Page 49 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
We clashed once more, rising up on hind legs, ice countering fire, bathing the battleground in a cloak of fog. Akio’s tail curled around my hind leg and pulled. Off balance at the unexpected move, I went down, the cagey Red using his weight to fall right on top of me.
I was screwed.
Wild victory filled the dragon’s face as he went for my throat, but it swiftly turned to shock as something huge hit him in the side, sending him tumbling.
“Akio,” Florian growled, stomping forward, his paws crunching deep into the gathering snow and ice. “I told you a long time ago, if you ever set foot on ice territory again, I would mount your skull on the gates of the citadel. Or did you forget?”
“Child,” Akio growled, shaking himself free and flicking out a wing to collapse another burning building. “You’re welcome to my head … if you can take it!”
He charged at Florian behind a curtain of fire. The attack was met with the force of Florian and me, and fog fell over everything, reducing vision to no more than a few feet. I paused, listening for the sound of the two fighting, but heard something else instead.
“Oh, shit.”
Then Akio was on me, gliding through the air only a foot or two over the ground. We smashed together. I’d had just enough time to prepare, and as our dragon bodies started to tumble, I tucked my wings in tightly and then pushed offhardfrom the ground with one leg.
The added force brought a squawk from Akio as he lost his balance. I lashed out with my foreleg, tearing a huge gash down his chest as we slashed at one another with our jaws, trying to tear scales and flesh free.
Florian came through the fog, sacrificing scales on his flank to tear a huge chunk out of the back of Akio’s right forepaw. Then I exhaled, breathing ice down his side. The fire dragon howled in agony as the deadly cold adhered to him.
A wall of fire erupted between us, and then he was in the air, winging away from the battlefield. Florian and I took up the chase while around us the other surviving Reds were driven back from the village, Caz on their heels.
“If I see your face again,” Florian growled as the two sides hovered in the air just out of striking range of breath weapons, “Iwillkill you. Now take your men and run home to your master.”
Akio—instead of being chaste and respectful that we hadn’t simply slaughtered him and his men as I longed to—laughed. “Oh, you will see my face again, war master. And sooner than you think. Change is coming.”
Then he wheeled away, taking the five surviving Reds with him. Caz sent a dozen of the freshest soldiers to follow, to make sure the fire dragons went straight back across the border and nowhere else.
While that was happening, I landed near where Akio and I had fought and walked over to a mound of snow. With a gentle command, the ice and snow melted back into the ground.
“It’s over now,” I said as the woman looked up at me. “Are you okay?”
Still clutching her child to her chest, she nodded. “Y-y-yes. We’re alive.”
“Good.” I looked at her child now, a young girl no more than five, with beautiful blue eyes not so unlike my own. “You’re very brave, little girl, for not crying.”
The child stuck her hands on her hips and screwed her face up very tight. “I’m not little! You’re little!”
“Darya!” the mother scolded fearfully and needlessly.
It was the perfect counter to the battle rage still simmering in the back of my mind. I plopped my dragon butt on the ground and let the laughter flow in big, booming dragon chuckles. It felt good to laugh. There wouldn’t be much of it in the coming days, I feared.
The Reds had stolen too much.
“What will happen next?” the woman asked, still holding her child, despite the young shifter starting to squirm.
“Next, we will see to those who weren’t so fortunate,” I said as Caz landed nearby. “My brother here will see that the survivors are well looked after. Won’t you, Casimir?”
The woman stiffened, her face paling as she recognized the name and dropped to one knee. “Tyrant. I apologize. I did not—”
“Hush,” Casimir rumbled, lowering his snout to her level. “And get back on your feet. I am not my father. I do not need you to grovel. Yes, my brother is correct. We will look after all survivors. That is what a leader should do. I can only apologize that we did not get here earlier. To save more.”
“You came in the end,” the woman said, rising to her feet. “That is enough, my lord.”
“Not to me it isn’t,” Casimir replied distantly. “Not to me.”
I rose to my full height, my neck in the air as I surveyed the destroyed village. The other men who had come with us were extinguishing fires and gathering up the dead.
But this was only one village among many. We had our work cut out for us.
