Free Branded by Ana J. Phoenix Page A

approached Stoner, who glared at him. Asher's mouth went dry as the kid was guided to the deadly head-cutting thing in the middle of the stage. The blade glowed red.
    What an ugly way to die.
    With a sudden heat spike, an outcry went through the crowd. Flames materialized and vanished above their heads. Someone tried to use fire magic, and someone else counteracted it. The freak brigade moved. The crowd parted a few feet to Asher’s left.
    Blind Guy!
    “You can't do that! They're not guilty.”
    Only Blind Guy would think that anybody cared.
    He stood his ground, even as the other elves closed in on him. Fucking naive. At least Blind Guy threw up a shield of flames surrounding himself. Of course, that didn't hold for very long. Whoever had dispelled his earlier magic dispelled this one too. The elves surrounded him with their spears.
    One of them was poking his weapon dangerously close. "Sympathizing with the criminals?"
    Two choices presented themselves in front of Asher. The smart thing to do would be to run now while everyone was distracted. The stupid thing would be to try and save Blind Guy. Asher knew people often called him stupid, and maybe they were right, because he could not get himself to flee the scene. Instead, he drew on his powers. Let the magic within himself envelop him, transform him into a dragon.
    When you wanted to draw attention to yourself, there were few things more effective than transforming into an overgrown winged reptile in the middle of a market place.
    "Is that a dragon?" someone in the crowd shouted.
    As if it wasn’t obvious! How many creatures did they know with scales and wings? And how many of those could do this: Opening his mouth wide, Asher spew a blast of fire into the air. Shrieks sounded around him as people edged back.
    "Weren't those fuckers supposed to be extinct?" someone complained. That guy went straight on Asher’s mental list of people to fry later.
    No time now; the freak brigade charged at him with their spears held in front of them.
    Asher swished the two front runners aside with his claw. Another one used the distraction to poke his weapon into Asher's side, but the tip was too dull to penetrate his scales.
    Still, the enemy side had ways to make him turn back, and even if they didn't, his powers would only last so long. Being an overgrown reptile was extremely draining on the system. He had to act fast.
    One member of the freak brigade was fighting Blind Guy, while the other four or five of them held their weapons out to Asher as if they could achieve anything that way. Asher looked over to where the lizards had been, but they were gone.
    Something cold hit him in the neck and he roared. A shard of ice had hit him from behind. Suckers!
    More ice shards flew his way and he tried to step back. He was making an extremely easy target. With a flap of his wing, he deflected the attack, but the numbing cold still bit his scales.
    A high pitched cry pierced the air, wrenching Asher back to his first day in this world. Asher looked to the stage, and quickly averted his gaze. Stoner’s head had come off. The fat guy wasn’t letting the antics of the crowd bother him at all.
    Asher felt like throwing up as the bloody image burned itself into his retinas, but there was no time for that. Blind Guy had shaken off the one member of the freak brigade and ran toward the stage. A dwarf sprang out of the crowd and tackled him to the ground, ax raised high.
    Asher roared and spread his wings. Before he knew it, he was off the ground and looking down at the crowd. The sucker with the ax was looking up at him. Asher spew a bout of fire down on him. The dwarf jumped to the side. A spear flew at Asher. He swerved to avoid it, and dove down to pick Blind Guy up with his claw.
    He wasn't sure how he was doing it, but he was. Every movement seemed natural, as if he'd done it a thousand times. Which didn’t mean that it wasn’t scary as fuck. Asher didn’t know what made his heart pound