“Yes,” I reply with impatience.
Adrian looks annoyed.
“I thought you wanted to practice your elemental magic?” Daegan asks me. Why is he doing this? Is he pushing me to practice because we’re allies now? Is that what this is?
“She’s not ready for that,” Adrian says dismissively.
“Why not?” Daegan asks in a cold, challenging voice. “You don’t need to be a trained fighter to practice your magic.”
“Why so interested?” Adrian asks, not hiding his annoyance. “What do you know about magic, you’re just a dragon who can’t even shift.”
My jaw drops. I’ve never seen Adrian act like this. Daegan barely reacts, though. Of course he doesn’t. If anything, he turns his body toward Adrian with even more confidence than before. “I don’t need to shift to win my battles.”
“No?” Adrian looks over toward the weapons area where the other dragons fight. “Haven’t seen anything to back that up. You’re not even practicing with your friends.”
“I have my reasons.”
“Well, you guys wanted to be up here so bad, why don’t you prove yourselves. I’ll even spar with you.”
“What?” I spit out.
Daegan stands tall, having just a sliver of height over Adrian. “No thanks.”
“Elves don’t back down from a challenge.” Adrian says calmly.
“I’m not a fucking elf,” Daegan responds simply. If he’s affected by this at all, he’s not showing it.
“Obviously,” Adrian replies, looking him up and down. “Come on. Show us some of that dragon training. Maybe we could learn a thing or two from you guys too.”
Daegan sighs. “Fine. No weapons.”
Adrian’s smile grows, his emerald eyes glinting. “Perfect.”
He turns and walks toward the elevated platform we passed on the way in. It’s not far. Daegan follows behind him, unhurried, keeping a large distance. Meela and I glance at each other—me confused, her delighted.
“I don’t know what the hell that was about, but this is exciting.” She smiles bigger than I’ve seen in a long time.
“Really? Adrian just challenged him to a fight for no damn reason, and you’re loving it?”
“Oh, they’ll be fine,” she says, waving me off as we follow after them. “They’re clearly just having a dick measuring contest over you.”
“No way. They just hate each other because one is a stubborn dragon and one is a hot-headed captain of the elven guard.”
“Yeah, sure. Maybe it started that way. But this is more than that.”
I shake my head, watching as they reach the platform ahead of us. I honestly don’t know what got into Adrian back there. Is he threatened by Daegan? Or… jealous?
My eyes are glued to Daegan as he lifts his sleeveless shirt over his head, revealing a muscular torso rippled with even more defined ab muscles than I expected. My eyes follow the few scattered scars and markings that coat his body, and as he turns, I study his back that’s corded with more muscles.
“You’re drooling,” Meela says next to me.
I finally tear my gaze away and scowl at her.
While I was locked in I failed to notice there’s a whole crowd approaching now, with Raef and the other shifters in the lead. I’m not sure when they noticed the exchange between the two, but they look tense now as they approach.
“What the fuck happened?” Raef asks us as he stops by my side, looking up at the platform. He doesn’t look the slightest bit concerned. If anything, he looks amused.
“I really don’t know…”
