No one is born a hero. They become heroes, either by courage or necessity. At least that’s what Nik had been taught as a kid. Facing a dragon the size of a house, though, sent his courage running down the mountain, leaving him alone with necessity, and a pulse throbbing like the incessant beat of an alarm clock buzzer in his ears.
Throughout the theater, the onlookers jabbered and roared, slamming their claws against their massive box seats. On the platform, the boss had managed to scare off the two red dragons and free Anna’s hands and throat. The chain on her left ankle still seemed securely shackled as she and Joe stared at him from across the dragon-dueling mayhem.
He adjusted his grip on the spear. The weapon’s energy surged as if it had a life of its own, cooling and heating beneath his grip.
Even a touch from the spear will burn a dragon, the history books said, and from the way Joe and Connor had reacted in the spear’s presence, at least some of that had to be fact.
He needed to do more than just burn Gale, though. It was obvious that Pijeth was faster than the gray, but not stronger. The gold dragon was still fighting because Gale hadn’t managed to land more than a few hits, but Pijeth’s blows weren’t doing enough damage.
Nik’s grip tightened on the tingling metal as the gold dragon spun around the hulking gray. The plan had been for Nik to throw the spear as Connor distracted Gale. Stuck in human form, Connor was a much smaller obstacle than the huge gold.
If Nik threw, and hit Pijeth, this competition would be over, and he would be to blame. Gale lumbered, but the gold’s constant movement fluttering between Nik and the gray dragon’s hide was a variable Pops hadn’t accounted for when teaching him how to throw.
Faith was all he needed, but not something easily achieved in the face of mythological monsters.
*I have faith in you.*
Startled, Nik’s gaze carried to Joe, who’d stopped yanking on the chain holding Anna to the floor to stare into his eyes.
*I’ve always had faith in you. If I hadn’t, I never would have chosen you.*
Nik choked down the lump in his throat. “If I hit the wrong dragon—”
*You won’t. End this for me.* Joe’s gaze moved beyond Nik, to where Connor still lay motionless against the wall. *End this for all of us.*
The throbbing in Nik’s temples heightened before seeping into the background. Even the sound of the dragons snapping and growling sucked away, as if he heard everything through water.
Just one hit. That was all he needed. Gale was a huge target. He could do this.
Taking a deep breath, he tilted the spear up, letting a portion of the heavy metal fall behind him for balance, and then he flung the quivering javelin toward Gale’s spine.
The lines etched in the weapon’s shaft glowed with the firelight, promising the swift death for which the lance had been forged over a thousand years ago. The point arched, then fell with an ethereal grace of a silent stalker, never seen until it struck.
Nik’s heart swelled as the weapon dropped toward its target. He drank in the heady sensation, thrilled that he’d done the impossible, until Gale roared and flapped his wings. The metal shaft clanged against bone, knocking the spear back into the air where it landed, impaled along the edge of a balcony above, surrounded by wide-eyed blue dragons.
There it remained: the greatest weapon ever forged against dragons, lost when they needed it most.
Pijeth managed to get his jaws around Gale’s throat, but the larger gray tossed him off as easily as he’d thwarted the spear. Joe and Anna stood, motionless and gaping. Anna stared at the spear in the rafters above, while Joe centered on his Kotahi. Nik waited for his boss’s voice to boom within his head, shouting encouragement, but silence prevailed. Joe’s shoulders slumped as he lowered his gaze to the floor.
Nik clenched his teeth. “No,” he whispered. “This is not over.”
Spinning away, Nik felt along the wall for something to grab onto. People scaled rocks all the time for fun. He was in decent shape. He should be able to climb up to at least the first platform, where several golds now stared down at him with cold eyes.
It was their challenger that Gale had killed during the competition. The golds had more reason than any to want the gray dead.
He only needed to convince one dragon to fly up and get the spear. They would listen to him. He knew they would.
Nik considered the shiny, sleek stone. Getting up there so he could convince them was another matter.
One gold sprang from its perch and landed beside Nik, hissing. He recognized those condescending eyes. “Dammit, Takata, I don’t have time for your shit.” Unless he could persuade this annoying little dragon to go up there and...
Growling, Takata snatched Nik’s wrist in one claw and flung him into the air. The world spun. His heart throttled and Nik howled, before a massive black dragon leaned off his perch and snatched Nik’s waist in its jaws.
Nik thrashed against teeth and slobbering goo before the beast tossed him back into the air. He flew across the theater and slammed chest-first onto a hard platform.
His hands trembled on the stone. The sound of the two dragons fighting echoed in the vast space, and the air seemed cold and thin. He wasn’t on the gold’s perch. He was much, much higher.
Nikky’s seatbelt constricted as his mother’s scream filled the car. His dad hollered one of those words Nikky wasn’t supposed to say. The wheels screeched. The car jiggled, jumped, and slammed through the guardrail.
