Torion and I leaned back at the same moment, and he nodded, as if he'd heard the word too. "Wait for me," he said, brow furrowing, lips parting as if to correct that, as if to tell me to run if I needed to.
"I will," I answered before he could say anything else.
And then a glossy charcoal gray and black dragon landed before us, sleek and lethal, gleaming and glittering with the shadows of the rest of Skybern's dragons churning above us. I assumed this was Worthington, as elegant as one might expect of the metropolis's alpha, but Torion frowned and stepped forward, tipping his head shallowly in greeting.
"What does he want, Reeves? To start a war?" Torion called, a deeper resonance filling his throat and chest, the authority of his alpha taking over.
The jet dragon shuddered, and the air shimmered like an oil spill, wind spiralling as the beast was replaced with a young man who looked as slumberous and dangerous as his dragon but wasnotDamian Worthington.
"Bennett Reeves," Ronson informed me in an undertone. "Rumor is he's Worthington's half-brother, and presumably right hand."
"Presumably?" I asked, not taking my eyes off Skybern's beta mouthpiece.
Ronson and Niall exchanged a glance, and Niall shrugged. "We're not so sure of his motives, but perhaps we're not meant to be. Time will tell."
"If he has to," Bennett Reeves answered, just loud enough to carry to us. A few more of our local dragons shifted in preparation, and Bennett's eyes skipped over them, likely doing the same obvious math we had.
"Then he's a coward," Torion said, looking up to the sky and making sure his words carried. Above us, a large dragon roared its objection. "Counting on others to conquer where he cannot."
I understood Niall and Ronson's uncertainty about this beta, as something in his eyes softened with amusement and he did something that couldalmostbe considered a nod. Still, he remained silent.
"Ground your army and face me as you ought to, Worthington," Torion shouted up to the largest dragon in the sky, who hovered with his wings beating cold air onto us. "Alpha to alpha, in challenge. Or go down in history as thesnakeyou are."
I shuddered at the answering roar, the way it made my skin crawl and my stomach turn restlessly. Impatient clawing in my chest wanted to answer that aggression and I stepped back, catching the eye of Bennett Reeves, any humor he might've exhibited now vanishing beneath blatant calculation.
"The Alpha of Skybern is here to help Grave Hills," Bennett Reeves said, in something like a monotone. "Lord Worthington has concerns over the perversion of tradition taking place here and…elsewhere."
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean, Reeves?" Ronson snarled, moving to bolt forward before his brother caught him by the shoulder.
Reeves ignored him. "With Skybern's leadership, Grave Hills would be cleansed of the questionable changes brought about in dragonkin society."
Rage bloomed in me, hot in my throat, my eyes on fire and my nails digging into my palms like claws. I snarled openly at the beta, baring my teeth like an animal.
"I'll see you dead first," Torion said to the sky, his wings spreading. "You're a half rate alpha. You've stood in your position this long because you're a useful tool for others. Fang to fang, wing to wing, you don't stand a chance of holding your succession."
Reeves's head ducked, and I knew he was smiling now. Above us, the Alpha of Skybern roared once more and took a dive down to the ground, headed directly for my mate.
Bastard, I thought. I was sick of these damn men. I was sick of hearing abouttraditions. So called traditions that hadn't lasted half as long as the ones before them. Traditions that served betas and no one else. Traditions that made girls like me disposable to the men around them.
I loved Torion. I loved my life with him. But I would've given anything to change how I was raised, how I'd lived before finding my mate, and I would die before I would see Tylane grow up in that same world.
Damian Worthington's dragon glittered like a jewel, arrowing down to Torion, who flexed, already starting histransformation. They would meet in the air above us, blood and claw and wing.
Would I really stand here on the ground and watch it happen? Was I a coward too, even after everything I'd faced already? Would I raise my daughter to stand on the sidelines too?
No.
All right,I thought, with something like surrender and something like welcome. All right. Come to me.
My dragon answered with a joyous scream of freedom, my head thrown back as I startled the men around me. Not Bennett Reeves, though. He grinned with dragon sharp teeth and then whistled to the sky. As my body blazed and grew and rose into the air, almost half of Skybern's battalion of dragons twisted in the air and began their retreat.
They didn't matter. The dragons of Grave Hills readying for flight behind me didn't matter. I dove up toward the sky, finding the air beneath my wings refreshing and shockingly natural, and darted for the iridescent dark dragon aiming himself toward my mate.
Weak, my dragon observed cooly as Worthington caught sight of me and reared back.
"Brigid!" Torion cried, his own transformation halting at the sight of mine. "Brigid, no!"
But it was too late. I met the large, lazy dragon in midair, catching its throat in my jaws, my long body whipping itself back and forth to dig my fangs in, jerk it side to side. When his claws reached for me in retaliation, I released him and darted away.
