The Arena novel Chapter 78

I watch Cedric fighting Troy for only a moment. Kaylani and Avani both still need help, and Cedric looks like he’s holding his own against Troy.

I turn back to Kaylani. “I’m going to shift and try to pull the harpoon out.”

As I shift, I see hunters fighting past the pack. They are trying to get to me and Kaylani. I begin throwing fireballs at them, setting them on fire. They begin shooting at us, and while silver doesn’t affect me, I know the paralytic will.

I’m sending more fireballs at them, but there are too many. I’m standing in front of Kaylani, who is using her water where she can, but she doesn’t want to douse my fire. Suddenly, I see the hunters going down on my left. I turn, focusing my attention on the hunters getting through on the right.

Cedric appears on the left from the smoke and fire, still burning the flesh of the hunters. He runs over to me, dropping his sword and grabbing my arms, looking me over.

“Are you alright, Tana? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m okay.”

“Why did you shift?”

“I needed to help Kaylani. She took the harpoon for Kenna.”

He looks up at her. “I saw. You shift back. I’ll help Kaylani. Where’s Avani?”

“He’s been caught in a net. If you help Kaylani, I’ll go help Kenna get him out. They trapped him inside the arena.

“Go!” But before I can step away to shift, he pulls me to him for a scorching kiss. “Take care of my dragon.”

I give him a shy smile before jumping into the air and shifting. He waits until the draft of my wing’s downward wind gust passes before turning to Kaylani. I know he’ll help her; he’s done it with me before. And he knows how to heal, so he can help her heal her wing.

I head back to the arena, where I can see Kenna blowing her fire. There must still be harpoon launchers that are operational because I see one fire at her. She dodges it easily before turning to blow her fire again. As they are distracted with her, I reach my talons down, grabbing hold of the launcher, and ripping it and the people manning it into the air. I fly higher into the sky, and when I’m high enough, I let it drop, watching it smash to pieces. The hunters are dead on impact.

I turn back and see the elves are still trying to get Avani free. Kenna has loosened the net, but the hunters have it locked down. I can see them shooting Avani with bullets. Some are being diverted by whatever the elves are doing, but others are hitting him, and I can see that it’s starting to affect him. It won’t be long before he’s unconscious.

“Momma, help me pull the net off Avani. I can’t get it on my own.”

“Hang on, Avani,” I tell him as we reach our talons down to grab the edge of the net. I realize the net is made of some sort of metal, which explains why Avani couldn’t break through it. This close to him, I can smell the blood. He’s torn his scales trying to escape. The worst possible thing you can do to a dragon is hold us captive. It goes against everything in our beings.

As one, Kenna and I lift up, pulling the netting away from the bindings where they’ve locked it into metal hooks in the ground. Kenna and I roar against the bindings that are much stronger than I was expecting. Between the two of us, we should have been able to rip them out easily.

As we pull and I begin to feel the bindings give way, I hear a sound I wasn’t expecting. It’s the sound of an unknown dragon. I turn in the direction I just heard the cry. What I see has my blood running cold.

In the distance, heading our way is a dragon, a dragon that looks just like me and Kenna. She’s got red scales that are glinting in the sunlight like rubies. I have no idea who this dragon is, but this can’t be a good thing.

“Hurry, Kenna,” I tell her, and we begin to pull even harder against the restraints. I feel them slowly giving as I watch the dragon flying straight for us. When she gets closer, I drop the netting and move to put myself between this new dragon and Kenna.

Up close, I can see she’s a juvenile, maybe two or three years old. And on her back is the Chief, the horrible scientist who held me captive. He has the dragon bridled and saddled like she’s a pack animal.