Page 85 of Dream Reaper

In fact, every muscle in his body felt weary, pulled taut like bowstrings. His left shoulder jerked hard, straining against the socket as his hand swung at a non-existent opponent. He ground his teeth together and tried to continue toward the camp, but his body wanted to move in a circle instead.

Ava had already found Talos, apparently.

Brynja shouted something he couldn’t understand as he kicked and cursed his way around a large oak tree, his boots trampling dark ferns.

Ahead of him, Ava and Talos were locked in an intense fistfight, each elf throwing and dodging punches. Ava’s dragon-scaled arms were a blur of movement, but Talos managed to keep pace with her, his glowing fists shooting off sparks as they connected with her forearms.

He kicked toward her legs, but Ava drove her fist down and deflected his knee.

He recoiled with a bellow and flung another burst of flame toward her, but it skittered harmlessly off her scales when she lifted her arm to protect her face. Her wings flared out behind her, momentarily blocking the fight from view as Jerrid slogged through the invisible bonds trying to force him to move in a circle around Talos.

He didn’t want to circle—he wanted to drive straight toward them so that he could join the fight.

You’re just a bystander. The shadow laughed, its voice like thunder against his eardrums.

Jerrid squinted against the pain, wishing he could put the shadow into a box, but if he’d failed to do it to Dragon, there was no way he could manage a monster as powerful as the shadow.

You can’t even manage to control yourself. You’ll never get rid of me.

Jerrid shook his head. No. This wasn’t going to be his lot in life.

You might as well accept it. Embrace it. Let me have control so that I can make your life better. Make you stronger. Make you invincible. You’ll be stronger than them.

He didn’t want to spend his life like this, always afraid of what he was going to do next, or who he was going to hurt.

Jerrid made it a few yards closer to the camp before Talos kicked them on the hipbone and sent them both spinning sideways. He righted himself and drove forward, hard, before Ava ripped control away again.

This time he made it within grasping distance of Talos. Since Jerrid came from behind, the dark elf never saw him coming.

But just as Jerrid stretched his fingers to catch the dark elf by the back of his tunic, Ava delivered a sharp kick that sent Talos careening out of reach. Nostrils flaring, Jerrid righted himself after his corresponding kick went uselessly wide and wrenched control of his legs free. He stumbled after Talos, determined this time to maintain control.

He needed to keep his walls high, keep her out, limit the connection to Dragon…

The connection was taut, painfully taut, but when Jerrid drew closer to them, the discomfort eased. So, if he could stay close to Ava, maybe he’d find a way to keep better control of his body. If Dragon would let them.

He imagined Dragon was enjoying this.

Talos spun abruptly and hurled a fireball straight at Ava’s chest.

Several paces behind, Jerrid had more warning and dug his feet into the ground, driving his torso forward to prepare for the blow. Ava shrieked and flew backward into his waiting arms. Jerrid felt the impact of the magic, but he stayed on his feet as she slammed into him.

He wrapped his arms around her and frantically hissed, “Let me help!”

She tore out of his arms and righted herself.

“We need to work together,” Jerrid whispered as she advanced on Talos again.

Her steps faltered and then paused. Then her hand snaked out, and her dragon fingers snapped and pointed. She wanted him to go in that direction.

He hurried to obey, circling around Talos as Ava patted out the lingering flames that had scorched her tunic.

Talos faced them, panting heavily, teeth bared. He knew he was losing this fight, but he was too stubborn to surrender. He’d go down fighting; that was certain.

“It’s over, Talos,” Ava flung at him as she and Jerrid came at him from two different directions.

He backed away, trying to keep both of them in his line of sight. “Keep telling yourself that, healer.”

“Oh, I will.”