Page 32 of Dragon Unhinged

This arena isn’tone I’ve been in before.

It lacks the stomach-turning combination of bleach, blood, and piss in the air. There’s no fear caked into the stones.

But even without all the tell-tale markers that signify fights that have come before, everything else is the same. The same narrow corridors, the same dingy lighting and uneven stone floors, the same crackle of magic, just waiting to rip my dragon from my skin.

The guard stays close enough to keep his damned shock-stick pressed against my spine, but not close enough that I could lash out and rip him limb from limb.

Even if I could, there’s nowhere to go but forward.

Into the ring.

Into the pits of hell where only one opponent will emerge.

Just like every other fight, a door of metal bars slams behind me, separating me from my guard, from anyone else, and he gestures at me to extend my wrists.

If I could just somehow keep him from putting those cuffs back on me, I could get out. I could find a way to get the runes off my back, and I could take Brianna far from all this. I could evenfind my heartstone to present it to her and beg her to be mine forever.

I could take her back to the Tourmaline clan land. Even with a destroyed castle, even with all the death that occurred in my family home, we could make a life there.

Away from the humans who would kill us both, just because we’re mates.

It’s a fantasy, a dream I’ll never achieve if I can’t figure out how to escape. One that my opponent would happily take from me, if he has any hope of finding the same joy for himself.

As soon as my cuffs are released, I strip out of my clothes, not really wanting to destroy them. Not when they hold even the slightest scent of Brianna.

The seconds of silence I wait in that damned barred cell stretch out into an eternity. There’s no roar of a crowd, no sense of an opponent’s mind, nothing to separate my thoughts away from the fact that I have two shitty choices.

I have to kill whoever, whatever they send into the ring with me. I have to get back to Brianna. I have to survive. Survive, by destroying someone else who’s just as much a prisoner as I am.

The gates raise, and I hurry forward into the arena.

It smells clean, like a new car freshly off the lot. Factory new even. The runes glow with a fresh application, like it’s the first time they’ve been activated. The magic feels stronger too.

It’s about time, Declan.My opponent’s voice fills my mind, clear and as sharp as a dagger’s edge. There’s no hiding the fact that he wants to destroy me, to end me, but why?

I search my memories to match the voice, to try to place my opponent.

Even as he steps out of the shadows of his own caged area, I don’t recognize him. He smells like he’s dragon-born, though. Not tourmaline, surely, but I don’t know that I’ll be able to place his clan until we shift.

Gods, the pain is worse than it’s ever been, as bits and pieces of my dragon claw their way to the surface, ripping through my skin. It’s like being trapped in my human form for this long has made the magic worse.

Or maybe it’s knowing that I have a mate that’s causing this pain.

The vivid green of my opponent’s scales can only mean he’s an amazonite.

Not one I’ve ever met, unless it was when we were still younglings. The scars covering his back betray the fact that he’s been fighting in these battles for at least as long as I have, and undoubtedly mean he’s been destroying vicious opponents along the way.

As soon as I unfurl my wings and stretch into my full dragon form, he attacks.

Your clan betrayed us all, and when I heard there was a tourmaline dragon in the fighting rings, I knew I would get the honor of killing you. I would get the honor of ripping the scales from your flesh and avenging all the shifters who suffer now because of your arrogance.

While his rage screams inside of my head, his teeth and claws dig into my neck as he tries to wrench me around, trying to throw me like a rag-doll around the arena.

He caught me off guard, but I manage to get my feet back under me. I refuse to give into his teeth, refuse to go down without a fight. Especially when he’s blaming me, my clan, my brothers, for our current predicament.

You think if I were to blame for this, if this is truly what my clan wanted, that I would be a prisoner, just like you?

I shake him loose and spring off the floor, trying to get airborne, trying to put some distance between us. I use the walls to get some more height before turning to make sure he’s not too close.

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