Rivals (Book 2 of The Warden series) Page 18

  “Will he kill her?” Ethan had already been shocked into worry when he found out that Cori was fighting a male dragon. He knew she wasn’t going to walk away unharmed, but the prospect of her actually dying was too much. He couldn’t and wouldn’t let that happen.

  “If she doesn’t toss that shield and sword off soon enough, he will.”

  “And you’re okay with that?”

  Danato turned and gave him a grave look. “She knew what she was getting into.”

  "She…” He stared blankly at the man who was always first in line to protect Cori. Danato stood there stern and silent, watching the fight like the rest of the spectators. Ethan paced back and forth, waiting for a reason to jump into the ring.

  “If you enter the ring, her test will be voided,” Danato reminded him.

  “I know. Maybe that’s for the best.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Danato asked.

  Ethan shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. “That should be me in there, not her.”

  “As I recall, you left us to go hunting.”

  Cori somehow managed to free herself from the dragon’s grasp and the fight continued. Ethan took in a breath he hadn’t realized he needed.

  Danato smiled, not taking his eyes off Cori.

  “How can you stand there so calm?” Ethan seethed. “You act like she’s nothing to you.”

  Danato’s smile faded and he turned to him. Anger ebbed in and then out of his eyes. “She is everything to me. As for my demeanor, it’s not calm, it is restrained. I am restrained because I have faith in her.”

  “You think she’ll survive this?”

  Danato looked him over as if he was a foreign object to him. “I think she’ll win this. Cori knew what she was up against today, and so did I. You don’t see me quaking in my boots, because I know she’ll win.”

  It was Ethan’s turn to stare at the foreign object before him. Surely Danato was just being hopeful. He couldn’t possibly think she would win. Ethan knew how clever and determined Cori was, but this was an insane trial to bear. No amount of dumb luck was going to beat a dragon.

  “You’re okay with that, aren’t you?” Danato asked.

  “What?”

  “If she wins, you are okay with not being my successor?” Ethan didn’t answer. “Are you okay with being a bounty hunter out there, while Cori is my apprentice in here?” Ethan still didn’t answer. He just turned back to watch the battle. His anxiety about Cori losing had waned. It was replaced with his angst about Cori winning. His chance to be warden was slipping away, right along with his chance to be with Cori.

  43

  Cori nicked the dragon between the toes with her sword and he released. She jumped up, feeling the familiar pain of broken ribs. Door number two was inching closer. She dodged several head pecks and claw slashes. She gripped her sword tight and swung blindly at the creature’s snarling mouth.

  She knew she shouldn’t flail around. It was only going to tire her out, and do nothing to win the fight. However, she couldn’t resist at least getting a few swings in before she surrendered.

  After a hard strike, she heard a clink followed by a scraping sound. She peeked around her shield and saw her sword tip skidding across the floor followed by the tip of the dragon’s tooth.

  “Crap.” She looked at her impotent sword. The flat edge would do nothing to penetrate the dragon’s skin.

  The dragon roared, his eagle screech now sounding more like a deep throat squawk. He wasn’t pleased with the result of her floundering attack either.

  The dragon bit down on her shield, bending it around her forearm. She stabbed at him with her sword, which was now a colossal butter knife. Desperate to get the beast to unclamp his hold on her, she jabbed the dull blade into his flaring nostril. She succeeded in her purpose. The creature released his bite. Unfortunately, he reared up fast enough to pull the sword with him.

  With one perturbed snort the dragon propelled the weapon outside the boundary lines. Cori watched it go. She looked at her shield, which was now a metal taco. She looked back at the judges. She was hoping they would call the match a tie and let her walk away conscious. The judges tapped their wrists. The time was finally starting to run out.

  She looked at the dragon. He was swaying back and forth, plotting his attack. She had no weapon and no defense. The beast wasn’t going to simply, sit patiently while the last two minutes counted down on the clock.

