Page 19 of Dragon Unhinged

“Anything, little sister.”

I smile. “I want to spend the night with a friend. A classmate from school. Without Papa’s guard dogs watching me.”

“I’ll see what I can do. But don’t expect it to be any time soon.”

I know it’s a long shot, but at least’ll keep Zimo focused on something else, rather than thinking I might be interested in the shifters in the basement. The longer he thinks I have no idea they’re down there, the better.

Chapter

Eight

DECLAN

Before Brianna, the only moments of relief came when my captors released the spell holding me in my cage. It’s fleeting, and barely enough to seize fresh air and a small glimpse of what my life was before.

Guards with shock-sticks make sure I can’t get far or forget completely where I am, but at least I can pretend for a few precious seconds I’m not on my way to my execution or worse…someone else’s.

Tonight, though, all I can think about is Brianna and the relief lasts even longer.

I had to shake out the delicate braids she wove into my hair, ruining all the work she put in before my captors saw, but it doesn’t change how much they meant to me. The feel of her fingertips working gently in my hair was more erotic and touching than anything I’d ever experienced.

A new fear creeps under my skin as I realize just how much she means to me. A fear that she’ll get caught. A fear that she’ll never come down into my cell again. A fear that I’ll lose her…forever.

We reach our destination with the usual cattle shoot at the exit out the back of the van into a spelled tunnel. Into the depths of a magically glamoured arena. Instead of chained, starving tigers, there are shifters forced to tear each other part until one has taken their last breath. I’m prodded into another cage where I have a stone bench, a water bowl like I’m a dog, and nothing else.

The copper scent of blood is thick in the air tonight, covering the modern-day coliseum with an ominousness that I can’t shake.

Something else in the air.

Something’s different tonight.

Normally, I don’t have to hear other fights going on.

Normally, I don’t have to wait long for my trip into the ring.

Something about tonight is far from normal.

Why haven’t I gone down the tunnels to the ring yet? What do they have planned?

Nothing ever good comes from them deciding to shake things up in the arena. My agitation and frustration grow as I wait in my dark cave of a cell. Waiting for whatever is coming.

If I’m not completely focused, if I can’t figure out how to beat whatever opponent they have lined up for me, I could absolutely lose my life tonight.

And if I die, what would happen to Brianna? Would she make friends with Ewan? The bear? Would she think that I somehow escaped and abandoned her? The thought of never seeing her again, of leaving her questioning makes me sick.

The waiting, the pacing, the unknown is making me and my dragon itchy with anticipation.

I try to focus on remembering the good things, like knowing my dragon will get to stretch his wings, even if it’s a forced shift.

A voice comes down the corridor. “That’s it. Pack ‘em up. No more battles tonight.”

What?

I blink a couple times, even as one of my guards approaches a syringe in his hand.

I step back instinctively.

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” He says in a low, menacing voice, but I can smell the fear coating his skin like a shield.

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