Page 39 of Don't Fae With Dragons

She shakes her head, glancing quickly back at the assassins. “Cory, I can’t leave you.”

“Youmust,” I urge. “I will find you. Please, go!”

Without another word, she kisses the top of my hand and starts to run off. As soon as her feet leave the ground, her wings unfurling in a flurry of power and air, I whirl around to see Max and Port already in battle with the assassins.

CHAPTER 25: PORT

The assassins are skilled fighters, just about as skilled as Max and me. We’re thrown into an evenly-matched battle with them, thinking nothing of our own danger, or Cory’s – I only think of protecting myself for Mili’s sake.

I engage the two assassins in close combat while Max rains down arrows from a slight distance. I don’t want to shift, I don’t know how Mili will react to see me as a dragon, I don’t want her to be scared of me. I know Max is thinking the same. I start with my daggers, trying to see if I can land a wounding shot on either of the assailants, but it’s tricky to maneuver such small weapons against two men at once. After a moment, I throw the daggers – landing one lucky shot on one assassin’s shoulder –and pull out my short sword.

Just as I unsheathe the blade, Cory comes sprinting in, screaming, with a war hammer held over his head. The assassins have mostly been relying on agility up to this point, and I realize it’s going to be a short, short battle for them against Cory’s style: brute force. No need for him to shift into dragon form.

The assassins seem to understand this, too, and one of them runs past Cory to try to get a hit on Max before the real combat starts. Max’s eyes go wide, as he’s entirely underprepared for close contact (for the Realm’s sake, hedoesn’t even have a sword on him), and Cory’s voice booms across the clearing.

“Max, go!” he shouts.

As Cory is shouting, the second assassin aims for me, but as I whirl around to catch his blade with my own, Cory swings the war hammer into his torso. It makes a sizable dent in the assassin’s armor, and he stumbles backwards several steps before getting his bearings.

I turn to face the other assassin, who’s now sprinting back from where Max has run off (though I think I spy him in a tree a few dozen paces away). He launches himself at me with a terrible yell, and hits my short sword out of my hand.

It lands several paces away from me, and I dive under the assassin’s swinging blade to reach it. As my hand wraps around its hilt, I roll back over to stand and see my assailant standing above me, sword held high, ready to plunge it into my gut. I try to roll away, but his feet have me pinned, and I think Imightbe screaming, just as I see Cory’s war hammer make contact with the assassin’s skull.

His neck twists sharply as he falls sideways to the ground, sending a spray of his blood all over my face and chest, but I quickly get back to my feet to help Cory finish off the last fighter.

CHAPTER 26: MAX

From my position in the tree, I can see two things. One: Port really, literally should be dead. Two: Cory is a brilliant – and terrifying – fighter.

Cory has just finished off one of the wicked assassins, and though I can’t hear what he’s saying from here, it certainly looks as if he’s told Port to buzz off. I see Port scramble backwards as Cory turns to face the remaining assailant, cracking his neck viciously as he does so.

Oh, this is going to be good.

I can’t help but start to smile as Cory paces over to the assassin, glowering as the man tries his best to muster up some courage for what heknowswill be his last battle. He’s turning this way, debating whether to run, when Cory slings the war hammer into his chest armor again, deepening the dent from earlier.

The assassin stumbles backwards, but Cory isn’t deterred –no, he trudges forward and hits him in the chest once more, this time opening a small crack in the black metal.

“Had enough?” I hear Cory shout out, loud enough to ring across the clearing all the way to me, and probably to Mili – wherever she is. Huh, that’s a good question: whereisMili?

As if she’s reading my mind, I feel wind whooshing past me. I whirl around to see Mili land on the branch next to me, holding a finger to her lips to tell me to keep quiet.

I can’t help but roll my eyes. “I think Cory’s got it, little faery.”

“I know that,” she shoots back. “Still, it’s better to be safe until we’re sure.”

I smirk at her, but we both whip around to face the ongoing battle as the sound of crunching bone reaches us. Cory, it seems, has aimed perfectly for the last assassin’s leg, and he’s crumbled to the ground.

Cory moves to stand behind him, easily evading the sloppy swings of the assassin’s blade, and brings the war hammer down on his other leg. I wince at the thought of howbadthat must hurt, and at the sound of the assassin shrieking out in agony.

Then Cory kicks the blade out of the assassin’s limp hand, and swings the war hammer down on his right arm. He watches the bones snap, then swings for the left.

Realm’s Mother, he’s vicious.

I turn to Mili, expecting that she’s having a meltdown of sorts watching her dear lover-to-be torturing this man to death, but she’s just staring at him, hypnotized, her jaw hanging open.

“Cat got your tongue?” I offer. Mili just shakes her head in response, and I shrug. “Tough crowd.”

Just as I turn back to face Cory, he’s dealing the finishing blow to the assassin, one swift plunge down of the hammer, and the man’s skull splits nearly in two perfect halves. It’s brutal, it’s bloody, and I realize, in that very moment, that Port and Icouldn’t have found a better packmate if we scoured the Realm looking for one.

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