Even though I hated myself for it, the moment I’d been punched through the wall, I’d turned and sprinted for the back door of the restaurant. I didn’t dare tap into my bloodline, as that would undo the enshroud spell. If I could run, I could escape. I could get away. I could hide.

I heard noises behind me as I pulled out a lockpick and started going at the back door’s padlock.

The entire commotion took less than ten seconds.

There was a scream, Greta’s bloodline imposed fear cut off, someone hit a wall, there was a rush of flame, and then I heard Gerhard’s voice, threatening to kill my friends if I didn’t come out now.

I stopped trying to undo the lock and took in a breath.

The sounds. My friends had tried to fight for me. I couldn’t repay that by running away. What kind of man would I be if I did that?

I stepped through the hole in the wall, and for the first time in almost a decade, let go.

I stopped disjointing my bloodline, then stopped suppressing it. I allowed the enshroud spell to fall away, and felt as the embers, kept cold for so long, began to warm up. The foul tincture I wore was burned away, leaving the scent of crackling flame in its place.

“There you are,” Gerhard breathed, dropping Salem and Jackson, and stepping toward me. “Are you ready to surrender and return home?”

“You told me to come out or you’d kill them,” I said. “You never said anything about surrender. And you should know as well as I do, brother…”

I shoved power through my embers and allowed a bit of the growl to touch my voice.

“A dragon does not surrender.”

I exploded across the distance in the time it took to blink, lashing out with a punch at Gerhard’s head. My burst of speed caught him off guard, as he was doubtless mentally thinking of me as a member of a young generation, and thus, not someone who could match him.

But while I might have far less power to draw on than him, or Greta, or even Yushin, the power I did have was far more dense than anyone my age should possess, condensed through a decade of hiding. I grabbed my power and compressed it further. I needed to make every bit of power count.

With my bloodline scenting ability, I could smell that Gerhard’s power was still much denser than mine. If I was the surface of a star, he was its molten heart.

He also had a lot more power than me. I had compressed my fire to the size of an apple, but Gerhard’s fire was the size of an entire oak barrel worth of apples.

At that moment, I couldn’t bring myself to care. I had him off guard. I might be able to kill him.

And he’d played with my friends, maybe even killed Yushin.

I might only be able to burn my bloodline for a few moments, but for those moments, I would burn damn bright.

My fist slammed into Gerhard’s throat and he was blown back, shattering through the glass door of the restaurant.

I launched myself forwards, but Gerhard was still a fourth generation, many times older than I was, with years more combat experience. His snapped neck and crumpled windpipe were already healed, and he was laughing like a maniac.

I threw another punch, but Gerhard caught it and threw one of his own. I pushed off the ground, throwing myself to the left and off the ground, then up to the nearby building, where I flipped and kicked off the building, diving back down at Gerhard. He leapt off the ground at me, and our fists struck in midair. The air boomed around us as our fists collided and we were both thrown back.

I caught myself on a street lamp, bending the metal under the force of my hands as I launched myself back at him, but he was coming at me. I struck his eye with a fist, but his knee collided with my gut, launching me upward into the air.

He leapt, soaring up next to me, and I twisted in midair to lash out with a kick. He blocked it and managed to land an open palm strike on my back, sending me plummeting down into the ground. I just barely shifted to land on my feet, my knees buckling under the force of the impact as the cobblestones cracked beneath me. Gerhard brought an axe kick down on my head, and I dodged to the side, striking at his throat with a jab. He deflected my blow, and I tried to launch a kick at his throat… only for my body to fail.

Within my spirit, my fire was drained. I could burn bright, but I couldn’t burn long, and I was burnt out.

Gerhard flickered behind me with a speed I could barely follow anymore, let alone match. He grabbed my arm, then snapped my elbow, just like he had Jackson.

“I admit, I’m pleasantly surprised!” Gerhard said. “I thought after so many years, you’d be as pathetic as your friends were. But you’re better than Greta! Mother will be delighted to have you back.”

I let out a whimper, but I refused to let out the scream that I knew he wanted.

Gerhard grabbed the wrist of my non-broken hand and yanked me toward him while calling out to the restaurant.

“Come on out, Greta. We need to get you back to your little war, and bring Hailaga home.”

“Emrys,” I said. “My name is Emrys of White Sands.”

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“No, it’s Emrys Dreki,” Gerhard said. “You lost, little brother. Come on, Greta, get out here!”

He frowned, and looked at the restaurant.

“Greta?”

“I am not permitting Greta to hear you,” a voice said. It was calm, resonant, and came from someone who smelled like a fresh autumn breeze, just cool enough to sting.

Gerhard and I both whipped our head around to see a man wearing a long black coat, standing several feet in the air behind us. His hands were in his pockets, and he was glaring at Gerhard.

Shé Rui, Yushin’s uncle and guardian.

He gently drifted to the ground, his long coat fluttering in the air behind him, and I felt the aura of his life enforced energy clash with Gerhard’s dragonfear.

“You hurt my niece,” Shé Rui said. “I should kill you.”

“She attacked me,” Gerhard snarled, shoving me back toward the restaurant.

I stumbled, but felt the wind flex, aiding my motion. Shé Rui tossed me a glossy green pill. It had a pungent, herbal scent, one that was shockingly fresh and clean, like a forest after a rainstorm.

“Give this to Yushin,” he said. “Then stay inside.”

I nodded and dashed inside with what strength remained while keeping an eye on the powerful life enforced man and my older brother.

When I stumbled inside, Greta seized me by my shoulders.

“Who is that?!” she hissed. I knocked her hands off my shoulders and walked over to Yushin’s body.

“That is her uncle,” I said, pressing the pill between Yushin’s lips and forcing her to swallow. A hand landed on my shoulder and I tensed, but saw Jackson, barely standing. Salem was leaning against the counter, breathing heavily, but they were mobile, unlike Yushin, who was barely breathing.

