Page 82 of Waves
My eyes flew up to the dragon.
Is this a trick?
Raj hovered, awaiting my decision.
Was I going to trust the most infamous djinn of all time?
Anxiety flickered like a candle in my stomach, but then I also felt that deep longing again, only this time it was muddled by a sense of adoration and sharp regret. Feelings that made no sense.
With a jagged inhale, I realized what was happening.
These dual emotions weren’t simply my magic malfunctioning. My inhuman side and my human side.
Somehow, I could feel what Raj did.
Somehow, with my heart inside his chest, his emotions were leaking into me. Linking to me. Magically tethering more than just our life forces.
And that’s how I knew… it would all be okay.
Raj's dragon eyes were latched onto me, speaking without opening his mouth. His head leaned in, just a few inches.
Swallowing hard, I slowly lifted my hand toward his mouth. I hesitated, but he didn't make a move to snap my arm off. Didn't trick me. He held perfectly still.
My fingers fumbled, stomach churning in anxiety, but I reached further until I gripped the ring. My mind floated in state of disbelief as I pulled it free from Sahar's dismembered hand. Then I slid the blood-stained band onto my own finger and looked Raj in the eye. "I wish you'd stop attacking me."
One giant sigh heaved from the dragon's chest, and some of the anguish in my own ribs vanished.
He hovered in place, waiting until I’d backed away before snapping his jaw shut and swallowing the lump of flesh.
I shoved aside my queasy stomach and just stared at Raj for a moment. Those cat-like golden eyes blinked.
“Show yourself,” I whispered. “Your true self.” I deliberately ordered but didn’t make a wish because I wanted to see what he’d do.
Would he listen?
The arrogant king who bowed to no one?
The villain who’d plotted to conquer the world with my mother but who’d just handed me his ring?
In an instant, the dragon was gone and a muscular man with black hair, dark eyes, and a short beard hovered in front of me,his abdomen disappearing in a trail of navy smoke in his true djinn form.
His jaw clenched tight as my gaze met his, and my pulse flooded once more with a soul-deep yearning. His yearning.
Shite.
This strange magical tangle between us left my toes tingling and my mind a disjointed, drunken mess.
But that would have to wait. Other things couldn’t.
I turned to Keelan, whose face was white as a ghost. Leaning on Mr. Whelk, he was blinking if he couldn’t quite register what had happened.
With a flutter of my fingers, the ocean hummed as it gently lowered me into a seat made of cresting waves resembling a throne.
My hand lifted, the ring still dripping blood, as I studied Keelan’s face. Anger toward Sahar rose inside me, the slash of her betrayal, and I studied her son’s face carefully as he swam toward her, suspicion whispering in my ear to end him too. He might have been in league with his mother. Played some part in her tricks.
His eyes darted to where his mother hunched over her bitten-off hand and back to me, raw panic emanating from him.
A massive blast of water could throw Sahar and Keelan so high and far that their backs would break as they smacked down onto the ocean’s surface. I could strand them on an island and let them suffocate above the sea watching the water but unable to enter, the ocean retreating with every step they took toward it…punishments drizzled through my head like decadent chocolate down a cake, each one sounding delicious. Certainly deserved.
