Beating my nerves to bits, it continues. I dig my nails into my scalp where I cover my ears. And when I don’t think I can take it anymore, large arms envelop me.
Starting with a squeal, my eyes open to find Kaos. His drenched body presses forward to take me deeper into his embrace.
“Kaos,” I gasp, flinging my own arms around him.
“Shhhh,” his voice slips into my ear. “He is watching. He is challenging me, waiting for me to come out from the jungle and face him.”
He pulls me to him. Holding onto him tightly, a sense of calming dread settles my heart.
I’m not alone anymore.And for some reason, that’s all that matters as the storm rages around us.
“He challenges both of us,” I whisper into Kaos’s neck, feeling my fear begin to fade and anger take hold. I raise my eyes to look at him. “You won’t face him alone.”
Kaos flashes me a look of surprise, of something else I can’t read after, but when his lip quirks up on one side, I can’t help but lean up and press my lips to it. He stills, and I fall back. His hand comes up to clutch my chin when I try to lower my face into his chest.
Green-black eyes pin me, tapering to full black as he forces me to stare at him.
“I’m sor—”
The words never finish as his mouth slams into mine.
The kiss takes me by surprise, but I fall into him and his sudden frenzy with abandon. Hot, demanding lips press into mine, and his tongue caresses and paints my lips, tasting, pushing into my mouth, before licking again. His hand slides to cup my head, holding me in place when I try for a modicum of control.
He doesn’t give it to me. I don’t think he ever will.
Opening my mouth to inhale, he rams his tongue inside me, stealing my breath as rain trickles down from the leaves above. Pulling me into his lap, I press against him, and his heat surrounds me, fills me up, pools into my mouth to flood my throat and belly. I surrender completely to him.
It doesn’t occur to me that the roars have stopped until he pulls back. Opening my eyes, I find him staring hard at me. He licks his lips, drawing my gaze to them. It feels like he’s lickingme.
His breath is still inside me.
If we weren’t hiding for our lives, his stunning effect would take over. I know it. But as he pulls away, dropping his hands from my body, all the while staring hard and domineering into my eyes, a sad moan escapes me, and the breath he gave me goes with it.
I watch as he rises up and tears his gaze from mine to look out over the ocean. Wind whips his hair back. I’m transfixed.
He’s a wild forest god. A jungle warrior—primitive and mighty. The wings along his arms shoot out from his body, expanding like never before, sharpening, holding even in the monsoon winds as if they’ve gone as solid as stone.
He steps from the shadow of the tree, and I scramble to my feet. Looking past him, the water dragon is flying down the coast toward Sand’s Hunters.
Leith.Fear returns to my heart.Aida.
Stumbling past Kaos and to the mouth of the jungle river, so close that the waves crash against my shins, I realize there’s no way I can make it across the strait. Not swimming, not even in a raft. I would capsize in minutes.
I can’t race a dragon. No way to reach Sand’s Hunters before the dragon does.
Then I’m pulled and lifted off the ground. I don’t even fight; helplessness has already taken over. Kaos carries me back within the jungle and sets me down. Glimpsing his face, there’s anger in his eyes.
“One wave could sweep you off your feet! One!” he yells. Tears fill my eyes. “Why hide from a dragon only to kill yourself moments later for stupidity! I cannot lose you. Why are you crying?” His anger tapers off as his brow furrows.
“My brother, my friend,” I say. “And Sand’s Hunters tribe… they’re in the direction that dragon went.”
The rest of Kaos’s unhappiness falls away. He glances in the direction I speak of before looking back at me.
“There’s nothing I can do to warn them,” I continue, frightened for their lives.
“Zaeyr will not approach them,” he says, cupping my face. “He may not even know they are there.”
“Zaeyr? And he will! They live high up on the rocks along the coast. They won’t be missed, not by a dragon, not bythatdragon.” The dragon’s stare, directly at me, still chills me to the bone.He knew I was standing on the beach. Even through rain and wind and waves, he saw me.
