How to Lose Your Dragon (The Immortality Curse Book 1) by Peter Glenn (beach read TXT) 📕

still in its sheath. Instead, I just stood there and seethed while Rick stepped forward an inch at a time, the circlet in his outstretched, badly-shaking hand.

At length, Bat Boy snatched the crown from Rick’s fingers, cheering as he did so, and Rick high-tailed it back to stand slightly behind me.

“There,” I said to Arlan. “You have the crown. Now let Sheila go.”

Arlan grinned at me. His grip tightened on the dagger and for a moment, I thought Sheila was done for, then he released her and threw her toward us.

I caught Sheila before she could fall flat on her face and steadied her with my hands. “Easy now, Sheila, you’re safe,” I told her.

“S-sorry, Damian!” she cried, over and over while I patted her on the back. “I’m so sorry!”

“Shh. You’re safe, that’s all that matters.”

I looked up from Sheila and glared at Arlan for a moment. “There you go,” I told him. “We’ve fulfilled our part of the arrangement. Now let us go.” All the while, I was tightening my grip on my katana with my other hand, hoping he couldn’t see it under Sheila’s shaking body.

“Humph,” Arlan said. He looked over at Bat Boy and beckoned for him to hand him the circlet. Bat Boy complied. Arlan twirled it in his fingers for a moment, holding it up to catch what little light it could.

“Beautiful,” he said. “Simply beautiful.” He returned his gaze to me. “Thank you, Damian. With this, we can complete the ritual. We have you to thank for everything.”

I hissed at him, but it didn’t do much other than make me feel a little bit better.

Arlan turned around and started walking away slowly.

I gauged the distance between us. Ten feet, maybe twelve. If I lunged correctly, maybe I could still skewer him before he could turn around to stop me. My hand started to pull on my katana ever so slightly as I moved Sheila just a little bit to clear the path.

“Bevan! Conall!” Arlan called over his shoulder. His two minions’ heads perked up. “Kill them.”

14

“Damn you!” I shouted at Arlan. I stepped past Sheila and brought my katana to bear, lunging toward him as fast as I could.

But Arlan and his minions were faster. In the same second, he ran for it, and Bevan and Conall adjusted their stance to block off my access to him.

“Damn you, Arlan!” I shouted again at his fleeing form. I stopped my lunge short before I careened into his wall of muscle and adjusted my footing to face the new threat. I was reasonably certain I could take them both on. I’d done it before.

“So,” I said, my eyes darting back and forth between them. “Which one of you is Bevan?”

Bat Boy grinned at me, and he lunged forward in the same instant. His hands reached for my midsection like he was trying to grab me and grapple me to the ground, but I was too fast for him.

I dodged backward, sliding my foot to the side so his hands grasped air. Then I swung upward with my katana at the last moment.

My sword bit into Bevan’s skin with a slurping noise, and he howled as he pulled his arm away.

I glanced at his arm and noticed it was missing a good bit of skin and hanging at an odd angle. I hadn’t quite sliced all the way through, but I’d come pretty close.

Bevan screamed again and rushed me, but once again, I was ready. I lowered myself to the ground and pushed upward with my katana. The blade slid into his stomach, and I turned the angle of the strike upward so it would slide into his chest.

I heard a loud gasp, and then Bevan was falling on top of me. The two of us tumbled to the ground, him on top, and I yelped as the wind was forced out of my lungs and the ground came up to smack me in the back of the head.

Stars swam in my vision and I squirmed as hard as I could, but Bevan’s dead weight was holding me, pinning me to the ground. It appeared I’d been effective at killing him, but he’d managed to pin me anyway. So in a way, we both won.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Half-Naked Guy, or Conall, as he was called, come up to where I was laying, pinned on the ground. He was laughing and brandishing that rather large sword of his in his hands.

“Heh heh heh,” he said as he sauntered in my direction. “You lose, small man.” He flashed me a grin and I could see that his mouth was missing a couple more teeth than last time.

Was that my doing? I couldn’t remember how hard I’d hit him last night, but I vaguely remembered him having nearly a full set of chompers the first time we’d met.

“Yeah?” I spat back at him. “Well, only because your buddy here can’t lay off the cheeseburgers, you know what I mean?”

Conall frowned at me, and his eyes took on a confused look. He shook his head. “It’s no matter, you’re still a dead man.”

I struggled once again to push Bevan off me, or at least wrest my katana free so I wasn’t completely helpless, but it didn’t make a lick of difference. I was stuck.

“Pfft. At least I won’t die smelling like a barn. I mean seriously, dude, you guys need to learn how to take a bath,” I told him, hoping to get under his skin just a little. I wrinkled my nose and waved my hand in front of my nose. “Phew!”

Conall growled at me and raised his sword over his head. From here, it looked like he was going to skewer both me and Bevan in one stroke. Which I guess was one good way to handle it, seeing as his friend would just come back to life, and I would not. He stood there for a moment, holding the sword