Page 47 of Crown and Dragon

“Cut yourself!” Lija shouted into Tahlia’s ears. “The sea needs your blood.”

“What? No time!”

“Come on!” Marius attempted to snatch Tahlia’s wrist, and she dodged him, swimming in place an arm’s length away.

The siren was swimming toward Tahlia and Marius and although she was bleeding profusely, she was still speeding through the water as quick as a lightning bolt.

“Gods, her skin… She’s beautiful. Horrible, but gorgeous and impossible…”

“Rider! Cut! Now!”

Tahlia blinked, pulled her nearest dagger, and sliced the top of her forearm. Blood snaked into the churning water and lightning flashed overhead. Thunder boomed through the ocean.

“She’s still coming at us, Lija!”

The siren opened her bloodied mouth to sing.

“Wait,” Lija said. “Don’t try to out-swim her. She’ll just catch you faster. Wait.”

“Tahlia!” Marius looked ready to explode.

Tahlia’s blood drew into a perfect sphere and pulsed like a heart. “It’s doing something, Lija.”

The siren’s song filtered through the water and Marius began swimming back to his captor.

“Marius! Stop!” The water muffled Tahlia’s voice.

“Draw the following rune into the sphere,” Lija ordered.

“You know what it looks like?”

Marius stopped swimming toward the siren and pushed back toward Tahlia, rage and shame etched into his features. The siren swam in big circles toward them now, as if she was preparing for a kill like a shark. Her smile was a bracelet of diamonds, her flesh like the sea captured under glass. She was stunning.

“Rider! Focus!” Lija shouted into Tahlia’s ears. “Draw a straight, vertical line, then a left to right downward, diagonal slash. Add a crescent on top like a dome and one dot inside the crescent.”

Hand shaking, Tahlia did as instructed. Marius stared, his gaze going from her face to the blood and back again. He was frantic and she could almost feel his panic in her chest, thrumming side by side with her fear.

The thunder rolled again, but was it thunder?

Shadows curled from the distant deep blue and from around the coral and rock that shielded the siren’s lair.

“What is happening, Lija?”

The dragon’s quiet little laugh usually meant someone was about to suffer in exactly the way she wanted them to.

Eels with bright red stripes and jagged teeth shot from the shadows and swam for the siren. Sharks slipped through the water and opened their great maws as they closed in. Where did they come from?

The siren shrieked as she kicked out at a shark’s nose. An eel wrapped her wrists and tugged her away from Tahliaand Marius. Another shark bumped her in the back and she whirled, or at least she attempted it, looking more like a broken marionette.

Tahlia set her gaze on Marius, then began to swim toward the surface. He was right beside her in a blink. His eyes said he had numerous questions; hells, so did she.

“Lija, what was that all about? Are you a dragon or maybe a goddess and you’ve been pretending to be a dragon like the others on the peak?”

Lija chuckled. “Dragons of the sea are more tied to the Unseelie realm than other dragons. We have access to the old magic. Not power enough to best any, but we have tricks hidden between our scales, rider.”

“I can see that. I can’t wait to hear more about this once we are out of this place.”

“Do you know where the crown lies?”

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