Chasing Aurora
Chapter 22

I barely had time to duck behind my shield when Maleficent started breathing fire. My mind was racing as to how the hell you kill a fucking fire-breathing dragon. How is it that Prince Phillip didn’t think to mention the fact that Maleficent could turn into a fire-breathing dragon? I feel like that is something that should be mentioned. If I survive this, I am going to be asking if there are going to be fucking fire-breathing dragons before doing anything. Want me to run to the grocery store? That depends on if there are FUCKING FIRE-BREATHING DRAGONS!

I was lucky that I had brought the shield. It wasn’t even heating up under the intense heat of the fire. In fact, I was relatively untouched by the flames. The worst part was the air around me was getting hotter and hotter. I need to totally change my plan of attack. How does one even kill a dragon? I should have watched more movies about dragons.

Stop overthinking things. How do you will anything? You cut off the head, hit a major artery, or stab it through the heart. Now, cutting off the head is out, it would be too difficult considering it’s fifty feet tall. I don’t know enough about dragon anatomy to know where the major arteries are. The best option was to go for the heart. Middle of the chest. Still probably twenty-five feet in the air. Fuck! How am I supposed to do this?

The fire suddenly stopped. I peeked around the shield to see a giant clawed hand was a few feet away and moving fast. I tried ducking, but I was too slow. Her claw dug into my right temple and slashed across my face to my left cheek. I could feel the skin tearing as I dropped. The pain was blinding. Blood was pouring out of my face. I was screaming. The force behind the blow sent me rolling across the yard. I barely managed to keep my sword in my hand. I was out of Maleficent’s range but this blow to my face was major.

I could see my reflection in the shield. I still had both eyes, but the blood was dripping into my eyes tinging the world red. I already knew that facial wounds bled a lot and with the size of this wound, I could end up losing consciousness. I need to finish this off quickly.

I pushed myself to my feet and looked up at Maleficent. She was terrifying. Her eyes glowing an unnatural green. Her black scales reflecting the fire burning around her. She was a beast straight from hell. The red tint to my vision was aiding in that image.

I took a deep breath to steady myself as I took a few steps forwards. Pain was burning through my system, but I had adrenaline on my side. I lifted my sword and shield and got into a fighting position. I stared right into her eyes without fear. She may be a thousand-year-old fae, but I am Piper Jennings. I am an MMA fighter, a businesswoman, and a Guardian descended from Prince Phillip of the Fae. More importantly, she was threatening my girl’s life. No one threatens my girl and gets away with it.

“Come on bitch! You can do better than that! Aren’t you supposed to be powerful or something? I’m still not impressed!” I yelled. I wanted to piss her off. An angry opponent doesn’t think, they just lash out. I knew Maleficent had a temper. Might as well use that to my advantage.

She let out a roar that sent shivers up my spine before the fire came. This time, I got out of the way before she could pin me. I watched her as she took a deep breath in before she sent out another blast of fire. I dodged her again. I goaded her on a bit more and got her to try and swipe at me. I ran out of her reach again.

I played with her like that for a few more minutes. I learned that as a dragon, she was slow. Her reflex times were much slower than mine. Second, she couldn’t let out a continuous stream of fire. She had to be exhaling and the longest she could continuously breathe fire was two minutes. After that, she had to inhale, and with her larger lungs, that gave me thirty seconds without fire. I was starting to get lightheaded, but I finally had a plan.

Once she was close enough, I charged her. I dodged a clumsy swipe from her claw and raised my shield just as she let out a long breath of fire. I counted in my head as I pushed against the beam of fire. My brow was sweating, stinging the wound on my face, but I pushed on. I kept my eyes out for any claws, but so far, there was nothing.

The second the fire stopped, I dropped my shield. I was a few feet away, and I sprinted under her. Before she could even register my movement, I used all my strength to drive my sword right through the centre of her chest. Maleficent let out a long roar as I twisted the blade. I made sure it hurt before I pulled the sword out and got myself out from under the dragon.

I turned around as I saw the giant beast fall. I fell to my knees just as the giant body collapsed. The dragon transformed back into the woman with a giant hole over her heart. She rolled on her side and our eyes met as all the life left hers. My entire body sagged in relief. It was done. Maleficent was dead.

I could feel tears start to prick my eyes as I let go of my sword and took off my shield. My entire body was shaking as I walked into the empty house. I looked at the ruins that were once the stairs and immediately regretted my decision to destroy them. I barely had the energy to walk, let alone try to figure out how to get to Aurora. I reminded myself that I couldn’t rest until Aurora was awake. That was the mission. I can’t stop until the mission is complete.

I pushed an end table over the ruined staircase and climbed on top of it. It was actually pretty easy to get to the stairs that were remaining. I pushed my body up those stairs, all I could think that I was so close. I was almost there. I almost had Aurora in my arms.

Finally, I stood in front of her door. My hand was shaking so hard I could barely open the door. I pushed it open and my eyes instantly went to Aurora. She looked so peaceful as she slept. Her hair was perfectly splayed over the pillow, her rosy lips slightly parted. She was wearing a beautiful pink floral dress that perfectly suited her. She would always be the most beautiful person in the room, even after being asleep for weeks on end.

