Page 43 of The Lost Nation

I turned back to Benedict, but he was eyeing me with a gaze I knew far too well. It was only a pity Ronan was away meeting with allies, and I couldn’t test myself against all three at once. Oh well.

“First one to defeat me gets to take me on the balcony!”

They lunged for me, but I laughed and shifted to the witch’s village. They shot me irritated but benevolent looks as I ran through their village, heading towards the forest to hide in the trees.Ronan had explained that thousands of years ago drakens would mate wildly, with a male chasing a female until she submitted.

I shivered in anticipation.

I dove into the forest, running deep into the woods before slowing down. I took a long branch and bent it down towards the ground, holding it under my body. I heard a crack in the trees, and went still. Benedict would likely cheat and shift, leaving Kieran at a distinct disadvantage. I sniffed the air, and Benedict’s aroused scent wafted towards me. My draken whined, not wanting to run away.

Too bad.

I hunkered down in the leaves, using the tall grass and shrubs to cover my scales. Benedict stalked closer towards me. A hunter closing in on his prey.

Then Kierancrashed into the undergrowth from above, swearing and cursing. “If you’re both going tocheat—” he hissed, but Benedict shot him a murderous look. I resisted the urge to snicker, and hunkered down to wait.They needed to come just a little closer...

Kieran growled at Benedict, who snarled at the obvious challenge. I frowned—it hadn’t been my plan for them to fighteach other, butit made sense.Fuck, I'd forgotten about the mating order.

They met in a whirl of teeth and claws, and a trickle of fear went down my back.

“No! Stop it!”

I stood, desperate to keep them from hurting each other. They whipped around spotting me, and that was the precise moment I remembered the tree branch that was under me. It thwacked me in my bum, and I hissed in pain. I tripped over a log in my haste to get away, and fell flat on my face.

The good news was that both of my mates had no need to kill each other when I was doing a perfectly good job of fightingmyselfin front of them.The feral haze faded from their eyes, and they blinked stupidly at me.

“Urgh. Don’t tell Enya.”I sputtered, spitting out a wad of dirt. Benedict scooped me up, and helped get my feet under me. I could tell from his twisting features that he was trying hard not to laugh. I glared at him and Kieran, who held his hands up in surrender.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly,feeling bad for goading their drakens into fighting each other. There was so much I didn't know about my own species. It was embarassing.

“It’s fine,” Kieran assured me, but Benedict wasn’t looking at me. He was staring at the myriad of vines above us, a wicked smirk on his face.

“Care to try your hand at escaping?”He asked, pointing upwards.

I lifted an eyebrow.Benedict continued, warming up to his idea. “You get five minutes to free yourself. If you don’t, I getyou. Five minutes after that,Kierangets you. And we will repeat the cycle until you’re successful in escaping.”

I laughed. “That’s not much motivation for me to succeed then, is it?"

Benedict bared his fangs, and jumped at me. I leaped straight into the air, my wings straining as they pushed hard to propel me into the air. My face hit the canopy of vines, and then my wings and limbs were instantly tangled as I tried to flare them and back away.

My mates snortedas I writhed and thrashed, but my struggling only entangled me further. The vines too thick for me to bite through, and my claws weren’t at the right angle to slash through them.

“Shall we add this to the list of things not to tell Enya?” Kieran snickered, andmy body went limp in defeat.

“Guys…” I whined, but Benedict held up a finger. “Five minutes. Or are you giving up so easily?”

I wanted to shout back that he might as well have his wicked way with menow, but my pride didn’t want to go down so easily. I hung there for a moment just thinking.

Was I supposed to use magick? I couldn’t imagine anything in my arsenal that would destroy vines apart from fire, and I didn’t have enough control to try and use that. The ashes of Astrid’s homeland flashed before my eyes, now nothing more than charred ashes and grey, desolate landscape thanks to me.

Bile rose in my mouth at the memory, and I spit it out reflexively. It sank into the vine and burned a hole straight through it.

I recoiled, confused. My spit was corrosive? No! It was spit! It was myvenom!How could someone forget they hadvenom? It was ridiculous how much of a human mindset I still had at times.

I started spitting like a crazy person, turning away from Kieran and Benedict so they couldn't see what I was doing. I started with the vines around my hands, and quickly pulled them free as the venom only took moments to eat away at the vegetation.

“Wiggling won’t work!” Benedict taunted.

I sat up.They both stared as I twisted my head and carefully spat around my wings. If I left them for last, all my weight would pull on them, and I’d be unable to free myself due to the pain. After a bit of maneuvering my wings popped free, and I dropped from the vines to the ground below with minimal fuss.

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