Page 70 of Dragon Fires Everywhere
I struggle to move, to get my feet under me, but I can’t.
I can’t.
And the water is suddenly creeping up and over my legs. I try to shove myself back on my butt since I can’t seem to get tomy feet, but the mud not only won’t let me go, it’s sucking me closer and closer to the water.
All that waiting black—
And maybe it’s an overreaction, but I try to reach out to my coven.
Only it doesn’t work. I canfeelthe magic deep in the center of me... stuck. Like something is blocking it from moving out.
Fear sinks its claws into me, because this is more than a slip in the mud, more than rising waters. I reach into my pocket,frantic for something that will help. I touch the fluorite disc, but itburns.
All of the crystals on my body begin to do the same. Pulsing and burning hot, but not in warning, not in comfort or guidance,not in anythinggood.
They are actuallyburningme.
Every single crystal on my body is like a fire, and their singing as they blaze through me, that same, terrible song—
Except the ring Azrael gave me.
I decide it’s my only hope. I hold it out, away from the water. But I know almost at once that it’s the wrong move, it’s notthe answer. I have touseit.
With my ringed hand, I begin to slap at the black water as it seethes in closer. It doesn’t seem todoanything—
But the water isn’t rising anymore.
And then, deep inside that black, dangerous water, I see glowing eyes.
I freeze, because those eyes remind me of something in a cage—
But the memory is dim. Still, I know this is bad and wrong, as black tendrils of water begin to wrap around my legs and pull.Hard. I’m sliding in the mud, into the water and the vicious black.
Something in me screams. Maybe I do.
Then a roar thunders through the air above me.
I look up at the bright sky, and there is Azrael in his full dragon form, like he should definitely not be if we’re tryingto keep him a secret.
But that’s only a fleeting thought, because I’m getting sucked into the water again. Azrael’s eyes blaze gold as he swoopsdown low along the surface of the water.
Fire roars out of his mouth in a dazzling dragon display. Something deep in the water screams in pain, but ribbons of blackshoot out of the water and wrap around one of his wings. He shoots more fire, and the ribbons fall into the water with aslap. But then another band slithers up over my leg, pulling me so that I’m neck-deep in black, oily, churning water no attemptsat swimming or magic can seem to disengage.
Azrael lands on the water, dragon claws flashing. He’s grappling with something, and then there’s a loudboom, almost as loud as Azrael’s roar.
I hear something high-pitched mixed in with theboom, like the crescendo to a terrible song, and then I can feel somethingbreak.
At last I’m able to scramble away from the water.
Which is just its normal brown again. I look around frantically and see my coven charging in. Azrael lands next to me, stillin his dragon form.
His wing is bleeding. My lungs are burning.
“What happened?” Emerson demands, skidding to a kneeling halt next to me. She’s immediately whispering a spell to get me dry.
“It got away,” Azrael says disgustedly. When Jacob approaches his wing, he jerks it away. “A witch Healer can’t help me. Seeto Georgie.”
Jacob pauses, then turns to me. He kneels down next to me too. “Are you okay?”
