Tanis screamed,then released a steady stream of bitter fire spray at her. It was the kind that burned to the core of whatever it touched.
Ragna ducked then caught her with a vicious blow.
Her rage was so great that she barely felt it. Instead, she wrapped her body around her sister and pulled her down to the ground where she slammed Ragna so hard that it left a crater in the earth.
Ragna groaned in pain.
Pulling her back up into the air, Tanis again rammed her into the ground with as much force as she could muster. Given how much larger she was than Ragna, it was no small amount.
She repeated that four more times. And still she wasn’t appeased. Tanis wanted to feel her sister’s blood spray all over her.
When she lifted her up to do it again, Ragna screamed. “Stop!”
“Why should I?”
“You’re killing me.”
“Good. You deserve to die.” Tanis meant those words with every fiber of her being. In that moment, nothing would please her more than to see Ragna in pieces. It was what she deserved.
If you weren’t dragon enough to stop them, then you deserve what they did to you.How many times had Ragna said those cruel, vicious words to her?
Ragna had laughed over the brutality of what the humans and Brutus had done to her. Had relished in the death of their brother at the hands of a dragon slayer.
You don’t want to be Ragna...
Tanis froze as that one reality sank in.
It was true. She didn’t want to be the monster her sister had become. Unable to feel for others. Unable to be kind or caring.
The monster who’d killed her own brother.
Their father.
One who’d mocked her little sister for being raped.
No, she didn’t want to be Ragna. Not for anything.
Instead, she flew to her sister’s guard and did what she’d never dared before. She held her head high. “I am your Crown Princess Tanis Dragomir and by all sovereign rights of my birth, I relieve my sister of her command due to her acts of treason against our beloved king and crown prince. All of you are to immediately stand down and return to Indara where you are to lock her up until the Regent Queen Marla and the Elder Council determines Princess Ragna’s fate.”
Tanis turned her attention to Erstl, Ragna’s second-in-command. “Understood?”
He inclined his head to her. “Yes, princess.”
Ragna started toward her, but Erstl caught Ragna and pushed her back. “You think this is over?” she snarled at Tanis.
“Until I get home, I do.”
Growling, she struggled against Erstl. “Let me go! I command you!”
He held her fast. “Sorry, princess. I can’t do that.” He met Tanis’s gaze, then inclined his head to her. “I’m under orders that I can’t break.”
Ragna continued to curse her as he hauled her away. “She’s not your commander. I am!”
For once, they didn’t listen to Ragna.
Tanis scowled as she saw one of the smaller dragons in their group. With purple and gold ombre scales, and a beautiful yellow tail, she was one Tanis hadn’t seen in a long time. “Keegan?”
Keegan paused before she came back toward her. “Princess?”
