An exchange of icy grins, then we were striking in kind. My swiftness surprised him. The more we grappled, the more ferocious we became, until we were two beasts tearing at each other.
He remained the strongest of us–at first. With every injury, I grew stronger, faster, hotter, until he could not overcome my heat. It melted his scales. Then his skin. Then his muscles.
I had to give him credit. He fought until his last breath. But I’d spoken true. I rid the world of his evil. In the end, he died as he’d lived: violently. And I stood amid the ash, no longer broken, no longer alone.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
There is one thing not even a dragon can overcome: Love.
-Humaning for Beginners: A Dragon’s Tale of Human Management
Taron sliced his claws through Nyla’s tail. She froze, predator instincts colliding with raw, sudden panic.
Her gaze found the stinger in his hand, as if seeing it for the first time. The venom on that barbed tip shimmered black and bright.
“I hope you’re hungry,” he taunted.
With a ferocity born of rage and a last, mad, defiant cunning, she lunged. Taron met her halfway. Like my father, she drained of energy fast, and it wasn’t long before my firebrand had her pinned, the stinger in her mouth.
I heard the crunch before her scream as her teeth closed on the barbed tip. It must have torn into the roof of her mouth.
So. He had indeed made her eat hertail.
Panting, I limped over, picking up a sword along the way. Swing. I removed her head. Then her heart.
Her limbs convulsed before she went motionless.
And with that, the war ended.
My body trembled with exhaustion, victory the only thing keeping me upright. I dropped the weapon, now panting harder, adrenaline still surging. Taron was breathing hard too, but the fire of rage had finally dimmed in his features.
Using my newfound ash-flame, I burned the manticore to ash, certain neither she nor my father would rise again. But even if they did, so what? We would defeat them every time.
“We did it,” I rasped. “We won.”
“I’m buying you every teacup,” Taron said, voice rough but sure. “And returning the one I stole.”
With a breathless laugh, I threw myself into his waiting arms. “We can share the whole collection.”
He caught me easily, kissing me as if we had all the time in the world but also none at all. I pulled back after a few seconds…minutes…only because my people gathered around us, the enemy armies fleeing.
“Come,” he said, an explicit command. “We get marriedtoday.”
My heart soared as I strolled with him to the palace, leaving a trail of soot in my wake. Dragon-berserkers watched us. Especially Taron, who paused to collect a few severed heads, proudly announcing each kill. He carried his prizes as though they were trophies, cementing his rise to a warrior of myth, guaranteed. Whispers would abound by morning.
The soldiers noticed the heads, of course.Everyonenoticed the heads.
My lips twitched. “Maybe we leave your new treasures here on the battlefield?”
“Mine,” he growled so fiercely and so fast I blinked in surprise. Then he winced. “Sorry. Looks as though I’ve started my first hoard.”
I giggled as I’d never giggled before. “Drop them, and I’ll marry us right now.” As queen, I had only to make the proclamation to seal our bond forever. “By the time we reach my—our—bedroom, we’ll be husband and wife. We’ll shower together and?—”
Thud. The heads hit the ground.
Taron scooped me into his arms, kissed me soundly, then hoisted me higher to perch me on his shoulder like I was the true prize of the day. I grinned so wide it hurt. “I have kept my end of our deal. Now you keep yours.”
