TJ pushed at the sleeve of her shirt, pulling it down her shoulder as he came forward, attempting to place a kiss there.
She hissed a curse and shoved his face away with all her effort. He stumbled back only for a second, then lunged forward, kneeling in front of the couch this time, tall enough to grab her hands and still pin them over her head.
“You stop that struggling, you little bitch, or you’ll just make this worse than it has to be,” he hissed, so mad he was practically spitting.
His face was red, and his eyes were like dark, soulless sapphires. Then his expression calmed slightly as he tried to regain his composure and moved both of her hands into one of his so he could use the other to tilt up her face.
He seemed to enjoy forcing her to look at him. “I’m looking forward to seeing his face… after I do this.”
“How could you?” she yelled. “Why would you do this to him?”
He stroked her cheek. “I don’t know. Ever since I met Beck, I wanted to hurt him. I hated him for being everything I wasn’t. Strong. Tough. Bigger than everyone. Able to take whatever he wanted.”
She sucked in a breath, pausing in her struggling to listen and catch her next wind.
“And then on top of it, that fake-nice personality, even toward worthless humans like he made friends with in that town. It wasn’t enough for Beck to be the biggest. The most powerful. The strongest. He had to be the nicest. The one everyone liked.”
“You were jealous!” She gasped. “That’s all this was all this time? You were trying to destroy him because you could never be half the man, or dragon, he is!” She kicked out at him, but he dodged back, keeping his hold on her arms.
He grinned. “I’m twice the dragon he is. I outsmart that big doof all the time. He thinks I like him. As if a sophisticated man like me could like a backwoods piece of trash like Beck. I do have fun messing with him. Putting him in his place.” TJ grinned malevolently, delightedly, like someone thinking about their favorite meal in the world. “I love crushing him and seeing despair on that big, stupid face—”
“You’re sick!” She kicked out again, swinging her body side to side and fighting his grip as he once again regained his hold on her chin and forced her to look into his horrible dark-blue eyes.
Like wells into empty space with no stars.
“What good is it being a rain dragon like me?” TJ sneered, bringing his lips closer. “Healing. Soothing. Helping the crops. I wanted to fight. I wanted to be powerful. And I do feel powerful when I trick Beck, when I hurt him.” TJ grinned, his mouth only a breath from hers now. “And I will feel most powerful when I take you from him and completely break him once and for all.”
Her absolute rage at TJ’s words filled Sierra with strength she’d never felt before, and she kicked out as hard as she could with both legs, catching TJ in the midsection and sending him stumbling, the wind knocked out of him.
Not bad for a human, she thought as she scrambled for the door.
But TJ caught her around the waist, and she screamed as he lifted her, dragged her to the couch, and threw her down on it, raising his hand in the air as though he were going to hit her to try and subdue her.
And then she did it. She screamed even though she knew no one was around for miles to hear her.
She screamed to break his eardrums and to show she wouldn’t go down without a fight in this world.
She screamed at the thought that she might not be able to tell Beck what she knew about TJ if she didn’t survive this fight.
But she wasn’t able to scream long before TJ cursed and shoved a wet, sweaty hand over her mouth.
She tried to pull it off, but the sound of wood cracking and hinges tearing distracted both of them as the front door of the cabin disappeared, revealing a furious, hard-breathing Beck.
Beck tossed aside the broken door, and his eyes took only milliseconds to assess the situation. He stepped forward furiously, stopping in shock as TJ released Sierra and turned to face Beck.
Beck’s face went white beneath his beard, and he looked over in confusion at Sierra. “Why, TJ?” he asked his friend. “Sierra, are you okay?” He started to walk toward her, but TJ stepped in between them, pushing Beck back with a firm hand on his shoulder.
Beck grabbed his hand and threw it off, trying to go around him again.
But TJ moved faster and prevented Beck from getting any closer.
Sierra was just so glad to see him. She had no idea how he’d gotten there or how he’d heard her, but she knew that now that he was here, she was safe.
She felt bad about what he was going to learn about TJ, but she knew it was finally time he faced the true betrayal of his so-called friend.
TJ sighed, cocking his head and pushing Beck another step back from Sierra. “I thought you’d be drunk longer. You always go moping and flying around in dragon form when something’s wrong.”
Beck still looked frozen from shock, his eyes moving quickly from TJ to Sierra. “TJ, let me see my mate. I need to get to her.”
TJ shook his head slowly. “I thought I’d have time to take your mate before I got to watch you understand my betrayal as you were slowly, terribly killed by basilisks. But I’ll accept watching you die by them all the same.”
Beck’s eyes went wide. “You can’t!”
TJ just shrugged as thunder cracked like gunfire overhead, and rain began to pour heavily all around them. “I can. I did once before too. It was funny, watching the mud go down over that town after I’d made it rain long enough in dragon form. It was nice feeling powerful. Drowning out their screams, knowing in the end, I stood the victor. Almost as good as the feeling when I told you it was you instead. Almost as good as knowing that, even though you almost made it to happiness, I came just in time to stop you.”
TJ smirked as the rain began to pour even heavier.
Past the doorway, Sierra could swear she could see something rising out of the ground in the darkness, past the open door and the windows.
Something enormous. Something moving the ground around it.
Something that should be impossible.
Just outside the bounds of her ranch, it rose like a dark mountain in the moonlight, covered in craggy rocks.
As it continued to rise up and up, gigantic, Sierra wondered if she were losing her mind.
Or if this was real and they all might be about to die.
22
Beck stood locked in place for a moment, watching with rage as the realization dawned on him that one of the only men he trusted had betrayed him so long ago.
And then had the audacity to lay a finger on his mate.
Outside, the rain fell in unending waves as the basilisk continued to rise from the ground, awoken from its slumber by the rain and wet earth.
And from the sound of it, it was even bigger than the one Beck had fought the day Sierra had saved him. So large it seemed to fill the sky above as lightning cracked, casting its gigantic, reptilian outline into bright relief for a breath of a moment.
Its footsteps were getting closer.
TJ backed away from Beck, using the moment of distraction to pull Sierra with him. “She’s coming with me while you fight that thing. It’ll be fun watching you get buried by that monster.”
Beck’s hand flew out, catching TJ by the throat. TJ choked, but his smile just widened.