Jabir planted his claws against the stern and heaved. The boat lurched forward. Wings pumping, his tail sweeping like a rudder, he shoved it through the waves toward the dock. He could hear the villagers on shore shouting now, their voices a mix of outrage, fear, and encouragement. He caught glimpses of pitchforks, nets, and hands pointing at the lake.
Almost there?—
A sudden jerk on his tail yanked him backward. The world tilted. Water slammed into his face. He was dragged under.
Cold swallowed him whole.
His dragon thrashed. His wings beat against dozens of unseen hands that gripped him, dragging him deeper. The lake roared in his ears like a thousand voices. He snapped his tail and raked his claws against the dark shapes pulling him down. For a moment, he broke the surface, gasping, his wings straining for air. He saw Cory helping Jack onto the dock, wrapping a blanket around his shoulders as Albacore barked orders at the villagers. Cory’s frightened eyes met his.
Then more hands—icy, unrelenting—clamped around his wings and shoulders and yanked him under again.
Shift! he roared to his dragon.
His dragon let go, shifting back mid-struggle, his body smaller and his limbs more slippery in the water. He kicked upward, breaking the surface to a cacophony of angry shouts on the dock. Villagers were yelling about war, nets, sirens. He took a deep breath, ready to shift again and fly—when hands gripped his clothes and plunged him down.
There was a flicker at the edge of his vision. Familiar.
Jewel!
Arms—slender but strong—wrapped around his chest, pulling him away from the other sirens. His lungs burned. She surfaced, and he barely had time to snatch a breath before she swept him into deeper water.
He fought weakly as she continued to dive, but his limbs felt like lead. His vision blurred. The world tilted. All he knew was the pull of the water, the hiss of bubbles against his skin, and a voice—urgent, frantic—threading through the rush in his ears.
“Don’t give up. I’ve got you!”
Jewel.
He forced his head up and broke through an unexpected surface as they burst into an open cavern. Air rushed into his lungs. Light exploded around them. The lake’s roar dimmed into echoes. Water dripped from stalactites, sparkling like liquid crystal. He clawed toward the shore, but his body betrayed him, and his arms gave out.
He started to slip under.
Warm hands cupped his cheeks. Jewel’s face swam in and out of focus even as her voice broke.
“Stay with me, Jabir. Please!”
He nodded weakly, letting her guide him. Together they swam to a soft, powder-white sandy beach. There, they collapsed side by side as the water lapped around them.
Jabir lay gasping, his chest heaving, the metallic taste of lake water in his mouth, his dragon silent. Jewel’s hair clung to her face as she leaned over him, her eyes wild with fear.
He realized dimly that his heart wasn’t pounding just from the fight.
It was hammering from the way she held him like she’d never let go.
They had only been alone in the cavern for a few minutes before it began to pulse with a strange, unnatural light.
Jabir’s head jerked up as the water began to shimmer—then glow—with an iridescent green hue. It spread like ink through the pool, illuminating the jagged stone walls and the glittering mineral veins that flowed like fire beneath the surface.
Beside him, Jewel gasped. “No… no, please,” she whispered, her voice breaking.
She scrambled forward, trying to shield his body with hers. Jabir caught her trembling hands and gently, firmly, pulled her behind him. He rose to his feet, every muscle tight as he stood over her. The scratches the sirens had cut into his skin stung, but none of that mattered.
The water exploded upward in a towering column of jade light.
From it, a procession of sirens surged, dozens of them, their sleek forms gliding and glimmering through the water, their eyes shining, their hair flowing like seaweed caught in a current. Each breath in his lungs grew colder as their presence filled the cavern like a rising tide.
And then… her.
The Siren Queen.
