As I hurtled my body at Tadisha, I felt Tasha’s eyes upon me. I couldn’t see her, but I clung to the hope that whatever injuries she had sustained were minor.

I had followed her scent, despite the heavy smell of char on the wind. Tracking her to the building at the end of the lot, I heard the engines of a spacecraft humming to life and, with all the strength in my dragon body, I gripped the metal sheeting of the takeoff door to the hangar and tore, ripping most of it off.

The little Infernian had emerged then and I confronted my enemy, finally, in her true form. She was smaller than the Infernians we had faced before and I readied myself for a quick battle.

When she dived at me, her speed astonished me. She was not only smaller but faster and nimbler than her comrades had been. Attempting to pin her beneath me, I crashed onto the concrete floor, but she rolled and escaped the brunt of the impact.

She flew up and smiled wickedly. “If the rest of your countrymen fight as poorly as you, it won’t take much for us to demolish them.”

I struck out with my tail, but she rolled with the impact. Recovering, she flew behind one of the small aircraft, out of my line of sight.

Her smaller form suited her in the enclosed space. She flitted between vehicles, refusing to face me head on. Frustrated at her avoidance, I roared in anger and let loose a stream of dragon fire.

Her voice taunted me as it echoed off the walls of the hangar. “Typical Dragselian. You think you’re so superior, that you know better than everyone else. You would call Infernians treacherous, vicious creatures, but at least we embrace who we are! You? You claim yourselves righteous and honorable, but look what you do to your own kin. You cast them out to starve and die in the wastelands of space.

“You, and all of your kind, are as cruel as an Infernian. Soon, we shall see who is the truly superior race. On that glorious day, we will walk through streets littered with the corpses of your women and children and we shall take back what is rightfully ours!”

She sprang down from above me, but I shifted just in time, causing her to miss and tumble to the ground. Shifting back, I charged at her.

She raised her arm and drew out a firearm, firing at me. I sprang up, rolling to avoid the shot, but felt the burning pain of acid on my tail. I flew to the other side of the hangar, avoiding a volley of shots that sizzled against the metal of the aircrafts.

As a Dragselian, I could recover quickly, but the acid was hyper concentrated and continued to eat at my flesh, inhibiting my body’s regeneration reflex.

I shifted, weaving in between aircraft, as she stalked me with her weapon.

“Come out, come out, little prince. We’re not done yet,” she said, sadistic pleasure in her voice.

I silently crept around a low, tank-like vehicle and caught sight of her large light green wings, fluttering even as she walked on foot.

Taking advantage of the surprise angle, I leaped out and tackled her, working an arm around her neck and cutting off her air supply. We tumbled to the hard ground and she threw her legs up, pushing off and sending me flipping backward, the impact just barely loosening my grip.

She snaked out and began slicing at me with a short, stubby blade that seemed to act as a magnet, drawing out my iron-rich blood as it cut.

“Looks like I got the better toys!” she sneered, looking delightfully surprised at the damage she was able to inflict, and wagging her weapons at me.

The LCC logo was visible on both. Like any true Infernian, she was determined to fight dirty.

“If you truly believe Infernians are superior, why do you employ weapons? Why don’t you prove the prowess and superiority of Infernians by fighting a clean fight? Do all Infernians rely on human weapons to win their battles, or just you?” I said, provoking her ire.

Her eyes full of rage, she charged at me, but I caught her at the waist and flipped her over my head. Spinning in the process, I kicked her, solidly connecting with her torso. I felt, more than heard, the crack of bones as my foot struck her, and she went crashing into a nearby space vehicle.

“Dragselians live with honor. We do not raid, we do not infiltrate and destabilize communities for our own power mongering, we do not steal, and we fight our battles with dignity. You and your kind blame us for your misfortunes, you call us self-righteous, you call us hypocrites, yet you are the ones who continue to raise this conflict, to seek this violence.

“We would live in peace, but you will not allow it to be so. The depths of your depravity are beyond redemption—by your own admission, you would delight in the murder of even our most vulnerable citizens. You are beasts of death and destruction and you are unfit to rule even yourselves.

“However, unlike you, Dragselians believe in justice. You will be held in custody and you will cooperate with us to prevent the murderous rampage your people would wreak upon thousands of innocents,” I demanded, coming up to her.

Feigning surrender, she lowered her head and stretched out her arms in submission. As I neared, she thrust back up to her feet and fired at me again with the acid weapon. I dove out of the way and rolled beneath a vehicle. When I heard her approach, I shifted, lifting the vehicle into the air and catching her off guard, sending it smashing into her.

She was remarkably fast, though, and managed to maneuver around it, firing back at me at the same time and catching me in the wing.

The acid sizzled as it sank into the flesh of my wing. I beat it, trying to climb into the air, but the wound had left a gaping hole and I couldn’t generate enough lift to rise.

She shot again, and I tried to roll out of the way, but another shot connected and struck my leg. I needed to act quickly, the hits were adding up.

I roared, releasing a stream of dragon fire that ignited and demolished the rounds she tried to fire at me as I charged. Catching her, I bit down on her leg, eliciting a deafening shriek that reverberated through the hangar.

We rolled as she took her blade out and began striking at my neck, drawing streams of magnetized blood as she did so. I felt my body go weak from blood loss, and I released her leg, falling back as I did.

She cackled, delighting in the wounds she had inflicted. She flew up into the open air and smiled down at me.

“You’re right. We won’t let things rest in peace. The fury of our vengeance will never rest. But you’re not going to live long enough to see all that,” she said, raising her weapon to my neck.

I knew it would be a deathblow—

The hangar filled with the din of gunfire, and Tadisha’s body shook with the impacts.

Tasha, still at the controls of the spacecraft, had taken advantage of a clean line of fire.

Tadisha fell, her body riddled with wounds. With the little strength I had left, I lifted a claw into the air and took her head off with one quick strike.

Shifting, I collapsed back against a nearby vehicle. My vision was blurring, my body was singing with pain from the acid shots and the deep gashes, but when I saw Tasha come running at me, I felt all of it melt away.

Stumbling into her arms, we embraced and I reveled in the fact that I could once more hold her like this.

“Ragal! Oh my god, I thought you were going to die!” she said, showering my face in kisses as I inhaled the smell of her.

“It wasn’t even close,” I said, teasing her. She looked at me dubiously, and as I gazed into her eyes, I realized how much more I had to live for now.

“I love you,” I said. “I need you to know that. I know I was wrong, that I hurt you. I should have never lied to you and I’m sorry, but there was nothing false about the connection we felt, about the way I still feel about you.”

She smiled, tears in her eyes. “I love you, too, and I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have let my anger cloud my judgment. I should have given you the benefit of the doubt, allowed you to explain yourself, but I was afraid and angry and I just ran. I won’t ever run from you again.”

“And I won’t keep secrets from you again.” I kissed her softly. “Now, in the interest of open communication, I should mention that I might need to sit down soon,” I said, feeling a little woozy.

“Oh, oh god!” She took stock of my injuries. She ran to the lab and gathered a neutralizing agent for the burns and bandages for the cuts, staunching much of the bleeding and pain almost instantly.

With all the chaos and danger out of the way, at least momentarily, it felt so good just to hold her again. By the time my brothers and the emergency personnel made their way to the building, we had made good use of the cockpit of the spacecraft.