It was the precise moment Benedict turned and saw me flying behind the elders.
Alone.
Oh, fuck.
The wind rose, carrying the smell of ash and salt.
I went to Wren anyway, not caring. I only made it a few feet before I was tackled out of the air and to the beach. Hands grabbed me and threw me down to the sand. I spit it out as it got everywhere—my scales, my mouth, and under my claws. My tools and notebook went flying.
“Stay the fuck away from me. You no longer speak. You have endangered our mate, our queen, and our unborn drakling!” Benedict roared at me.
The horizon blazed red—not dawn, not dusk. Blood and fire.
I shook under Benedict’s fury, the elders’ gazes on me pitying, but they did nothing to step in.
They took off into the air, leaving me wet and choking on the beach.
My notebook dissolved in the shallows.
Chapter Seven
WREN
Ididn’t mind that Ronan took a moment to fetch his sketchbook. I could count on one hand the amount of ‘alone’ time I got from my mates since being pregnant.
I would lap it up now.
The sun was warm against my scales, the sand hot beneath my claws, and the tide lapped gently against the stones. Lyoness was currently calm, and the baby in my belly seemed to enjoy the warmth as much as I did.
I was scanning the horizon for Ronan—he should be back any moment—when the first bump hit, a dull, heavythudbeneath the shoreline rocks. I glanced out at the ocean, but didn’t see anything.
I frowned and pushed myself upright, wings twitching. “What was?—”
A second bump. Harder. The sand beneath me actually shifted.
“Meruse?” I called out toward the tide pools. “Everything OK?”
No answer.
Before I could ask who, the seawaters out in front of me churned as if boiling from beneath.
And then the first of them rose—pale, wet, and hungry.
My heart sank.
More fucking vampyres.
The first one clawed its way out of the surf, eyes bright red, teeth shining like daggers. Then another. And another. A dozen at first—then more—swarming up the rocks like drowned spiders reanimated.
Far more than twelve.
“WREN!” Meruse popped up from the water, shouted something sharp in her native tongue, and four seawitches immediately dove beneath the waves, grabbing ankles and dragging vampyres straight back under.
But there were too many. I hesitated, knowing I was safe behind the wards. They could climb up the shore, but never reach it.
Unless enough charged and weakened them. Then maybe, just maybe, they could break through.
“WREN!” Meruse cried. “BACK UP!”