Mommy reached back, holding Nikky in his booster seat even though he was already belted. “It’s okay, baby. Hold on.”
Her eyes didn’t look okay, though. Nikky wailed as the windshield shattered, and everything went black.
Don’t look down, he told himself, shaking as he stood. The spear jutted out from the edge of a perch two spans over, and one tier up.
He’d have to climb higher. Shit.
It’s just altitude. Mind over matter.
Taking a deep breath, he lunged for the next perch. His heart rattled, knowing no seatbelt protected him this time. His mind screamed until his right hand caught the ledge, but his left slid on loose gravel. Nik dangled God-knows-how-high off the ground.
He steeled himself. This was no different than climbing the ladders at his last job. Focus on your destination, eyes up, not down. His stomach still twitched though, perfectly aware of what was and wasn’t below him.
The gravel sprinkled from the edge as Nik grappled for purchase. His right hand slipped, and sweat drenched his back and dripped down his temples. He could do this. No. He would do this.
He reached for the ledge again, but a gray dragon with a jagged scar across one foggy white eye peered over the precipice. Hot breath puffed against Nik’s face, coating him with the smell of decayed flesh. He struggled to hold his breath as veiny, yellow eyes promised him a swift death.
Dammit! Why wasn’t this one with the other grays? The revolting beast growled as it reached down and grabbed Nik’s flailing left hand. Nik gripped the ledge tighter with his right, waiting for the dragon to fling him from the perch.
Below, the audience roiled in excitement, half the eyes drawn to him, the remainder on the battle still raging below. Nik slipped and the dragon growled. This murderous, shit-for-brains lizard was playing with him, waiting for the perfect moment before it dropped him into Gale’s waiting gullet below.
A flash of cobalt and wind fluttered past as a blue dragon alighted to the right of the gray and shifted into a woman with long, dark hair covering her… Jesus, covering her naked everything.
“The ancient gray is injured,” she called to Nik. “He can’t pull you up. Give me your other hand.” She reached down to him.
Nik looked from her, to the crazed yellow eyes of the gray dragon. If he released his grip, this gray bastard, who could be Gale’s brother for all he knew, would drop him. There was no way he was letting go.
The woman waved her open palm at him. “Come, human. There is no time!”
Naked Lady’s fierce gaze filled him with hope, but the stinking gray dragon… was trembling. Its bloodshot eyes implored, as if it was in pain. Shit. It wasn’t trying to kill him; it was helping.
Nik let go and shot his hand into Naked Lady’s grip. She yanked him up with strength no woman should have. She stumbled back and Nik fell on top of her, one hand beside her shoulder and the other full-on grabbing her boob.
“Shit!” He scrambled off her. “Sorry. That was completely unintentional.”
She smiled at him, rising to her full, naked glory. “Dragons do not have modesty, or alarm concerning one part of our bodies over another.”
That made sense, he guessed.
She inclined her head as she walked toward the edge and dropped to her hands and knees. “Mount me. Quickly.”
Nik’s gaze carried over her perfectly sculpted ass. “Excuse me?”
The air about her rippled, and her beautiful derriere morphed into an even more beautiful sparkling blue array of scales.
Oh! Mount her. Idiot. He climbed up and wedged his nutsack between two menacing black barbs on her back. She growled at him, and he took that as a warning to hang on as she jumped off the perch.
He winced, sliding forward, the crotch of his jeans jamming against the razor-like protrusions on her spine, before she settled a few feet from where the spear had landed.
He rolled off her, holding his crotch as she shifted back into human form. Her breasts hung in his face as she nudged him.
“Get up, human.”
Nik blinked, forcing his gaze away from that incredible rack, and stared at her. She pointed to the edge of the perch, where the spear glistened, imbedded in the stone.
Shit, yeah, the spear. Dizzy, he shook his head to clear out the remnants of pain and inched toward the edge.
“I got you, little bro.” A man outside the car window called to Nikky as he tried the door. He said one of those bad words when it wouldn’t open.
Nikky cried for Mommy again. Why weren’t she and Daddy scaring away the stranger? The car shifted, sliding down the side of the mountain before jolting to a stop.
Nikky struggled to breathe through his sobs, closing his eyes to hide from the voices and muffled shouting outside. Mommy and Daddy said they were all going to see Nanna and Pops. Why were they here?
The man appeared at the other window. “Look away.” He called, hauling a big rock in the air.
The car jiggled again, and the man cried out, dropping the rock. He stumbled, waving his arms before he disappeared. Nikky froze as he saw him again through the windshield below, falling until he was only a spec in the distance.
Nik’s heartbeat thudded in his ears as he inched toward the edge. Behind him, the blue dragons scraped their claws on the rocky shelf.
His voluptuous friend stepped beside him. “What’s wrong with you? Take the spear.”
Sweat dripped from his hairline as the edge blurred. His mind spun and he stepped back. The edge—shit, the edge!
