The flames whirled in a straight shot for Roak, and his eyes went wide with disbelief as another dragon threw itself in front of my flames.
The stench of the dragon flesh hit my nostrils as the scales began to fall off. A terrible roar left its jaws as it died.
Roak didn’t care, his heart was black and his mind was lost. A terrible hatred spilled over me. I couldn't stop fighting him until he was dead. Vengeance had to be mine after what this man had put my family and Norman through.
He stepped aside, his face twisted in fury as if he finally realized exactly how I felt about him. “You will not walk out of this war!”
He shifted into his dragon form and attacked. I blew another stream of fire in his direction, but he was expecting it this time. His powerful legs launched him into the sky, and I took to the sky myself.
My leathery wings beat against the air just as the downpour hit. Large droplets of rain pelted down from the sky, making it difficult to stay up.
Roak roared as he dropped to the ground, without even trying to land a blow.
Amusement flickered through me at this feared dragon dropping from the sky over a little rain.
I swooped down right above him and spat a stream of liquid fire, catching his leg and making him shriek as a few scales burned from his leg. He bared his large fangs as my talons dug into the ground, and I pushed myself forward and struck a heavy limb at him.
Hooking another one of his scales with my talons, I dragged it to the ground as his leathery skin resisted it and finally tore.
A quick flash of his leg entered my vision before a stabbing pain shot through my chest, my magical energy seeping out from the scale he’d sliced off.
I inhaled deeply through the throbbing ache and breathed flames at him, but he dodged the stream, my fire burning what little grass was still on the ground.
My vision blurred, and my body stumbled back. I had only ever lost one scale before, and I had forgotten how much agony it was and how fast it drained magical energy.
We were both weakening quickly from the loss of scales, taking strike after strike at each other.
He roared and threw himself in the air, coming from above and catching a few more scales with his talons from my back as he did so.
I roared, fire spewing out of my mouth as I shook my large body in an attempt to stay upright. My body flared with fiery slices of pain, and I gnashed my teeth at him, tasting blood, but we kept at it.
Swipe after swipe, losing scales until we both had weakened and slipped into our regular forms.
I’d never gone against him, but it was just like I’d imagined it to be. I could take down dragons and drakes with one swipe of my talons, but so could he.
I bent over with my hands on my knees and glared, my hatred burning as spasms racked my muscles until it seemed like my bones were about to snap.
My magical energy was painfully low. I couldn't shift again, but I could use my fire.
“You're fighting me for what?” Roak chuckled, and I ignored the rattling of my lungs. “You just don't want me to fuck your mate? Is that it?”
A snarl ripped out of me. “I don't want you torapemy mate. How fucking obvious is that?”
“It’snotrape. It's what the Dragon God wants.” His eyes were crazy. Was it maybe that he believed it himself? I suppose it made sense. All that preaching for all those years.
“That's exactly what it is, you old corrupted dragon!” I ran at him full force with flames licking up my arms, and I threw a punch at him.
Bones broke in my hand, but I felt his face crumble, and the smell of his searing flesh filled the air as he took the hit.
A gurgle left my throat as blood poured out of my mouth. Glancing down, I cursed myself for not preparing for this.
He’d somehow transformed his hand into his talon and nearly gutted me.
I clutched my stomach, my eyes rolling back into my head as I held my guts in and dropped to my knees.
“That was a good hit, Rowan, but you missed your chance to kill me. I’ll be merciful and give you one more chance to hand over your mate and join our family again.”
“Fuck you. You won’t touch her.” I spat blood at his feet.
