As if the blow had been nothing more than an inconvenient jab, he charged for her, swinging his sword. She dodged. Parried. He disappeared.
Her whispers guided her to the left.
She turned.
Met his blade.
Again.
Again.
It was never-ending, and the sounds of battle around them didn’t cease either.
She needed the upper hand.
Needed to find his weakness.
She parried his blade, slashed out, and pivoted in time to meet his next blow. Her eyes dipped to the symbol at his lapels: a dragon encircled in a ball of flame.
She smirked. “Interesting sigil, considering no dragon would have you.”
He bared his teeth in a dark grin. “Every dragon in El’Ara will heed my commands once I’m Morkaius. They won’t be subject to the prejudices of their former masters.”
“The fact that you call a dragon’s bonded counterpart theirmastershows just how little you know about dragons in the first place. They would never respect you.”
He disappeared.
Reappeared to her right. She met his blade with hers.
“Because I’m impure?” he said through his teeth. “A half-blood? An imperfect specimen, a stain on your precious, stagnant way of life?”
“No,” Ailan said with a smirk. “Turns out, dragons don’t have a problem with humans.”
His expression faltered.
She swung her blade, feinted left, then thrust with one of the talons.
He disappeared before it could do more than slice his torso.
Ailan whirled around just as he reappeared behind her. They exchanged blows, their swords clanging, the sound ringing through her ears.
“They’ve accepted her,” she said, her smirk widening, darkening. “She has already succeeded at more than you ever have. More than you ever could.”
He scoffed. “Are you talking about the human mother?”
“You complain about being judged for your human blood, but do you even hear the way you speak about your own kind? You don’t respect humans any more than most of the Elvyn do. How does it feel to hate everything you are? To hate both sides of your bloodline so fiercely?”
“It feels like power,” he said, slashing his sword against her breastplate.
Unlike his, her armor didn’t crumple. It did, however, make her stumble back at the force. She regained her footing and took up a defensive stance.
He spoke again. “I am better than both sides of my bloodline. I am the future of two worlds. Do not mistake my confidence for self-hatred, for I know my worth. You’re the one who has always underestimated me. Undervalued me.”
“You never once gave me a reason to hold in you any regard.”
“And that shall be your downfall. You say the human mother has bonded a dragon?”
Ailan pursed her lips. Mareleau hadn’t exactlybondeda dragon yet, but she had earned Ferrah’s respect. Not that Darius needed to know that.
