Did I challenge her?
“We’ve been asked to join the fight against Lazza and the Vow, but the petitioner is untested and therefore unworthy. How can we followthatinto battle? Sacrifice our lives and our futures for someone who won’t even claim her mates!”
The crowd boos and shouts out their anger, and my mouth drops open. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, lady,” I snap at Cree.
Apparently, my mouth gives no fucks, because I just pop off. And what’s weirder is as soon as I open my mouth, the crowd quiets, which means every word that slips off my tongue is heard loud and clear.
“Do I not?” Cree counters. “Your scent isn’t on them, you don’t sleep in the same place, you left them in a dangerous situation with not a care in the world about what we might do to them, you offer them to other females. Why would we fight for someone who looks at us and our ways so heartlessly?” she demands.
I see red at her words, and the next thing I know I’m jumping down into the ring too. I hear the guys shouting my name, but I ignore it. There is no fucking way I’m going to get painted as the bad guy here. Fuck this bitch.
“I did not offer them to other females, I said I don’t own them or their decisions,” I shout out as I close the distance between me and Cree. “You don’t know shit about me. Those fuckers have walked all over me, lied, withheld information, blamed me for shit I have no control over, and destroyed any kind of connection we could have ever had together. If that’s the kind of shit you and your people value, then fuck you,” I snarl at her and then turn to our audience. “But you know what, I’m still going to break the Vow and do what I promised to do, regardless of the fucked up ways any of you see the world.”
I turn back to Cree and continue my rant. “You want a fight, you got one, but let’s keep it real, it’s not because you’re standing up for some kind of code. You’re a bitch with a chip on your shoulder and nothing more.”
Pigeon wing fives me, proud of my little speech. Excitement flashes through her as I start to untie my pants and strip down like Cree is. She’s probably going to kill me, but I don’t even care anymore. I’m tired of being pushed around. If I die, I’ll still fulfill my promise. All I know is, there better be a massive burger waiting for me in heaven...with bacon on it and a pool full of fries.
“Maybe we have a worthy opponent on our hands after all,” Cree declares, and then in a blink, she explodes into a massive fog gray gryphon with bright purple eyes.
“Alright, Pidge, this is all you?”
Pigeon rips out of my chest like a freight train, and we’re attacking before the change from me to her is fully complete. I forgot how utterly fearless she is when she fights, and I clap and cheer her on when Cree rears back in surprise.
She promptly gryphon slaps us into next week, but the element of surprise was good while it lasted. Pigeon shakes it off and flips back at her again, like some bouncy ball of feathers and promised pain, ricocheting around the pit, taking hits, but doling them out too.
We’re fast, and Cree doesn’t quite know what to do with our manic advances. It seemsballs to the wallis not the fight setting she’s used to facing. I can feel her studying Pigeon. Like a cat watching a fly, just biding their time before they...pounce.
All at once, Pigeon and I are flying sideways through the air until we slam into the edge of the pit. Cree just swatted us like we were nothing more than an annoying mosquito. The crowd around us roars their approval, and Pigeon and I scramble to our feet just in time to take the full weight of Cree pouncing on us.
She shoves us to the ground, and Pigeon roars out in pain and frustration as claws rake down our back. She’s toying with us. Pigeon and I are in no position to overtake her, but she’s not done having her fun. Cree digs her talons under one of our wings and wrenches it back hard. We scream at the same time she trumpets glee.
Rage builds inside of me as Cree starts to pick at us with her beak, her other talon-tipped hand working to get under our other wing. She wants to break us as badly as she can before ending this. I can feel the lesson she wants to stamp all over this pit with our blood, and defiance surges through me. Pigeon is lost to the pain, and it takes her a long time to register the words I’m screaming at her.
“Shift, Pidge! Let me out!”I demand, ignoring the confusion and concern that flickers through her before Cree’s back paws dig into our flank. It feels like she’s trying to rip us in half.
“Pidge, shift!”I bellow at her again, and this time she chucks the reins at me, and I pull her back inside of me.
Cree is a million times heavier when I’m me than what she felt like on top of Pigeon, but I don’t waste any time before I unleash the power that is damming up inside of me. I scream as it pulses out of my body in purple waves, the blast shoving Cree off my back and across the pit.
I let go of control of our body and shove Pigeon back out, and in a stride, we explode into our gryphon form and leap for Cree. She’s quick and rolls to the right, kicking out at us as she does. But we get our claws in her chest and tear at her as we’re shoved away. We scramble back and both get to our feet, cautiously assessing for a minute before charging toward each other again.
“Shift, Pidge!”I scream out, and she does without question, just as Cree rears up ready to do everything she can to knock our head off our shoulders.
Just like we used to practice back in the fields around Kestrel City, Pigeon gets sucked back into our core, leaving me to run right at a fucking monster. I skid like I’m stealing home base and punch out with my fists like I’m hoping my power will right hook her into oblivion. Panic rips through me though when no purple power of doom shoots out of my hands, and instead I find myself gripping some kind of weapon in both my palms.
Time slows as I skid closer to Cree, the hilt of two swords in my hands. Only they’re not swords exactly, because the blades look broken.
Fuck.
Where the gleaming metal of a sword blade should exist, it looks more like interconnecting vertebrae. Only instead of bones making up the unusual spine-like appearance, sharp pieces of metal interlock with each other. I flick my wrist, testing out the weird weapon, and the metal pieces suddenly move like a whip. Shock punches through me when my innocuous wrist flick sends the blade pieces snapping out and burying themselves in Cree’s descending arm.
She screams and instantaneously yanks her hand back, and the weird whip-sword blades dig into her flesh even deeper. Astonished, I’m still holding on to the handles as the blades of the whip grow taught from her reeling back, and I’m suddenly flung to the side and then up into the air. The handles of the weapons are wrenched from my grip, and I immediately release my hold on our body so that Pigeon can once again come surging forward.
She bends us and flips us midair, using our aching wings to right our trajectory so we’re no longer flying away but barreling right for Cree again. Her arm is mangled and bleeding, and she clutches it closely to her chest as we charge into her with all our might.
A large crack bounces off the walls of the pit as our massive feather- and fur-covered bodies collide, and Pigeon snaps out and digs her sharp beak into Cree’s shoulder. Momentum has us both ping-ponging off the pit wall, and we’re all claws, snarls, and hooked beaks as we tear at each other.
Somehow Cree gets us on our back, and as she snaps for our face, I feel Pigeon recede again.
