Chapter Eleven
Landon
Landon tried to swallow the forkful of breakfast fruit salad. Consisting of oranges, mango and banana, Blaze had mentioned reading that those fruits were good for human pregnancies and figured that the benefits couldn't be worse for dragons.
Because of that article, Landon had been served the trio of fruits every morning for weeks. He bit down into the flesh of an orange wedge, wiping the trickle of juice that escaped the corner of his mouth.
"I could have done that," Vale told him, his expression heated.
More looks like that and they wouldn't make it past breakfast without the dishes all landing on the floor again. Life with Blaze and Vale was pretty much an unending cycle of heated looks. Landon had thought that at some point, the fire between them would dim. But, since learning about his pregnancy, their libidos had only risen to heights that made Landon wonder if it was possible to get pregnant while pregnant.
He thought about how his body would look, two distinct round lumps, the picture in his mind made him laugh.
Vale looked at the non-existent watch on his wrist. "I see it took about a month for my mate to laugh at my sexual advances," he replied playfully.
The servant returned, and Landon's smile fell. Since the accusation, the townspeople all treated him like he was poop dried to the end of a stick. They avoided being around him. Vale was happy since that kept him safe, Blaze was happy since it seemed that for now, the anger of the people had reduced to a simmer.
Landon should have been miserable at being ostracized but his mates never left him alone long enough to worry about it.
"How do they look?" Vale asked Blaze as he entered the balcony.
Blaze didn't answer Vale's question and that was answer enough.
They tried not to talk about it in front of Landon, whether because they didn't want him to worry or because they knew he couldn't do anything to help. The fact remained that the King's private rose stash, the ones he'd had planted on a public ledge in the castle, were dying. Behind lock and key, the only people who had had contact with the roses were the gardeners and Landon saw they were beside themselves.
While these roses were dying at a slower pace, they were dying all the same. Each day, they drooped a little further, their colors grew more muted. And as the flowers dwindled, the hatred toward Landon grew.
Even their pregnancy announcement was met with lackluster applause. The only person in the entire kingdom—excluding his mates--who still seemed to like him was Juniper, and Landon wasn't sure that Vale hadn't ordered her to be nice.
"They're gone?" Landon asked.
He waited for Blaze and Vale to have their secret conversation. He didn't know if they thought he didn't notice when they stared at each other intently without speaking while wiggling their eyebrows. Usually, Landon thought it was cute. Right now, the bit of orange he'd swallowed felt like a fireball full of razors.
"They're gone," Blaze replied.
The three of them sat in silence.
At least, Landon looked like he was sitting in silence. Inside, his brain rolled. How would they live? What would they do? Were they all stuck down here? Would the ocean begin pouring in?
"Landon, mate, please," Vale settled his hand on Landon's arm. "We'll take care of you. All will be well."
"How?" he asked, his voice cracking. This utopia had existed for thousands of years before Landon. It took a few months for him to somehow bring down an entire nation. The news of what was happening to the emerald dragons had leaked out and both King Damari and King Sebastian had offered their islands as refuge, but the islands were tailored to the dragons. Vale's people would never truly be free on any of the other islands.
"We'll rebuild. Blaze has been wanting a public face for a while. We'll build our home on the island above us. And, in the meantime, I told you the gardeners have enough diluted elixir to keep The Garden functioning. We'll have a new home long before we run out."
"But what about you? Your people? They'll age, grow sick, and die."
"We die now," Vale replied. "We'll adjust. We have to."
"Because of me," Landon grumbled.
Blaze settled down on his haunches slipping between Landon's legs where he sat at the table. "Are you confessing?" he asked with his usual twinkle.
"If I thought it would make this stop, I would," Landon replied and he meant it. However, his words also caused his two mates to freeze, stare at each other and wiggle their eyebrows.
As a silent message passed between them, Blaze settled more firmly between Landon's legs while Vale stood to stand behind him. He dropped his hands to Landon's shoulders as began to massage his muscles.
