The Dragon of 23rd Street: The Complete Series Box Set by Haley Ryan

Author:Haley Ryan [Ryan, Haley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Page Nine Press
Published: 2021-01-05T23:00:00+00:00

Eleven

It didn’t take long to disabuse me of the notion that I would be beating anything out of anyone.

Ryker flew me out to his chosen training ground—an alpine meadow near the flanks of a mountain known as Broken Top. From the scorch marks on the grass, I suspected a lot of it had still been covered in snow as recently as the night before.

My brother turned around while I stripped and shifted, thankful that I would have dry clothes to put on afterward, because dang it was cold! As a dragon, I didn’t feel the cold often, but my human skin was telling me I’d never experienced anything quite this frigid before.

And thus, my education began.

From temperature, I quickly moved on to fighting techniques. Draven had once told me that I had to stop fighting like a human, which meant learning to use my strength and leverage in different ways. Part of me still hadn’t grasped that I had teeth and claws and could use them against my enemies, given that most of us are pretty well conditioned not to do that while we’re still in preschool.

“Your speed is your greatest asset,” Ryker told me, after we’d danced around each other a few times in dragon shape. His dragon was a deep, fiery red, almost matching the color of his hair. He was powerful and incredibly fast, with ridiculously good hearing and a long, mobile tail, which he used to smack me right out of the air twice in the first five minutes.

Red dragons, apparently, were known to be gifted tacticians, which was why he was taking on the majority of my training.

“Your fire will also be useful, as long as you can learn control. Weldon won’t be expecting to need to avoid it. He’s not likely to fall for that more than once, though, so you’ll have to time it just right.”

All morning, Ryker batted me around like a cat with a toy, not hard, but enough to show me what I would be facing. I honestly tried to avoid him—both on foot and in the air—but he was too quick, and always seemed to know where I was going to be.

I was growing gradually more and more frustrated, both by my inability to avoid him and my shortness of breath—I was in pretty terrible shape—when he landed an even harder blow than usual. The leading edge of his wing knocked me into a pine tree, which then dislodged its entire burden of snow onto my head.

“Mercy!” I groaned. “I quit. This isn’t working.”

“Are you trying to train her or cause an avalanche?” Declan’s mental voice made me pop my head out of the snow.

“Save me!” I wailed, and Declan chuckled.

“I brought Draven. Does that count?”

“Only if Ryker plans to pick on him next,” I retorted, clambering out of the snow and shaking myself off.

“I don’t mind if he doesn’t.” Ryker’s tone was deceptively casual, but did nothing to hide his intentions.

I looked over at Draven, who’d obviously flown out with Declan.

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