🐲 Dragon and Phoenix (Path of Light and Fire Book #2) (Completed) 🐲

Chapter 21

A/N: The media is Taylor Swift/Kendrick Lamar - "Bad Blood". It is the perfect background track for this chapter. :)

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Sabin knew he deserved whatever Kaita had planned, but when she hit him it brought him back to reality. His face exploded in pain and his vision blurred. He doubled over and instinctively drew on fire to repair what had to be a broken jaw.

She is going to kill me.

He held up his hand. "Please wait. Let me explain."

She swung for his head and he ducked. The metal whistled above and he lighted a few steps back.

Kaita stalked him, one hand holding the staff behind her back and the other in front of her, palm up. Her normally kind eyes were narrowed and locked onto him. With each back-step he made she took two. She closed the distance and cut off his attempts to escape.

The people of Ciudad Naranja scattered, screaming for 'Las Escoltas', whatever that meant. His destruction of that merchant's stand had caused little of a stir, but Alaina's assault on Yulan had pressed them to action. The shopkeepers folded up their wares and the citizens took to their homes. Those still on the roads gave him and Kaita a wide berth.

Sabin grimaced. "I-"

Kaita dashed forward, closing the remaining gap and swung down for his kneeling frame. He rolled to his side and stood, but the staff slammed into his sternum showing the first strike was a feint.

He groaned as the air left his lungs. She thrust for his face and he lighted behind her. He grabbed both of her arms and struggled to catch his breath. "Calm down, you-"

She struggled in his arms, surprisingly strong for someone her size. A piece of her tattered brown cape slid in Sabin's mouth and he spit it out. "Get your filthy hands off of me!"

She tried to headbutt him, but he saw it coming and dodged it. He did not expect the back kick to his groin.

She leaned forward, creating the distance, then she kicked him hard. Sabin stumbled back and dropped to one knee, was sure she broke or crushed something. "Kaita, please listen. I-"

She lifted her staff over her head. "Listen? How could you possibly explain what you did? Did you trip and fall into her vagina?"

Sabin lighted back when she swung and coughed. Everything hurt.

When he opened his eyes, she was not in front of him. He spun and black mist streamed into his eyes and face. It burned and blurred his vision, so focused on his hearing and smell. Dulling his touch had the unanticipated benefit of easing his pain and sharpening his mind.

He picked the putrid scent of her cape easily enough. Her footsteps thumped from side to side, she knew he was blind and thought to confuse him. She couldn't know what he could do.

As the cloud of pain and self-pity dissipated, he worried for Alaina. She'd flew after Yulan intending to hurt, but not kill. That would get her killed. He needed to make sure she was alright.

"Kaita."

The staff whistled where he once stood.

"Yulan and-"

He dodged another strike.

"Alaina are-"

That one was aimed at his groin.

"Fighting we-"

This time he stepped inside her swing and caught the staff.

"Enough!"