Chapter 10
~Vaxan~
The battle raged on.
My focus was razor-sharp.
My reflexes were lethally precise.
And my instincts were at the peak of my primal sensory perception.
I was most definitely back in top form.
Not just physically, which was only half the battle for one such as me, but mentally also.
I had control.
I had power.
The space reverberated with magical intensity.
Liber Pugna, which translated to “free fight” or “unrestrained battle”, was the section inside Combat Conclave where students could spar at will.
Sparks of power all around reflected off the black tile walls.
The floor was scuffed and scorched from recent battle. Very recent battle—the very one that I was immersed in now.
A vampire was sprawled at my feet, grunting as he waited to heal from a broken femur and a dislocated shoulder.
A Shadowmancer was a few feet from him, her long purple hair fanned across the stone as she lay there panting with her magic having been compromised by my petrification.
I stood in the center of it all, my left hand extended with my venom streaming in a sharp, controlled arc at a kneeling sorcerer struggling to hold it off.
To my right, I countered the assault from a Light Fae mid-air, her caramel-colored stream solidifying into brittle gray stone.
I thrust my palm forward and her stream shattered to dust, the impact sending her careening several feet back and jarring against the far wall.
Just as I was about to dispose of the sorcerer, my primal senses registered a new presence. Somebody teleporting in and materializing swiftly.
That familiar coconut scent washed over me most appetizingly just a second before I felt the air move. I spun into the arrival, and snatched the fist coming at me, looking upon her in the very next moment.
Evira Vortimer.
Her eyes were glowing with her ice-blue power, a devilish smile playing on her lips.
“You wish to play with me, dragon princess?”
A growl rumbled forth. “Unless you plan to hold back like all the others. Most won’t even take me on.”
Yes, because of who she was. Well, more insultingly to her, who her father was. Draven Vortimer, High Regent of the Dracoryn Realm.
“I wouldn’t insult you, Crown Heir.”
In the next moment, I exerted more power upon the sorcerer, sending a blast through the stream that overpowered his magic, careened into him, and knocked him unconscious, wherein he dropped to the floor in a heap.
Then I shoved Evira back with my hold on her.
She stumbled for merely one step, before launching herself at me, and running me into the wall behind him, her draconic strength cracking it and winding me dearly.
It would have been much worse if my scales hadn’t rushed to the surface just before the moment of impact.
“Nice,” she breathed as she fisted her hands in my black sparring tank, and noted the black and citrine serpentine armor now covering my body.
“I believe it is only fair with your dragon hide.”
She leaned in and growled, “You still might not survive me, mighty lord.”
I smiled at her endearment.
I certainly hadn’t expected that.
Although I’d noticed her interest in me, I hadn’t foreseen this brazenness from her.
She’d certainly been spending a lot of quality time with Zayn and he was impacting her…
in a positive way, shockingly. While Evira was forthright and brash in other ways, that hadn’t extended to any sort of sexual situation beforehand. Things had clearly altered there.
“Still up for it?” she asked, sweeping a heated gaze the length of me.
“Was that a double entendre, Evira?”
“Don’t know what you’re getting at,” she teased.
“Hmm. So that’s how you wish to play it?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Maybe.”
My eyes morphed to their serpentine form and I hissed, my forked tongue incidentally darting out. “So be it.”
I thrust my knee up into her gut.
It did absolutely no damage—as I’d expected.
But it did have her reacting with one hand instinctively to slap it away.
And that was when I employed my actual move, ripping her other arm off me while she was mid-reaction, then slamming my palm into her chest with a power thrust of kinetic energy forced through my body.
It sent her stumbling back.
I grinned when she recovered in mere seconds, then came at me.
We met in the middle as she threw her cement-block fist, and I evaded it by ducking low, then delivering a harsh uppercut to her jaw, then using the momentum as she launched another blow to spin around and sweep my boot at the back of her left leg.
It ripped it out from under her, and she landed on her right knee with a rough thud.
A snarl escaped her.
She most certainly didn’t like being on her knees.
It was a sentiment I also shared.
With one exception—something Winter had enabled me to realize.
And something I was greatly looking forward to after our date night, as he had come to refer to it.
“You’re holding back.”
“If I wasn’t, you’d be dead.”
“Ah, so that’s the issue.”
