly him.” He turned to Gale. “Elor barely made it past the leveling range before no less than seven adult grays set upon him.” He reached into his backpack and withdrew a long, dark claw. “This was found lodged in Elor’s corpse before Gale’s sentries burned the evidence.” He pointed the claw at Gale. “Missing something?”
Gale fisted his right hand and drew it behind his back, hiding his missing digit from the dragons overhead. His eyes flashed. “Enough. If you are going to challenge, do it so I can finally disembowel you.”
Like the asshole wouldn’t have done so earlier, had he seen the chance, but here, at what Joe had just turned into a dragon version of court, there were rules that even their dictator-king needed to follow.
Joe handed the torch to Connor, his eyes not leaving his opponent. “I challenge in the name of the crystal dragons, and Draconic law.” He pointed at Anna, careful to keep Gale fixed in his sights.
Nik looked at her for him and sent Joe calming thoughts that she was okay, that they’d gotten to her in time. The last thing his boss needed was to be worried about the girl, when there was a larger, seething problem a few feet away, gunning for blood.
“The female is mine,” Joe continued, “and your life is forfeit to the golds in exchange for the future you stole from them.”
Yup, all those years of being forced to study Draconic law, what Nik thought were just boring fictional tomes, had paid off. He’d been able to help Joe and Connor craft the perfect speech to rally the rest of the dragons to their cause. He wasn’t sure about those above, but the golds shifted and scratched their perches, their eyes reddened in what could only be fury.
Joe took a gutsy step forward. “Your reign is over.”
Gale roared, the sound echoing through the compartment as if he’d taken dragon form, but it was a human fist that swung at Joe. Boss tried to duck, but Gale’s fist skidded across his jaw. Joe hit the ground, and bounced to his feet before Gale landed on him. They rolled, Joe squirming away, using his slight stature to his advantage as he evaded Gale’s flailing fists.
Connor swayed slowly beside Nik, his hands clasping and unclasping. His movement mirrored the swaying anticipation of the dragons above. It must be killing Connor, not being able to shift and bite Gale’s head off to be done with this.
Joe skirted a blow, but Gale countered with a hook that landed on Joe’s injured side. Boss huffed out a breath and fell to his knees, wheezing as he held his side.
Nik’s breath hitched as Joe’s pain rolled over him, stinging and burning as if he’d taken the blow himself. Gale hissed, kicking Joe’s injury repeatedly until the kid stopped fighting.
Nik dropped to one knee. His lungs seized. His chest stung.
A smug grin covered Gale’s face as he dragged Joe up by the hair.
“Enough.” Connor yanked Joe out of Gale’s grip.
The boy sprawled across the floor, lifeless beneath the ledge holding the growling and hissing gold dragons. Nik cringed as the ribbon of energy floating between him and Joe blinked out, then eased back like a tired ooze. Boss was alive, but just barely.
Connor hazarded a glance at Nik, his nose flaring.
Jarred by the sudden attention, Nik slid toward Joe and grabbed his boss’s backpack. The drumming of the gold’s talons pounded louder beneath their perch, echoing off the stone walls.
“Boss!” He pulled Joe up and leaned him against the wall. “Don’t give up on us now. We’ve got that bastard right where we want him.”
Yeah, right. Even playing nice in human form, Gale still had the power of a dragon, while Connor and Joe were injured, and Nik was just, well, Nik.
He rummaged through the pack until he found the jar of salve Tyler had made out of the dragon venom. Shaking, he poured the thick black liquid over Joe’s bare, bleeding side. Nik was no doctor, but the gaping red wound didn’t look good.
The venom sizzled over the blood.
Nope, not good at all.
Connor shuffled his feet, keeping himself between Gale and Joe. His muscles stretched against his plaid shirt, as if his dragon form lay just below the surface, waiting to spring free.
“Ah, Quenor.” Gale’s smile was the stuff of nightmares. “You know, several dragons called you out as a contender this year. What you lack in girth, you even out with strength, yet you didn’t use this to your advantage. I find this puzzling.”
Gale tried to circle him, but Connor kept pace, keeping himself the only thing defending Joe’s unconscious form. He’d have to get through Nik too, of course. Nik tried his best to not think about the possibility of Gale tearing out his meager human innards and throwing his lifeless body to the side before slamming a killing blow against the defenseless kid in his arms.
He stiffened. No. Not on his watch. He unscrewed the lid from the second potion.
“Why would I stand out as a contender, when that would only put a target on my tail?” Connor said.
