The Arena novel Chapter 80

We’re halfway home from the battle at the arena when we hear Kaylani’s lament.

“Something’s wrong, Cedric. I need to go to her.”

“Then, let’s go, Tana. I’m with you.”

“I am too, Momma,” Kenna says. Ishir decided to run home before meeting us back at the pack, so Kenna isn’t carrying anyone.

We turn and follow the sound of Kaylani’s cry. I’ve never been on this end of a dragon’s lament, and it’s heartbreaking. When we find her, we land, and I immediately see why she’s crying. She is standing over the young dragon.

I shift quickly, rushing over to look at the little dragon who is lying broken on the ground. “Kaylani, what happened?”

“I don’t know. We were talking and flying when she screamed. Then she just fell from the sky. I tried to catch her, Tana. I swear I did. But she just dropped so fast.”

I lean over the young dragon. There’s blood coming from her mouth, nose, and eyes. I lift her eyelids and see that her eyes are blood red. Not the pupil, what is supposed to be the lighter color of her eyes is blood red, like the blood vessels in her brain ruptured and bled into her eyes.

I turn to look at Cedric. “Could the Chief have done this? Could he have killed her because she went against him?”

Cedric comes over, laying his hands on her body. He closes his eyes and focuses his attention. I watch him and when he opens his eyes, he looks at me with sadness in his.

“Come feel this, Tana.”

I walk toward him and lay my hands where his were. “Open your mind and feel her.”

I do, and what I feel makes me sick. It’s like her brain exploded in her head.

I pull my hands away and look at Kaylani. “There was nothing you could do. The Chief did this. He somehow put something in her that would kill her if she left him.”

“She was just a child,” Kaylani laments, the sound of her heartbreak, making mine want to break, too.

“We’ll give her a dragon’s burial,” I tell Kaylani, trying to console her.

“What kind?” she says, turning her head to look at me, tears running down her large dragon face.

“Which do you think she’d prefer? Water or fire?”

Kaylani leans her head down, nuzzling the little dragon. “She wanted to come with me. Let’s give her a water burial, that way, it’s more of both.”

“Okay. We can at least give her a proper burial,” I say.

“I’ll carry her,” Kaylani says.

“Are you sure? I can carry her.”