He reared, poised to drive his raised fist into my chest, but the second he took me in, he froze. “My Lyssa,” he breathed, stumbling back, a flicker of recognition overtaking the wild glaze in his irises.
I gave him a wink. “Told you.”
Had we been alone, he might’ve swooped over and scooped me into his arms. But this was a battlefield. Around us, chaos reigned in a tangle of death, smoke and war cries. And yet, Taron’s lips curled in a slow, savage smile. Satisfaction and something wilder smoldered in his gaze.
Our enemies had tried to burn us down. Now they’d learn what rose from the ruin.
“You ready to win this?” I asked, turning toward the carnage. “We can wed and honeymoon after.”
“Baby,” he growled, rolling his shoulders, “there’s nothing else I’d rather do.”
A roar cut through the air. Lorik scrambled upright, his shredded throat barely reformed.
Before he could launch an attack, my father and his razor-sharp smokewings landed beside him. In a blink, a mere heartbeat, he beheaded Lorik, ripped out his heart, and burned him to ash, the primordial’s fire hotter than anything other dragons produced.
The battlefield seemed to flinch.
For a moment, I froze. So didTaron.
“I had no more use for him,” Cedric said, stepping onto the pile of ashes. The dark motes dancing over him. “Besides, Ididpromise to take care of him for you.”
Behind him landed Nyla, gliding on the wind currents he’d stirred and grinning with a glee that bordered on insanity. She was transformed. Golden fur bristled down her limbs; her spine arched with power. Her scorpion’s tail had regrown, thick and venomous, curled above her head, primed to strike. Barbs lined its length, each a quill of pain. An arrow she could launch at will.
“I must admit, daughter,” my father mused, eyes raking over my armored form, “I didn’t expect you to rise as a phoenix primordial. A rare evolution. But no matter. Even a phoenix can be slain... with the right blade.”
A primordial! Of course. I smiled with all kinds of delight. “If it can kill a phoenix,” I said, “it can kill an undying primordial.”
His lids narrowed. Good. Let them both know my endgame. I wouldn’t leave this field until both Cedric and Nyla breathed their last.
Nyla clicked her barbed tail once. “When I slay your man, and I will?—”
“Try,” I cut in with enough menace to startle her.
The wind died.
“I’m going to enjoy it,” she finally finished with a lot less bravado.
“Not as much as I will.” Rings of fire seemed to spin in Cedric’s pupils. An attempt to mesmerize me, though we shared the same blood.
Perhaps I wasn’t his victim, after all. “Whatever you do, do not look him in the eyes,” I told Taron. “Do not strike at him, either.” His bones would turn Taron’s bones into tuning forks, fight over. “In fact,let me handle him.”
“He’s all yours, baby. I owe the prickleback.”
“I’ll show you a prickleback,” Nyla growled, and I chuckled. Dang, I loved my man.
She and Cedric crouched, preparing for battle. Taron and I did the same, side by side, heart to heart. And then, like a storm breaking over the mountains, we all moved.
My father lunged at me with predatory grace, unsheathing a sword and a dagger, his ingrained dominance coiling around him like smoke. I met him halfway, short swords in hand. Our blades clashed with a screech of metal. My limbs vibrated, but even as cracks formed over my bones, they healed.
Cedric blew his ash-flames at me, but I absorbed them, growing stronger. It shocked, confused and infuriated him, sending him into a rage. His scales shifted, revealing the spikes leaking poison, but again, I only strengthened as I parried and blocked, then headbutted him hard enough to break his nose.
Taron met Nyla with a roar of his own. She lashed her tail, but he caught it mid-swing, yanked fast, and flung her across the field. She flipped midair, landed in a crouch, and launched herself back, claws extended, teeth bared. He ducked and dodged before working her to the ground, then rolling. Her barbs slashed at his ribs as soon as he pinned her, and he went stiff, losing his hold. They grappled for supremacy.
“I will make you eat that stinger,” Taron snarled.
I walked a circle with my father. “You made a grave mistake taking my dragon. It opened the door to something far more lethal. This day, I rid this world of your evil.”
He flicked his tongue over an incisor. “For centuries, I have been the prisoner of the woman who brought me back from the dead. She left me trapped in a dark cave withnothing but memories of my slain firebrand, who lives now only because I shared my blood. This day,” he said in a mimic of me, “I make you pay for all I’ve suffered.”
