Page 29 of Dragons' Bride
Tavias pulled Kit away from the rail as the serpent lashed the water with its powerful tail, propelling itself up. It spread its batlike wings to catch the wind, its great silhouette dwarfing Quinton’s dragon.
Quinton banked a hard right, his snarl echoing over the water. He twisted about faster than Tavias thought possible and charged. The powerful gust of wind from Quinton’s wings knocked the shadow serpent from its path, a trick of Quinton’s that few dragons could even hope to attempt. The male was death incarnate, as he was trained to be.
Taking advantage of the brief opening he’d forged, Quinton lunged forward, clamping his jaws onto one of the serpent's wings.
A gutteral sound escaped the beast’s throat. It yanked its wing away violently, the leathery membrane ripping against Quinton’s teeth. Kit let out a strained cheer, but that was because her mortal eyesight couldn’t see the rage that sparked in the serpent’s slitted red eyes. If it was merely agitated and hunting before, now it was murderous, all of its fury fixed on Quinton.
Changing course, the serpent dove back into the water, sending a massive wave toward the Phoenix. The ship rocked, but held fast. When the serpent surfaced next, it was behind Quinton. Before the dragon could turn, the serpent reared and raked its claws along Quinton’s silver scales.
Deep gashes of red blood streaked along the dragon’s body.
A roar of pain and fury tore from Quinton's throat.
Before the dragon could retaliate, the serpent dove toward the safety of the water.
Folding his wings in tight, Quinton followed it down, down, down. They raced, like two arrows against the horizon. Gaining on the serpent, Quinton twisted mid-dive and whipped his tail, striking the serpent’s head.
Stunned, the serpent unfurled its wings to steady itself. Quinton shot up toward the sky, then down, slamming into the serpent's spine, sending the beast spiraling. Ready to receive a killing blow.
Tavias held his breath as he waited for Quinton to end the fight, but the silver dragon shuddered in midair instead.
“What’s happening?” Kit asked, the dread in her voice matching that coursing through Tavias’s blood.
“The spine spikes are venomous,” Dane said. “I imagine we are seeing the effects of the toxin.”
Tavias’s breath halted as Quinton fought to steady himself. The serpent’s wings beat the air as it regained its bearing. Found its target. Attacked.
The two beasts met with a clash that echoed over the ocean. The serpent’s red eyes flashed, its sinuous body wrapping around Quinton's. Constricting tighter and tighter. Kit trembled, and Tavias was grateful she couldn’t see how the serpent’s spikes pierced Quinton’s scales. How its tail coiled around Quinton’s hind leg and broke it.
In the ocean below, the piranha’s were already circling, summoned by the dripping blood. Despite the agony Tavias knew had to be wrecking his brother’s body, Quinton gripped onto the shadow serpent with talons that would never let go, not even in death.
Wrapped tightly together, the pair fell toward the water, the hungry maws of the giant worms waiting to devour them both. Bits of broken scales and streaks of blood already frosted the waves.
“No!” Kit shouted as the pair hit the water’s surface and went under, the helplessness spreading through her cry echoing Tavias’s own soul. Fighting against his grip, she tried to pull toward the rail. To claw herself free of Tavias’s hands. He let her pound against him, never letting his protective hold on her body slacken.
Dread filled Tavias’s heart.
The next roar Tavias heard came through the bond itself, which wasn’t possible, but was happening nonetheless. Bright pulsing flashes of silver magic lit up the ocean’s depth. Then the stench of vile blood filled Tavias’s lungs, choking him. In the ocean, the waves’ white tops turned a shade of rust, as if a geyser of spoiled blood had been opened beneath them.
A heartbeat later, Quiton’s head broke the surface. The dragon hauled himself painfully into the air, barely able to rise above the rolling waves. In the shadow beneath him, the piranhas swarmed around the shadow serpent's bleeding body, the snake was still alive, but dying quickly.
Blood magic. Stars. The realization of what Quinton had done hit Tavias like a gust of icy wind, bringing both relief and horror.
“What happened?” Kit asked, her body going limp against Tavias’s hold.
“I believe Quinton unleashed his blood-magic when the two were intertwined,” Tavias told her gently. “It…” It ripped into every organ in the serpent’s body, opening each until the creature was weak and bleeding, but alive enough to lure the piranhas. “Quinton ended the fight with blood magic.”
Kit pulled from Tavias’s hold and this time he let her go. Quinton’s dragon was making painful progress away from the carnage. His body, wracked with pain and exhaustion, was barely able to stay in the air. And once he cleared the purple mist of the rift, he couldn’t do even that.
The Phoenix was a hundred paces away from Quinton when the dragon collapsed onto the waves, his wings splaying limply like fallen sails.
16. KIT
Istand out of the way, the salty sea breeze tangling my hair as Tavias argues with Corvus, the ship’s healer.
“He needs to shift,” Corvus insists for the tenth time, pointing to where Quinton’s dragon is sprawled limply on the deck. Corvus is smaller than Tavias, but no less fierce, and the leather apron he wears is splattered with blood from the injuries he’d been tending in the past hour.
“Quinton is well aware of that.” Tavias crosses his arms. “If he could do so, he would have.”
