Page 74 of A Dragon's Miracle (Fires of Fate)
Ryan
That night, we celebrated Finn’s victory. His mother had roasted a whole pig and invitedeveryone. Seriously, it felt like the whole town was there. The joyous atmosphere reminded me of summer solstice, only that it was neither summer nor solstice.
“Man, this is good,” Finn said, digging into his pork. After the fight, he’d been patched up by a medic and healed by Zed as much as possible. I have to admit, seeing Jin bite him had been horrible. For a second there, I hadn’t known whether he was going to make it. But then he’d pulled through.
Thank God.
I picked at the food on my plate, not feeling particularly hungry. Mostly, I was tired, but I didn’t want to excuse myself so soon on Finn’s big night. He deserved to be celebrated. And quite honestly, I was tired of being tired all the time and spending most of the day in bed.
Someone came by and clapped Finn on the back. “Great fight earlier.”
“Thank you,” Finn said, barely looking at the man before he vanished again. This was odd behavior for Finn, but he'd been a bit out of it all day. I didn't blame him, but I did want him to take a bit more pride in himself.
“Everyone's impressed with you,” I mentioned.
Finn shook his head. “I know. But it's not like I did anything great. For a while there, I thought I was going to lose. Jin was way better at fighting than me. I think... the only reason I won is because I had a betterreasonto fight.” He looked at me.
I kissed the side of his face. “Thank you for fighting for me. I know it was difficult for you.”
“Yeah.” He was quiet for a moment. “Actually it felt really good for a bit. When I went berserk. That was... weird.”
I remembered how he'd turned the battle around. How furious he'd looked. How very unlike himself. And I remembered how stunned he'd been by his own actions after. “Your inner dragon?” I asked.
He shrugged just slightly. “I guess. I never knew I had so much violence inside me.”
“Don't worry about it. You're still you. I know you didn't fight because youwantedto. You did it because--“
“Because I had to, yeah.” Finn let his fork sink to his plate. “I hope I'll never have to do anything like that again.”
“You won't,” I promised. “Things are going to be fine from here on out, I know it.” I wasn't sure if that was true, of course, but Finn had spent so much time cheering me up, it was my turn to be the optimistic one for a change. It wouldn't be fair to let him doallthe heavy lifting in this relationship.
“I guess I have to believe you,” Finn said, a soft smile on his face.
And we didn't get to talk much more than that before we received company. Adrian and Tyrel had brought their twins to the party, and it seemed they were done eating already, as they came rushing to us.
“We ate our veggies,” one of them announced.
“We were really good,” the other one added.
“Were you?” Finn reached out to pat both their heads.
“Yes!” They said in unison. I noticed that Adrian had put them in tiny suits again tonight and they looked like the perfect little gentlemen--although they were probably not fooling anyone.
“You're here because you want to play the drums again, aren't you?” Finn asked.
The boys responded to him with hopeful smiles. “Can we? Please?”
Finn laughed. “I'm not done eating yet.”
“I can take them,” I offered. The crowd at the party was getting a bit much for me anyway. I was starting to feel hot.
“You don't mind?”
“Not at all.”
Finn turned to the kids. “What do you think, boys? You want to go with Ryan?”
They nodded enthusiastically.
