Page 43 of Emerald Waves
Holy shit, he was not okay!
Snarling, I swirled up out of the pool beside the stones, wings sending a wave of water crashing over Raven and my brothers as I flapped up passages I knew we weren’t supposedto fly through except with the utmost of care. My wings scraped stones, water dripping everywhere as I headed for my horde, upending furnishings and knocking paintings off walls. It was a good thing Emerson had been spot-on about my choice in décor. I had patterned my space after Ionus’ home and thus had no real attraction or connection to any of the things I rampaged over and through in my haste to get to my mate.
We’d redecorate together, I thought as I pressed my hand to the scanner and snarled at it to hurry the fuck up and let me in. There I shifted, letting my human self out, concern for my beautiful sea creatures always at the forefront of my thoughts.
“Emerson!” I called, hurrying into the space where we’d last left him and seeing nothing but Trooper lazily enjoying a swim in his tank. “Emerson!”
Weaving between tanks, I started to feel a frantic sort of dread. Had he been studying the statue? Had he experienced the same kind of psychic attack I had?
“Emerson, where are you? Answer me, please!” I called aloud, slowing so I could check the ground, the curves, the cracks, corners and crevices, anywhere he might have curled up in to try to protect himself from the sick, drowning feeling and disorienting sound.
Nothing.
Turning, I started to rush back to the shelf where I’d initially kept the stone, only to slam into Ionus with such force that we bounced off one another. I hit the rocky ground, chest throbbing from the impact with him, ass throbbing from the impact with the stone floor, only to see him and Odem stagger apart after Ionus crashed into him. Mattias steadied them both or we’d have had a major domino effect going on and none of it would have been funny because my mate wasn’t anywhere in this room. I could feel that now that I was still and not crashing around like a demented wrecking ball.
“Emerson,” I gasped. “He reached out, in my head, said he was okay, and asked me to please bring you. The way he said it, he’s not okay, I know he’s not, he wouldn’t have put it that way if he was. It was faint too, too faint to be here, oh Goddess, it was so faint, Ionus.”
“Stop!” Ionus thundered, clamping a hand on my shoulder and squeezing hard. “Breathe. Focus. Find your mate.”
His heavy hand, more dragon than human as he used it to ground me, was exactly what I needed to keep me from storming through the space again. Pinpricks of claw points dug into my flesh, and I closed my eyes, breathed and reached out, chasing that connection to him, calling upon my dragon’s help to reach his dragon, which helped immensely.
Emerson, where are you, my love?
You’ll never believe it, well, you will, I’m sure, you’ve been here and guess what, the walls of stone you described, they weren’t walls at all, they were Merdragons. They turn to stone when they get scared. The statue you found wasn’t a statue at all, it was a Merdragon baby, Tasi, he brought me home with him and it’s amazing the way they live beneath the sea. They have tails instead of legs and webbed fingers, but no wings, but they thrive here and grow what they need for food, so they don’t even eat the other sea creatures, but it’s so deep that um, well, I wouldn’t be able to swim out, if they were willing to let me try. Which they aren’t. I’m sort of a captive, but they aren’t being cruel to me or anything. They just want to know why you came here and why you took Tasi.
Oh, oh shit, oh goddess, are you telling me the statue was, is, a child?
Yes, a little Merdragon who is absolutely adorable and curious, and so sweet. He already told them all about the creatures you rescued and keep protected in your horde and how he explored it whenever you weren’t in there, and howfascinating Trooper’s metal flipper was. He heard all the things you told me about the different species and why you couldn’t release them back into the wild but wanted to, someday, when humans learned how to care for the creatures of the ocean, rather than just harvest them for food or destroy them with pollution. I told them about the protectors, I wanted them to know that you were all safe, but then they smelled the Gorynych blood in me and had more questions. They aren’t sure how they feel about what they’ve learned so I need you to come and bring Ionus, so you can explain better.
But you’re okay?
Yes.
Completely unharmed?
There isn’t a scale on me out of place, but I fear there will be if I have to try and swim out of here, neither my dragon nor I can swim that far.
No, no we will come. Just…I need a moment to process and to explain what’s happened to Ionus. I can’t believe I kidnapped a youngling. They have every reason to be upset with me and to demand answers. I’m glad the little one knew how to get himself back home. I am so sorry for getting you caught up in this, Emerson, I should have been more careful. I’d started to wonder if I’d seen others in the cave, then dismissed it as my mind playing tricks on me after I was struck by those high pitched, disorienting sounds.
Defense. Like whale song but meant to repel instead of calling others to them.
We will be there soon. I promise. I love you, Emerson, I am so very sorry I let this happen to you. I will make it right, whatever they ask of me, I will make sure that they know that you had nothing to do with it and were in no way responsible for my taking Tasi from them. I can’t even begin to express the depths of my disappointment in myself right now and howhorrible I feel for all of it. You deserve so much better than a mate who gets you dragged off by strangers after everything you’ve already endured.
Stop that right now. After everything I’ve been though I deserve the mate I got, you, now come get me. I’m getting a headache trying to communicate this long from so far away.
I’m coming.
Silence.
It was a strain on me too, pushing my thoughts so far. I suspected it was more my dragon’s link to his that had allowed us to do it, though with Emerson’s connection to his dragon being so new I understood why it was so difficult for them. My own temples throbbed when I tried to focus back on my brothers, who were watching me with varying degrees of worry and upset.
“Emerson is in the cave where I found the statue. It wasn’t a statue at all. It was a baby Merdragon. They turn to stone when they are scared. When he portaled home to his family, he took Emerson with him. Now he’s stuck, because he can’t swim up the way I did. We need to go get him. Emerson wants you to come with me, Ionus, I think he’s afraid that I’ll lose my temper but, how can I when I stole one of their children. I just want to get him back and apologize for my mistake.”
“Then let’s get moving,” Ionus declared. “Mattias, you will come with us to guard the spot where we go in, Odem, you will stay back with Quint and keep watch over Alex and the little ones.”
“Awesome, more baby playtime for me,” Odem declared, looking completely thrilled with the assignment.
Baby play time had become a part of his daily ritual, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled about the way he’d taken to the role of Uncle to our older brother’s brood. He’d had an uncanny way of heading off the twins before one of their activitiesresulted in flames or tears, so much so that he’d become the one Alex and Ionus called on when one of them refused to settle down for them.
