Page 82 of Dream Reaper

They were preparing to spring.

“Why, thank you for asking,” Ava replied in something akin to a croon. “Why don’t we demonstrate?”

Jerrid’s hand began to itch. “Oh no.”

He rubbed furiously at the back of his knuckles, instinct forcing him to clamp down on the shift, to hold it back, to suppress it. A familiar, burning pain exploded up his arm. The pain lanced up his arm, but when he reached to clamp down on his own wrist…

His hand curled around bare flesh. Wait. If Dragon was in Ava, why did Jerrid’s skin feel like it was about to explode into scales? Why was he feeling the shift when it wasn’t even happening to him?

Because he had definitely felt it, that burning itch up his arm, from fingertips to shoulder. By now, his nails should have elongated into claws, his arm breaking out in sharp, armored scales. And yet…

There was nothing.

His gaze flew to Ava as she swung back her right arm, an arm clothed in glittering dragon scales. Jerrid’s own arm twitched and swung, outside his control, mimicking her motion as she lashed out at Talos. The dark elf yelped and staggered backward.

As she spun to reposition herself for another attack, Jerrid also did the motion several feet behind her, as if he were somehow tied to her, a puppet on a string.

Talos hurled a half-formed firebolt at them, but Ava—and Dragon—knocked it aside with the back of their armored hand. Jerrid ground his teeth together as he felt the heat and impact against his own knuckles.

They launched themselves toward Talos, Jerrid fighting madly to pull them back. He imagined himself catching hold of Dragon’s arm and yanking it backward.

In front of him, Ava’s arm swung away from Talos, her body stumbling backward in a mimic of Jerrid’s own bumbling movements. Yes! It was working. His pulse thrummed more quickly as Ava shot a foul look over her shoulder.

She jerked back the reins of control and went after Talos again, ducking to avoid his swiping, flaming fist. She delivered a swift punch to his soft belly with her armored hand.

“Stay out of this, Jerrid!” she yelled at him while he tried—unsuccessfully—to wrench away her control again.

But he ground his teeth together as he spun in time with them, kicking out at an invisible opponent. No way in Rhuin would he be plucked about like a puppet. This was his body. This was his dragon, for crying out loud.

“Give him back!” he yelled, staggering as Ava took a blow to the stomach.

But she merely dove for Talos again as another fireball flew over their heads. Around them, the women and girls erupted into cheers, egging Ava on. The antagonism of earlier seemed to have vanished entirely in the face of a common foe.

And there was Ava, hair streaming behind her with dragon scale armor now encasing both arms, an angel of vengeance fighting on their behalf, while Jerrid stumbled around like a drunken fool.

Only yourself to blame, the shadow whispered. She’s always been stronger than you. They both are. Look at them. They’re glorious. And you… You’re nothing…

Jerrid ground his teeth together as her body reshaped itself into a new fighting stance. Pain began to burn behind his shoulder blades, twin peaks of fire…

Oh no.

“Dragon, no!”

But nobody was listening to him.

Before his horrified eyes, two slits appeared in the back of Ava’s dress moments before his wings snaked out of her body, lashing out to both sides and making her look more like a dark devil than an avenging angel.

Gasps erupted from the humans, and even Talos had the good sense his mother had bequeathed him to stumble backward in a furious panic.

Roar began to jump up and down and howl at the top of his lungs: “Look at her! She is a dark queen, mum! Get him! Knock him down! Poke him in the eye!”

As if she had heard him and intended to oblige, Ava whipped her right wing, aiming the sharp point along one of the wing bones straight for Talos’s face. He mouthed a foul curse and batted the wing aside, ducking and rolling out of her reach as he staggered farther away from the camp.

Jerrid felt the pain of the blow to his invisible wing, the connection between him and Ava so strong that every blow she suffered reverberated through his own body. Ava seemingly experienced no pain, pressing her advantage as she and Dragon redoubled their attack. Didn’t she realize she was giving him exactly what he wanted?

That she was losing herself to him?

“You need to stop, Ava!” he bellowed as he raced after them on unwilling feet.