Page 86 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
Ceasing my circling, I drove straight toward the merchant ship holding the woman I intended to fully claim as my mate.
Dillon was caught by surprise when I changed direction, likely thinking he had a few more minutes before I made my move. That meant Isaac was the first to move into my path. He opened his mouth, exposing his teeth, expecting me to charge right at him and collide.
Instead, when we were merely feet apart, I discharged all the electricity I’d been gathering to me into the water.
The shockwave raced outward in a sphere. Lightning smacked Isaac in the snout, running across his teeth and down his body. Muscles twitched and writhed on their own, unable to respond after taking such a massive dose of energy.
I shot by the floundering dragon and made a beeline for Rikell’s ship.
“Jump!” I hollered at Emma, surfacing. “There’s no time, jump!”
But Emma didn’t come jumping over the railing. Instead, she appeared at the edge, chin held high, her skin white as the clouds in the sky.
Because Rikell had a dagger to her neck.
“She can’t,” he said calmly. “Now, stand down, or I’ll be forced to carry out with my threat.”
I glared daggers at the captain. “What are you doing, Rikell?”
“What I must,” the captain said coolly. “Please understand, Rhyse, this is nothing personal. It’s strictly business.”
“Of course,” I growled as Dillon and the others surfaced warily in a circle around me as I floated, rendered immobile by the danger to Emma. “They needed someone to sell the stuff they stole from the ships they sink. Who better than the man who can pawn it off to human smugglers, the types who accept it no questions asked.”
Rikell smiled.
At that moment, I almost unloaded with a bolt of lightning to fry his ass. I couldn’t, though, because the current would carry through the knife and into Emma. Even with my scales adhered to her, she wouldn’t survive that blast.
I had to give in.
“Don’t hurt her,” I said, making no threatening moves.
“I won’t,” Rikell said.
I knew he was lying. Their plan was exposed. Dillon would have no choice but to order both our deaths. It was obvious on Rikell’s face as well. The man was no poker player.
Which meant I had to act first. I had to do something before—
Rikell jerked forward abruptly as the tip of a harpoon blade emerged from his chest, spraying blood everywhere.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Rhyse
Ididn’t wait to see what happened next. I just acted.
This was my once chance to see Emma freed and safe. I couldn’t waste it.
A bolt of lightning spat from my mouth, searing into Dillon’s head, burning away one of his eyes. The intensity of the lightning cauterized the wound as it went, leaving little bleeding, but the damage was serious, and he immediately took off in the other direction, bellowing in agony.
That still left the others, however, and they came at me from two separate directions. I dove, throwing them offline, and ducked out from under Sven’s claws while taking only a glancing blow from Isaac that pulled free a single scale of mine.
Surfacing again, I watched from the corner of my eye as the mysterious attacker pitched Rikell over the edge. I had no idea who they were, the thick bushy beard and long unkempt black hair kept me from recognizing them.
That all changed as the other dragon—and there was no doubt it was a dragon, given the force with which he’d dispatched Rikell—jumped onto the rail and dove toward the sea, shifting as he went.
Only a certain few dragons possessed the mottled orange and black coloring of the monstrous beast diving into the depths.
But only one was as tall as this mystery man.