  She looked to Danato and Belus on the side lines. They were both stoic.

  She looked to Ethan. His eyes were big and he was visibly anxious. He looked seconds from jumping in to save her.

  She had to take door number three after all. She had so wanted to walk away with a stalemate, but instead she would have to throw her shield outside the boundary and surrender. As much as it pained her ego, she was pleased to have made it this far. She had the right to be in that room and no one could say otherwise.

  She looked at Belus. She gave him a shrug. He gave her a nod. Permission. She had done her best, now it was time to walk away. Maybe not with her pride intact, but at least her head.

  She gripped the flattened metal shield and tugged on it. She was still lashed to the thing on top of being encased by it. She eyed the dragon that was still swaying. He seemed to understand that she was attempting to surrender. She braced the edge on her thigh and tried to push it off. She hissed, feeling the sharp end where the metal had bent into a strict angle. It cut her thigh, adding to the tracks of blood that were dripping from her calves.

  The dragon began to purr. At least that’s what it sounded like. She looked up at him. The understanding he had held for her impending surrender was gone. He now seemed agitated. He didn’t seem to like how long her surrender was taking.

  “Shit,” she slurred, taking a few steps back. That was a mistake.

  The dragon spotted the subtle moved and lunged. It didn’t matter that the movement was backwards; it was movement. The game was on again as far as he was concerned.

  She leapt out of his way. Little had changed between this moment and the last. She was still injured. She was still tired. However, she was now renewed by her fear of death.

  She had no sword to attack with. She had no shield to block the fire. She couldn’t remove the damned thing to throw it away. She still had a minute left on the clock. She was already knocking on door number two.

  She ran and slid around the back of the dragon. It was dangerous, but his fire was her biggest concern. She would rather be pummeled than burned.

  She tripped over the whipping tail and landed on her back. The dragon turned to get her back in his sights.

  She felt pressure release on her arm. It wasn’t much, but maybe just enough to get it off. She tugged on the shield. It moved two inches and caught on something. By the searing pain in her forearm, she guessed it was caught on her skin.

  The dragon screeched again. What he had found so offensive this time, she couldn’t have guessed, but his mouth parted.

  She could smell the petroleum on his breath.

  She put her feet up on the shield and pushed. She felt the metal give, along with the pain of it scraping down her arm as it did.

  She gripped the freed shield tight and jumped up. His head tipped back and his mouth opened wide. Surrendering her shield at this point was useless. The dragon wouldn’t see her part with it and she would be Kentucky fried before he could comprehend she was weaponless.

  Her best chance was to huddle behind the half shield, take door number two, and hope that she could survive her injuries.

  In the hollow of his palate, Cori could see the reflected glow of the orange ember that was igniting in his throat. She looked down at the shield and changed her mind. She decided on a different tactic: misdirection.

  She crouched, swinging the shield back and forward. She released it, hurling it toward the dragon’s mouth. Even as she let it go, she ran away. She only needed a few more seconds to avoid his flame-throwing br
eath.

  The taco shield hurtled into the dragon’s mouth. With the sound like a shovel hitting dirt, it stuck in the dragon’s palate. Out of the corner of her eye, as she passed, she saw the flicker of fire lap up into the dragon’s mouth and fall back. The throat darkened as the ember within extinguished.

  The dragon froze. Cori stopped behind him and waited for him to retaliate.

  His head turned. She put her hands up and waved them. She even turned slightly to show off her back. She still had twenty seconds left on the clock, he had to acknowledge her surrender this time, or she was dead.

  The dragon let out a sorrowful moan. His eyes clenched shut and he lay down submissively on the floor. Cori’s face softened as the creature continued to moan in agony about the shield taco poking him in the roof of his mouth.

  The audience cheered and swarmed around her. The torrent of congratulations seemed out of place to her. She didn’t entirely grasp what she had done. The Star Trek emissary judges surrounded her and started to read a prepared document that no doubt was a beautiful inauguration, but Cori couldn’t hear most of it.