"Your concern for my people warms my heart," Vale said.
Landon definitely sensed there were more words coming. "Where's the but?"
"I know where it is," Blaze piped up. His fingers toyed with the button that secured Landon's pants.
Landon brushed his hands away. "Not that butt."
"There is no but, my love," Vale answered him. "Blaze and I are just worried that your concern for our people will drive you to do something unsafe. That's unacceptable. You are our mate first before you are anything to them."
"I know I am your mate, but—"
Vale swooped down and turned Landon's face, so he could kiss him. "No buts," he whispered.
Despite everything, Landon's body responded. It always did. They could be stranded in the middle of the ocean, circled by sharks with a bleeding gaping wound and a heated look from Vale would still make him hard.
"These are troubling times, but the one thing that makes them bearable is you," Vale told him. "Both of you. Without you, for me to lean on…I don't know what I would do."
Landon reclined back, pressing his head and neck against the King's body. "And I, you. Actually, I know what I would be doing, failing miserably at trying to be a guard."
"While you may need improvement when it comes to being a guard," Blaze told him. "You excel at being a mate. We just want to make sure you stay alive and well, so you can keep excelling." He lifted Landon's shirt just a little to peak at the glowing dot. It had burned brighter for a while before dimming as the baby inside him grew. Barring spells or curses, dragon pregnancies were actually the easiest experience. Growing large was a hassle. Landon had needed help putting his shoes on that morning, but there wasn't morning sickness or even the random swelling that humans went through.
Each morning, Landon woke in perfect health, which only made his guilt grow. "Maybe I could offer to talk to the people," he told them. Blaze scooted back, half under the table, completely nestled between his legs. "They would be angry at first but then we could talk it out, figure out how to move forward. They seemed excited when you announced you'd be forming an army, maybe spirits are high enough—" He stopped talking the moment he felt Blaze's lips on his dick. He'd undone Landon's pants and reached for his cock, finding it in its normal hardened state.
Landon looked down but all he saw was the table and all he felt was heaven. "You can't distract me with your mouth on my…" His words trailed when Vale returned from their room and lifted him gently to his feet. He rose slow enough that Blaze never had to stop and now his tongue worked circles over the head. Vale kicked the chair to the side and settled Landon's hands against the dining table on either side of his breakfast plate. In that position, he was slightly bent over. His pants slipped down to his ankles and Blaze rose to his knees so that he could continue to make indecent slurping sounds around Landon's dick. It felt amazing, shooting through his body to his balls where they tightened with anticipation.
Vale's fingers tickled his hole, slick with lubrication. They teased and probed the tight circle, coaxing his body into a prepared state. When he inserted an entire finger, Landon shot to his tip toes and Blaze moaned.
"You taste better than sea berry wine. And I'm getting just as drunk on you." He wiped his mouth and returned to Landon's dick, loving it with his tongue and lips.
Vale inserted a second finger, forcing a keening wail from Landon's lips. His hips jerked forward, humping against Blaze's face before driving back to force Vale's finger deeper. When he got like this, he felt crazed with desire. He'd say or do anything to find release. Even now, his hands bunched the tablecloth, squeezing so tightly his knuckles were white. Vale had removed his fingers, but the heat coming off his body was a promise of more. Soon, the thick head of his dick pushed inside of Landon, stretching him open and claiming every nerve ending.
"Yes," he hissed, bending his back beneath the waves of pleasure. His nipples puckered, rasping against the fabric of his shirt. Each rub was as pleasurable as it was torture. He wanted more, always and forever more…
Vale slammed into him, reaching around his chest and pinching Landon's puckered peaks.
"Oh my—" Landon lost the breath to speak. He opened his mouth to wail, but no sound came out. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, unable to keep up with the onslaught of pleasure. Blaze's mouth was a hot, wet vacuum that continued to drive Landon ever higher as Vale's dick kept him grounded. Grounded and needy.