That’s it, bro, keep that psychotic reptile talking. Nik tilted Joe’s head back and opened the kid’s slack mouth, pouring the potion between his lips. He hoped Joe was cognizant enough to swallow.
Gale’s snicker radiated through the room, which had grown strangely quiet. “So you took up with the runt.”
Joe’s body convulsed, knocking the container from Nik’s hand. He scrambled for the jar, but the black liquid had already spilled to the ground. Dammit!
Connor snarled behind him. “I took up with someone worthy, someone I would be proud to call king.”
“That scrawny, weak…”
Nik brushed Joe’s long, silvery hair back from his closed eyes. He was breathing, but barely. Did he even swallow what Nik had given him?
“Strength alone does not make a good king.” Connor’s voice boomed through the hall. “You’ve proven that well enough to everyone.”
Gale howled.
The air wafted and blurred before a bright light flashed, blinding Nik. He blinked the spots from his eyes, refocusing as Connor dodged the thrashing, clawed tail of a huge, gray dragon where human Gale had once stood.
Cheating bastard!
The drumming of the dragons above began anew. They hissed and their gravelly voices echoed through the chamber. The cacophony shrieked like a freight train’s brakes slicing through the room.
None of the other dragons moved to stop the fight, though. Nik tried to recall the ancient tomes he’d studied. Somewhere it had to say that fighting a man in dragon form wasn’t allowed.
Connor slammed his shoulder into Gale’s leg, and the dragon slid across the floor. Gale roared and stepped back, favoring the limb Connor had hit. Maybe the fight wasn’t as one-sided as it seemed.
Joe groaned, startling Nik. “Boss!” He shook the unconscious boy. “Come on, snap out of it.”
Gale opened his wings and whipped his tail. Connor dropped to his knees before reaching up and grabbing the edge of Gale’s wing as it passed over his head. He held on as Gale arched his back, lifting Connor into the air.
“Nik.” Joe’s eyes fluttered open, his voice barely audible in the booming theater-like cave. He rolled his arms one at a time, as if making sure they were still attached to his body.
“You’re all right,” Nik told him. “Just take a few deep breaths.” And please do it quickly. He tensed as Gale roared again behind him.
Every ounce of Nik’s flesh crawled and twitched, prodding him to run for his life. But he had to trust Connor, and he had to trust that the dragon venom would prove the miracle they all expected. The little voice in his head told him their plan had too many holes, though, and the boss getting taken out so early made their predicament even worse.
Joe’s pain seeped through the bond. Nik did his best to block out the phantom burn searing his side as Joe’s chest rose in a deep breath and fell. The kid’s eyes widened before he grabbed Nik by his collar.
“Duck!” Joe pulled Nik to the floor.
A whoosh of air rolled over them before rock and dirt cut into Nik’s cheek as Gale’s tail slammed into the wall where they’d both rested. Gravel and a massive hunk of stone fell to the ground.
Joe coughed, his eyes on Connor’s back as the older man readied for another lunge. “I see Gale didn’t keep his temper long.”
“All of about three minutes.” Nik helped Joe to his knees. “Are you going to be all right?”
Joe nodded, but the apprehension spiking through their bond told Nik otherwise. He stood slowly, his gaze carrying to the far side of the room, where Anna yanked against her bonds. The air between them vibrated with the need to free her.
Nik grabbed Joe’s shoulder. “Hey, stay with me. We can’t help her until we get past the big ugly dragon.”
“She’s hurt,” Joe whispered. “We need to get to her.”
With a screaming roar, Gale flung his arms outward, sending Connor careening through the air to slam against the rock wall behind them. He slid down the damp surface until his lifeless body rested on the floor. Blood oozed from a deep, open wound in his stomach.
“Help him.” Joe wove the dragon talon between his fingers and moved toward Gale.
Nik eyed the spilled potion on the floor. “I can’t.” They’d had more than enough elixir for several hits, Connor had even marked the jars into four rations, but all that remained lay soaking into the floor.
The ground trembled and Nik spun to find a golden dragon standing behind him.
Gale roared at the gold. Draconic gibberish rose through the air, grating Nik’s ears until the soft translation filtered from Joe. “Take one more step, youngling, and I’ll consider it treason.”
The gold tensed. Its spiraling eyes centered on Nik for a moment. It was Shun, the one who’d healed Joe and given them his venom. He looked back at Gale, puffed smoke from his nose, and continued to make his way toward Connor.
“Your fight is with me.” Joe held up the talon. “Leave the gold to his healing.”
Hissing, Gale batted Joe to the side. He made to lunge at Shun, when a larger gold fell from the sky, landing on Gale’s neck and slamming the larger dragon into the floor.