Total pages in book: 214
Estimated words: 195876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 979(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 653(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 195876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 979(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 653(@300wpm)
"Entirely crazy? I'm not crazy at all."
"Debatable," I reply with a small grin to myself. "But even if they don't realize you're actually an ancient, they'll figure out you're powerful. And I imagine those people from Empire will feel the same way Serena did—that my tether to you makes me a valuable weapon they'll want to manipulate. And gods, Typhon... I'm tired as hell of people trying to use me."
"Then continue your training with the fire touched. Become strong. Make yourself worthy of my tether."
Raith is watching me with arms crossed. Ever since we tethered elementals, it's not entirely uncommon to see someone's eyes get a distant look. Usually, it means they're locked in conversation with their elemental.
"How do you two fight together?" Raith asks. "You and Typhon."
"What do you mean?"
He lifts the bottom of his shirt to wipe his face, giving me a glimpse of rows and rows of stomach muscles. So many that my breath catches and I forget for a moment what we were even talking about.
"I don't see why those lumps of muscle make your heart rate rise so much, angry human. They are like dragon scales, but worse and less functional in every way. Why do they only cover the stomach? What protective purpose do they serve?"
I decide to ignore Typhon. He's talkative tonight, which I've learned is something that happens when he's worried about me. He can talk a big talk, but sensing his emotions through the tether in addition to his words makes it hard for him to hide his true motivations. He's worried about me. Just like Raith is. And he rambles when he's worried. Raith apparently turns into a cold asshole.
"An ancient does not worry. We prepare. I am simply preparing a battle plan to dismember your enemies and perhaps snack on their corpses if time permits."
I send a quick pulse of gratitude through the tether.
Raith is staring at me. "Hasn’t he been training with you? What the hells is he thinking?"
I can tell from the way Raith's eyes move over my shoulder and then go up, up, and still more up that Typhon just revealed himself. He doesn't like when people question him. And he does like getting to show people his dragon form, even though there's only a handful he's allowed to show.
I can feel the cool moisture of his water magic behind me as he looms closer to Raith, teeth bared.
"Tell him I do not need a partner in combat. I am more than a match for any human or elemental. I am ancient. I am Typhon."
"Typhon doesn't seem to think we need to train together. He's... pretty confident in himself. We also can only train with him in his flying fish form in class. So it’s not like we aren’t practicing at all."
"That was not the message I told you to convey, angry human."
Raith shakes his head. "No. That's not good enough. You two need to learn to fight together. That's half of being a primal. You should be practicing fighting from his back. His voice grows more intense with each word. Hells, I saw him fly on Confluence Day. Have you two at least been practicing flight? Can he still fly in our world, or was that only when he was larger?"
"Did he just call me small?" Typhon takes a step forward, his teeth bared as mist rolls from his mouth in waves that quickly chill the room.
Raith's fire panther, Pyrin appears behind him. He's growing faster than most elementals, and he already stands taller than Raith, with his shoulders just above Raith's head. His fiery body is growing more solid, too—less like a shifting cluster of flames that takes the shape of an animal. I still don't think he'd stand a chance against Typhon, but it would be less of a mismatch than I'd expected.
"False. I could eat him in two bites. However, I happen to like Pyrin’s company. He and I like to joke about our foolish humans together. I would prefer not to eat Pyrin."
"We're not eating either of them."
"I know. I would do the eating. You would do the watching."
"Typhon..."
With resignation, he takes a small step back. Raith never flinched, but Pyrin seems to relax slightly as Typhon backs off.
"You need to find time to practice with him in his dragon form,” Raith says.
I glance at Typhon. Despite all his large and scary dragony features, I see an almost comical shifting of his eyes from Raith to me.
"You would demean me with practice exercises?" Typhon rumbles through my mind.
"You want to keep me from dying, don't you?"
Resignation thunders through the tether as Typhon sulks to the corner of the room and sits with straight-backed posture so he looks like an indignant statue.
If only. Statues don't constantly shove their opinions in your mind.
"Careful, angry human."