Page 48 of Monsters of Air

Until he grabbed my leg and yanked hard until I was on my back, staring up at the darkening sky heavy with clouds.

“You fucking dragon bastard!”

Why was he so hard to defeat? No one my age should be as good as he was. It had to be a joke. Had to be.

Landers broke out laughing.

“She is amazing,” the Fae said, staring at me with the same focus he had from the start. Clearly he hadn’t missed anything.

“Shut the fuck up,” Landers said, kicking at the Fae’s legs. “She still got her ass handed to her.”

“Is that what you think?” the Fae laughed, still looking right at me. “You dragons truly know nothing.”

I got up, sidestepping so that I was partially hidden behind Philit. I didn’t like the way the Fae was looking at me, like a prize he needed to possess. Or fuck considering all he had talked about before. I shuddered, suddenly glad I now had the knowledge to land a better kick in the guy’s junk.

“She’s not all that,” Landers said, sounding too confident about it.

“Then you fight her,” Philit said. “If she’s so weak, she shouldn’t be a challenge for you, right? It’ll be a good lesson for her to fight with someone other than me.” Philit’s voice was tight as he stared hard at Landers.

“You really gonna toss her to the wolves?” Landers' confidence was oozing in all the wrong ways.

“Wolves?” Zilon laughed, patting me on the back and sending me stumbling towards Landers. “I doubt you could land a punch on them, let alone your rider.”

Your rider. My dragons. I swallowed, forcing all of the exhilarating butterflies that those stupid words filled me with away.

Landers’ eyes narrowed before he climbed to his feet and began stretching out his limbs as he joined us. Zilon glared at Landers briefly before taking over his role in making sure the Fae didn’t try to do anything.

“Ready, little girl?” he asked me as he stretched, this time rotating his hips and thrusting his groin toward me.

“I’m not fighting your dick. Well, unless you want me to kick it.” Which I would. He smiled as if he would enjoy that. Of course the dragon would be a masochist.

“Go for it,” Philit said, stepping out from between us, giving us room to fight. I wasn’t sure if he was telling me to fight Landers or Landers’ cock; not that there was much of a difference.

I didn’t wait; I charged in, kicking out. Landers dodged it, but he wasn’t as smooth as Philit was. It was clear his experience level was barely above mine. That made me hopeful. He at least had a flaw that Philit did not.

His ego.

I just needed to bait him enough.

“I guess all that running and hiding at least taught you to dodge,” I said, letting my teeth flash in a smile.

Landers' eyes burned bright as he took in my words. He swung at me with a growl, but the whooshing sound of his attack reached me in a rush and I dodged. When his arm was within my reach, I did what Philit did to us so often and grabbed it, yanking him into me. My knee was there to greet his balls with the heartiest of hello’s. As soon as I connected with him, I let him go and moved out of his reach.

He grunted as he stumbled back, grabbing at his crotch, swearing and stumbling as he glared at me.

“You should have joined us for lessons,” I said, all smiles now. “You’re slow.”

He stopped hopping and instead snarled at me, his eyes a bright red as his dragon flared.

Okay, I might have prodded him too much.

He rushed me, fists moving like they were attached to a steam engine. No matter what I did I couldn’t dodge, I couldn’t push him back. His fists were everywhere, pressing and pounding into my flesh. I locked my scream inside.

“You’ll never be able to out strength a dragon, Rayna. You will never win head on,” Philit called out like this was part of the lesson, like he had planned this all along.

Like he had never believed in me.

With a scream, I jumped out of Landers’ reach and dove toward him rather than away. As soon as Landers shifted to block my attack, I was already changing directions. He tried to bring his arm up in time, but I adjusted. My fist connected with his cheek and I punched the dragon with a hollow thud.

---