Chapter Eleven

I was so thirsty. So fucking dry. Aras had left me in a puddle of blood and hadn't indulged this time. Meaning, I had bled more than the last. No Hulfrin saliva to stop the flow. My flesh was withering. My vision clouding again. Soon, I wouldn't be able to see at all. I'd be a dried husk.

Then I heard the roar.

It came from far away. At least, I think it was distant. Maybe my hearing was going too. But then Baellius growled, and I heard that just fine. So, the roar had to be far off. There was something about the sound that comforted me. It shimmered through me like water, easing my pain and giving me hope. I took a shaky breath and focused on hearing. There it was again.

My eyes popped open.

Could it be? No, that was my foolish fantasy, not reality. That couldn't possibly be King Vaxarion. But then the roar came again. Closer. The castle shook. Stone dust fell from the ceiling. My head turned instinctively toward the window.

"What the fuck?" Baellius went to the window. Then he cried out and jerked back. Without even a glance at me, he ran.

As Baellius bolted past me, the window burst inward, along with a good portion of the wall. I cringed, but then turned toward it again. A claw appeared—one covered in iridescent scales that shifted from black to blue to green. I sighed to see such beauty, so stark against the bleak stone.

Then that beautiful, enormous talon reached through the hole in the wall and closed around me. Pulled. My ankle jerked. The talon pulled harder. I shouted, the metal biting into me. A head appeared in the hole. Well, part of one. One massive dragon eye peered at me. I stared back in amazement.

"Your Majesty?" I asked.

I don't know how I knew it was Vaxarion. Maybe it wasn't. But what other Sea Dragon would be coming to my rescue? And what other Sea Dragon had eyes like sunshine through amethyst?

The sea dragon, who may or may not be the King of the Morilren Sea, growled and let go of me. One claw struck out, and the bed crumbled, shards of wood raining down. I started to laugh as it came down on me. I continued to laugh as I crawled toward the dragon. My strength gave out, and I collapsed, but I kept smiling.

His claws closed around me again and this time when he pulled, I went freely. Limp and grinning, I lay within the dragon's grasp as it drew me out of the castle like a cat digging a choice morsel from a carcass. With another roar, we fell. The sound of sliding stones came, but then water rushed around us. Great big streams of the stuff swallowed us whole. It formed a channel, a river, and the sea dragon swam up it.

As he escaped with his prize, I sucked in that glorious substance, my withered cells rejoicing in so many ways. I felt complete. Oddly complete. And it had nothing to do with the water. It was this man. This Sea Dragon. My king. In his keeping, I could finally rest. And I did. I closed my eyes and fell into a blissful oblivion.