Adara soared high into the air. Billows of dark smoke rose from the ship, blotting out the stars and moon. Under the guise of the smoke, she flew by once more and swept Asher and Ace’s unconscious forms into her back talons, leaving her front ones free to defend herself. She cradled them carefully as she flew toward the safety of their own ship.
It had been a long time since Adara had taken her dragon form. She’d forgotten how freeing it was, how invincible she felt, and the sensation of undiluted power thrumming through her veins. It felt like her insides were on fire, and she would ignite at any moment—but not in that terrible, irritating way that made her feel like she would explode when it needed release. No, this felt like she was nothing more than the fire that coursed through her. Nothing more than heat and flames and destruction. Nothing but purepower. Like how the sun shone on the earth, and they all knew nothing would survive without it. That if it were to erupt, all would cease to exist.
Adara peered down upon their ship, met with familiar faces, all staring up at her in a mix of awe and terror.
“You’re a godsdamneddragonand didn’t tell us!” Caleb shouted over the drone of her wingbeats, his expression a mixture of shock and amazement.
She didn’t have time to respond as she gently deposited Asher and Ace onto the deck, then whipped back around to retrieve the others.
When she returned to the burning ship, her eyes met Dominic’s. Conflicting emotions raged behind his emerald irises as he held onto the railing for support, yet the corners of his lips tugged into a subtle grin. A gesture that seemed to convey that he always suspected there was something more inside her than the fire. Something awful and vicious and compelling. Something he’d been anxious to see all this time. Something others feared and ran from while he watched in admiration.
“Get the others first!”
There was a twinge in her chest at Dominic’s orders, but she obeyed anyway, ignoring the urge to save him first.
A massive shadow moved beneath the surface of the water but did not reemerge. The lykren’s thick tentacle swung hard, cutting through the remaining masts. Wood groaned and slammed against the deck, splintering the body of the ship. Its claws raked along the hull. Gallons of water poured inside the lower decks of the ship, flooding anything that hadn’t yet been destroyed. Screams rang out. The only thing the pirates could do was watch in terror as their ship was devoured in flames, sinking into the depths of the Plagued Sea. There was no escape for them.
Adara plunged downward, then leveled out near the ship as the remaining Andreilians scrambled to find shelter. She found Vesper and Desmond at the quarterdeck, terror-stricken eyesscanning the ocean. Scooping them into her talons, she banked hard, turning to fly them to safety.
When she returned, the water was calm. The ship cracked and splintered as it slowly sank deeper into the sea. She was running out of time to carry them all back. Her heart pounded, searching for the lykren’s shape beneath the waves, but it was nowhere to be found. Her wingbeats slowed as she carefully lowered herself next to the ship, preparing to gently grasp the others in her talons.
She never got the chance.
Pain slammed into her side, scorching and radiant like lightning as the lykren’s fangs pierced the underbelly of her scales. Her skin felt like it was on fire, burning and melting away under the lykren’s acidic venom. A deafening roar of agony and dread ripped from her throat.
Then it was drowned out by the waves as the lykren pulled her under.
Chapter 50
Arasping,throat-tearingscreamclawedits way from deep within Dominic as the dragon—Adara—was dragged into the depths of the Plagued Sea. Panic numbed the pain of his injuries. He sprinted to the edge of the ship, boots splashing through the water, and stared wide-eyed over the ledge. Tobias, Silas, and Tyson—the only Andreilians that remained on the ship—joined him along the rail, scanning the water anxiously.
“What do we do?” Silas asked, voice quaking with fear.
Tobias shook his head, echoing Dominic’s forlorn thoughts. “There’s nothing we can do,” he murmured glumly.
Two shadows writhed beneath the churning waves, the water dark and clouded with ichor. Dominic’s chest strained as they all stood by uselessly. Adara had been bitten, yet the outline of her wings still thrashed beneath the waves, her movements never slowing, never faltering. She would be dead within moments from the venom, but not even that thought could stifle the hope that ignited inside him as the dragon and the lykren burst from the water.
Adara let out a roar that sounded like a battle cry, wings flaring wide as she flew skyward. Red blood leaked from her side, but it didn’t appear to be blazing through her scales as it would human flesh. Perhaps dragons were immune to lykren blood, a creature of the sky created to rival the one of the sea.
They were a mass of shimmering scales and snapping teeth. Of snarls and claws and fangs. Of fire and venom that spewed from their gaping maws.
“GET DOWN!” Dominic screamed as Adara swooped, claws a blur as she slashed for the lykren’s spiked back, then banked hard to dodge the spray of its dark purple blood.
The Andreilians dove for cover, sliding across the deck as it flooded. Adara’s wingbeats caused the ship to sway violently.
Dominic wiped seawater from his face. Salt burned his wounds as he stood. Smoke rose from the pile of debris he’d leaped behind, lykren blood searing the wood. “Tobias?” he called out, searching for the others as Adara dove toward the ocean, fire streaming from her maw. The lykren plunged beneath the water.
“I’m all right!” Tobias said, clambering to his feet a short distance away.
“Tyson?” Dominic asked, searching for the blond’s tall, broad figure.
A gasp had Dominic’s head whirling to see Tyson gripping tightly to a beam, pulling himself from the flood. If he’d let go, he would have been washed below deck, unable to find the surface.
“Alive!” he panted.
“Silas?” Dominic didn’t dare release a breath of relief just yet. There was no response. “Silas?” he repeated, more urgently this time. The three of them spread out, their footsteps slow and deliberate as they navigated the wreckage, careful of the precarious ship that would soon sink wholly beneath the waves.
Heavy, broken wheezes sounded to Dominic’s right. A small body lay gasping on the deck, water washing over his face.
