Page 47 of Siren's Treasure

“You’re doing great. I mean, if I had to face the ocean like you’re facing the jungle…?”

She burst into a laugh at his attempt to make her feel like she was some Amazon warrior. “You can quit trying to spare my feel—”

A roar sounded behind them. A heavy body crashed through the underbrush, followed by something heavy colliding into them with brutal force. The boar had returned! Its shoulder caught Raggon in the thigh, sending him sprawling against a gnarled root. Thessa screamed, seeing its tusks rake across his back, tearing the remains of his shirt and leaving crimson trails in their wake. Raggon shouted out, slashing the creature’s snout with his shell blade.

“Raggon!” Thessa scrambled forward to help, her ankle twisting beneath her. Pain lanced up her leg as she fell. Crying out, she twisted to find any weapon. Her fingers closed around a fallen kapok branch. She wielded it like a whip, the wood connecting with a satisfying crack against the boar’s haunches. The beast squealed in rage, wheeling toward the new threat.

Raggon lunged for its hindquarters, trying to draw its attention. “Hey!” he shouted, voice ragged with exertion. The boar pawed the ground, preparing for another charge, this time for Thessa. She scrambled painfully to her feet. The boar lowered its head, tusks already stained with Raggon’s blood.

A loud ominous flap of leathery wings displaced the air around them. The powerful wind sent her back to her knees, just as a shadow fell over them. The canopy above them exploded inward as something massive descended—a blur of obsidian scales and ruby undertones. Tree limbs snapped like kindling as Raggon was thrown backward by the downdraft. His body slammed against a kapok trunk with enough force to rattle its branches.

The boar squealed mid-charge as it was lifted skyward, seized by enormous talons. The dragon’s wingspan blotted out the sun momentarily, its eel-like neck arched in triumph at its new catch.

Tobias! He’d saved them!

Thessa shot to her feet, ignoring the throbbing protest from her ankle as she hobbled toward Raggon. Was he okay? Each step sent jolts of fire through her leg, but nothing would keep her back.

He stared up at the disappearing form of his brother. “I think… we have… a friend.” His gaze shifted to her halting approach, and his eyes widened. “Are… you hurt?” He tried to sit up hurriedly, then doubled over with a groan.

“You’rethe one who’s hurt!” she accused.

“No, just… Tobias knocked the… breath out of me. I’ll be… fine!” he grunted out, one hand pressed against his ribs as he struggled to steady his breathing, though his gaze remained fixed on the gap in the trees that his brother had flattened. Sunlight streamed through the newly created opening, illuminating a path through the dense vegetation. The crash of water was louder now.

Thessa knelt beside him, one hand gently supporting his back. “Can you stand?” She offered her shoulder as leverage.

“No, you’re not helping me!” he argued. “Let me see to your ankle.” Using her shoulder to get to his knees, he examined the throbbing skin, thumbs pressing carefully around the joint. “Not broken, but we should rest it.” He braced one hand against the ground and rose with the steady resilience of a man accustomed to finding his balance on storm-tossed decks.

“We don’t have time for—” Her protest died as he swept her up and into his arms in one fluid motion, his calloused fingers slipping beneath the damp silk of her banyan. She was horrified, staring at the bruise darkening across his shoulder where his shirt was torn away. “After what you’ve been through?”

“I’ll rub some dirt in it.” He adjusted her weight against his chest. “Put your arms around my neck.”

“Don’t even think about it!” she argued, acutely aware of the strong, steady beat of his heart against her side. Their faces were inches apart, and for a moment, the hunt for Undine’s Blade, the danger that surrounded them—all faded to insignificance as they broke through a final curtain of vines.

There, amidst the melodic trilling of unseen and foreign birds, a hidden paradise awaited them. A waterfall cascaded down a stone face, splashing into a pool so clear they could see the sandy bottom. The water sparkled like scattered pearls where shafts of sunlight penetrated the emerald cathedral of broad banana leaves and flowering orchids.

“Thank you, Tobias, for clearing the way to sanctuary,” Raggon murmured. He carefully set Thessa down on a flat rock at the pool’s edge. “Soak that ankle. I promise cool water helps!”

Sighing in relief, she sank her toes into the crystal water and jumped in surprise—it was colder than the sun-warmed shallows she expected! The sheltered lagoon was protected by the dense mangrove canopy that blocked the tropical sun’s heat, and still the refreshing waters were better this way. The aches and pains from their harrowing escape drained from her as she soaked in this hidden oasis. The clearing was enclosed by towering trees and dense foliage, creating a refuge that felt worlds away from Circe’s threats.

They’d reached the Hallowed Currents! At least this was what she imagined heaven must look!

Raggon knelt by the pool, cupping his hands to drink deeply. The sunlight filtering through the lush shelter of leaves turned the pool a mesmerizing shade of turquoise that glowed from within. She noticed Raggon splashing water over his face and neck. Droplets clung to his eyelashes as he looked up at the massive rock formation above the waterfall, where natural arches overlapped on either side in semicircular loops, broken at the center.

Thessa rubbed at her tender ankle, noticing the man was covered in blood. “How are you still standing?”

“I won’t be for long.” He peeled off the blood-stained fabric clinging to the sculpted terrain of his back, revealing more of those angry red welts. Her breath caught in dismay. Without hesitation, he dove into the pool, cutting through the water with the same powerful grace that she’d only known from her own kind.

He surfaced with a shake of his head that sent droplets flying from his black hair, before swimming to where she sat. He grinned up at her, running a thumb across her knee, and sendinga delicious shiver up her spine. “If not for these legs, I’d think you were a mermaid sunning on that rock.”

An appreciative chuckle tickled her throat as he reached for her waist this time. He rose up from the water, rivulets streaming from his bruised shoulders onto her skin. Her legs jerked involuntarily. “So cold!”

“What? A mermaid who doesn’t like the water?”

Despite her worry, another giggle escaped her throat. “I didn’t say that.”

“Good.” Immediately, he tugged her into the lagoon with him. She gasped as the refreshing water’s coolness embraced her. The momentary shock quickly melted into relief as Raggon’s arms encircled her waist, his heat radiating to her through the waterlogged silk of her banyan. It billowed around her like exotic seaweed. His fingers tangled in the fabric, and he used it to pull her nearer until his lips found hers, gentle at first, then with growing hunger that sent more warmth spiraling through her.

“Do you miss this…” his eyes turned serious on her, leaving her even more breathless, “the water, I mean?”

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