Page 111 of Faerie Fate
I hadn’t managed a single strike yet.
The dragon recovered much faster than I did with our cat and mouse game. My offensive maneuvers didn’t work and more often than not left me scurrying away defensively. In my mind, I replayed tactics that had worked for me before.
Would any of them help me with this dragon?
This wasn’t going great. I was sloppy next to the grace of the dragon, unrefined and floundering rather than striking with precision. I stabbed to the left of the dragon and it wound around the opposite way to nip at my leg. A second of hesitation would have cost me half of my thigh. It sneered and smoke curled from its nostrils.
Think, Tavi.
I spared a glance at Poppy who stared back at me like I was nothing but a fucking idiot. Whatever she knew that I didn’t, she wasn’t about to tell me.
I’d cut through packs of shifters before. I’d beaten several fae in my desperate attempt to make it out of the capital before my execution.
But my cognitive manipulation didn’t work on the dragon. I’d already tried and had to levy punch after punch with my fists when the command did literally nothing.
Whatever I did now, it had to be fast.
I dove for the chest, purposely feinting to the right first, but the dragon moved with me as if it knew. As if I knew. It didn’t take its eyes off of me or even blink.
Pain exploded through my side as the dragon hit its skull into my hip bone. My vision blurred and I hit the ground. Poppy’s warning yells were nothing but a distant roar in my head.
The dragon resumed its perch above the chest and waited, looking at me, its eyes glinting with amber fire.
I pushed up. Held a hand out to Poppy to let her know I was fine. And suddenly I had a flash of insight—or really more like a hunch.
The creature will go for my legs.
As predicted, at my next approach its head snaked out and teeth nipped inches from my shins.
I feinted left toward the chest.It will pivot and lash out with its tail.
This was a test. To see if I was right. To see if my realization that I already knew the dragon’s moves before it made them had merit.
As predicted, the dragon lashed out with its tail and I jumped over it as easily as a schoolyard jump rope.
The dragon wasn’t something outside of me. The dragonwasme. It already knew what I’d do, where I’d move, because it was a part of me.
I was fighting against myself.
The instant I put it together, the dragon dropped into a crouch. Subdued except for those amber eyes watching me.
“Don’t dawdle. Kill it! Be done with it.”
Poppy’s merciless encouragement was wasted. This time, I had to trust myself rather than someone else. The answers came from me. I knew the way, didn’t I?
I didn’t actually want to kill the dragon. I didn’t have to. I only had to accept that it was me. All this time, I’d listened to others I’d considered smarter than me. Uncle Will. Barbara. Headmaster Leaves. King Tywin. Selene, the leader of the Claw & Fang. Anyone who wasn’t me.
When had I stopped trusting myself? Or maybe I never learned how to in the first place. Based on all the mistakes I’d made, it was no small wonder. The only thing I could be trusted to do was fuck things up.
I need the chest to be whole.I know what to do with myself now. I know how to move forward.It’s time for me to be me, fierce and free.Not who the world wants me to be, but whoIwant to be.
I lifted my palm to the dragon to touch the crest of bone on top of its head. It sniffed and growled, baring its fangs before I made contact.
This had better work.
I held my breath. Waiting. Watching.
Slowly, the dragon bowed to me, ducking down until the glowing tip of its skull touched the ground.
