I am coming for you, Issa.Snarling, I bare my own teeth.I am coming for you, and this time, you will never be free of me.
20
Storm Kiss
I don’t knowhow long I’ve been running, but when the smell of sea brine and salt whips over me, I glimpse the ocean I know so well through the trees ahead. I’m nearly home. Crashing through the final tendrils of the thick jungle, vines and spider webs, I fling myself forward, dropping to my knees with a sob the moment my feet hit the beach.
Gripping clumps of golden-white sand in my fists, I lean forward, resting my brow on the back of my hands, dizzy with exhaustion, with fear.
At one point, rain began to fall, cooling my skin, drenching me completely. It hid my tears, but also my smell, and any lingering scent ofdragonupon me.
Noises have chased after me, even those of courageous predators. Most have stopped, but the dragon sounds continue. They follow me still.
None are Kaos’s. He’s no longer a dragon, because of me.Rubbing my forehead against my hands, I hold in a sob.
Thunder rumbles all around, wind whips my hair away from my face, and finally, when I look up, white, riotous waves are crashing the shore, each higher and more tempestuous than the last. Wiping the rain from my eyelashes, I sit up, awed and frightened.
I’ve never seen the ocean like this before. The mouth of the river and nearby estuary are spinning with whirlpools. There’s nothing, not even a crocodile, on the beach—anywhere—and the tide is rising far higher than ever before, faster than ever before.
And most of all, the red glow of the comet is gone. The clouds are dark blue and gray, roiling like the whirlpools, and I see light flashing within them as thunder continues to boom.
Rain gets in my mouth, and I clamp my lips closed. My fear doesn’t abate even as I try and focus on my breathing.
Standing, lightning strikes the ocean in front of me, flashing through the heavy rain, and revealing more waves, so large, heading straight for the shore.
Scrambling backward, I make it to the higher jungle trees as they hit. I twist back in time to watch the beach disappear under the water.
The water reels back to hit once more.
Bracing my hand against the trunk of a tree, the lightning streaks again, and every quivering muscle in me goes tense.
I see something move through the veil of rain.
Something gigantic—a behemoth. A creature big enough to contend with Kaos’s dragon form, a beast that could go against the old dragon dead in the jungle when he was living.
Another alpha…
It flies slowly, dipping in and out of the ocean, vanishing and returning with each wave of lightning.The waves,I realize,the waves are coming from him!Its wings stretch outward, then fall back into its body—one second a sea serpent of epic proportions, the next a full-fledged dragon. I gasp, horror filling me, having never considered such a great monster dwelled deep in the waters my people cherish.
The dragon’s long head swivels in my direction, and I freeze.
Its body stops, dropping back into the water, and when the lightning flashes again, I know it’s staring directly at me.
My heart stops. My exerting pants cease. I sense my death glaring, wet and heavy, back at me.
Taking a slow step back, forcing my limbs to move against their will, I fall into the shadows of the jungle and slip behind the tree, hoping I’m still in Kaos’s territory.
Dropping to the ground, shaking uncontrollably, I curl my hands to my mouth, praying the dragon’s notice of me was only my imagination.
Go away… Please, please, go away.
Kaos’s name floods my head.
I won’t survive another dragon.
I won’t. I know I won’t.
An ear-splitting roar breaks across the air and I flinch, curling my arms around my knees and balling up. It goes on and on, louder with each second, dominating the storm, rising above the thunder, the crashing waves, and rain.
