Arjun scrambled to get up, a small cut on his face.
I backed up, pulling my blade but slinking behind Arjun. Once blood was drawn, you couldn’t interfere.
A twig snapped behind me and I spun that way, my heart leaping into my throat as a small red dragon stepped out of the thick trees.
No way.
“Uh… guys?” Tej called.
I risked a glance behind me to see a green dragon approaching him.
We were being attacked all at once. This wassonot ideal!
Arjun suddenly gave a battle cry next to me and ran at the blue dragon, sinking his knife into her shoulder and using it as a handhold to mount her. She screeched, yanking away from him and bucking him off, sending him flying.
Tej was at my back then, pressing against me as we both stepped in a slow circle, back to back. The green and red dragons moved around us like circling predators.
“This isn’t normal. All at once like this,” I told him. I’d never heard of multiple creatures hanging in a pack like this and trying to bond or attack at once.
“They’re sisters,” Tej whispered.
What?
“How do you know?” I breathed back.
“I just do.” He seemed confused.
‘Sister of the empress, eldest of three, I see you,’the creature before me spoke into my mind, and it terrified me. We hadn’t even bonded yet. Could she do that?
I held my weapon aloft, gripping it as Tej grunted and buckled behind me, clearly struggling.
“Tej!” I shouted but didn’t take my eyes off the beautiful creature before me.
‘I’ve killed many larger than you,’the red dragon taunted as she moved to my left. She was smaller for a dragon but still larger than me. She stood maybe seven feet tall.
I thought about what Arjun had said, about the bonding not being all about physical strength.
‘Maybe what I lack in size, I make up for in other areas,’I jested back, hoping she heard me.
Her eyes crinkled as if she were amused, and then, out of nowhere, she shot forward, opening her mouth to take my head!
Rolling to the side and out of the way, I popped up, dagger in my fist, and spun around just as she came back for another strike. I noticed at this distance that there were quite a few scars on her shoulder, maybe where previous Lottery winners had tried to bond her. I wasn’t even sure if Luska did a lottery or?—
“Valor!” Tej yelled in warning as the red dragon’s tail whacked me in the side of the head. I was flung to the ground, landing hard on my elbow as pain throbbed inside my head. Blackness danced at the edge of my vision as a high-pitched ringing whined in my ears. Copper tang filled my mouth, and I spat on the mossy earth.
Blood.
The bonding had begun.
This was it.
My gaze flicked quickly to Tej, who was battling the green dragon. Arjun was on the back of the blue dragon, trying to choke it into submission.
The red dragon just stood there, peering down at me with curiosity.
‘I thought I felt a strong power in you. I guess not,’she said as I stayed down, curled on my side.
“Please don’t hurt me,” I whimpered, putting as much patheticness as I could into my voice. Aisling always told me I was too dramatic and would make a good stage actress. Now was the time to test my skills.
