Page 90 of Blood of Dragons

“It’s okay.” I raised my hand to her. “Save him…please.”

She stayed kneeled over Ezra, her hand still on the hilt of one of her swords.

Ezra had closed his eyes again. I wasn’t sure if he was knocked out…or dead.

General Titan grabbed me by the arm and shoved me forward, shoved me away from the forest and through the lines of battle, the screams of the injured right next to my ear. There was smoke everywhere, covering the sky and making it hard to breathe.

When it finally started to clear, he stuck his boot into my back.

I fell forward, my face almost hitting the dirt.

“You really thought that was the end of me?” His hands moved to my back, and he unclasped my armor, the one that Talon hadmade just for me. He grabbed the back of my shirt and forced me up and forward. “That I would let that arrogant asshole take what’s mine?” He kicked me again, harder this time.

I barely caught myself on my hands.

This time, he removed the armor on my legs, making the metal plates come free. Then he tugged off my shoes.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I kicked him back.

He slammed his fist hard into my face, moving so quick I didn’t even know it happened until I was blinking in pain.

He tugged down my pants and my underwear as I lay there, too comatose to stop it.

“Up.” He grabbed me by the shirt and forced me up, everything at my waist and below exposed to the cool night air. “That ass is tighter than I remember. I’m going to enjoy sticking my dick in it again.”

Was this really happening? Was I back to where I started?

He kicked me and sent me to the earth again.

He came for my shirt next, forcing it up over my head.

I tried to fight, but my arms didn’t work right. Nothing worked right.

He punched me again.

I lay still on the ground, and then I retched, the pain in my skull so extreme, my body didn’t know what else to do. It’d been a long time since I’d been hit that hard.

“Up.”

I lay there and didn’t get up again.

“I said, up.” He kicked me.

I started to cry, not because of the pain, but because of the nightmare that had returned. I couldn’t go back to where my life had been, tied to headboards and beaten bloody for disobedience. I couldn’t take his smile as he thrust into me. I couldn’t go backward. “Kill me…please.”

He kicked me again. “Come on, sweetheart. Don’t act like you don’t miss me.”

I screamed. “Kill me!” I reached for the dagger at his side, not to stab into his calf, but to pierce my heart.

But he grabbed me by the arm and twisted it down.

I screamed again.

He forced me up.

But my knees buckled.

“You think I won’t fuck you right here in the dirt? Because I will.”