And then the waves rose, just before the shore. They were high enough to tower over the Guardian. These were the kind of waves I thought I’d see crash the other night. When I’d invoked the tsunami.
I looked over my shoulder. There was barely any space between us, and Dairen and his men.
Fuck. Fuck!
“We need to run faster,” I yelled. But my calves were starting to burn, my legs moving slower. I hadn’t been ready for a fight—not after I’d used so much energy to heal Auriel.
The waves crashed with a thunderous groan, and water exploded like a dam had burst, just behind us.
Auriel squeezed my hand, moving forward. Another wave crashed. He stilled, and turned. A river separated us from the soturi.
“Lyriana,” Auriel warned, his voice full of a kind of fear I’d never heard from him before.
The soturi started to scream.
I looked at the water again, realizing that it wasn’t water at all that had entered the shore.
It was fire. Blue fire.
And only one thing to my knowledge could do that. A creature I’d never seen before. Ajalamnavim.A water dragon.
I turned to the ocean, my jaw dropping, pulse racing. A dragon, the size of Sean’s house, hovered just above the ocean. Its wings were spread, long and full of sparkling scales, flapping back and forth in the wind. Its eyes focused, and blazed. They weren’t so much a color as they were made of fire. Blue flames. It reared its head back, smoke curling from his nostrils, mouth opening to reveal two rows of sharpened teeth.
I could hear Dairen shouting, retreating, telling his men to stay back. He was already moving away when the dragon opened its mouth, and blue fire exploded, engulfing two soturi’s bodies whole.
“Um—did opening your tomb summon the water dragon?” I asked.
Auriel shook his head. “Did my tomb require the protection of ajalamnavim?” he asked, his eyes wide. “No! It definitely didn’t!” His hand tightened around me. “Now I need you to move slowly.”
But it didn’t matter what I did. Because the water dragon’s eyes were on us, its entire head turning in our direction, its mouth opening wider. There was a growl, and then … blue flames.
I hugged Auriel, feeling his arms tighten around me. Then he pushed me onto the sand, throwing himself over me, his body covering mine.
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the fire, for the end. But it never came. The air grew hotter, crackling with heat. And then it stopped. Just like that.
I dared to peek one eye open. We were alive. We hadn’t burned to death. Because someone had saved us. Someone had come. She stood before us, wearing a tight-fitting black dress. Long red hair fell down her back. Her arms were covered in golden bangles that jingled as she shifted. Leather cases, meant to hold scrolls, were affixed to a belt at her hip. Her stave was held high, blasting forth a dome of protection. The blue flames pushed against it, but the dome held.
“Ramia?” I asked.
“Not now,” she hissed, her Afeyan accent thick. “I calm him. Quickly. Or you die.”
Now both of her hands were raised and she called out, starting to sing a song I didn’t recognize.
Auriel sat up, wide eyed, and pulled me into his lap. “We need to get out of here,” he said.
“How?” I asked, eyeing the scroll he still held in his hand. Our options were endless beach, death by water dragon, or death by soturi. And none of those options led us to Queen Ma’Nia or the red shard.
“You come with me,” Ramia said, looking back over her shoulder. “We ride him. Thejalamnavim.”
“We what?” I asked.
But Ramia ignored me and continued to sing. I started to translate her song in my mind. “The old Gods have returned. The Goddesses, too. Calm down now, water creature. We honor you.” She kept singing it, repeating the rhyme again and again.
It was working. The dragon was no longer breathing smoke, no longer growling, but beginning to snake its neck from side to side—the movement similar to something Mercurial would do. But where Mercurial was sneaky in his movements, the dragon merely looked curious. I wasn’t sure if dragons could smile, but for a second, that seemed to be what it was doing.
And then smoke exploded as it screamed. One of Dairen’s men had launched a sword at its wing, and struck.
“Idiot!” Ramia yelled. The water dragon’s hackles raised, its wings flapping as it rose above the water’s surface and released a stream of blue fire once more. I clapped a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. The soturion who’d hit the dragon was gone. Nothing more now than a pile of ash and smoke. Barely even a burning ember remained.
