Dragon Witch ✔️

48 - More Secrets

I was so surprised that I couldn't think of anything intelligent to say. So I said the next best thing.

"Ky said you're from the same clutch of eggs. You're twins."

She blinked her enormous green eyes. "What?"

"He's not your baby brother. You're the same age."

"I'm two hours older than he is, and-" She shook herself. "That doesn't matter. What matters is you're using him, and he doesn't even know it. I saw the bite marks. What are you, a vampire?"

"Vampires drink human blood." I crossed my arms. Did Kyton know what she was? Why hadn't he told me? I guessed it wasn't really my business, and it wasn't like we'd really talked since he figured out I was a changeling.

"Chupacabra?" Nissa asked.

"They drink goat blood. It's literally in the name: 'goat sucker.' I guess they don't teach Spanish in sprite school."

She growled, and shadows licked the edges of her face. "Penanggalan?"

"Never heard of it."

"Just tell me what you are," she shouted, diving toward me.

I dodged left, barely avoiding a flying kick from a furious sprite. She spun in the air, face livid. I wanted to just walk away, I really did. But she was challenging me. How could I ignore that?

"Fight me, and you'll see what I am soon enough." I took off my backpack and tossed it aside. In one fluid movement, I transformed into a changeling.

Nissa erupted in a volcano of shadows. Her eyes glowed like red suns. "You're a changeling?"

"Yep." I lunged at her, claws outstretched.

She shot up in the air, five feet above my head. "You'll die for what you did to my brother."

"We'll see about that." I ran back half a dozen steps, then sprinted forward and leapt into the air.

Nissa tried to dart up out of the way, but she was too slow. I grabbed her ankle. It felt solid enough, even if it looked like shadow. She kicked at me with her other foot, flying higher. I grabbed her calf. Pulling myself up, I jerked back and forth to dodge her kicks.

One kick slammed into the side of my head. Black spots danced across my vision. Hissing, I grabbed her other leg and tried to pin it to the leg I was hanging from. She kicked me again, this time in the throat. I gasped. My hands slipped. She kicked me in the arm, and I let go.

Fourty feet went by in a never-ending moment. Then came the ground.

***

"Crap oh crap oh-" Someone slapped my cheek. Not a gentle, wake-you-up slap. More like a you-cheated-on-me-and-I-want-to-kill-you slap.

I sat up, throwing out my arms at Nissa, who was crouching next to me. She looked like a sprite again, and my head and tail felt shattered, but that wasn't about to stop me. I lunged at her. She scrambled back, hands raised.

"It was a mistake, I swear. I didn't know he knew."

"What?" My head was swimming too much to deal with her vagueness.

"I called Kyton to tell him about you, but he said he already knew what you were, and he said that's how he got the potion for Dad, and he's been giving you blood, and you only bit him once, and that was just to save both of you. I mean, I knew that last part, but I assumed-" She bit her lip. "Are you okay?"

I glared at her. She was submitting now, not challenging. She wasn't a threat anymore. I could let her be, even if she was the reason that I had a broken tail.