didn’t know I’d had three years of kickboxing and one year of karate, but really? Talk about arrogance.
My foot would be bruised tomorrow, but it was so worth it to see him trying to determine up from down as he lay sprawled in the heather. He stumbled as he tried to get up and I set up for another kick, but Aiden was in front of me.
“No, Maddy. You get the one, but not another,” he said, and I thought I saw approval dancing across his features. Brylanna was at her father’s side, helping him up. I backed away from the group of them, watching the blue dragons gathering around their fallen leader.
Leith made it to his feet and spit, discarding a useless tooth. “I imagine you’ll pay for that.”
“Send me the bill.” I turned my back on him and walked back to Bahlin.
We milled about, waiting on the last of the vampires to arrive. Imeena’s kiss had called in some favors and we had two other kisses joining us, one from Ireland and one from Galway. It wouldn’t be long before our ragtag bunch was together, for better or worse. Leith stayed away from me, and I from him, until it was time to begin tactical planning. He stormed over to our group and announced that he’d have nothing to do with fighting with a human and wouldn’t hold his weyr to a war he, himself, intended to avoid.
Bahlin stepped away from the group and said to his father in a low, carrying voice, “Da, what’s the meaning of this?”
“Yeh’re blinded by yehr cock, boy, and yeh can’t see beyond the cunnie standing in front of yeh,” he hissed, standing to his full height in a long-practiced move that reeked of intimidation. It was the first time I realized he was slightly taller than Bahlin.
“Yeh’ve crossed the line, Da. Say such again and I’ll knock yeh on yehr ass for the second time in a night, old man,” Bahlin said in a conversational voice. “Or I’ll let her have at yeh again.”
Several of the weyr laughed, but some of the older members looked shocked first, pissed off a second later.
“Speak to me that way again, boy, and yeh’re forsaken.”
There was an intake of breath, and Bahlin froze. It didn’t take much to figure out his dad had just threatened to cut him off.
“So be it,” Bahlin said. “When this is over, we’ll settle who is Glaaca of this wyvern. But tonight, we need every able-bodied warrior we can have to put a stop to the crazed fae.”
No one moved. If I’d thought being forsaken was bad, this was far worse. The other clans looked on with great interest, and even the other supernatural groups watched curiously.
“So be it,” Leith said. “Let all stand as witness that from this point forward, Bahlin Drago is no longer my son. He is forsaken, and none must offer him aid.”
I walked to Bahlin’s side and took his hand. “Really?” I asked for the second time tonight. “Over a kick?”
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Aiden, standing at his brother’s side. Adelle was weeping softly behind her husband, and Brylanna was nowhere to be seen in the crowd.
We pulled together quickly after the drama with Leith and Bahlin. Just before we were getting ready to depart for Castle Duncan, Leith announced he was leaving. He offered again to take any of his wyvern that didn’t want to fight with him. He ordered Aiden to his side and the young dragon had to go. Bahlin said he wasn’t old enough, or strong enough, to do otherwise.
“Brat’s the one who did the fly-by on us earlier,” Bahlin muttered. “Stupid sod was supposed to stay home,” Bahlin said, looking down at me. His hair hung loose around his shoulders and, in the moonlight, cast shadows across his face. A feeling of foreboding skittered down my spine, and I reached up to push his hair from his forehead so I could see his eyes. He looked at me questioningly, and I just smiled.
“It’s nothing,” I said. “Just nerves.”
“It will be over before you know it,” he said.
“Did Aloysius ever fight in such a winner-take-all battle?” I asked.
“Truth? No,” he said, sighing. “But times were different then.”
That didn’t give me any hope for the future.
The plan was that Bahlin would fly a shape-shifting wizard and me in to the edge of the castle grounds. The shape-shifter’s alternate form was a horse. He’d shift and carry me to the