“He’s not a bloody prize bull!”
“Then I’ll just kill you—” The she-dragon lunged.
Ash barely ducked in time. “Seriously?” she snapped, as the bloody heifer circled her. “You’re picking fights over someone you don’t even know? What is this?Love Island: Dragon Edition?”
The woman moved too fast. Searing heat clamped around Ash’s forearm, burning through her coat. Shit, she gasped and bit back a wince, acidic pain shooting up her arm—and she remembered, the pod.
The bitch smirked.
Two can play this sodding game!
She fumbled it from her pocket and slammed it into the she-dragon’s face. A burst of sweet, choking perfume exploded.
The she-dragon shrieked, lurching back a step, her eyes watering. “You dare use a Somnara pod on me?”
Bloody tired of the shit in this place, Ash’s powers surged. Lightning exploded through her fingertips, crackling white-hot. She blasted the bitch-dragon in her chest.
The woman reeled backward, her hand pressed over her heart, shock widening her eyes.
“Never. Ever. Touch me!” Ash spun on her heel and stalked off like she owned the whole marketplace.
For about two steps.
“Catch her!” the stupid scaled-witch roared.
Yells erupted. Footsteps thundered after her.
Oh, sod it!Ash bolted, darting for the nearest alley. Rain didn’t fall this time, but her pulse thundered like a raging storm.
These lunatics would quarter her if they caught her. Or worse, burn her alive.
“Race!”
Chapter
Nine
Ash tore through the street,her heart hammering, hands prickling. The marketplace roared behind her, a stampede of voices and pounding feet.
She veered hard into an alley and slammed into something solid, hooded, and cloaked in black. “No?—”
“It’s me.” Race’s low rumble snapped her focus as he tugged her into a shadowed entrance. “What the hell happened?”
She clutched his shirt, words tumbling out between ragged breaths. “That-that dragon-woman?—”
The horde thundered closer.
His arm banded around her waist, and Race dematerialized them. They reformed somewhere in the forest, the cold mountain air scraping her lungs raw. Her legs buckled, and she collapsed against him with a groan, the burn on her arm throbbing in time with her racing heart.
His heavy palm gently rubbed her back. “You’re safe now.”
When the world finally steadied, and she could breathe again, she stepped away from his unsettling touch and sank onto one of the moss-covered rocks dotting the steep mountainside. The valley shimmered far below, parts lost in drifting mist.
Ash scrubbed her hot face with trembling hands, then lowered them and stared at her fingers, the prickling easing, no longer feeling as if it needed a target.
“Want to tell me what happened?” Race asked, flipping back his hood.
She curled her hands into fists, the burn on her forearm searing now as adrenaline ebbed.