“Oh my god Piper! Your face.” Fauna rushed over to me and tried to grab my face, but I gently pushed her away.

“I’m fine, I need to wake her up.” I walked over to the bed and gently sat on the edge. I could vaguely hear Fauna in the background, but I was too focused on Aurora to pay any attention. I brushed a curl from her face before gently caressing her face. The tears that had gathered in my eyes were finally starting to fall as electricity travelled up my fingertips. This was it. I finally had my girl in my arms again.

I leaned down, pressing the softest of kisses to her pillowy lips. Even after being asleep for so long, her lips were still soft. I wanted to stay kissing her forever, but it felt really creepy kissing someone while they were unconscious. I pulled away and took her hand in mine, “Come on Princess. Time to wake up.”

I saw her eyelids flutter. I could feel my heart jump in my chest. Her eyes opened, her brow scrunching slightly as she woke up. She started looking around the room before her eyes met mine. I saw the smile start to appear on her face a split second before her eyes turned to worry. “Oh my god. Your face.”

“I’m fine.” I wanted to pull her in my arms, but my vision was starting to blur slightly.

“No, you’re not.” I suddenly had something forced onto my face by a frustrated Fauna. “Now hold still while I heal you.”

“I’m fine.” I tried brushing it off but the slurring of my speech was not helping my case.

Fauna’s hand started glowing green as a warmth came over my face. As her magic flowed into me, the pain got worse. The adrenaline was leaving my system, leaving me to deal with the fact that my face was ripped open. I could feel Aurora’s hand gripping mine though. I just focused on her quiet presence as Fauna worked. She stepped away with a sigh, “That’s the best I can do. Everything is mostly healed, but you’re going to have a headache for a few days and a nasty scar.”

“Thank you. Can you clean up the blood a little bit? Everything kinda looks red right now.” I asked.

“Of course dear.” She waved her hand and my vision immediately cleared up. “I’m going to fix the stairs, I’ll give you two a moment.” She left the room leaving Aurora and I alone.

She turned my face towards her and traced the line of the scar across my face, “What did that to you?”

“Well, it turns out that Maleficent could turn into a fire-breathing dragon. I got one of her claws to the face. Hurt like a bitch.” I shrugged.

“Holy fuck. I was not expecting that. Dragon. That is a new one.”

“Well, at least now I get to add dragon slayer to my resume.” We both laughed before I reached up to her face, “I can’t believe you’re finally here.”

“Me neither. It still feels like a dream.”

“Dreams don’t feel like this Princess.” I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers in an explosive kiss. I swear that fireworks went off the moment my lips touched hers. My arms went to her waist, pulling her in closer. My senses were completely overwhelmed. Her scent of honeysuckle and rose, her light sigh as I deepened the kiss, the taste of her on my lips.

I pulled away with reluctance when I remembered where we were. She let out a whine, trying to chase my lips, but I held her off, “We have plenty of time to kiss later.”

“But I don’t ever want to stop kissing you.” She pouted slightly and I laughed.

“I feel the same, but I’d rather kiss you in my bed than in the place you were held captive by a psychopath.”

“Good point. Let’s get the hell out of here.” She popped to her feet without another complaint. I took her hand and lead her down the hall. The stairs that were reduced to rubble earlier were now standing tall. At the bottom, stood Flora, Fauna and Merriweather. Aurora’s hand left mine as she ran down the stairs into her aunt’s arms. The three of them held her in a group hug. Even if they weren’t her real aunts, they still raised her. They would always hold a place in her heart.

“Come on girls. Robby is waiting at the front gate.” Flora said as she pulled away from the hug.

“Oh Robby! I finally get to meet him! I’m so excited!” Aurora came right over to me and took my hand. Her enthusiasm practically pulled us out of the house and down to the front gate.

Robby wasn’t one to be outdone and came running up to us. His hulking frame collided with mine in a huge hug. “Oh my god, I saw the fucking dragon and the fire and thought you were dead. Holy fuck. I’m so glad you aren’t dead.” He let me go and his eyes went straight to my new scar before down to my eyes again. “At least you’ve got a cool story for how you got that scar though.”

“Yeah, somehow I don’t think people are going to believe that a fire-breathing dragon gave me this scar.” I pulled away from Robby and put my arm around Aurora, “Although, I do have someone for you to meet. Aurora, this is my idiot best friend Robby, Robby this is Aurora.”

“Nice to meet the girl we’ve been chasing for the past week,” Robby said holding his hand out to Aurora.

“Can I give you a hug? I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for Piper.” Aurora was pulled into Robby’s big bear hugs. I knew the two of them would get along.

“Alright, we should get going. The house is on fire and I do not want to be here when the fire department gets here!” Merriweather said. We all quickly got into the van with Merriweather driving. I sat in the very back with my arms around Aurora. For the first time in a long time, everything was as it should be.