Page 71 of A Dragon's Miracle (Fires of Fate)
Finn
“Do you have the ring?” I asked Jin without bothering with formalities. After all, we were both here to punch each other’s face in. Also, I wanted him to stop looking at Ryan.
“Of course I do.” His voice was dripping with self-confidence as he held the piece of jewelry out to me. “Shall we make our vows then?”
“Can’t wait.” I was tempted to stick my tongue out to him but I’d been told more than once that it made me look like a child. Normally, I didn’t care. In front of Jin, I did.
I pulled a needle out of my pocket that my mom had given me that morning. “One drop of blood is enough.”
“Oh, I know how this works.” Jin took the needle from me with an arrogant smile and pricked his finger with it. “I swear that if I should lose this fight, I’m going to give back everything you and Ryan brought me and that I’ll keep providing you with medicine free of charge,” he said as his blood fell on the gemstone in the ring.
I took the ring back from him and eyed it curiously. It was giving off a warm glow now. A sign that the magic was working, maybe. I hoped so.
“You're going to say your oath now?” Jin asked me.
“Yes.” Taking the needle, I pinched my own finger and let a drop of my blood join Jin's on the gemstone. “I swear that I'm going to do whatever you want me to if I lose.” The ring grew even hotter in my hand, until it became almost uncomfortable to the touch. I handed it to one of the officials for safekeeping.
“Both of you ready?” he asked.
“Very much so,” Jin said with a smile that I couldn't wait to wipe off his face.
I looked back at Ryan, who gave me a short nod, as if saying,Go get him.“I'm ready too,” I said turning to the official again.
“You're aware of the rules?” he asked.
“Yeah, no killing, I get it,” Jin grumbled. Looking at me he added, “But I wouldn't want to kill you anyway. That would be a waste when I have so many other uses for you. Think about it; you could find out exactly what I did to your precious little mate when he was with me. Experience it all yourself.”
My eyes narrowed at Jin and my hands turned to fists. Gods, I wanted to punch the bastard for the way he talked about Ryan, for everything he'ddoneto Ryan.
But I would have been penalized for striking before the fight began, so I held myself back.
“We understand the rules,” I told the official, pressing the words out through gritted teeth. I'd never been so ready to fight in my life.
“Well then, let the fight commence.” He stepped aside.
Jin and I shifted nearly simultaneously. I ended up being just the slightest bit faster than him. Hopefully this meant that I was right and he was not used to his dragon form anymore. I shifted nearly every day, while he'd been stuck in human territory for years. Ihadto have better control.
But what he lacked in control, he made up for in velocity. While I was still wondering how to start a fight, he went in for the strike.
I had a millisecond to dodge his claws. But I made it--just so.
I was lucky that I was small and agile. Being short could be a disadvantage, yes, but right now, as I took to the air, it was working in my favor.
He didn’t seem to have any intentions of giving me a moment to breathe though. As soon as I took to the sky, so did he—and came right at me again. He meant business--and almost shaved some of my scales off with his claws. I swerved to avoid the brunt of his attack, but couldn't dodge it fully.
Fuck.
I'd expected him to be at least a little sluggish, but it was like he wanted to decide this battle within the first five minutes.
Fight back, Finn. You have claws too.
How bad was it that I had to remind myself of that? I just wasn'tusedto fighting. I had neverhurtanyone else. Fine time to realize that now, of course.
I narrowly dodged another strike while flying higher.
Get it together, Finn. Think of what he did to Ryan.
An image flashed through my mind, of Ryan's face, bruised after he'd come back from visiting his boyfriend.
