Page 54 of Taming
Perhaps … I imagined it. Or perhaps dragon shifters are more different than I realized. I haven’t been around them long enough to form any kind of bond like Chaos mentioned.
Have I?
Kain takes slow, tormenting steps that seem to draw out my anticipation of what he’s about to do. His hand raises in a defensive stance and, just like Chaos said, it’s his right hand.
Now’s my window.
Right now.
My fingers dig into my palm and my knuckles of my hand stings against his jaw. Maybe it was a sucker punch, maybe it was expert timing. Maybe it was a little of both. Either way, triumph soars through me.
This is what winning feels like.
“Oh, shit,” Rime says with a hint of laughter kissing his tone.
“What the fuck, Arlow?” Kain’s brows pull low as his palm pushes across his face, his gaze glaring down on me hard.
“I—I thought you said you were ready.” The excitement and accomplishing feeling of making the first move sizzles right out of me.
“Do you know what defense means? I wasn’t going to attack you. I was going to show you how to defend yourself. Fuck.”
Laughter continues to hum from the man behind me, and I throw a quick look at Chaos to find his large gleaming eyes watching the two of us intently. A sort of amused look is in his two-toned gaze.
Asshole.
“Don’t use your magic either.” He takes another step toward me, but he halts the moment I speak.
“I can’t.”
“You can’t?” His head dips, his attention shifting over my features as I look at every single detail of the dark forest behind him to avoid his curious gaze.
I shouldn’t have told him that. It’s stupid to tell them how much of myself I hide away from the world.
I guess I’m all in now. It’s terrifying to know I’ll actually depend on them in the future. It’s terrifying that I trust them right now.
This whole time they were looking for a mage. Well, now they have her. Now they know she’s not nearly as impressive and marveling as they were told.
“I’ve never had much training to be a mage. With the laws changing, with mages becoming hunted, my parents hid my magic. I was … a burden on them. They hid me away most of my life. So much so that I hadn’t even used my magic until I was an adult and even now I hide it. I save it in case I have a run in with Kreedence. I won’t waste it on training, Kain.”
I hate that this special thing about me makes me a danger to myself. To my family. To society even.
“You disappeared pretty well on me,” Rime says in an even but pointed tone.
“I’m exceptionally good at hiding. At disappearing. I’ve had a lifetime of experience in that department. But using it like that tires me. It’s not as easy as it should be. It’s … pathetic really.”
Moments pass as the three of them stare at me in a heavy and pressing silence.
“Rime can’t tell directions when he’s in his dragon form. Can’t tell north from south if it’s high noon.” Kain’s honest but random statement throws me off guard.
“Fuck you, my eyes can’t pick up on the sunlight and shit.” Rime’s defensive tone makes Kain smile.
“Chaos is a full adult dragon and still can’t grow his horns.”
A grumbling growl comes from the dark dragon before he rolls away slowly, giving us the span of his long tail as he chooses to look to the woods instead of us.
Poor baby always being reminded of his flaws.
A smile pulls at my lips, but I still don’t know where he’s going with this.
