26: Banter

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Immense heat spread through my entire body as an invisible protection barrier materialized around me

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Immense heat spread through my entire body as an invisible protection barrier materialized around me. Though Reagan's flames never touched my skin, their heat still warmed my entire body. It was more pleasant than uncomfortable, but his outburst had still caught me completely off guard.

Yelling, I cussed at him. "In all the gods' names, what is wrong with you?"

"You woke me!" Reagan roared back, his chest heaving with shock. His breathing only caused smoke to engulf me and make my lungs nearly collapse.

Coughing I said, "Is that supposed to be a crime? How else am I to tell you that we need to go?" Outraged, I tried to calm my nerves. I poured in extra energy into the effort once the rest of the pack woke up and grew alarmed at the amount of smoke that traveled through the air. A few bushes were burned to a crisp behind me, and two trees on my right were on fire. Luckily, none of my pack members had been injured.

This was now officially the second time he'd tried to burn me alive. Thank all the gods that promiseds couldn't harm each other bad enough to murder. He would have within seconds!

"Haven't you ever heard not to wake a sleeping dragon?" Reagan muttered, anxiously whipping his armored tail back and forth.

I wanted to say 'how about an apology' but instead decided not to push it.

"Obviously not," though I still managed to push it far enough that another cloud of smoke shot out of his nostrils.

"Well now you know!" he answered, a whiny tone lining his voice.

Rolling my eyes, I calmed myself down and steered my attention to the others who'd been watching with wide eyes.

They all stood in a semi-circle slightly behind me, opposite of Reagan and the other two waking dragons. The bulky brown one shook himself, then continued to stretch his legs and wings. Ryker simply stood up and towered over us with an observant look in his icy gray eyes.

"I'm rethinking the approval of you two being promised to each other," Reece gasped, taken aback by the state we were in. I turned to him and chuckled lightly.

"This isn't the first time he's tried to grill me alive," I said, joking.

Slight outrage traveled towards me. "What! I have never actually tried to grill you alive. You just pop up out of nowhere!" Reagan exclaimed, clearly frustrated and defensive.

My shock had worn off and instead I began to enjoy the playful banter. Especially putting him in this position made my heart warm.

"As a dragon, shouldn't you be used to surprises?"

That retort earned a bellowing -oh- from both Dante and Reece. I chuckled. Reagan wasn't laughing, though.

"Believe me, I'm used to much worse." And suddenly, the banter was over and instead the mood turned dark.

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