Page 32 of Prince of Tides
But I was too late. The young dragon wasn’t moving. Its body sank to the bottom of the sea floor, limbs stiffening already.
Fury consumed me at the sight of such an honorable warrior gone too soon. Although it happened daily, I couldn’t help but feel that I should have been able to save him.
I stared at the spear in my hands and united the two halves. It was strong. But not strong enough. If I’d wielded the Trident, the young dragon would still be alive. He would still be full of life.
Focusing the anger in my mind, I pumped it into the spear, setting off a sonic wave attuned to the frequency the creatures of the deep used to communicate. They writhed and shook off the pounding in their ears, but it was much more debilitating to them than it was to dragons.
We fell on our distracted foes. I swam hard and fast, trying to be everywhere at once as I slew handfuls and dozens of foes. I was the tip of the spear of the Royal Guard, driving harder and deeper into the incursion's flank until I left the Guard behind. I didn’t care.
I killed and killed and killed, my mind reverting to the baseless fury of my younger days when that was the only way to ensure survival. Feral lethality guided my hand, and I only saw the enemy from the deep. My spear glowed green as it sucked the life from everything in a fifty-foot sphere around me as the creatures tried to overwhelm me.
“Die!” I howled, casting my fury at them.
At some point, they turned back, but I pursued them. I swam faster, striking them down as quickly as I could, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies until no more were in sight. I turned and spun wildly, looking for more to fight, but there were none.
“They’re gone,” a voice pulsed in sonar from nearby. “They’re gone, Rip. You can relax.”
My head snapped around at the noise. For a moment, I only saw a creature in front of me, and I started toward them.
“Riptide, Heir to the Throne!”a voice bellowed in high-pitched sonar. “Stand. Down.”
The pulse acted like a slap, and I wrenched my head around, my senses returning.
“Lord Crest,” I said, noting the dragon who approached, his bright blue-green scales a dead giveaway to his royal blood.
Beside him was Suh, the original speaker.
“Suh,” I added, giving him a nod of apology.
“They’re gone,” Lord Crest replied. “Thank you, Rip. My men are rolling up the rest of the flank into Lord Flash’s territory now.”
“Good,” I said, pulling myself back from the brink of savagery. I’d been close to losing myself, a return to the mindset all young Tidal Clan warriors were forced to adopt. I had thought myself past it. But perhaps not.
“This was an extensive front,” Lord Crest observed, staring into the depths where the creatures had once again retreated. “Much wider than normal. Spanning two sectors? Unusual, even during their peak season.”
“But not overly strong,” I said. “If they’d focused their forces into an area half as wide, they would have done alotmore damage. So, why?”
Neither of them had an answer. Unfortunately, neither did I. I stared once more at the spear in my hand. The ancient enemy was, it seemed, growing in strength.
Could it be because we were waning? Was I hurting the clan by not working harder to claim my mate and thus wield the Trident of the Seas?
“Come,” I snapped to Suh, willing the spear to call us a new current. “We’re going home.”
I had a lot of thinking to do and much of it centered around a woman who wanted nothing to do with me.
Chapter Eighteen
Laurie
Fuck.
It wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. I was in a dream, and at any moment, I would wake up to reality, where I didn’t have to face it. Right?
I pinched my arm, but nothing happened.
“Crap.” It was such a minor curse, but I felt sodefeatedthat I didn’t have any energy to muster up some true swears.
Maybe I read it wrong.