Greta slammed her fist into one of the few unbroken tables left in the restaurant, shattering it in two. My eyes flicked over to her, then outside, and I strained my ears to listen to what was going on.

“It is the responsibility of the strong to show restraint,” Shé Rui said firmly. “Your actions were out of line.”

“She. Attacked. Me.” Gerhard growled, his fingers twitching.

“And you responded by risking her life,” Shé Rui bit back. “The other two were left whole, yet you crushed her ribs.”

A vein on Gerhard’s neck throbbed as he was forced to stare down someone he couldn’t push around, and I felt a faint thrum of hope in my chest.

Shé Rui was weaker than Gerhard, but my friends and I had taken a bite out of Gerhard’s fire. He wasn’t at full strength right now, and if they came to blows, I didn’t know who would win.

Gerhard threw a punch, and Shé Rui met it with one hand. The air between them exploded, then they were moving faster than I could track. Booms rattled through the air every fraction of a second, and I wracked my brain for anything I could do.

I was out of dragonfire, but I still had a full ether pool.

My eyes widened, and I raised my hands. I began to chant, spinning the ether out around me into the shape of my affinity magic, flicking my hands. As I finished my spell, I held it in place, then muttered under my breath in Hua-Long.

“Shé Rui, hold him still for just a moment. I can help.”

It took several seconds, but then the flickering motions came to a stop. Shé Rui had grabbed both of Gerhard’s arms and used them to lock him in place, just for a moment.

I threw my magic, draining my ether pool to cast a curse.

I was still new to my affinity magic, but I’d figured out two uses of my affinity – a curse that was fast and cheap, but lasted only for seconds, and a curse that took much more ether, chanting, and gestures, but lasted a minute.

The magic snapped into place around Gerhard, then he broke Shé Rui’s grip and they flickered off again. I could only catch flashes of movement as they appeared over one of the buildings to trade blows, then were on the street, then in the air, then fifty feet to the left on the cobblestones, then back in front of the shop, then in midair half a block away to the right…

My curse wasn’t strong, not when compared to Gerhard, but when scales were balanced, even something as light as a feather would unbalance them. With each moment where I was able to catch a glimpse of them in battle, I could see that Shé Rui was slowly but surely taking the upper hand.

Finally, they appeared in front of the restaurant again. Both of them were drenched in sweat, panting, and both felt drained.

But Gerhard’s nose was broken, dripping blood onto the pavement, while Shé Rui was unhurt. And Gerhard’s nose wasn’t healing itself.

“I acknowledge your strength…” Gerhard said, before trailing off as he realized he didn’t even know the name of the person who he’d just been fighting.

“Shé Rui.”

“I acknowledge your strength, Shé Rui,” Gerhard said. “I did not show the restraint someone of my power should have when handling your niece. I will pay for the damages, recompense to the city, and offer you one favor from the Dreki family.”

“I accept,” Shé Rui said, relaxing.

“What would you like?” Gerhard said, relaxing as well.

“The favor should go to me,” Yushin said. “As the injured party, it is I who deserves recompense. Though, Uncle, thank you.”

I jumped, not having noticed that she’d climbed to her feet. The powerful pill had done its work, and while her university clothes were ripped and bloody, she was clearly alive and looked to be completely unharmed. By the hells, even her bloodline felt like it had been mostly restored.

Just how expensive had that pill been?

Yushin slowly knelt, giving a full kowtow to her uncle. I decided to do the same. He might not have intervened entirely for my sake, but he had still helped me.

“Agreed,” Shé Rui said, once we were both back on our feet.

Gerhard turned to look at Yushin.

“What do you want, then?”

Yushin gestured to me.

“Let Emrys go. He does not wish to be a part of your family,” Yushin said.

I saw Greta mouthing ‘Emrys’, and I glanced at her.

“My name,” I said. “I am not Hailaga, not anymore.”

Greta nodded her acceptance at that.

“I can’t do that,” Gerhard said. “It’s the will of our mother to have him back.”

“Then give him a fighting chance,” Yushin said. “We are in Cendel. There is a tradition here, Holmgang. Honor duels, fought on one of the spires kept empty for the purpose. The tradition in the sects back home is one year. One year to train and prepare yourself.”

Gerhard’s lips curled into a smile.

“I won’t give him a full year,” he said. “He’s wasting his time with the school of wizardry, is he not?”

“I am,” I said. “I will become a mage. Not just a dragon.”

Gerhard flicked his fingers at me.

“One week after the end of your school year, we will meet for a Holmgang. If you really think you can learn more from your… school… than you can from the family, and are really insistent on removing yourself from our power? Then you have your chance.”

He tapped his chest.

“You’ll be dueling me. None of your friends. Just you, your blood, and your magic against me and my blood”

Yushin opened her mouth to protest, but a warning glare backed by a lick of dragonfear caused her to shut her mouth. I took her hand and squeezed it appreciatively, then looked at Gerhard.

This was the best chance I was going to get.

Someone who had only completed a third of their magical training wouldn’t have a chance against Gerhard, but I wasn’t just a mage.

Now that I didn’t need to hide my bloodline with the enshroud spell, I would have more ether to train, and could also train my bloodline. I had shown already that I could trade blows with Gerhard.

And Gerhard was old. Bloodlines grew denser with age, but much like ether pools, they struggled to grow any larger once the person was past a certain age.

I still really didn’t believe I was going to win, but truthfully, it came down to one simple fact.

If I didn’t agree, then he’d take me home to mother today. If I did agree, I’d get several months of freedom with my friends.

“Deal,” I said.

“Deal,” Yushin echoed.

“Deal,” Gerhard agreed, a note of finality in his voice.