Page 75 of Fated for his Flame

“You’re right.” I took a deep breath, my lungs inflating, puffing my chest up. “And I will.”

Caleb nodded, but his eyes were fixed past me.

“What is it?” I asked, finally turning.

Caine was there, in tapered black pants and a matching shirt emblazoned with a red slash diagonal across the chest. His hair was, as always, slicked back. He wore thick black utility boots, and his fingers were curling and uncurling into fists with metronomic precision as he glared at me across the open field.

“Anything about that seem odd to you?” Caleb muttered.

“Other than the misplaced confidence?”

“Not that. Look around him. Come on, use your head.”

I glanced around Caine, shrugging. “What? It’s just empty grass.”

Caleb’s hand smacked the back of my head. “Chloe later. Duel now. Come on. Look around you.”

I glanced around. There was grass nearby me as well. It had been trampled by Caleb and me. Nearby, Shi was with Abby, our youngest sister. Our mom was with several of her friends, close but not near. Father was in the crowd somewhere. I didn’t care where. But he was there. Even he wouldn’t stay away.

Frowning, I looked back at Caine.

“He’s alone,” I blurted out as my mind caught on at last.

“Exactly.” Caleb shook his head. “I don’t like it. Where the hell are Seth and all his lackeys?”

“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out later, though,” I assured him. But my curiosity was rampant as well.

A dragon’s roar blasted through the air, and the sovereign summoned both duelists forward.

I clasped arms with Caleb, and then marched out into the center of the field. The sovereign went over the ground rules. First scale, not to the death, etc. I didn’t listen.

My mind was still focused on Chloe and how I’d wronged her. As soon as I dealt with Caine, I would make it right with her. As best I could, at least. She might still be guilty, but I would let her tell me her version if nothing else.

She deserved it.

Caine and I backed away and shifted into our dragon forms. My crimson scales clashed harshly with the electric blue of Caine’s beast. The crowd roared in anticipation as they looked down from the rim of the steep-sided grassy depression where duels were held. It wasn’t a formal arena. Rather it was simply a convenient land feature that worked to help contain the duelists.

The sovereign raised an arm.

I brought my mind to the present and fixed it on Caine. Watching his stance. The distribution of his body weight. Any sort of lean that might give away his intentions. The fight took over every thought, every ounce of my concentration.

The arm fell. The duel began.

A shifting of his weight forward signaled Caine would charge. He came across the ground, huge clumps of grass and dirt flying out behind him, dug up by his claws.

I watched him come, legs tense and muscled coiled. Ready. He knew I wouldn’t just stand there and take the hit. I would try to dodge. Which meant he would be ready to dart left or right to hit me.

Leaning just a hair to my right, I broadcast my intention. The blue dragon’s eyes flared as he saw my planned move. A second later, he angled to his left.

Which was when I flexed my legs and drove straight at him. It was a glancing blow because he was moving away from me, but the added momentum overbalanced Caine, and the cobalt dragon tumbled away. I didn’t bother trying to pounce on him. He had too much time to recover.

Instead, I pivoted on my front two legs, claws digging deep into the sod.

Just as Caine got back on all fours and looked up, my tail came whipping around, the tip of it catching him squarely in the snout.

CRACK!

The crowd gasped. For a moment, everything was still.

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