“You fight better than your mother,” he taunts, darting away from me. But my teeth already found their mark and the rip of his wing twists my stomach.
Aeronel bellows his pain, his right wing flapping harder as he tries to stabilize his flight. I narrow my eyes, my opportunity clear.
As I slam into the murderer, he roars. My claws reach out for his weakness. I’ll pull his heart directly from his body for everything he’s done. Just as I begin to scrape the scales, his claws lock with mine and we spiral through the air.
“Fool,” he bellows. “You should have stayed in your mountain, Niressa.”
Our heads clash together, each of us trying to reach the other’s neck. I miss, my teeth instead sinking into his shoulder as his graze my wing. “You killed them,” I hiss.
“Your parents were meddlesome beasts just like you,” he snaps as we plummet to the ground.
I roll, pivoting our bodies so Aeronel hits the ground first. The impact breaks the hold between our claws, and I roll across the ground, groaning as my injured wing scrapes against the grassy hill.
Behind us, the castle is nearly engulfed in flames. As I limp toward Aeronel’s still body, a shadow darkens the ground around me. “Anaka,” I snarl, turning my eyes to the sky.
Aeronel’s tail twitches and I rush toward him as fast as I can, a promise for death spilling from my mouth. Fire coats the ground around us. Mine. Anaka’s. I’m not sure whose. As I push through the flames, the large golden dragon comes into view.
My vision swims and I shake my head. The wound on my neck is still bleeding, but it will heal. It’s not a killing blow. As I near Aeronel, his labored breaths are the first thing I notice. Quickly, before Anaka can interfere, I rush toward the dragon king, my claw raised to strike his weakness from his chest when a roar meets my ears.
“Lay one talon on him and I will tear your little pet limb from limb.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The dragon—Anna—whatever she is, hovers midair, bringing her claws—and me—up in front of her as she blasts flames over my head toward Niressa.
Niressa pauses, her claw pressed against the golden dragon’s ribs. My heart pounds in my ears as Anna’s claws tighten around me. I don’t want to die. There’s no part of me that’s willing to die for whatever issue the dragons have suddenly taken with Vanir.
The Izvoras are dragons . . .
Of all the reasons people have imagined for why Izvora has never come to a jubilee or visited any neighboring courts, never did anyone ever guess that they were dragons.
I watch as Niressa turns around, her tail whipping back and forth as she levels her gaze on the dragon holding me hostage. “Let her go, Anaka.”
Anna . . . Anaka . . . I shake my head, struggling to break free of the claws holding me. Aeron can’t possibly be so offended that my father declined his request for a marriage contract that he’d burn all of Vanir down. This has to be something else.
For a moment, I wonder if this has something to do with the bad blood between Niressa and the golden dragons. My body aches as I twist and push against the large claw wrapped around me.
“Stop squirming,” Anna growls to me before addressing Niressa. “Step away from the king,” she snarls.
“The princess has nothing to do with this,” Niressa explains, limping away from the large golden dragon where he lays spread out on the ground. Blood coats them both. Niressa’s brilliant scales gleam in the firelight, blood dripping down her scales. There’s so much blood . . .
“She has everything to do with it,” Anna snaps. “She was meant to be our foothold in this region! A way for us to integrate into the south. You ruined that.” Anna’s grip around me tightens and I beat against her claw, crying out in pain as the sound of bone grinding against bone fills my ears.
“Let her go,” Niressa snarls, limping toward us. She spreads her wings, but when she tries to take flight, she crashes back to the earth.
“So pathetic, Niressa,” Anna coos. “You used to be so much stronger than this.”
Niressa meets my gaze and steps backward until her tail is poised over the golden dragon’s chest. “I’ll end him, I swear it by the old dragons, the Gods. I swear it by anything you believe in, Anaka. Let her go.”
The snarl that vibrates Anna’s chest moves through my body as her other claw comes around me, one long talon pressing to my throat. Tears gather in the corners of my eyes as panic takes hold. I’m going to die. Lady Anna of Izvora—a fucking dragon—is going to kill me.
Niressa glances at the large golden dragon, and I wonder for a moment if he’s already dead. He hasn’t moved. Before my thoughts spiral any further, an ear-piercing shriek fills the night air around us and a beautiful emerald dragon slams into Niressa, knocking her away from Aeron.
“Juul,” she snaps, jumping to her feet.
“Niressa,” the green dragon hisses, curving around the unconscious king’s body, as if protecting him from Niressa.
“Thank you,” Anna growls to the green dragon.
The sound of leathery wings beats around us, and Anna’s hold on me loosens. I suck in a breath as the circulation slowly returns to my battered and bruised limbs. Fresh tears prick my eyes as the pain returns along with the blood flow.
“Let the princess go, Anaka,” Niressa snarls, taking another step forward.
“Why don’t you come get her?” Anna taunts, pushing her leg forward, holding me out as an offering.
My eyes searching Niressa’s. We both know this isn’t going to end well. I can see the pain in her eyes. Things shouldn’t end like this; before we can even make up. But things hardly ever go the way they should in this life. I resume pushing against the claw wrapped around me as my gaze shifts from Niressa, to the green dragon, to all the dragons hovering around us.
“Release her, Anaka. The king’s foothold is secure,” a deep voice rumbles behind us, and Anna—Anaka—swings around to face the new dragon speaking.
My eyes go wide at the white dragon before me. Small patches of pale blue scales cover her hips and nostrils, and I wonder for a moment if she’s just patched in coloring or if this is a sign of aging for their kind.
“My brother lies on the ground, barely breathing, and you want me to release this infuriating woman?”
“Infuriating?” I scoff. Anna’s head drops staring at me with snarled up lips, smoke pouring from her nostrils as she glowers at me and I quickly close my mouth.
“Anaka,” Niressa pleads from the ground.
Anna pulls around to speak with the teal and rose dragon, her pink eyes wide with emotion I can’t begin to guess at. My heart breaks at the shimmer in her eyes, but no tears fall down her scaled muzzle.
“Release her. You’ve won,” she murmurs, her tail whipping toward a group of knights, their weapons lowered. The castle burns behind them, the fire dancing across the stones and I pray to all the Gods that Mira and Dary are safe. That my father is safe.
Anna growls, the vibration setting off a whole new wave of pain, but I don’t have long to whimper at the pain shooting through my bones. Anna’s claw disappears from around my body and I fall, careening toward the ground.