"See how we can be together?" Vale crooned. "All the pleasure and love we are capable of?"
"Yes!" Landon cried out. At that point, he thought it was the only word he knew how to say.
"We can't do this if you get yourself hurt." He stopped his thrusting while Blaze ceased his sucking.
Landon would have collapsed against the table top if Vale hadn't been there to hold him up. "What are you doing?" he asked in a panic. He'd been nearly about to come and with each second without contact, that feeling hurtled away. "Please, my mates, please!" He didn't recognize the primal need in his voice.
"Promise us, promise you won't put yourself in danger."
"But what if you are in danger?" Landon asked.
Vale stepped back, taking his warmth with him.
"You can't use your affection as a bargaining tool," Landon replied. A fresh sort of anger came over him and he grabbed Blaze's head as he thrust forward. His head pressed against Blaze's lips for a second before he opened up for him. He purred as the hot, wetness returned. "But I promise," he said as he pumped into his mate's mouth.
Vale was up against him and fully inside him all in one motion. He took away Landon's breath but gave him so much pleasure in return that Landon didn't mind that he couldn't breathe.
Landon looked down at Blaze. He saw the man's other hand was at his dick, stroking the hard length so intently it was now purple. Landon came from the sight, spilling into Blaze's mouth, watching the man's Adam's apple bob as he swallowed each drop. He continued to pump his hips, easing down from his orgasm as Vale drove into him from behind. He hit a spot inside of Landon meant only for his mates, a place only they had touched. When he grasped Landon's hips, he knew he was moments from coming. He sunk to his knees, all the while Vale never missing a thrust as Landon went to his hands and knees, so he could bury his face, into Blaze's crotch.
Blaze barely felt his tongue swipe up his length before his mate spilled his seed into Landon's mouth. At the same time, Vale's roar seemed to split the sky open, his hips flexing as he orgasmed, filling up Landon's other end. "Mine," Vale uttered in a low, growling tone.
Landon swallowed and then opened his mouth to speak with there was a loud clattering sound from feet above their heads. Blaze and Vale acted quickly, ripping Landon up and behind them as they surveyed their surroundings.
On the breakfast table, on top of Landon's leftover fruit salad, there was a large stone. The dish had cracked under the force of its fall and juices from his salad spilled through the crack making the tabletop sticky. "Is there a note?" Landon asked, spotting a slip of white paper.
Vale pulled the note free. "We know it was him. The diamond traitor needs to pay."
"The diamond traitor?" Landon repeated dumbly. He'd always wanted a second nickname, but somehow, he preferred Pebble to this option.
"I don't understand. I put the roses on display. They know it couldn't have been you," Vale said.
Blaze shook his head. "Unreasonable people are unreasonable. Fear will do that. I've seen it happen in many other ways in the states."
This should have scared him, but the rock had jolted a memory loose, one from his early childhood years, one that danced on the edge of retainable memory and that nebulous expanse of time starting at birth where he could recall nothing. "Can I see that stone?" he asked and tough Vale's face clearly told him he had no idea why, he handed it over. There was no flash of recognition or remembering like he'd wanted. There was just a dusty, heavy rock. "Do they know I'm diamond plated? This couldn't hurt me," he said instead. It was true, in his human form he was slightly less durable. He might have trouble with excessive force behind a sharp sword or a dragon's claw, but in his dragon form, there wasn't much that wouldn't simply bounce off him.
"This is unacceptable," Vale grumbled. "I need to move our plans to form an army forward. I'll feel better when you have a dedicated guard detail. Juniper needs to finish her interview questions that will weed out those who mean you harm." He paced away from the table and back to it. While they'd all reached their climaxes, they hadn't been given the chance to come down from their highs and now, Landon figured the other two felt as strung tightly as he did. "Blaze, please take Landon to our room and then join me in the courtyard," Vale told him before leaning over to kiss Landon on the cheek. "I will fix this," he promised.