  Despite her bruised ribs, random people were slapping her back, chucking her shoulder, and a few women even hugged her. She must have unwittingly just nominated herself as the new poster child for feminists everywhere.

  She looked between heads at the sidelines. Belus was giving her a two fisted cheer like his favorite sports team had just won a big, fat, ugly trophy. She had never seen so much enthusiasm from him.

  Danato was beaming at her. His smile was ear to ear. She was too far away to tell, but it almost seemed like his eyes were tearing up. Pride looked as good on him as his black sweater vest.

  On the other side of Danato was Ethan. He didn’t exude the same joy as everyone in the room. He was smiling, but his eyes told her his lips were lying. The smile on her face started to settle into a frown.

  She started to realize what she had done. The shield had stuck in the roof of the mouth. That was all it took. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t her sword.

  She had won.

  Cori lost sight of everyone and everything around her. She was the new successor. Ethan didn’t need to come back. She was all alone with her victory.

  Cori felt sick again. The day’s events were already too much, but the people crowding around her made her feel claustrophobic. The emotions clogged in her throat, making it hard to swallow, were adding to her smothered feeling.

  She wanted out. She wanted away. She wanted no part of her brilliant triumph.

  44

  Ethan watched as Cori’s dumbfounded smile shrank away. Her face cringed and her cheeks filled with tears. She pushed through the crowd gruffly and ran out of the gym.

  Ethan looked to Danato. “What just happened there? Is she alright?”

  “Of course she’s alright, she just won the prize. Couldn’t you see how happy she was?”

  Ethan’s brow furrowed as he tried to comprehend what level of sarcasm Danato was on. “What is your game here?”

  “This is what she wanted: to win. This is what you wanted: for her to take over your job, so you could go hunt. Can’t you feel how happy you both are, Ethan?”

  “I’m not happy. She’s not happy.”

  “I don’t understand.” Danato’s sarcasm melded with anger. “You want something different than this outcome?” Ethan frantically searched for the answer. “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. What do you want, Ethan? Speak!”

  “I want her!” Ethan blurted out.

  “And she wants you. If one of you would damn well say it, we could at least move on to the next issue.”

  Ethan looked Danato up and down. “Where were you yesterday, Captain Late? She already tested. She won. We can’t be together now anyway.”

  “First of all, I refuse to babysit both of you in your emotional chess match. Figure it out for yourselves. Second, I wasn’t going to do anything to stop her from competing with that dragon, because that…” Danato pointed at the downed dragon, “…was beautiful. And third, who said you couldn’t compete against her? Until you left to go hunt, you were both going to compete anyway.”

  Ethan’s mouth dropped. “I can still fight the dragon. If I beat the dragon in less time, I can take her spot.”

  “Yes.”

  “You’ll let me come back?”

  Danato’s irritation faded away. “You were always my first choice. Now go, talk to Cori.”

  45

  Cori found her way to the part-time level, and stood before the cage of her former lover. It was empty now. There were no remnants of him in the cell or in her life. He had been a brief albeit important part of it, but he was gone.

  “Cori?”

  She turned and saw Ethan standing not far from her. He had crept up so quietly she hadn’t even heard him. She wondered if he had acquired that skill while bounty hunting, or if he had always been so light-footed.

  Her eyes stung from her tears, but she couldn’t stop them. She didn’t try to hide them. She didn’t even wipe her nose, which she knew was starting to run. There was no happy ending to primp for. “I’m so stupid.”

  He shifted slightly, placing his hands behind his back. He was ready to listen.

  “When I came back, you were different. I was still the same though. I didn’t have enough time to catch up. I was angry, and hurt, and bitter. By the time I realized that you were the one person who could help me, love me, and tolerate me… That bitch Sophie was here.” Cori tossed her head back, cringing away more emotion than she could speak through.

