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Nothing.
I allow Inchel to catch up. Feigning right, I shoot to the left, dragging my tail across his snout. Blood sprays across his face, and he shakes his head.
Still no Tatha.
I find Syphe in the crowd. Her copper scales almost blend in with the rocks in the early evening dusk. Aiming for her, I’m distracted, and Inchel spears into me from the left. Grabbing my ankle, he drags me back, but I keep my eyes on Syphe. She tilts her head, trying to discern what my eyes are begging her to understand.
Inchel’s wings give out, and he pulls me down with him. Still, I don’t break eye contact with Syphe. Inchel turns so I’m under him when the ground slams into me. My left wing snaps, and his hind talons drive into my thighs as his front claws slam into my chest.
Syphe’s eyes go round, and she breaks eye contact to look around.
Yes, please. Find her.
Inchel leans over. “I will make sure she’s taken care of.”
I throw my head back and roar. She’s mine!
My claws sink into his chest, and my talons scrape against the bone of his ribs. He screams in pain, snapping his teeth at me. He glances to my right, and I follow his gaze. A rust-brown dragon nods almost imperceptibly at Inchel before making eye contact with a coral-scaled dragon. She nods at Inchel who then grins back at me. “She will die if you kill me, Kemremir.”
I mean to pull back, but instead I sink my claws deeper into his chest. My dragon is pushing my human mind aside. All it wants is its Mate. My claws search for Inchel’s heart, and I fight against myself.
She needs me to buy her time.
But my dragon shoves me aside. Shadows rip from my body, shooting down Inchel’s nostrils, sealing his airway. I pull him closer, slamming my other claw into his neck, tearing scales, shredding muscle.
Movement catches my eye, and I catch the rust-brown dragon moving away through the crowd, turning toward the castle. Inchel leans into me. “Will you die for her? I can still stop Errot. Tatha can live.”
I can no longer see Errot’s rusty scales, and the coral dragon grins at me from the sidelines.
My dragon cries out for his Mate. The gentle flutter of our bond is weaker. My claws tighten, scrapping against bone, and tearing muscle, but my head falls back. Inchel snaps his jaws around my throat as one of my talons pierces his heart. We both freeze, and the theater goes silent.
Has Syphe gone to find Tatha? Will she be okay?
The driving instinct to shred Inchel’s heart trembles through my muscles. I need to kill him.
I can’t. I can’t take the chance.
Inchel’s muffled voice laughs from his hold on my throat. “Release me, Kemermir. Your reign is over, but she will live.”
My dragon lets go. This is how we save her.
I call up Tatha’s image, her beautiful face smiling in my mind as Inchel’s jaw tightens.
15
TATHA
My dragon stirs, her power thrashing through me the angrier we get.
A single knock on the door is followed by the click of the lock and the slide of the bar. The door squeaks as it opens, and a voice whispers, but I can’t catch the words. Once the door is secured again, the second man calls out to the guard, “The Challenge has begun. It won’t be long now.”
I’m out of time.
The guard sighs. “Thank the gods.”
“Relax, you’ll get paid, and the new King will make sure you are most … comfortable once he takes the throne.”
Hoping their attention is on each other, I slide my eyes open to small slits. The room is just as small as I thought. Maybe twenty paces square. I can’t shift in here without breaking several bones. What good will I be to Kem if my body breaks against these walls?
