Page 98

Suddenly there was a sound. A stinging curse.

And then Stig was gone, wrenched from me in a blur, leaving only dead space in front of me.

33

Tamsyn

IWATCHED, GAPING, AS FELL TOOK STIG DOWN IN A CLOUD OFsnow.

They rolled across the ground in a violent tangle of limbs, punches landing, fists connecting, smacking into flesh and bone. Grunts. Curses. Tearing skin.

They showed no signs of weakening, no signs of letting up. They were two feral wolves. Tireless. Determined. In it until the end. They wouldn’t stop until one of them was dead.

Snow flew around them in a spray of white. Mixed in with the pristine flurry were flecks of crimson. Blood. One of them was bleeding. Perhaps both. Neither cared. Neither halted.

“Stop it!” I screamed, advancing on them and then leaping out of the way when they rolled in my direction in a great knot of flailing limbs.

I watched, unblinking, my eyes aching. Every cell in me vibrated with hot fury at these two... idiots.

I bent and grabbed a fistful of snow and threw it at them ineffectually. “Stop it! Stop it!”

Somehow Fell managed to twist around and position himself on top of Stig. He hauled back and slammed his fist into Stig’s face.

I jerked at the crunch of bone on bone. “Fell! No!”

Fell looked at me sharply, his expression almost wounded, betrayed. Whether because I told him to stop hitting Stig... or because he’d caught Stig kissing me, I did not know. Maybe hethought I was a willing participant. I didn’t know that either, and at the moment it was the least of my concerns.

Stig took advantage of Fell’s momentary distraction and escaped from underneath him, bounding to his feet and managing to deliver his knee directly into Fell’s face.

Blood sprayed, staining the snow. Fell went down. Stig followed after him, and it started all over again. The smack of skin on skin. The grind of bone against bone.

The taste of copper filled my mouth, flowing over my teeth, and I realized I was bleeding. I’d bitten my own lip.

I reached a shaking hand up, touched my mouth gingerly, and then pulled back my fingers. There. On my skin. Streaks of blood. My blood.

Purple-hued blood.

Dragon blood.

I stared at it, flexing my fingers, the moment stretching into forever, even though it could not have lasted long.

Then I called out again, not quite thinking this through, just following some instinct, some desperate urge to get these two to stop killing each other.

“Stig!” I held up my hand, wiggling my bloody fingers in the air. “Stig!!”

The moment I gained his attention, he stilled, taking a few more punches from Fell, grunting from the force of those blows even as he trained his gaze on me. Looking only at my hand. At my fingertips. At the purple blood stained there.

Fell finally stopped pummeling Stig, looking over at me. He went still.

For the longest time, none of us moved. None of us spoke. I felt their shock, their confusion. Their wild eyes pinned on me. On my fingers. On my blood.

A burn started within me, building, twisting up through my center in a writhing lick of flame.

Stig finally rose to his feet, staggering toward me. “Tamsyn... what is that?”

“I think you know what it is,” I whispered. “I already told you. You didn’t believe me.”

“Idon’t know. Tell me,” Fell’s deep voice demanded thickly as he took several faltering steps toward me, swiping at his bloody nose with the back of his hand.