I’m gratified to see the teal-haired dragon master’s eyes have widened while her comrades all edge back from us in the air.
“A draugr outside its den,” the teal-haired one whispers. “Impossible.”
Draugr are undead warriors. They usually exist in the place where they died, remaining there to protect whatever treasure they had been seeking. They can change their sizes at whim and can only be killed by decapitation. Which I’m sure the dragons will try. I imagine the keeper will then employ his smoke-demon form to evade their every effort to cleave him into pieces.
He smiles at me. It’s a hideously ugly grin that reveals blue teeth, all of which have sharp tips.
Hmm. Draugr don’t usually have sharp teeth like that. An embellishment, no doubt.Hell, why not?
Above us, the teal-haired dragon is now scowling. I’m sure she won’t be happy that she revealed a hint of concern at the keeper’s appearance.
I tip my chin at her and widen my smile—mostly because with my lips drawn wide, she can get a good look at my own dangerous teeth.
Then I call up to her. “Come on down here, Dragon Master, and let’s see who’s stupid.”
“Gladly.” She doesn’t hesitate a moment longer, tucking her wings and swooping straight for me.
At the same time, the other dragons attack, shooting down from the sky toward us.
I plant my feet and ready my claws for the teal-haired woman’s first strike, but just as she would reach me—just as the air shifts with the force of her approach—Riot appears from behind me.
His panther body is a vicious blur, his front claws slashing the air in silver streaks and his snarls making the hairs on my arms stand on end.
He crashes into the teal-haired dragon from the side, knocking her so hard across the sand that she spins in midair, her wings tucking inward a split second before she tumbles across the beach, splashing up white grit. Riot leaps after her, his athletic body and legs stretching and giving him incredible speed.
I don’t have time to see what happens next between them.
Another dragon is upon me, this one a man with fists that crash through the air at speeds that take my breath away.
My reflexes fire as I evade each blow, darting backward and to the side, watching for the opportunity to ram my claws through any part of his body.
Damn, he’s fast.
For now, all I can do is avoid his rapid kicks and punches, each one coming at me fast enough to make my head spin.
Around me, the fight has already extended across the beach and the air is filled with sparkling sand and the sounds of thrashing wings and battling bodies.
The keeper leaps high enough to pluck two dragons from the air simultaneously, a move that propels him farther down the beach before he throws one of them into the sand with a bone-breakingthudand the other out across the ocean—right before another four soar after him.
Lucian has taken to the air on my left and is grappling with a male dragon shifter, their fight taking them over the top of the training hall. He lands a punch to the man’s face that sends him straight down into the sand at the side of the hall. The man hits the ground with a massivethump. If he’d fallen a little to the left, he would have crashed through the roof.
Fuck, my brother can hit.
It brings home to me just how strong our father must be that the whack Lucian gave him over the head did no damage at all.
Like the keeper, Lucian barely has time to take a breath before another two dragons charge at him, one male and one female.
Spread out on the sand behind me, Anarchy and her remaining two brothers are fighting in coordination with each other, well and truly holding their own against the final four shifters.
I can’t see Riot now. He could be much farther along the beach with the teal-haired dragon, or his fight with her could have taken him into the trees.
I take in everything around me in a flash, a mere blink of an eye, but I suppose the dragon coming at me thinks I’m distracted because he makes a reckless move.
His hand reaches for my throat.
At the same time, he sweeps his wings, as if he intends to wrap his fist around my neck, lift me off the ground, and break my neck. But it was smarter for him to keep employing quick hits and moving fast. As soon as I allow his hand to close around my throat, his outstretched arm becomes a stationary target for my claws.
My feet have barely left the sand, the force of his attack lifting me from the ground, when I slash at his wrist, slicing through his scales.