***
Back in their room—Landon had retained his old room but never slept there—Landon refused Blaze's suggestion that he take a nap all the way until Blaze tucked the covers under his chin and shut the door, leaving him in darkness. There was no way he could sleep after what had just happened. Sure, he was pregnant and had just had an amazing orgasm, that always tired him, but too much was happening for him to just drift off…
In front of him came a mighty growl so loud that it shook the ground. Landon threw his arms out to balance himself and wondered why he was walking toward the mysterious shadowy figure that was making so much noise. They were back in the rose fields. The plants looked no worse, but no better. Their blossoms sunk into the dirt, weighed down by the curse.
Curse? That didn't seem like the right word.
He rubbed his belly, hoping to gain comfort from the gesture. Except, his newly pregnant belly was completely flat as if there was no child growing inside of him. Panic made his legs feel heavy while forcing his heart to beat so fast he thought it might stop.
"No!" He'd meant to cry out, but the noise hadn't been more than a strangled sob. Then, there was movement behind him. A little boy with bright silver eyes.
"Pebble, I've missed you," came an eerily familiar voice from the other direction. "I had visitors, but they got taken away."
Landon didn't think he'd ever been awake while hearing that voice. It was reserved for his dreams, popping up before the dream became a nightmare. Landon looked back at the child tottering toward him on unsure steps. He needed to reach the kid, to protect him.
"What is this? A childhood memory? I had hoped for something a little steamier. Like that one you had in the bathtub," the voice told him. It sounded feminine but graveled. And mocking.
Except, something she'd said stuck with him…something about it being a childhood memory. He looked back at the boy realizing he was looking at himself. He couldn't have been older than three. Landon noticed the bruises on the kid's elbows and knees, like he spent a lot of his time falling. Yep, it was definitely him.
"What do you mean? You aren't causing this? Making me dream this?"
"Making you? Who do you think I am, Pebble? For that matter, who are you?"
Valid questions, ones he wanted to answer. Meanwhile, he stared at the child, wondering why his subconscious had wanted him to see this. The kid reached down toward a wilted rose and Landon winced. But, when the kid lifted the blossom it had transformed from a dead, gray rosebud to one that was bright pink with wide, fluffy petals.
"Oh my God," Landon said.
The voice returned. "What is it?" He got the idea that the voice was searching his dream, looking at what had caught his attention. All of a sudden, the sky above them went completely black. "No!" she screeched.
Landon shot upright. He knew who was poisoning the flowers and more importantly, with what.
After calling out for either of his mates, Landon rushed out of the room down the corridor and then the steps to the main entrance. He spotted Vale sitting on his throne in front of a group of people, Blaze beside him at his feet. Vale had been so proud to show them the thrones he was having made for them. After what had happened, he couldn't justify having the gardeners do it so he had employed regular carpenters.
"Vale!" Landon shouted, causing every head to swivel his direction.
Vale stood as Blaze rushed forward through the crowd. He reached Landon in moments, covering his body with his own, blocking him from the crowd. Landon tried to push him aside, but he remained where he was an unmovable growling wall.
"It's the Golden Grandmother," he exclaimed. "She's doing this somehow."
Vale sat slowly. "Mate, she's asleep in our dungeons. That isn't possible."
Landon shook his head impatiently. "It seems impossible, but I know it's her. She's the voice that's been visiting me in my dreams. She's the voice I hear. Somehow, while she sleeps, she is killing the roses."
Vale eyed the crowd. "Maybe we should have this discussion in private."
He might as well have told Landon he was crazy, and he didn't believe him. Though, he didn't need to say the words since they were written plainly on the King's face. "Blaze?" Landon turned his head up.
The vein in Blaze's jaw ticked. "Mate, I agree we should discuss this in private. Look at you, you're in your underthings."
He'd been too energized to put on anything more than what he'd gone to sleep in. He was in fact, topless, the tiny swell of his tummy stuck out, the waistband of his boxers tucked underneath his gut. "I just discovered it during my dream."
