A whizzing sound echoed in the air. My body reacted before my mind processed what happened, and suddenly I was in demon mode, lying flat in the sand, pulse racing. Had they just—?
Rat-tat-tat!
Sand and rock exploded across the beach. Eriana leant over Nilus, Ben, Medusa, and me, protecting us from the shower of bullets. A torrent of seawater rained on us from her head and horns.
The helicopter buzzed lower, groaning in a rhythm as the pilot tried to swerve into position.
Eriana’s second head rose to meet it, like a plume of smoke rising from a volcano.
“No!” I shouted.
Daughter, they are trying to kill you.
I don’t care. You’re not murdering anyone under my command.
And still my people sprinted closer. They shouted, waving at the helicopter. I couldn’t be sure if two figures at the front were my parents. I couldn’t be sure if the one next to them was Annith.
It was hard to breathe or focus.
From above, a male voice boomed over a speaker. “Everyone keep back! You are entering the line of fire!”
The time was now. Too many forces were after the serpent. Too many of my loved ones were in danger. If all had gone according to plan with Lysi, Queen Evagore would be on her way.
I needed to end this.
At my thought, Eriana lowered an enormous head towards me. Several people screamed as her jaws snapped closed over my body. Inside her mouth, she held me safely behind her pointed teeth.
Pitch darkness and her hot breath engulfed me. My stomach swooped as she lowered her head into the water.
Take us away from here.
We rushed forwards, the feeling in my stomach the only indication that we were moving.
Time passed in black, empty minutes before Eriana slowed. She opened her jaws, and seawater flooded in. I swam between her long fangs and back into the world.
Black lava rock spread below me, rising to the land in gradual swells. We had stopped at Skaaw Beach. The section of shoreline had formed when lava oozed through the earth a million years ago and rapidly cooled. Tides and earthquakes had since shaped the lava into sporadic patterns, full of holes and cracks.
I pulled myself from the waves and up onto the dry lava rock, glancing around.
You are safe here, said Eriana.
I faced her. Wind blew locks of hair around my face. Waves pushed my tail back and forth.
For a moment, I held the serpent’s gaze, level with those deep blue pupils that seemed to hold the entirety of the ocean. What a beautiful, magnificent animal. The thought of what I had to do next brought tears to my eyes.
In the distance, the helicopter thrummed. Eriana and I turned to watch its fast approach, a black hornet in the deepening sky. She tasted the air.
They would never surrender.
I considered how powerful I could be if I kept the serpent in my control. A treaty was one way to keep peace, yes, but signatures on a page were no guarantee.
But it was too dangerous. In the wrong hands, Eriana was apocalyptic. And, while she could protect me, someone desperate enough could fire an iron bolt through my chest and plunge the world into a worse state of war than ever.
Besides, there was Eriana, my people’s goddess, the soul and protector of our island, to consider. She was trapped inside this creature. I owed it to her to free her.
The serpent had served her purpose. She’d been the force that brought these leaders together. Without her, Medusa would not have come to claim her. The Americans would not be here to fight for her. Evagore would not be on her way here with Lysi.
The serpent had been vital to ending this war. But now she had to go.
