Page 59 of Here Be Dragons

“Ok, now Liam? Be the arrow. Show Desmon where to go,” I said.

“Hey, that might work!” Liam exclaimed.

“Be careful though. Don’t get hurt,” I said, remembering what Desmon had mentioned in the cave.

“Don’t worry about that,” Seth said. “Right now, all her magic casters are totally focused on disassembling our net. Liam can’t be hurt physically without magic. She could strike at him, but it would go right through him like a ghost. And even if they do spare some of their magic to try to stop him, it shouldn’t be lethal. It takes a lot to actually harm a demon.”

“I’m diving right now,” Desmon said. “Thank you.”

Then all I heard from his end was the bubbling of water.

“Good luck!”

Chapter 32

Desmon

I swam as fastas I could toward the ocean floor, speeding in the direction Liam had pointed. Seth and Sybil were still holding Gillisandra at the surface. We were far enough past the coral’s edge that no one on the nearby islands had a clue what was happening.

The ocean floor below looked barren, and I wondered if I’d veered off course. Even the smallest inaccuracy in the angle up at the surface would have me way off track by the time I was downhere. I searched the floor, looking for something, anything that could be the artifact, picking up various items of interest and keeping them with me as I continued my search.

If the artifact was any of these items I was holding, the competition would instantly be over and I would know, just like I had with all the other artifacts. Except it wasn’t any of them. And I was running out of air.

In my dragon form, I could hold my breath for a very long time, but not forever. I dropped my most recent acquisition, drew a line in the sand with my tail to mark where I was, and then swam back up toward the surface.

The magic that helped me speak in dragon form didn’t work underwater, so while I was able to listen through the link, I couldn’t reply. Since Elana had joined Seth and Sybil, they’d been able to expand the links so that it included everyone on our side. Eamon had taken Liam’s place so that he could pop back to be with Seth and top up his magic.

Seth’s witchy side recharged through sex. That meant there was the occasional masculine moan that came across the line, but I ignored it. I’d seen and heard it all in my centuries of living.

“Ugh! Could they be a bit quieter?” said a male voice I recognized as Mateo’s.

“Please! How do you think I feel?” Elana asked.

“Oh, shit, right. You’re his mom,” Mateo replied. “Sorry. No wonder you look a bit green.”

“Gunnar’s here!” Carly’s voice called in the background. “He has Seth’s ball python.”

“Who’s going to brave the room and hand them his snake?” Carly asked just as Seth started panting heavily into the link.

“I think he’s busy with Liam’s snake right now,” Gunnar quipped.

Sybil sighed dramatically. “It’s just sex, you guys. Chill. Give it to him when he’s done, okay?”

I breached the surface and gasped in a big breath of air. Thousands of stars greeted me. But when I looked to where Eamon should be, I saw that he was not, in fact, pointing at the artifact anymore but tied up like a pretzel. And there was neon green duct tape over his mouth.

“Eamon’s a bit tied up,” I said into the link. “Literally.” I glanced around the surface of the ocean, my eyes drawn to some lights. “I see a small boat nearby. She must have magic casters aboard.”

“Fuck! No wonder they’re so strong; they are right there,” Sybil said. “Meanwhile we’re miles away.”

“We need someone to distract her spellcasters,” Carly said.

“Mateo and I can do it,” Gunnar offered. “If someone can portal us there.”

“I don’t think I have the energy,” Sybil said. “She’s got some strong magic practitioners working for her.”

“I can do it,” Seth said.

His offer was followed by a collective gasp, then Mateo yelling, “Ahh, my virgin eyes!”

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