“Remember how I said you should all be a lot less comfortable with me being around?”
Keeley bundled Maggie into her arms. The little dragonling whimpered. “We’ll go downstairs. Whatever it was I just missed, sounds like you should stay up here.”
“That’s not a good idea—”
A scream tore through the air. Lance’s jaw set. “Keeley, go!”
He grabbed Moss’s arm as he went to follow her. “Don’t you dare.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying. I can’t control the kraken. If it gets loose—”
“Then it had better happen up here, not locked in a room with my mate.” Lance’s eyes glowed snow-leopard green. “Understood?”
*Cuz! Outside!*
Ataahua’s shout caught his attention. He followed her to the hole in the wall that used to be the door. Two groaning figures lay on the ground outside. Whatever they had used to make themselves invisible must have broken when the kraken tossed them out.
Lance swore and vanished from sight. But without Maggie, neither Moss nor Ataahua could see their other attackers.
*Help!*
*Pania! Where are you?*
Ataahua was already running. Moss lurched forward and grabbed her, throwing them both to the ground as gunfire crackled overhead.
They were sitting ducks. And Carol was somewhere out there.
He had to—
Protect them.
That was what Carol would want.
Yes.
The world wavered. Shadows thickened around him. His shoulder hurt. He glanced at it. How was there that much blood?
He needed to find Carol. The ocean would tell him where she was. He let his senses open up, tasting the air and listening to the thousand salt-songs dancing on it.
The kraken opened eyes like black moons, and then he didn’t feel anything.
33
Carol
The ground heaved beneath her. Water slopped over her face. She half-rose—then jerked to a stop, held fast by chains around her neck and limbs.
Panic shook her like a terrier with a rat.
Images exploded in her mind.Still leaves. Still grass.Something like an argument took place just outside her psychic hearing, like a hurried conversation in another language on the other side of a door that was banging in the wind andwhy did her head hurt so much. Forget not talking straight. Even her thoughts were—lost…
The images came again.Still waters. Clear skies.
The image of the water felt tentative, as though whoever was communicating with her was testing it out.Clear skiescame through clearer, reinforced by more voices and with a hint of…guilt?
Carol opened her eyes to a bronze-stained beak half an inch from her face.
She thrust herself backwards, kicking with both legs. The chain stopped her, and she folded over, pain shooting through her ankles. The scrape of metal on metal filled the air.
