Anna’s wrists bled as she pulled at her chains. Across the room, Joe ducked as the gold dragon snapped and clawed Gale. Above, hundreds of other dragons clambered and growled. If Gale was such a terror, why weren’t more willing to help?
Beyond the theater, blood stained the far wall where Connor had hit the unforgiving stone. Shun’s golden wings loomed over him, blocking his patient from her view. As long as the young dragon stayed there, risking his own life to help, Anna knew Connor was still alive; but now Joe was out there again, with only luck keeping him from getting squashed by two fully-grown dragons rolling across the floor.
Turning back to her shackles, Anna propped her free foot against the wall and yanked. Her hands ached, the metal cold and unforgiving in her grip.
Her muscles quivered as she pulled again, but the bolts holding the chains didn’t budge. She needed a new plan.
A waft of air hit her on the right and a small red dragon, only a little shorter than she was hit the ground only inches away. She gasped and stepped back as the creature wrapped its talons around the chain attaching her left wrist to the wall, and tugged.
Anna took three seconds to process that the little dragon was trying to help free her, before adding her own grip to the metal coils.
They pulled together, but the restraints still held firm. Anna growled in frustration as the gold dragon, who she took for granted was Shun’s brother Pijeth, took a hit from Gale’s tail and sprawled across the floor. She was running out of time.
She turned to her little red comrade-in-arms, but a thud sounded behind her, accompanied with the tell-tale waft of air she’d forevermore assign to dragon wings. She spun and faced a formidable, adult-sized red dragon, only slightly smaller than Connor. The creature looked past her and howled at the fledgling, who spat and hissed back. The younger dragon took a defensive stance, while the adult angled its wings.
Trapped between them, she flattened against the cold stone.
Her breath hitched as the larger dragon snapped twice at the smaller, while the little dragon pawed at the air and hissed. Growling, the larger dragon wrapped its talons around her waist and pinned her against the wall.
She gasped as the wind expelled from her lungs.
They weren’t here to help. They were going to fight over her!
Anna struggled against a strength she wasn’t built to master as the claws tightened. Maybe they weren’t going to fight. Maybe they just wanted her dead.
The little dragon lunged for her throat.
“Joe!”
Her voice barely sounded above the clatter of the fighting dragons, but Joe still spun. His eyes widened when he saw her, and he dodged Pijeth’s tail as he sprinted toward the platform. Two seconds of relief were shattered as Gale’s giant fist slammed down on the floor, blocking Joe’s path. He skidded to a stop.
Anna tried to fight the ravenous baby dragon, but it overpowered her with ease, gnawing and thrashing. Her metal collar afforded her the only protection as the sticky sensation of blood dampened her neck.
The giant talon of the larger red turned her face to him. The beast hissed and smoky steam clouded her vision.
Rat bastard!
She took one hand off the savaging baby to push the adult away. It hissed again, but made no move other than directing her face toward it with the razor-sharp spike.
Another hiss.
But wait, was that a hiss? The smoke cleared and she stared into the creature’s eyes. The cold, soulless stare she expected wasn’t there. The wedge of scales where the dragon’s brow would be creased as it hissed again. It wasn’t a hiss, though, but more like a Shhhhhhh.
Anna glanced over to the theater, where Pijeth yanked Gale’s wing back, steering the beast away from Joe as he scurried across the floor.
Gale’s cold, yellow eyes met hers—eyes that glared death and menace. That demonic trait was missing in the eyes that held her pinned to the wall, while its baby rooted for her jugular.
Unless that wasn’t what they were doing.
Shhhhhhh, the dragon cooed again.
The baby could easily have sunk its teeth into her flesh above the collar. Either one of them could have attacked her face for a death blow with far more efficiency. Unless this was a parent training a baby how to rip out a throat. Those eyes, though, there was humanity there. If not humanity, then at least humanitarianism.
If she was wrong, she was dead, but tied to a wall, her only choice was to act on instinct. Steeling herself, Anna dropped her hands.
The baby growled, intensifying its attack, yet still thwarted by the metal collar. Anna kept her eyes trained on the adult, biting her lip against the sting in her throat, trusting that…
Pop!
The baby retreated, and the talon holding her face drew down her neck, and flicked the collar. The weight slipped from her neck and Anna released the breath she’d been holding as the bloodstained metal clanked against the wall, hanging from the chain above.
She gulped and looked from the adult, to the baby. “Thank you.”
The baby wagged its tail like a puppy before snapping at her wrist. She held her arm to the wall for leverage as the creature gnawed at the thinner metal until the restraint snapped and fell away.
The baby reached for her other arm, when a deafening roar echoed through the chamber. Gale held Pijeth down with one foot, but his eyes were trained on Anna and her treasonous new friends. The red snatched the baby with one clawed hand and slashed the chain holding Anna’s other wrist, leaving her hand free, but still incased in iron. It then pushed off the floor and flew up into the rafters and away from Gale’s poisonous gaze.
Pijeth took advantage of the gray’s distraction and stabbed his forked claws into Gale’s chest. The huge gray’s cry reanimated the dragons above, who stomped their talons on their perches.
Joe jumped onto the platform and gathered Anna in his arms. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “The red dragons.”
“I saw. Be thankful reds are egg bearers.”
“Why?”
“Otherwise that baby would be a seventeen-year-old adult and too big to gnaw that collar off.”
Cupping her cheeks, his gaze roamed her face. Joe seemed to reach through her eyes as his essence ran over every part of her body. Her wounds tingled, while some of the ache in her bruises disappeared completely.
This joining, this sense of connection was almost too much to bear, though. She needed to touch, to feel and connect in a human way to center the rampant energy pulsing through her. The chain hung loose from her wrist as she ran her hand down Joe’s uninjured side, drinking in the warmth radiating from his skin and relishing its embrace.
He glanced at her mouth and leaned toward her. All the unease about dragons and humans and her current altered reality slipped away, drowned by his overwhelming Joe-ness. Anna licked her lips. She closed her eyes and relaxed despite the dragon battle still raging a few steps away, and surrendered as he lowered his mouth and… rubbed his temple against the side of her neck.
Anna’s eyes shot open as he drew away.
He checked the battle behind him. “You’re fine. I’ve healed what I could.”
“Oh.” Anna blinked. Her cheeks burned.
Why had she even dreamed he would kiss her when Gale could still bite their heads off at any minute?
Across the room, Nik fumbled with something beside his backpack. He wiped his brow, and his face twisted in concern before he rose slowly, gaze fixed on the dueling dragons.
The flickering torches caught the furrow in his brow and the grim, straight line of his mouth. He opened and closed his left fist. His right remained in shadow until he stepped further into the arena, allowing the torchlight to dance across the shimmering length of the dragon spear.