Page 175 of Her Tortured Beasts

Aurelia shifts back into phoenix form and tucks in her new leg, launching into the sky. Scythe lunges first and I leap after him. As she takes our weight, Aurelia falters for a short moment in mid-air, but her phoenix strength kicks in, and almost straight away, we’re flying right up to the two pummelling dragons.

Lady Drakos is not holding back. I watch in awe as she, exactly like Xander without his headphones, fights like she was made for it. It’s easy to follow, brutal movements, and the trained fighter in me doesn’t blink, watching eagerly as they dance with claws and teeth drawing blood. A light spray of rain makes the air cooler as we watch and I swing my feet in mid-air, my muscles wanting to get in on the action.

On our other side another dragon fight is taking place, just as brutal, with the feeling of old enemies finally coming to a head.

“Wheel around and drop me on Fabian,”Scythe says.

“What?”comes Aurelia’s surprised voice.

Scythe’s voice is filled with raw command.“Savage, climb up, take my spot. Aurelia, do as I say.”

Hand over hand, I climb up my brother’s body until I reach my regina’s pretty leg. Aurelia obediently wheels around, surging towards the two warring dragons as I wrap a hand around her leg and Scythe slides down my body, latching onto my bare ankles just in time.

Aurelia lets out a warning cry, smooth and golden as we approach Xander and his golden eyes flick towards us.

I can’t imagine what the fuck we look like to him, I’ll probably never hear the end of it after this, but everything is wiped from my mind as Xander’s claws dig into Fabian’s chest and force himto rotate so that Xander is under him like a kid on monkey bars, leaving Fabian’s back exposed.

Aurelia flies over the pair of them and Scythe lets me go.

My brother lands on Fabian’s back in a practiced crouch before scuttling up his back like a crab, keeping low.

Aurelia makes a wide arc, letting us get a good view of Scythe, ready to dive in case he falls. But Scythe’s feet are steady even as Fabian bucks, trying to wrench Xander off him. Xander’s teeth appear, snipping at Fabian’s leathery neck. The older dragon roars in Xander’s face, and Xander roars right back.

It’s then that Scythe reaches Fabian’s head, the dragon’s eyes going wide as Scythe’s power penetrates through his chest and into his heart and blood vessels.

Xander takes the opportunity to snap at Fabian’s muzzle, his teeth sinking into Fabian’s lower jaw. Scythe unsheathes a dagger and leaps over Fabian’s head with the knife raised high over his head?—

And buries it right into the dragon’s eye socket.

Fabian roars as blood spurts and Xander rips a chunk out of his uncle’s jaw. The three of them thrash in mid-air and Scythe loses his balance, slipping right off Fabian’s head.

Aurelia shrieks and shoots towards them, but Xander’s power whips out and Scythe is slapped back into Fabian’s nose, where Scythe whacks his knife into the flesh there.

Scythe roars into the face of the dragon who’d once hurt him, his face red, the veins in his neck bulging, right before blood explodes out of Fabian’s eye socket and the dragon goes limp as a dead fish.

Xander plucks Scythe off Fabian with his teeth before the green dragon’s wings upturn and go crashing, lifeless to the grass. It seems to take forever, but when he does land, it’s with a mighty thump that shakes the earth.

Aurelia speeds for Scythe, my legs swinging back almost horizontally, but my brother is already scuttling down Xander’s back and seating himself there, waving us on.

Together, we head back towards Lady Drakos, who’s still tangled with her husband.

Lyle and the Devi pack still have the chewing gum dragon and Ragnar thrashing against themselves in mid-air.

But while we were focusing on the fight in the sky, we’d forgotten one thing. Suddenly, Ragnar rights himself, pulling free of his invisible bonds and angling his maw straight for Xander.

Marduk lets out a shout of warning and I look down to see wolves spilling out of the castle like ants, two of them knocking Lyle right off his feet.

Chapter 98

Scythe

Atsunami fills my body, roaring, whipping me up on the high of a successful kill. A mortal enemy finally dead.

Finally dead. The creature who had haunted me for near on a decade is finally gone.

Rain splatters across my forehead as, on the back of my new ally, Xander, we fly towards Lady Drakos.

Bonds are forged in battle, and this is one battle I won’t ever forget.

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