"While you were sleeping?"
"If only my problems were solved that way," a random person from the crowd said making them laugh. All of them except Vale, Landon and Blaze.
"Silence," Vale commanded.
"When I was a kid I used to love picking flowers. I came back one day with a bouquet for my mom that I had picked on our walk. She put them in a vase for us to admire and then that afternoon, she fell asleep before my nap. I couldn't wake her I was so scared. I shook her and wailed. Finally, a neighbor heard me and investigated. I'd picked an Eternal Beauty. The spores of that plant can spread, and it has a drowsy effect on people. Get too close to one and you'll fall asleep, remain too close and you turn into stone. I think she is using a variation of that. Eternal Beauty only grows on Diamond Island, but she was there, pretending to be Gladria for long enough to pick and store a few blooms."
"Why wouldn't you tell us any of this earlier?" Vale asked him.
His heart fell. His mate didn't believe him. "I just remembered. It happened when I was so young, the memory is still kind of fuzzy. My subconscious was trying to tell me, that's why I dreamed of me as a kid." Frustrated, Landon knew he sounded crazy. That didn't change the fact that he knew what was happening and how to prove it. "I can show you. Bring the last flowers to die, the one from your window box."
Everyone looked to Vale, no doubt expecting him to laugh away Landon's claim. "Bring me the box."
A group broke off and went down the corridor, returning moments later. They set the box on the ground and after accepting Blaze's shirt, which looked ridiculous on his smaller frame, Landon lifted the lid. He reached at the base of the plants and yanked, causing every person in the room, even Blaze, to gasp as if in pain.
Vale looked at him apologetically. "You can't imagine how wrong that looked to all of us. These flowers are sacred."
Landon brushed aside the dirt from the roots. "You can always tell if something has been affected by Eternal Beauty because the roots will grow ashy pockets where the spores collect. In a person, it looks like white bumps on the bottom of their feet. In a plant…" He showed the crowd the roots of the rose plant. Scraggly and covered in dirt, they were also speckled white. "This isn't normal," he said.
"No…" Vale replied slowly, taking the plant from him. "It isn't."
"He knows because he did it!" someone shouted.
Landon hissed, and Vale jumped to his feet. "Next person who accuses either of my mates gets to take a bath. I won't even send you to the dungeon, I won't use up our last precious stores of elixir to take you there, but I will make sure you go for a very long swim. Understood?" No one replied but Landon figured they understood just the same.
"My love, I believe that you know what could have caused this, but as for who, Avia is asleep. She's—"
Landon's view began to shake, and it took hearing someone scream to realize he wasn't the only one. The castle vibrated hard enough to knock Landon off his feet. Blaze caught him as the castle settled.
"An earthquake?" someone asked.
"The dome is collapsing!" another shrieked.
Landon looked out the window to the dome above them. It remained as solid as ever. "It's Avia!" he screeched.
The others must have thought he meant that he saw the ancient dragon because they screamed and began running. It took Vale a few moments to calm them all. "We've had earthquakes before, please, calm down. Thank you, mate."
"We need to wake her up if she isn't already!"
Vale settled his hands on Landon's shoulders. "Mate, that doesn't make sense. Why would we wake up our enemy?"
"She's doing this! She could be awake already!"
"Then the safest place for her is where she is. Alone."
Landon swayed back.
"Please, mate, we need to make sure no one was hurt in the shake. Stay here. Blaze?"
"I'll put him back—"
Landon tore his arm away from where Blaze had grabbed hold of him. "I'm not some toy you can put away when you're done playing with me. I know you think she's safe down there, but she's proven that she isn't. She's nearly destroyed your kingdom while asleep, what do you think she will do when she is awake?"
Most of the townspeople were gone by then so no one but Blaze saw or heard Vale stomp up to Landon and furiously whisper, "Yes, and who brought her here?"