“Issue?” she asked, pushing back to her feet, then beautifully calling her glacial magic to either palm and readying herself against me.
“You holding back isn’t a one-time occurrence.
I witnessed the same from you when you intervened in the battle between Zayn and Keuric during the party in The Caverns.
You hesitated, which was when I stepped in.
Now the root cause is clear. You are afraid of the effect your strength and power will have upon others. ”
“That’s not—”
“Was that even the case when you punished Keuric?”
She jolted. “You know about that? Winter told you?”
“Yes. He was conflicted about what he’d stood by and allowed to happen. Yet, also proud of what you accomplished that day.”
“He… talks about me to you?”
“Of course. He talks about all those he adores.”
She frowned. “We’re friendly now, but that’s all there is. There’s no… adoration.”
“If you say so.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what, dragon princess?”
“That reverse psychology thing… or whatever… psychology it is. That thing where you call something out, the person doesn’t accept it, then you seem to back off but really you’re leaving it hanging there and forced to be analyzed by them.”
Hmm. She was remarkable.
“Is that what I do?”
She glared. “You know it is.”
I snapped my palms up and called my citrine power.
“Humor me if you wish to continue sparring. We will use magic, rather than hand-to-hand combat, so you do not need to worry about your draconic strength unleashing without full control. You hesitated with your magic before, try not to do that here.”
She shifted her weight uneasily.
“Unless you pity me after what you were obviously told by Zayn regarding my situation.” I eyed those opponents of mine still conscious and flashed my eyes at her, indicating that I couldn’t allow them to know the details of what had transpired.
She gave a reassuring nod. “I actually admire how quickly you bounced back.” She gestured at the temporarily fallen. “Although, this is definitely a reaction to that.”
“I am well aware.”
“So long as you are, it’ll be fine. Just you working through it, right? But fully aware.”
“Precisely.”
Her lips twitched ever so slightly, giving her away.
And in the very next moment, she thrust two streams of her glacial magic at me.
I was prepared, countering with my citrine power, our magic colliding, the both of us grunting.
Her power was staggering. Within moments, it was forcing me back, my boots scraping the stone floor for purchase.
The fierce beauty smirked.
Wariness played on her features in the next breath as she noted me doing the same.
And then I invoked my petrification along both dueling streams, cutting into hers, as I turned them to chalky stone.
Hmm. It should be solid stone, not this chalky substance that had occurred when I’d battled against Christalyn’s Celestial power during class many days ago.
Dragon magic, especially that belonging to one so young, shouldn’t be putting up anything resembling that much of a fight.
Her power was much more than met the eye.
I pushed harder, managing to turn a portion of the right stream to stone. Just a portion, however.
She gritted her teeth, her magic flaming wildly, and my hands shook as I fought to hold it at bay and not give up further ground.
I activated my venom, fueling it into the left stream.
Her eyes widened, then a rush of ice swept down our joined magic and drove into mine, pushing along the line, past the point of contact, and coming for me.
She was freezing my venom, then driving more power forward in a bid to annihilate my stream.
It wasn’t painful, though.
In fact, where her ice assaulted my venom, it was a soothing, cool blast sweeping through my very being, eliciting an oddly peaceful sensation.
I looked to see her eyes hooding. Was she aroused by the feel of my venom touching her magic?
A throat cleared, jarring the both of us.
We both pulled our power back, extinguishing our streams, and dropping our hands.
Then I turned to see who I’d just scented.
He was leaning against the doorway as he looked on curiously with a raised eyebrow.
“Winter,” I greeted.
“Hey,” Evira spoke, shaking out her hands.
“That was quite the erotic battle.” His gaze swept over my bested opponents from earlier, then he eyed me. “Is that how you engaged with all of them?”
“Would that vex you, little death?”
He stared at me for a moment.
Then his eyes sparkled. “You didn’t,” he realized.
“Of course not.”
He looked between Evira and I, but didn’t comment on it. Although I saw him look her over in her little silver sports bra and pastel-blue yoga pants.
He wouldn’t comment on it, because he liked it.
He liked my interest in her, because it made things easier.
It was a way he could keep her close without him actually having to act on his desire for her directly.
He was afraid to, afraid of hurting her, because of the political complications on her end if they took things beyond their one special night together.
So this was all he had.