“I can protect you from him,” Leith tells me, trying to catch me.
The blood-red glow of the comet pierces through the sunlight.
Zaeyr roars, and it sounds like all the thunder in the world booming at once. It shoots straight to my soul. My body floods with heat; my sex gushes. Fear and want rip through me.
I snatch my bag off the ground and turn away.
“Aida!” Both Leith and Zaeyr yell as I flee.
14
The Chase
I don’t know how long I’ve been running, but I don’t stop. I only hope the river is close. When the clouds dissipate, the land turns red and gold. The beach becomes rocks, and I’m forced into the jungle. Energized by adrenaline, I keep going, rushing by lounging crocodiles and through barely-formed spiderwebs.
Every time I consider stopping, I hear feet pounding behind me, the sounds of panting and snarling.
Zaeyr is close. Nerves zinging, I’m the prey.
My heart races, my body strains, and I surge forward, and though part of me wants to be caught by him, the hurt inside me prevents me from stopping.
“Aida!” he shouts my name again and again like a beast. It doesn’t sound human.
Sweat pours down my flesh.
And then the jungle river emerges. The brackish estuary appears. Like a beacon, my pace grows faster, seeing my goal.
If I can just get across it I can lose him. Lose him and think.
Shell Rock is only several hard hours past the river mouth.
As I get closer, so does Zaeyr. Keeping my eyes trained on the water, I see Elae and Jye waiting in the river ahead. I don’t have time to question and throw my spear to the side, diving in, ignoring the bestial growl right behind me; the faint touch of fingers slipping through my hair.
The mermaids grab me and, to my excitement, swim me across the large gape. I’m at the other side within minutes reaching for the shore. But they don’t let me go.
“Thank you,” I say, trying to pull away. Their hold on me tightens. “What are you doing?”
“We need the dragon,” Jye hisses.
“Why?”
“To pay for his crimes.”
Crimes?
Hearing a splash behind us, I twist to see Zaeyr closing the distance. He’s fast. So fast in the water. My mouth falls.
Makes sense. His tail lashes behind him like a propeller.
Elae drops her hold on me and lifts a three-pronged weapon, aiming it in Zaeyr’s direction. He stops when he sees it, though his gaze goes straight for me.
His piercingly light eyes are filled with hunger. A haunting, raw, feverish look that pins me to the spot. His usually pale skin is pink with exertion, blue veins pop from his skin, and everything above water is stiff; his horns are straighter than usual.
I sense his savagery as fresh heat jolts between us.
He surges forward despite the weapon, and Elae screams, “Halt dragon! We will give her to you unharmed if you behave!”
“No,” I stammer, pulling back. Jye holds me firm.
Zaeyr pauses as the prongs of Elae’s triton stab at his chest. My heart stops.
“What do you want, fish?” he snaps. He looks crazy and restless.
If he gets to me, if the mermaids hand me over, I’m doomed.
“You were once the king of the gulf, the Mermaid’s Gulf,” Elae accuses.
“What of it?”
Elae snarls as if she got her answer. “We have honored you with jewels and gifts for centuries, but you destroyed our home!”
Zaeyr cants his head, his hair falling into his face. It’s as if he’s just now realizing the mermaids are here at all. I tug again, trying to escape Jye’s grip.
“Your home?” he spits. “My home. You were allowed to live in my domain, to be protected by my presence. I have kept the beasts of the open ocean from your waters. It is because of me you prospered with peace. And what did you do to repay me? Jewels and shells to pretty up my caves? When they were already mine to begin with? No, you repay me by trapping me when I roused. To bury me alive!”
Startled, I stop fighting Jye to glance between the mermaids.
“Roused, dragon king? You did not merely rouse—you trembled the seafloor and frightened all that dwelled away! Our homes crashed down around us. So the conchs blared, calling us forth, and we thought the red comet’s glow had touched you and sought to stop it, to allow you to slumber,” Elae says, pushing the tips of her weapon harder to Zaeyr’s chest.
“Stop!” I yell when I see a trickle of blood.
Their eyes snap to mine. Zaeyr takes that moment to swipe Elae’s weapon from her hand. He grabs her tail as she flips, darting under the water.
Jye releases me and rushes forward but stops when Zaeyr raises Elae’s weapon and points it at her.
I scurry onto the beach.
“You seek vengeance against me now!” Zaeyr screams, curdling my blood, making the mermaids cower. “If you had let me answer the femdragon and not closed off my cave, your precious home and mine would still exist. You brought this upon yourself!”
The mermaids duck their heads.
“Tell your kindred, if they want to live, to leave me be and accept the blame for their actions and yours. You will no longer have a dragon to contend with under your home, and for that, you should be very afraid. I have shown you mercy today. Remember this. I will not show it again.” He throws Elae’s tail away and she vanishes under the water. Jye follows.
His glowing gaze meets mine and I swallow. He takes a step toward me, and I jolt back. His body is awash in the red comet glow, and it makes him look monstrous, untamed.
It’s the first time I’ve seen him under the comet’s light. He’s the same but somehow different… frighteningly