Landon felt as if he'd been slapped. He grabbed his cheek and ran the way he'd come, ignoring Vale's desperate cries for him to come back, hoping to get away before any tears came. They never came and when Landon got back to their room, he didn't fling himself on the bed and cry. He put his pants on, yanked Blaze's shirt off, replaced it with one of his own and started toward the creek.
The idea had come to him right after Vale had said what he said. During his first day, the day they brought Avia to The Garden, he'd explained, a person needed an emerald dragon as an escort. Well, for the past month, he'd had one with him always. Their child would be part diamond and emerald which meant it would inherit the abilities of both.
There was no one around to stop him when he got to the creek and stepped on a lily pad. He watched it grow, responding to the emerald dragon growing inside him, as Landon thought about all the pain Avia had caused. She had a knack for going in unseen, even when everyone was looking. Landon didn't know exactly how she had managed to kill the roses while asleep in her cell, but he was about to be able to ask her.
***
When the door from the pod opened and Landon stepped in, he felt the difference in a moment. That trip down had been one of the scariest things he'd ever done. He'd been guessing, hoping that being pregnant with a baby part emerald would allow him to ride the pod alone. It had worked. He wasn't as happy about that as he should have been.
The dungeon had always been dark and scary with odd creaking noises that came from everywhere. When he stepped through the doorway now, it was completely silent. Not even his own feet made noise as he walked over the ground that felt soggier than it had the first time. Vale had explained that everything was on emergency rations. The dungeon rations had been cut the most, they'd allotted only enough to keep it there, to keep the plant that it was composed of alive and rooted to the ground.
The air smelled musty like the plants were converting the oxygen at a much slower rate. His stomach rumbled, perhaps his unborn child's reaction to their surroundings. He followed the wall, blinking through the dim, realizing he had no idea where the Golden Grandmother's cell was.
"Pebble," her voice wafted to him. She was awake, he knew it.
"Was that you up there? The earthquake?"
"You're alone?" She actually sounded shocked. "They didn't believe you."
Landon wished like hell that he could say she was wrong. "I don't need them to believe me to stop you," he told her with more bravado than he felt. He was here, he was right, the Golden Grandmother was behind the blossoms dying, so now what? Would he shift and fight her? Wouldn't that just bring the walls crumbling in on them? At the bottom of the sea, that would be quite the swim to the surface. That was if he made it past the deep-sea beasts that Vale had hinted lived at the bottom.
"There's nothing to stop, Pebble. It's done."
Landon followed the voice past a row of cells to a large room directly in the middle. He froze when he caught sight of the woman. She didn't look regal as she likely once had. Her gray hair stuck out at all ends and now that she stood, he could see she had lost weight. Her bones jutted out of her skin at odd angles. She bent over at the waist, holding onto the wall for support, she stuck a long finger down her own throat and then turned as she began to retch.
Landon reached out and then stopped. Was he going to help her? Hold her hair back? He couldn't do much but watch her bizarre behavior as she stopped retching, wiped her mouth off and then stuck her hand in the mess she'd made, picking up a bundle of something that was bright pink.
Eternal Beauty.
"Is that why you were on Diamond Island in the first place?" he asked, hoping he hid the tiny bit of awe that he felt.
"For creatures with excessively long lives, they are extraordinarily shortsighted. I play a long game, Pebble, one with many pieces that even now have yet to come together."
"You wanted them to give you the Long Night. You knew where they would bring you. But how did the bloom simply not just kill you…"
Avia stood there blinking. "I've done this bit before, Pebble. I reveal my plan and then you think you beat me while actually moving my piece exactly where I want it to be."
"It slows down your body's processes. Puts you to sleep first and foremost, but also slows your heartbeat, your breathing," he continued talking out loud hoping that at the least, it bought him more time. "And it slows your digestion." That was the key. Avia's eyes lit up. "You swallowed an Eternal Beauty blossom on purpose. It had to have been very soon before you were dosed or else it would have killed you! You're crazy."
