Chapter Forty-Three #2
From nearby, Pyre stirred, his cough signaling that he was still alive.
A moment later, the sound of trees rustling gave proof of movement.
There were trees everywhere, some too big to have been destroyed by our fall.
High brush came up halfway over my dragon form.
It was not a place for fighting in that form.
Closing my eyes, I forced myself back into human form, ignoring the pain from muscles and open wounds as they reshaped themselves, leaving me lying on my back, my chest heaving.
Each breath awoke new pain in my neck from the burn, my back, where a long line marked the tear in my wing, and numerous other gouges.
The bleeding was slowing or had stopped already, but they weren’t fully healed. Not yet.
Slowly, I got to my feet.
“Where are you?” I shouted. “Let’s end this.”
Pyre made his entrance by jumping out from a pile of bushes into my midsection. I rolled with the hit, driving an elbow back as hard as I could. It cracked against his jaw, and Pyre cried out.
I spun to my feet, waiting for him to rise. He did so, but slowly. His leg wasn’t working properly. The chunk I’d torn from his dragon had been his hamstring, and now he could barely support himself.
Without both legs working, the fight was already over except for the final blow. Pyre looked at his leg, then at me. He knew it, too, but determination pulled his eyebrows low, and he spun fire in front of himself like a shield.
“You’re only delaying the inevitable,” I said, moving in a slow circle to his left, forcing him to pivot on his wounded leg.
“Oddly ironic, coming from someone who’s been doing that ever since his brother died,” Pyre spat.
I snarled, throwing caution to the wind. I moved two steps to the side, faster than he could keep up, and then ran right at him. The move took Pyre by surprise, and I blew past his shield, accepting a burn on my left arm from elbow to shoulder in return for getting right up to him.
Then I shoved my palm into his stomach and poured what energy I had left into it.
Pyre sort of grunt-coughed, and his eyes went wide as a giant blade of fire burst from his back, impaling him on my flame sword. I sagged, only able to hold it for a few seconds before my reserves ran out, and I wavered in exhaustion. I pushed him away, and he staggered back.
“You were like a brother to me,” I whispered, watching him die.
There was no pain for him. The sword had cauterized his insides, burning away nerve endings before they could register the agony a real blade would have caused. All that was left was the shock of the moment, and for him to fade away.
“I did … what I thought … was best … for the throne,” Pyre said, his life swiftly fading. “And I would do it again!”
Fresh fire somehow came to life in his palm. I stared, stunned he had that much fight left in him. It was almost impressive how determined he was—
Ari landed on top of him with a heavy thud, her claws crushing him flat.
“Will you take this thing off my back?” she whined. “I cannot fly properly with such a load.”
“Did you just call me fat?” Dela challenged as she hopped down from Ari eagerly. “I know you didn’t just do that. I’ll have you know that this is the worst service I’ve ever received on an airline. If you had a manager, I’d leave a complaint.”
I stared at the two of them, unsure if I should start tearing them both a new one or thanking Ari.
When Dela reached me, I settled for the third option of lifting her in the air with a relieved laugh and proceeding to smother her mouth with mine, kissing her as thoroughly as I’d wanted to since the instant she let the elevator doors close in my face.
“Gross,” Ari said. “Kissing a human.”
“My name,” Dela said, pulling free of my arms and stalking up to the dragon, “is Dela.”
Then she bopped Ari on the nose and came back to me. I stared, dumbfounded, unsure of what to do for the second time in as many minutes.
“Did she just bop me on the nose?” Ari asked, equally shocked.
“I think so,” I said, coughing. Then I coughed again. And again.
“Are you okay?” Dela asked, hovering over me.
“He’s fine,” Ari said with a sigh, spreading her wings. “He’s just laughing at me.”
With my cover blown, I stood straight and howled with laughter until tears streamed down my face.
“S-sh-sh-she just w-walked up to you, and, with her, and your, the nose, and her hand, she just, just boop!” I cackled through the peals of laughter. It fucking hurt from all the wounds I’d suffered, but it also felt so good.
“I hate my life,” Ari said without emotion and took to the sky, leaving Pyre’s broken, lifeless body behind.
Dela saw it and grew calm, which drew me away from my uncontrollable laughter.
“So, is that it?” she asked quietly, snuggling up tight to my side. “Are we done? Is it over?”
I so longed to be able to tell her yes, it was over.
That we were done, and life could return to normal.
I could hear in her question the subtle plea that she’d been through too much already and she didn’t know how much more she could take.
It hurt me not to be able to give that to her. We were close, though. So very close.
“Almost,” I forced myself to say. “There’s one last thing we have to do if we want to be together.”
“What’s that?” she asked nervously, not questioning my line about us wanting to be together, which was very relieving.
“We have to take the Test.”