Page 63 of Rifted Hearts
Rhys sputtered something, but Xiang Jao gave an inpatient huff and he shut up.
“You don’t have a choice.” The matriarch sounded colder than Kaveh had ever heard her. “My responsibility lies with our entire clan, and your naive idealism isn’t something we can afford right now. You will follow my instructions, or I’ll have Rhys wind-walk him back to the keep.”
“I’d rather die than let that bastard touch me again.” Remi swallowed hard then continued. “I swear, I’ll fight every one of you, every minute, every hour, every day. Maybe I can’t overpower any of you, but I’ll do my damnedest to make all of your lives a living hell.”
Kaveh had no idea what to do. His options were limited. He could follow Xiang Jao’s orders and drag Remi back to the keep. Remi wouldn’t forgive him for that, nor should he. Kaveh could refuse, and then the matriarch would tell Rhys to take Remi.
No. If Rhys dared to touch Remi again, Kaveh would kill him.
He forced himself to take a few long, slow breaths. He couldn’t win a fight against his entire clan any more than Remi could.
But he could issue a challenge that couldn’t be ignored. He could lay his life on the line for the right to give Remi his freedom.
“I insist on the right of combat.” The words were strange in his ears. After all, he had only read them in ancient texts, and he never would have imagined himself saying them out loud. “Matriarch, your second husband has attacked my spouse—my property and my greatest treasure. I demand recompense and vengeance.”
Kaveh walked forward until he and Rhys were close enough to touch. The forced proximity felt both intimate and revolting at the same. How had he ever thought he loved Rhys? A myriad of cruel remarks, minor insults, andbiting comments came to mind, a personal history Kaveh had tried to repress.
“I challenge you.” Kaveh knew his next words could mean he and Remi wouldn’t live to see another day. “I demand you face me in a duel over the insult you have given to my property and my honor.”
Rhys hadn’t moved a muscle as Kaveh approached, barely waiting for the final words of the challenge to leave his lips before he responded. “I accept.”
“No.” Xiang Jao towered over both of them, a note of agony in her voice. “This can’t happen.”
Raion gave a low grumble. “The challenge has been issued and accepted. Drakone law is clear in this regard. Kaveh and Rhys will have a duel of honor to decide this matter, with their seconds and supporters in attendance. The winner will do whatever they wish with Remigio Gatti.”
He and Rhys would fight a battle as drakones. Rhys was the youngest drakone to achieve his aerial form and the clan’s best fighter. Kaveh, Rhys’s junior by decades, could opt to either use his one weapon, a poisonous fire that would kill his former lover with a touch, or watch as Rhys killed Remi.
Kaveh squared his shoulders and faced the only mother he had ever known as an enemy, not as a son. “The guardians have spoken. Set the conditions for the duel.”
26
The dragon dueling ground, a.k.a. the rodeo arena, was packed.
Remi was set to become the main prize in the Friday mini-rodeo he had heard so much about during the week. Only instead of barrel racing and trick roping, Kaveh and Rhys planned to fight to the death over him.
Shit, had it only been a week since he’d arrived at Moon Star Ranch? It felt like a century.
He walked in from the main ranch building with Raion beside him as a guard. There had been no opportunity to talk to Kaveh and beg him not to lose his life in an asinine display of dragon machismo. No chance to take back all the shit he had spouted about not being dragged off to the keep. No option to do anything but watch as Kaveh faced down his ex-lover, who could turn into a giant flying snake and fight with mini-tornadoes, because Kaveh wanted to save Remi’s life and freedom.
The large corral that served to demonstrate rodeo sports was an enclosed oval with metal bleachers on each of thelong sides for spectators. The guests and staff should have been freaked out and hiding in their rooms, but they were all here, including the two children who had narrowly escaped becoming phantom snacks at the petting zoo.
The boy and girl jumped up and down and waved at him as he walked with Raion past the spectators, and since that process took forever at the glacial pace the guardian favored, he had little choice but to wave back.
A fight to the death hardly seemed appropriate viewing for young children, but since Remi was the child of two people who weren’t exactly parent-of-the-year candidates, he didn’t feel he knew enough to judge.
The townies had also turned out in force, sitting a little apart from the ranch crowd on the bleachers. Jessie sat next to José, who had a cast on his leg. They surprised Remi by giving him a friendly wave, apparently unfazed he had turned out to be a Colony spy. Flutterberry lounged on one of the bleachers, and Snow squawked at her then flew off of Remi’s arm to perch on the mothcat’s back. Remi didn’t want the bird to get hurt, but it felt like losing his last friend.
Kaveh had been allowed to have his supporters in attendance, so there were people in the audience who at least didn’t want Remi dead. Kat and Lyall had taken seats in the front beside Chrissie, Garreth’s wife. She looked anxious and frightened, but when Remi passed by, she gave him a warm smile and told him she was praying for him.
All of the ranch staff appeared to be here as well. Javier was in the stands, sitting next to Jeannette. They both gave Remi a thumbs-up. Now that Remi was facing near-certain death, everyone was willing to be forgiving.
The bleachers on the opposite side held the drakone clan, all in humanoid shapes, which was fortunate for thestructural integrity of the metal seats. Xiang Jao sat in the middle with over a dozen of her clan, resplendent in red-and-gold robes that matched her scales. Her reptilian eyes followed Remi as he crossed the earth floor of the arena, which was still damp from last night’s rift storm. As they reached the far end of the corral, Remi realized he was about to be shut in one of the livestock chutes.
“I thought today couldn’t get more humiliating, but I guess I was wrong.” Remi walked through the open gate of the metal structure, which was a pen constructed of metal bars painted an ugly green that would have clashed with every single one of his outfits. Combined with the brown living leathers he was wearing, he looked and felt like a cow waiting to be roped. Raion closed the gate behind him then sank down on his haunches and went immobile in front of the structure.
Remi had wondered where Garreth was in all of this, since he and his wife owned the ranch the drakones had taken over. That question was answered when the man trotted out on a sleek chestnut horse, his spine ramrod straight and his face determined.
“Good afternoon.” Garreth had a great speaking voice, and it carried well in the hushed atmosphere of tension in the arena. He was wearing a long, black duster and matching cowboy hat. “I’d like to welcome all of our guests here today, including those from our neighboring town of Cactus Flower Estates.”
