Page 71 of Born in Fire

I bare my teeth, and it responds with a jet of flame that sears the air between us. I dive beneath the inferno, then surge upward, ramming my full weight into its underbelly. We grapple midair, claws raking, teeth snapping. Blood—mine or his, I can’t tell—spatters my scales.

With a twist of my powerful neck, I sink my teeth into the junction between his wing and body. Cartilage tears under the pressure. The dragon’s scream cuts through the night as it plummets, wing useless.

I don’t stay to watch it fall. Juno needs me. I know it as surely as I know that I need to draw breath.

Three more dragons block my path to the building.

Fuck! I don’t have time for this.

My wings pump harder, building speed. At the last second, I tuck them against my body and dive, becoming a missile of scale and muscle. I tear through their formation, scattering them before they can react.

Flames lick at my tail as one recovers quickly, but I’m already past them, focused solely on my destination.

The Towers loom before me, the upper floors aflame. I aim for the ground level, where pedestrians flee in terror. The coffeeshop’s windows are blown out, tables and chairs strewn across the sidewalk.

I land hard, the concrete cracking beneath my weight. The shift back to human form is painful, rushed—bones compressing, scales receding. I stagger as my feet touch the ground, naked as the day I was born.

“Juno!” I roar, pushing through the crowd of terrified humans. Some scream, pointing at me—at the scales still receding from my skin, at my eyes that still glow with inhuman light.

I don’t care.

The foyer is a disaster area—smoke, dust, shattered glass everywhere. Emergency lights cast everything in a hellish red glow. Through the haze, I spot her—Juno, her blonde hair tinged gray with dust, helping an elderly woman toward the exit.

Relief floods me, so powerful my knees nearly buckle. She’s alive. She’s okay.

“Juno!” I call again.

She looks up, eyes widening as she spots me. “Dorian?”

The moment stretches between us—her standing there, confusion and relief warring on her face; me, dirt-streaked and bloodied, staring back like she’s water in a desert.

Then movement catches my eye. A dragon, smaller than the others, slithers along the ceiling, its scales the color of old blood. It’s stalking her, positioning itself above.

“No!” I surge forward, but I’m too far away.

Juno sees my expression change, reads the terror there. She shoves the elderly woman toward the door, then—impossibly, beautifully brave—starts running towardme.

“Get down!” I scream, already shifting again, my dragon bursting free in a desperate rush of power.

The enemy dragon drops from the ceiling, jaws gaping. I meet him midair, our bodies colliding with bone-shattering force. Wecrash into a pillar, claws tearing, teeth snapping at throats. My rage gives me strength, but it’s not enough—not fast enough.

The pillar cracks, weakened by our impact. Stone groans, shifts—

I rip the enemy dragon’s throat out with a savage twist of my jaws, not even registering its death throes as I shift back, turning to look for Juno.

“Dorian! Watch out!” Her cry is close, but I don’t see her until her hands hit my shoulder, her full body weight behind a move that knocks me sideways several feet.

I spin around just in time to see her disappear beneath a cascade of marble and concrete as the pillar collapses into the spot I’d just been standing in.

“NO!” The scream tears from my throat, human and dragon merged in horror. I surge back, scrambling over rubble on suddenly human hands and knees.

“Juno!” My voice breaks as I dig through the debris, tossing aside chunks of marble that weigh more than I should be able to lift. “Juno, answer me!”

A soft cough. I freeze, then redouble my efforts, digging faster.

She’s pinned beneath a slab of concrete, her lower body crushed. Blood pools beneath her, too much blood, spreading in a dark halo around her golden hair.

“No, no, no,” I moan, falling to my knees beside her. “Juno, look at me. Look at me.”

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