  With a sniffle and a harrumph she continued. “When I walked in on you with her. I felt… you know what I felt. But when you asked me if you should take the job, it wasn’t because you needed to know what the right decision was. It was because you didn’t want to feel guilty for making that decision. So I told you what you needed to hear.

  “I told you to get drunk, and get laid, and you did just as I asked. It never occurred to me that I would be just as miserable without you here as you were without me. Last night… I should have just told you then. I should have just quit the test and let you take it instead.

  “The only thing that stopped me was Danato. He had worked so hard to get me permission to compete. I came in today with the intention of losing. I figured if I lost you would have to take the test. You would win, and then you would have to come back.” Her shoulder ached. She rolled it and rubbed it until the sorrow demon didn’t feel like a bag of rocks.

  “Why did you want me to come back, Cori?” Ethan asked in a low tone. He was still standing like an at-ease soldier.

  Cori stepped forward and grabbed the bars to Vince’s old cell for support. “Because somewhere between losing a lover and gaining a demon parasite, I saw you. Somewhere between chocolate puffs and worm heart, I admitted to myself that I wanted you. Somewhere between that goodbye kiss and the door closing on the truck I realized I was in love with you.”

  She waited a long time for his response. She looked over at him. His eyes were closed and he was concentrating on his breathing.

  “I love you,” she repeated in case he hadn’t grasped the extent of her words.

  He looked up at her and nodded. “I’ve been waiting to hear that for a while now.”

  “I’m so sorry, Ethan. I screwed up.” She backed away from the bars and faced him. “I shouldn’t have competed. I didn’t really think I could win. I just thought I would try to make Danato look good. I tried to throw the shield off, but it was stuck.”

  Ethan took two long steps to her and crushed her in an embrace. “Don’t apologize for winning.”

  “It was my stupid dumb luck,” she said, muffled in his shoulder.

  He rubbed her back. “Lady Luck does have your number, that’s for sure.”

  She detected humor in his voice and she looked up. A strange quirk of a smile was seeping into his face. “You did want to come back to me, didn’t you?” she asked, realizing that he had not said “I love you”
back to her yet.

  He looked down at her. His eyes flickered over her face. He placed his hands on either side of her face. “Say it again, so I know I’m not imagining it.”

  She wondered what he meant, but the anticipation in his eyes told her the answer. “I love you,” she whispered.

  He took a deep breath and licked his lips. His eyes showed just a hint of moisture. “One more time, please.”

  Cori smiled, but she understood how long he had been waiting to have his feelings reciprocated, if indeed he still had those feelings. “I love you, Ethan.” She added his name so there would be no mistaking who she meant.

  He threw his head back, blinking away that excess moisture, and took in a few rapid breaths in preparation for what Cori hoped would be another long, sensuous kiss. His head dipped down and his hands pulled her forward. She closed her eyes and parted her lips.

  His warm lips descended onto her. With firm pressure, he offered a sincere, emotionally loaded smooch to her forehead. He backed away, slipping from her arms before she could object. After two or three backwards steps, he turned and ran out of the room.

  She stood there waiting for her kiss, waiting for her “I love you,” and waiting for an explanation.

  46

  After a good deal of time waiting for Ethan, Cori decided to head back home. She was probably supposed to meet and greet with the judges or something, but she didn’t have the energy. She also probably should check into the infirmary to get her ribs checked out, but she wasn’t in the mood to be poked and prodded.

  She made her way back to the main foyer and found her coat. She could hear commotion from the gym. She wondered what other festivities they had planned for the day.

  She zipped up her coat, positioned her scarf, and prepared to head out the main doors to the house. Secretly she was hoping Ethan was there so he could explain his buffoonery.

  “Leaving so soon?”

  Turning back, she saw Danato coming from the hallway the gym was in. She smiled a fake smile, but dropped it right away. There was no point in pretending with Danato. He knew her too well to believe her anyway. “I’m sorry, Danato, I know I have obligations, but can’t I just go home for a little while?”