Avia stood tall, her head held high and her chin up. Landon got a glimpse of who she was before all of this, before she betrayed her own King and grandson. "I'm enlightened."
"But how did the spores get from you to the roses?"
She sighed. "I already told you I wasn't going to do the villain's monologue. Besides, you aren't long for this world, why should I waste my breath?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that while your studly studs mess about up there, I'll kill you all from the inside. Plants are funny things. Too much water and they die, too little, the same fate. A single snapped vine can mean death and yet, they are resilient, adapting and conforming. This little blossom is going infect everything else. It won't take long before the dome that keeps them safe, releases a toxin that will kill them all. I'll give you the choice, Pebble, because you provided me with entertainment while I rested in dreamland. Would you like to die down here with me? Or above with your loves? I'll wait. You can find them, embrace them, and sleep together forever." The more she spoke, the more maniacal she became. For a dragon that despised monologues, she enjoyed giving them.
Landon's head spun. He wracked his brain for everything Vale had said about the dungeon. It was impenetrable. He'd said that even if Avia got up and roamed around as she was now, that he would simply…
Purge.
He'd gotten more information since then. The purge was the plant's self-defense mechanism. It started with an injury, nothing small like a kick or a tear, but an injury large enough would start the process. But the purge meant certain death for whoever was unlucky enough to find themselves at the bottom of the ocean.
Unlucky, table for one? No, he thought with anguish. Two.
"I can't let you, Avia," Landon told her.
"You don't have a choice. Not anymore. Goodbye, Pebble."
Landon spun from her. He opened his mouth and before Avia could finish her scream for him to stop, he blew a large gust of fire from his mouth. It sizzled against the wall, evaporating the moisture first. He felt a sharp pain at his backside before blowing one last large fireball that encompassed the entire wall. The wall visibly recoiled and Landon felt a sharp pain at his back. He imagined he could hear a screech, the plant in pain.
The response was nearly immediate. There was a huge shudder and then, water began pouring in from all corners.
"You idiot!" Avia screeched. She dropped the Eternal Beauty blossom as she looked around them. She must have realized how well and truly screwed they were because she just stood there with her eyes closed. Her clawed hand was covered in blood.
That was when the pain really swelled to unbearable levels. He reached to touch his back and his hand came back smeared with red. She'd stabbed him to try to get him to stop. He'd been in his human form, the only reason her claws had been able to penetrate his skin. She left a ragged stab wound behind. He collapsed, holding his tummy as the water rushed in.
Doubt and regret were Landon's companions as he lay there, bleeding. There hadn't been another way. Avia was going to kill all of the emerald dragons, every last one in a genocide so extreme Landon doubted historians would have been brave enough to ever write it down.
He got to his feet. He had to at least try to make it to the surface. Already, the room was nearly full of water. They had ten seconds more, at best. He shifted. Through the rushing water, he spotted Avia doing the same just as the walls gave out finally, sucking them both out in opposite directions on a current that made it impossible to tell which way was up. Avia screamed, the sound reaching Landon's ears through the water and he turned in time to see a cloud of red where the ancient dragon should have been. His brain tried to make sense of the scarlet fog. Where did the dragon go?
Sea monsters, he thought wildly. Vale had said they were down here. He pushed up off the ocean floor, praying that he'd have two legs when he was finished, praying that his muscles would still work despite how cold it was, praying that his oxygen would last long enough to bring his baby to the surface. If there had been away to let his baby go first, to sacrifice himself so that he would be free…
Wishful thinking.
He swam, but it was no use. He didn't even know if he was going in the right direction. He knew he was in dire shape when he wished Avia would come back if only so that he had company. But she was likely in pieces, torn apart by something that was either now full and watching him or still hungry and watching him.
He used his wings like flippers, propelling him quickly through the water but not quick enough. His lungs begged for air as his mouth opened automatically, instinctively sucking in only to fill his body with water.
I'm sorry, he thought to his mates. I'm sorry I broke my promise.