Page 34 of Dragons & Dumplings
I locked eyes with my older brother. The look he gave me spoke volumes; this time, he had no intention of holding back. To him, I was a traitor. And he would never show mercy to a traitor.
Something in me snapped when his hateful gaze turned on Mei.No more!I would not allow his cruelty, his hatred, to darken my life or the lives of anyone I cared about ever again.
Even if it cost me my fleet. Even if it cost me my family. For once in my life, I would be the winner, the warrior they always wanted me to be. Just for the “wrong” side.
I draped my wing around Mei, taking a gamble that would either save us or doom us. Pressing my cheek against hers, I combined our breath weapons into a single stream of magic.
There was a blinding flash that sent a bolt of lightning through my senses, and I feared I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. But then, something miraculous happened.
Instead of the opposing magical elements negating each other, they combined—just as I’d hoped they would. Where our breath weapons converged, they became one; a single stream of bright blue icefire.
Our icefire pushed back the onslaught of magic away from the barrier. Mikhail growled in outrage, but I could sense the undercurrent of fear in the noise.
Encouraged, we redoubled our efforts. Even though my lungs were screaming for air, I kept pushing, kept exhaling to fuel the icefire.
I could tell Mei was struggling to keep it up, and even her parents were showing signs of strain. Were we going to make it in time, before our breaths and our magic ran out?
But we were so close! There had to be something more I could do—I refused to give up victory when, for once, it was nearly in my grasp. But how?
“It seems both my boys are in their rebellious phase,” my father grumbled. “The rest of you, prepare your breath weapons!” To my great shock, he shifted back into his dragon form and added his own powerful stream of magic to ours.
“Yes, Moroz!” Taking their cue from their leader, the rest of the fleet who had joined us on the ground also shifted, and lent their magic power to our cause.
The massive influx of magic turned the tide. Our combined magic pushed back the onslaught of ice, straight back down the gullets of the opposing ice dragons. Their eyes rolled back in their heads, and the dragons began dropping like flies to the road below.
As each one passed through the barrier, they were forcibly trapped in their humanoid forms. Werefolk and elves immediately jumped into action, tying the unconscious dragons up with coarse rope. They bound their wrists and ankles, and gagged them for good measure.
Mikhail was among them.
I sagged with relief, resting my head on top of Mei’s. She leaned into me, her strong frame trembling from exhaustion as we both worked to catch our breaths.
I could hardly believe we had managed to pull that off! Without the support of every single person here, it would have been a truly impossible feat.
I glanced at my father, who of course, looked barely even winded. I was still in disbelief that for once, he hadlistenedto me. For once, he had takenmyside over Mikhail’s.
Maybe, our relationship wasn’t as far gone as I thought it was.
“I see you have finally found your backbone.” My father glanced at Mei, who had not budged from my side. “I’m glad.”
Chapter fifteen
Feasts & Fellowship
Mei
“Youmaybefinewith this,” my dad exclaimed heatedly, gesturing at me and Yuri with his wingtip, “butwemost certainly arenot!”
“Dad,” I protested weakly, but his sharp glare made the rest of my words stick in my throat.
Yuri’s father puffed out his chest indignantly. “Believe me, I am not exactly happy about this situation either!”
The two fathers glared at each other for a moment before they both turned their ire on me and Yuri. I wilted under their slitted gazes, exhausted from cooking all day and then expending nearly all of my magic. Yuri was the only thing keeping me upright at this point.
“You are all invited to join us for the Harvest Feast,” Yuri announced, wrapping his blessedly cool wing more securely around me. “And before you protest, Father, there is plenty of food that is not spicy.”
“I suppose…if you insist.” The massive ice dragon eyed the feast doubtfully, but still shifted back into his humanoid form.
The other ice dragons did the same, as did my parents. Both shared my golden, almond-shaped eyes and fiery red hair, and bore spiraling horns that seemed delicate in comparison to those of the ice dragons.
