Page 70 of A Dragon's Miracle (Fires of Fate)
Ryan
Iwasa nervous wreck the morning of the fight, but I tried not to let that show. Zed was right; Finn needed me to believe in him. I couldn’t stop this battle from happening, so supporting him was the least I could do. Even if I hated all of this and wanted it to be over already.
I swallowed down the nausea I felt and smiled my way through breakfast. Finn’s mother had cooked us a ton of food, as if she was sending her son off to his last battle. She made no secret of the fact that she didn’t like fighting, but hadn’t said a word to dissuade Finn either. Part of me wished she would, even though I knew it wouldn’t stop her son. He believed this was the only way.
Maybe it was.
That didn’t mean I had to be happy about it, though. I felt like throwing up every time I thought about how Finn might get hurt because of me. Still, I kept those emotions inside.
The battle was supposed to take place early afternoon, above the volcano. Both Finn and Jin were going to change into their dragon forms and take their fight to the sky. Whoever injured the other enough to force him to shift back was going to be declared the winner. It sounded simple enough in theory, but there was so much at stake here that I felt like I couldn’t breathe right once Finn and I landed on top the volcano. I blamed the thin air up there.
“Are you sure you want to watch?” Finn asked. “You look pale.”
“I’m fine.” I forced a smile. “Besides, I won’t be alone.”
Unsurprisingly, a lot of people had come to watch this fight. Most of them had accumulated a bit farther down, but Zed and a few other dragons were going to follow the proceedings from the top, ready to step in if things escalated. In fact, Zed was already here and approaching us.
“You two ready for this?” he asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said. Finn simply nodded. He seemed a bit distracted. Probably already going through battle strategies in his head.
Zed patted Finn’s back. It was that moment that I saw something move in the sky. Looking up, I spotted a dragon unlike all the other dragons I’d seen on this island so far. At first glance, I didn’t even recognize the creature in the sky as a dragon, because it had no wings. It glided through the clouds like a huge air-born snake with shimmering blue scales.
“A Chinese dragon,” I whispered, alerting the others to its presence. They raised their heads as well, expressions grim.
“Must be him,” Zed said.
I nodded. Since our meetings had always taken place on human territory, I’d never seen Jin’s dragon before, but ithadto be him. And now that I was over the initial shock of coming so close to him again, I realized that he was accompanied by two regular dragons as well. One on each of his sides. Officials, I assumed.
They landed just a few feet in front of us.
I'd thought seeing him in dragon form was bad, but seeing him just the way he'd always looked felt like a punch to the gut. I had to bite my teeth together to keep from letting my discomfort show. And I wasn't sure how good I was at it, because it took Finn only a glance at me to know I didn't want to be here. Or maybe it was simply thathedidn't want me near Jin either.
“You and Zed should go wait over there,” he said, gesturing to a spot a little farther off. “I got this.” He even managed to grin. All for my sake, I knew. And so I didn't try to argue with him.
“Alright.”
Zed and I took our places on the sidelines while Finn went to talk to Jin. God, how I hated that man. Once I was out of Finn's sight, I couldn't keep a blank face while looking at my so called ex. Part of me didn't want Finn to turn violent. A much bigger part of me wanted him to tear the man's lungs out.
Taking a deep breath, I sat on a protruding rock and tried not to bite my nails. I also tried not to let my exhaustion get the best of me. It was only now that I was sitting that I really noticed how much the day had been wearing on me. I didn't leave the house much anymore these days. I was only a few weeks away from my due date now, which was good, because it meant this baby might stand a chance, but also bad because being this pregnant was fucking draining.
“Everything okay with you?” Zed asked.
“I’ll be fine,” I said suppressing a cough. “Everything is going to be fine.”
But just that moment Jin’s eyes zeroed in on me from the distance and I felt cold all over.
Please, God, let things be fine.
