Black Briar by Sophie Avett Page B

“Nova.”
     
    RyMjin and Maleficent collided again, locked and tumbled, drifting through the clouds like reptilian wrecking balls. The kinetic force of every blow shattered the air. Boom! Boom! Roar! Boom!
     
    Sweat. She could feel it pebbling on her brow in corporal reality. Exhaustion. Adrenaline. What was experienced in the dream world was felt—however muted the sensation might be—in corporeal reality. And Nova always left her in pieces.
     
    Always.
     
    Never did she leave his lair without feeling like her legs were going to give out from beneath her, and he was far from a disappointment in the realm of the Fade. Such was his focus. His mastery.
     
    Not today, motherfucker.
     
    Maleficent bowled a knotted RyMjin into an abyss of black clouds and reared into the sky, head swiveling at unnatural angles as she searched for the fallout. Her bat-like wings were heavy, slowly keeping her from stalling out completely, but she was slipping. Oozing down out of the sky as she waited.
     
    The beast was hiding in the clouds. Using them like a cloak. A downpour of water and midst poured from the sudden clash of the thunder and rain. A shadow passed over Sybille as she watched RyMjin sore over her in rambling coils, four-toed claws open and snout aimed to ram Maleficent on the back of the shoulder. It would spiral her out of flight rhythm and she’d fall. Unacceptable.
     
    Sybille’s staff ignited with green flame and she boomeranged it into the sky, rod spinning like a metal pinwheel. If she was lucky, it would decapitate the beast completely and Nova would be beaten. But the gargouille materialized on Ryojin’s back. He twisted in the newly formed gold and jade-crusted leather saddle and barred the blow with his staff.
     
    Her weapon jarred, thrown off course, and she flashed her teeth. “Give up.”
     
    “Never.”
     
    RyMjin hit Maleficent like a battering ram, but embraced her massive body and sank his teeth into her shoulder. His plumed wings beat the air quickly, holding them in flight even as they were supposed to fall. The she-dragon roiled, snapping and snarling, but the menace just wasn’t here. Her tail snapped out and bound Ryojin’s short bracketed leg, and then, she…mewled.
     
    RyMjin had been birthed from Nova’s soul; the gargouille’s control over it was complete. Maleficent had been captured, tamed—but just barely. Every day was a trying exercise and a constant argument. Dragons needed no riders and they were certainly born with a sense of their place in the world, which, of course, was above just about everything else. And though she had been commanded to fight, Maleficent’s will to do so with obedience was waning.
     
    She lowered her snout, snapping and purring at the dragon holding her captive. Her tail was raised, clinging to him. Offering him the access he needed to ravage his reward right there in the middle of the planetary coliseum.
     
    “You little…slut,” Sybille snapped and opened her hand, calling her weapon to her palm. She struck the tower with the bladed tip. “You’re always like this. I swear to God, it’s a wonder why I let you out to go terrorizing and pillaging at all. Over a thousand years old and needs a goddamn chastity belt…”
     
    The spindle witch evaporated into a scornful cloud of purple midst and small spectral dragons, and then, reappeared, saddled on an obsidian seat banded to the nape of her dragon’s neck. The lung’s gaping jaws were sunk deep into the she-dragon’s muscle and flesh, the beast’s snout pushing against Sybille’s outer thigh. Whiskers and scarlet leather lips were ticklish and warm against her ankle. Smoking. Blistering it with steam.
     
    The fucker . She frowned at RyMjin over her shoulder and met the gargouille’s sweeping black diamond gaze. He was peering over the side of his beast like as long as he kept her in his sights, the battle was already won.   The smug fucker .
     
    “Submit, Sybille.” Nova doubled