30
ORLANDO
The dragon and I crashed into the passenger yacht in a tangle of wings and feathers and scales.
And then I finally surrendered.
The fist keeping me in gryphon form released its grip. As we tumbled across the deck I shifted back into a human: talons fattening into fleshy fingers, sharp beak returning to a jaw of bone and tooth. Like molded clay I was destroyed and remade, born anew into the true body in which I belonged.
It was like letting out the longest exhale in the world.
The dragon was all around me: a slashing claw to my left, the soft scales of his belly against my back, his snake-like neck whipping through the air above. My view alternated between deck and sky and dragon rapidly, and then my back slammed into the cold metal of a railing. I flipped end-over-end into the open air, a view of the beautiful sky above, before crashing into the water.
It was so cold it knocked all the air from my lungs, a frigid punch directly to my gut. The force of falling 30 feet plunged me deep into the murky water, giving me a terrifying moment of complete darkness. My chest heaved with the desire to inhale; I needed to get to the surface, and away from the dragon.
Something below caught my eye: the tiniest flicker of light against a smooth and shiny surface.
The totem!
The realization that I no longer possessed it terrified me. All of this was a failure if I lost it, or let it fall into the dragon’s possession.
Already pointed toward the lake floor, I kicked my legs and pumped my arms to swim after the totem. Good God, I was exhausted. The muscles in my back were numb and unresponsive, every contraction a tremendous effort. Yet the need to recover the totem commandeered my brain, pushing aside any other action.
I would get the totem or drown in the process. There was no in-between.
I felt the dragon behind me right before he struck. I tensed in expectation of jaws to clamp onto my weak human body, but it was a hand with fingers that snatched my left ankle. He yanked on my leg, and I kicked back against him, trying to break free of his iron grip. Then he was close enough to grab my right wrist at the back-end of a swim stroke, whirling me around to face him.
Even in the dark water I could make out his clenched teeth and eyes full of fury.
I punched him in the face, but the thick water softened the blow. He moved his grip to my neck, one hand and then the other, squeezing so hard I felt my eyes bulge. Trying to choke me underwater was ridiculous; it’s not as if it accomplished anything. But then the dragon opened his mouth and exhaled, the bubbles drifting across both cheeks to get back to the surface.
With his lungs empty, we began to sink.
Fresh panic bombarded me once I knew what he intended. My lungs heaved in false-breaths as I desperately tried to get him off me, punching him in the ribs, kicking up into his nude crotch. A wicked smile spread on his face while I fought pitifully; he didn’t care if he died too. Somehow, in all of this, that was a win for him.
Killing one of the gryphons was worth dying.
I thrashed and twisted in the water while the dragon’s grip tightened. Flecks of light shot across my vision. No matter how hard I fought he was impossibly strong, even after our flight across the city. I could see the determination in his eyes and feel it in his dark, twisted soul.
I was going to die.
My failure was not only my own, but my brothers’ as well. The other gryphons would have to continue their fight without me, and they would be weaker for it. Maybe too weak to succeed in the end, whatever that was.
The ache of failing them hurt more than anything.
As my vision narrowed until only the dragon’s face remained, I thought of Cassie. I’d failed her too. How would my death affect her, physically and emotionally? I didn’t know how our totem bond worked. I hoped it wouldn’t be too painful.
I’m sorry, I thought, and closed my eyes for the last time.
ORLANDO!
My mate’s thought jabbed me in the spine, forcing my eyes back open. For a heartbeat she was with me, here underneath the freezing water. It was as if I’d received an injection of adrenaline, warmth spreading up my spine and along my bones and then to my muscles, renewed strength taking over me, one last gasp of resistance against the dragons who wanted to destroy this world.
I pulled my knee up to my chin, put my foot against his chest, and kicked with all my might.
It was more than just a kick: it was a convulsion of my entire body, arching my back and exploding every fiber of my quads. The dragon’s grip on my neck slipped and then released, shock replacing the smug smile of victory on his face.
