The claw of his wing made contact with human skin and the body in his path tumbled away in the sand. He snarled and turned back to his enemy, huddled a stone's throw away.

He braced himself to keep running, but something in his lungs caught his muscles tight.

A scent.

Things began to register through the clouds of smoke.

Her scent.

And the smell of blood, under all that sea-stench. Worse: the red fog that obscured her from view. And the lions, rending into pelts, running towards her.

Fury surged his bones back together.

He was human in a heartbeat, jogging towards her as she stumbled to her feet. A hand was to her chest. Her hair was loose and dusty; an ivory crown lost in the smoke and sand. The anger in him tasted as hot as fire.

"What the hell, tigress!" He grabbed her arms and yanked her to him. Her eyes had no trouble focusing, but he could still smell her blood—see it pooling into the neckline of her dress, the dark silk drinking up the red with relish. His grip on her arms tightened and he shook her. "What were you thinking running into a dragon like that?"

Two of the lions arrived from the other side of the arena, crouching and growling at her side as if awaiting her command. Tavlen vaguely registered outrage at their sudden rend to pelts (took them damn long enough). The threat in their feline growls returned Eleos to herself.

She shoved his arms off her and stumbled away from him. One of the lion's rent back to human-skin to catch her, but she wrenched her shoulder from his grip and turned on Tavlen.

Those eyes of hers were black with rage, the white paint over her cheeks cracked and sandy, and her teeth were bared.

It only compounded Tavlen's fury. "I could have killed you!" He stepped to meet her and the air between them tightened with fire heat.

"Oh," she mocked, "isn't that the game?" With no certain grace, Eleos reached down her dress and pulled her hand back slippery with blood. She wiped her black-red fingers down his shirt. "There's your Kana blood, dragon."

Her blood smelt of pain and sea and gore.

Eleos, goaded by his pause, stepped even closer and fisted her long fingers in his shirt, pulling herself up as far as she could, her mouth an inch from his chin. "Want more? Blood-sucking, serpent-fanged—" She shook him. "Well?! Are you satisfied?" she screamed.

The hot claws of anger tore through his chest, and he found himself gripping her arms again, hoisting her up to look him in the eye. His mouth opened to say something scalding and vile, but before he could push words past his growl, there were hands on her waist, pulling her away; hands on his shoulders yanking him back.

He tried to shrug them off and scramble after her, those pent up words pouring from him now like fire, but two more sets of hands came to restrain him.

Eleos too was kicking and screaming as the Pride dragged her a safe distance away. Her eyes locked with his, and she spat at him.

Tavlen shoved off the hands at his shoulders, but didn't move towards her. Swallowing down all his fury, he shook out his shoulders and rolled up his sleeves. Slowly his focus loosened so he could hear past his own heartbeat and Eleos' protests.

The crowd was hooting and chanting and cheering so loud Tavlen winced in surprise.

"You hear me, Tav?" Reylin was beside him, grinning and clapping him on the back. "A cinder! You have a cinder!"

The crowd drowned him out again. This time, their chants began to register.

"Cinder!" they seethed in a frothed excitement. "Cinder. Cinder Ella!"

His heart choked mid-beat and he staggered into Fent, who hovered nervously at his side.

"A cinder?" He felt sick. "Her?"

Reylin gave him another congratulatory slap on the back.

Eleos was lost in a knot of Kana. But she too seemed to have noticed the crowd's cheering, because she stilled like a startled gazelle. The Kana parted and she turned to him. Her mouth gaped in horror and her eyes wide with outrage. She almost looked... betrayed.

Fent was lowering him to the ground. "Tav. Tav, you alright?"

The Kana pride remorphed around their tigress, realising for themselves what the crowd's greedy cheers meant.

"Run!" one of them was saying. "Get out of here!"

Eyes still on Tavlen, Eleos shook her head. But she didn't need to be told twice. Dress fisted at her hip, she turned and fled. Her bare feet kicked up dust as she ran, and Tavlen lowered his head between his knees, wanting her gone, needing to think. To recover.

A cinder.

Fent crouched next to him and the smoke began to clear. The crowd scrambled to keep sight of her, yelling and shoving as she fled towards the main gate.

Tavlen put a hand on Fent's arm. "Help me up, will you?"

Reylin was there, still grinning like a fool. "I've never seen a dragon get a cinder." He gave Tavlen a playful shove. "Heard it can be a real shock, hey?"

Tavlen turned his back on the Kana and his fleeing cinder. "Need water," he croaked and started to the other side of the stadium where the tunnel would lead to a resting room. A private room.

"Tav!" Reylin was calling. "Want me to get her?"

"Leave her." Tavlen shook Fent off his arm.

Torn between watching the lady and the dragon, the stands were a ruckus: everyone on their feet, shouting at each other, at her, at him.

A dragon walking away from the cinder that ran from him? The thrill, the gossip, the injustice!

But Tavlen wouldn't look back for her.

____________

I can't unhear it!

This is the moment I wrote the book for. So I am SO happy to have it out in the world.

Dedicated to Scrumptious99 for their support and sweet note on my board. Those words bouyed my day. Thank you!!! xx <3

Next Update, hopefully this weekend!