Page 17 of Sapphire Seas

Mattias took my face in his hands. I waited so long for him to say something. He kissed me instead, with his whole soul, until I didn’t have to ask if he was disappointed or felt like I’d deceived him. He wasn’t, he didn’t, and I was his until the end of time.

Caspian spun me around the moment Mattias broke our kiss. His was just as much of a claim as Mattias’ was.

He pressed our foreheads together and hummed a soft song that sounded like the roll of the waves against the rocks.

Could it be true? Was something or someone keeping me from using my abilities to their full capacity. Was it because of my connection to the dragon in the ice? Was someone afraid that I’d free him? I would have if I could have found him during the time we’d spent in that region.

By the time we reached the study, Emerson was there with several maps they’d unrolled, ends weighted down by rocks that were usually on the shelves behind them. Was that what he’d collected them for, or was it a happy accident that they were on hand in moments like this?

“This is the most up to date map of Norway and the Norwegian Sea that we have,” Emerson explained, pointing to the one he was currently arranging on the table.”

“Can you pinpoint where you were when you felt the strongest connection to the dragon in the ice?” Ionus asked, stepping aside so I would have an unobscured view of the map.

“That’s where you were when you spotted me!” Caspian said, pointing to one of the many islands in the Norwegian Sea. “My people live deep beneath the water around these islands.”

“Connecting with the dragon in the ice was easier here, but the place where his signature was strongest is well away from this area,” I said, searching for it on the map. “Here, over Bouvet Island. We did not land. It was too cold for Upalo and Canyon, so we returned to the base we’d established closer to the mainland. We were only in the area for three weeks before moving on. We didn’t realize until yesterday that Caspian was the Seadragon I spotted against the sky while I was keeping watch one night.”

“My people stay away from that island,” Caspian said. “There’s always been something almost, I don’t know, toxic I guess, about the water around it that repels those who get close.”

“Let’s look at that island on the other maps,” Ionus said, moving around the table to the older versions that Emerson had supplied.

Anyone watching from outside of the room would have laughed at the way we cocked our heads, leaning, studying the maps from one side, then the other, looking for anything that might be in one that wasn’t in another.

“What can you tell us about the island, Emerson,” Ionus asked.

“Uninhabited. It is the most remote island in the world. The subarctic temperatures keep people away. It was formed by a volcano that has since gone extinct.”

“It was beneath a volcano where we found the remains of the Blackburn clan imprisoned,” Ionus said. “I do not believe in coincidences. This is a pattern.”

“I agree,” Mattias said.

“My people have been hunted throughout this island chain,” Caspian said. “They’ve forced us to swim deeper and find hidden places to hole up in where we once had free reign.”

“Dragons?” Mattias asked. “How? I would have known if they were waging war beneath the seas.”

“We don’t know what they are,” Caspian explained. “They look like tiny lampreys. Once they latch on to someone it’s like a beacon and more come, swarming them and swimming off with them to who knows where. They’ve squeezed through the smallest passages in the caverns we’ve hidden in, but once they were inside they were easier to kill because the others couldn’t swarm with the same kind of speed as in the open ocean.”

“More leaches, just a different kind,” Ionus growled, slamming his fist on the table. “That is going to make the journey even more dangerous. We can’t risk bringing even one of those things back here. There is no way of knowing what kind of information they’re able to communicate.”

“So where do we go from here?” Mattias asked.

“I do not know, brother,” Ionus said, “and that scares me.”

Hearing him say that sent a shiver through me, followed by a sinking sense of dread.

If the leader of the Primordial Protectors didn’t have the answer, who were we supposed to turn to?

Chapter Six

Caspian

“What if Quint is the only one who can free him?” I asked the group. “What’s his affinity anyway?”

“Venom,” Mattias said, “a deadly one that burns and can kill on contact. It’s absorbed through the flesh and can eat through dragon scales as well. To this day, he’s never kissed anyone that we’re aware of for fear of killing them and rarely uses it on our enemies. He’ll use fire in battle and physical strength, but that’s about it.”

“Whoa.”

“Ionus, I don’t think we have a choice now,” Mattias said. “Caspian has a point, he may be the only hope and why that dragon is reaching out to anyone in contact with Quint.”