My back hit the soft lake bed.
I reached behind me, knowing exactly where the totem was without needing to look. With the last fraction of energy I still possessed I rotated until my legs were underneath me, coiled like a snake, and launched off the floor.
The dragon swiped a hand toward me, but I was already beyond him. I held my arms at my side to move swiftly through the water; I didn’t have the strength to even hold them out for a single stroke. I tilted my head back. My vision was narrowing rapidly, and soon the approaching surface was nothing more than a blurry circle slightly brighter than the surrounding darkness. I brushed against the underside of the huge yacht, scraping along the side in my ascent.
My chest with the desire to inhale, to fill my lungs with anything, even water, and I fought against the urge with the last mote of willpower I possessed.
I broke the surface right before blacking out.
I gasped, breathing deeply of the sweet air. Water splashed all around and I inhaled some of it, which made me cough and gasp and struggle for a moment, but then it was over. Stars flew across my vision but otherwise I was okay.
The surrounding area, however, was not. The lake was filled with people treading water and crying out for help. Smoke billowed from the yacht deck above me; more passengers leaped into the air to escape the flames. The dragon must have ignited it when we crashed onto the deck.
The dragon. I wasn’t safe.
I turned toward the yacht club docks, where police leaned over the edge and helped people out of the water. I didn’t have the strength to make a full stroke, so I doggy-paddled in that direction at a meager pace with the totem in one hand, praying the dragon wouldn’t suddenly grab my legs and pull me back down to the depths. I realized I was nude; that was a problem Ethan had warned about. I wasn’t modest, but how would I explain that to the cops? Would they even care?
“YOU WILL ALL DIE!” screamed a voice on the other side of the burning yacht. “Now, and for all of time!”
Sebastian, the Onyx Dragon. Even with so many cops around I didn’t feel safe. I had to get away.
I reached the dock, where a stocky policewoman reached down and helped me climb onto the wet wood. “I was, uhh, changing clothes on the yacht when…”
But she wasn’t even looking at me: her eyes were glued to the commotion on the next pier over. Sebastian screamed with fury and threw a punch at the first officer who tried to help him, and then another tackled him in the back and pinned him to the dock. Three more police fell onto him with handcuffs drawn, and even with so many of them they struggled to subdue the rabid man.
“You cannot stop me,” I heard him growl underneath the pile. “I will kill him! I must end this!”
I got to my feet—which was an immense struggle by itself in my weakened state—and another officer handed me one of those shiny reflective space blankets. I wrapped it around myself while staring at the dragon.
Kill him.
The thought invaded my mind as if someone else had put it there. The dragon, my eternal foe, was vulnerable right now. He was right there. The urge to take one of the cops’ guns and stride across the dock and shoot the dragon in the head overwhelmed me.
It was a compulsion. A desire so powerful it was almost sexual, or intimate.
I recoiled from the thought of killing someone in cold blood. Even him, after what he’d tried to do to me and Cassie. That I could feel desire to murder someone in front of a crowd scared me. That’s not who I was.
In all of this, I couldn’t allow the dragon to change who I was.
Once I fought that desire, my exhaustion returned like a weight on my shoulders. I needed to get out of here before I passed out on the dock.
I turned my gaze toward the looming Chicago skyline and flinched at what I saw. Smoke billowed into the sky from a dozen different sources both near and far, with a cacophony of fire truck sirens in every direction. The smell of smoke hit my nose then, refusing to leave, reminding me of the soaring flight through the city while trying to escape the dragon. Good God, we’d created a lot of damage. The city was like a war zone.
“HIM!” the dragon screamed, a finger shooting out from underneath the pile of police to point in my general direction. “BRING HIM TO ME NOW!”
I was only five blocks from my apartment. It was time to move. I forced one leg forward, then the other, slowly putting distance between myself and the dragon. The totem in my hand pulsed with satisfaction with every step.
As I strode through Chicago, with a dozen fires blazing and people running in every direction, it felt like the end of the world.