Tears blurred Nikky’s vision as another man appeared by his window. The guy tested a rope tied to his waist and clunked a giant metal alligator mouth against the door. Nikky howled, hiding from the monster as it ate the side of the car.
The metal crunched and Nikky hid beneath his palms until warm, human hands cupped his face, released his seatbelt and lifted him from the car.
The window jarred as he slipped through. The man said a bad word, crushing Nikky to his chest as the car creaked and rolled until it flew through the air and dropped, leaving Nikky alone with the man tied to a rope.
Nikky screamed for Mommy and Daddy as he twisted against the stranger’s grip and reached for the valley far beneath them.
But the car was gone, taking Mommy and Daddy with it.
Nik fell to his knees, immobile as the dragons dueled below. The shaft of the spear stuck out of the edge, mocking him, less than a step away.
The woman shoved him. “Take it, human. Use the height to your advantage.”
The height. Yes, height would normally be an advantage, at least to other people. With a clean drop from overhead, the spear would pick up speed as it fell. A throw from here would be ten times as deadly, and Gale would never see it coming.
Nik drew in a deep breath and crawled half a pace to the edge. Heavy with sweat, his shirt clung to his chest and arms. He stopped, panting.
Naked Lady knelt beside him. “I cannot touch the spear. If you are ill, remove your shirt and I will use the cloth to try to pull the weapon free, but you must hurry.”
A dragon shrieked below. The high pitch had to be Pijeth. Nik didn’t have time to take off his shirt and hope the spear didn’t hurt the pretty naked dragon. He needed to do this now. He had one job to do in this godforsaken crazy plan, and he sure as hell was going to do it.
He slid to the edge on his stomach, his hands shaking on the cold stone floor.
“Let me go! Let me go!” Nikky screamed.
The man only tightened his grip as the people above pulled the rope, hoisting them up the side of the mountain.
Dragging himself across the floor, the shaft now loomed inches from Nik’s face. He could do this. He could save everyone with one throw of the ancient weapon. But the hilt blurred and doubled, jumping from left to right. Nik closed his eyes. It was an illusion. The spear was right there. He needed to finish this. He was the only one who could.
Nanna hugged little Nikky to her. “It’s going to be all right, Nikau.”
He struggled in her grip. “It’s not okay. I want my Momma!”
She brushed the damp hair from his eyes. “The sun has risen on a new day, my strong Maori warrior. It may not seem like it now, but you are destined for great things. You will do your parents proud.”
Nikky fell onto her shoulder, sobbing. How could anything ever be great again?
Nik squeezed his eyes tighter against the memory. He was destined for great things. He was a Kotahi. The first in generations. He’d been chosen, and his dragon, and every dragon in this theater was counting on him. He wouldn’t let them down. He’d never let anyone down again.
He reached out and grasped cold steel. The shaft pulsed in his grip, beckoning, begging for blood.
“Pull it out, human.”
Nik gulped, opening his eyes.
Below, Joe and Anna tugged on the chain connected to her ankle. Joe would struggle with a chain that thick even in dragon form. He wasn’t freeing her anytime soon. To their right, Gale pinned Pijeth to the arena floor. His spine was a huge target. Nik wouldn’t even have to throw. At this height, he could just drop the heavy weapon and let gravity win the day.
He yanked on the spear, but at the odd angle, he had no leverage.
The room spun.
The ground beckoned to him.
His head and arms drew down as if weighted, or the ground below was sucking him in.
Nik closed his eyes again. Nothing was moving, and the ground wasn’t alive and plotting his death. He knew it. He just needed to convince his eyes, his mind, his everything that there was nothing to fear.
“Hold tight, human.” Naked Lady wrapped her arms around his waist, towing him from the edge.
His hands slipped along the cool shaft. His shoulders burned. Clenching his teeth, he tightened his grip. They could do this. He could do this.
“Come on!” Nik shouted at the ancient weapon, adding his strength. The shaft creaked, jimmied, and then slid free.
He stared at the spear, a long dark cylinder over the torchlight from behind, until the metal began to hum again, as if powering up for its impending flight.
Joe looked up at him from Anna’s platform and nodded to his Kotahi. He shouted something to Anna and they attacked the chain anew. Pijeth snapped at Gale’s face, and his tail slapped the larger dragon’s back. The huge gray growled, slamming the gold’s head to the floor, baring Pijeth’s neck.
Joe leaned back, yanking Anna’s restraints until the baseplate dislodged from the floor, leaving a hole in the platform where the chains had been anchored. Both he and Anna stumbled and fell, but she was free.
If Nik was going to do this, now was the time.
He stepped to the edge. The gray dragons staring at him from the opposite platform froze. He raised the spear, held his breath, and readied to drop the weapon on Gale should any of them bathe him in fire, but the entire section of the king’s kin sat and watched. The only fire came from their yellow eyes. Nik smiled, more aware than ever of what a monster the beast below must be, before he drew the spear back and threw.