Page 74 of Waves
The dragon’s face blurred, and a strange thumping hit my ears—almost as if my pulse was thundering and my old heart was throbbing painfully within my chest.
I blinked. His beast’s cat-like eyes narrowed on me as if in concern…No. Just concentration.
Steam bubbled up from his flaring nostrils as he lifted his head to shriek at the heavens. His bellow set waves churning in foamy dismay above us.
My skin pebbled in response and my toes and fingers grew cold, as if the heat was already retreating from my body. As if my bones already knew what fate had in store for me.
“Avia!” Keelan’s voice seemed like a distant dream. Unreal and hollow.
“Keelan. Stay back!” His mother screeched in panic.
Their bickering was as unreal as a painting hanging in a castle gallery. Swiping brush strokes that played at reality as they argued.
The only reality was the monster in front of me, a dragon so wide and tall that he took up every inch of my sight.
Slashing my arm again, I sent a wave of heavy ice spheres as large as cannon balls hurtling toward the monster’s neck. But the frozen globes smashed into the metal plates of the dragon’s scales and rang like bells, discordant music the only damage done to the snarling beast.
My breath grew strangled, dismay and panic making it hard to breathe, phantom bruises lining my throat.
How the hell was I going to kill a beast like this?
The dragon snarled, curling its body into an infinity symbol before using the coil to spring forward like a snake, snapping at me.
On instinct, I closed my fingers and splayed them out again, unthinking. Simply conducting the water on instinct.
We both rose up on a swell that bulged beneath us, making us shoot upward, leaving everything behind. My stomach dropped as we soared—it felt akin to flying.
Meanwhile, the dragon writhed in front of me, awkwardly and uncomfortably—unable to propel himself against the weight of the raging water.
A smug smile ticked up the corner of my lips.
But the dragon’s tail struck again, spiraling in a loop around my feet, cinching them together and then flicking me around in a dizzying circle. I spun so quickly I thought my brain might splatter against the inside of my skull.
Meanwhile, the dragon wrapped more of itself around me in ringlet after ringlet of pain. Tendrils contracting. Narrowing. Pinching every one of my nerves.
No.
We die together.
Before his body captured my arms, I swung them out wildly. Choppily. Frantically. The discordant notes of the ocean screamed in my ears. And suddenly, there was no oxygen.
The sea retreated all around us, pulling back above and beside and below us. The water carved out a bowl of misty air—just enough to keep us floating and suspended. Just enough to keep me gasping—hardly able to breathe.
Like land creatures tossed into water, we were sea creatures flung up into the sky. Into the thin, choking air.
The beautiful blue wall of water formed a sphere around us just outside our reach. Up, up we went. We hovered in the middle of a giant bubble that floated toward the surface. My guards, Mateo, my traveling party, everyone became specks in the distance as the dragon and I remained suspended in this pearl of oxygen. And thrash though he might, any time the dragon moved, the bubble moved with him—keeping us perfectly centered.
My lungs began to burn and silver flecks sparkled along the edges of my vision.
Tight. Everything was tight.
Across from me, I heard the dragon wheeze. Heard him struggling to breathe. And the sound was beautiful.
Glorious.
Until I heard how the flailing beat of his massive heart was a thump that rattled through my own chest.
Chapter 32
