Selenis waited, ruby eyes judging the distance between the Laharock and my assassins. Unused water dripped from her quivering void. Creeping low through the waves with Oz beside me, I eyed the young.
“Almost,” I said. The baby yawned, stretched. Stood and peered after its mother. Far from full grown, and yet still the size of a bear.
And just as ferocious.I scowled. Baby Laharocks were difficult to approach. If they grew up in the wild unthreatened, their magic would result in the ability to summon scalding fires and intense heat, much like the mother. But until then? They were empathic metamorphs—susceptible to any outside trigger that could shift their power. They were in constant flux until that happened, making them impossible to gauge.
One of Kost’s blades wedged between two of the Laharock’s scales, just a sliver of an opening. She roared, wet spittle coating the ground before her, and charged several feet his direction.
“Selenis!”
A powerful stream exploded from her palm and expanded to a wall as thick and tall as the ones surrounding Wilheim. Impenetrable. The roaring sound of cascading water drowned out the panicked cries of the mother.
“Now, Oz!” I reached for him, and he wrapped his arm around my side. Darkness engulfed us, and he dragged me through the ocean toward the beach. We appeared before the baby, and sable tendrils shot outward, exploding from Oz’s frame like lightning strikes. The child startled.
A desperate wail shook the back of his throat, and magic blasted around him. Heat and wind, and suddenly he was running, legs moving faster than should have been physically possible for his size. Stricken by terror, he’d chosen to sprint straight for the roaring wall of water. The force of Selenis’s stream would send him barreling into the jungle.
“No!” I lunged, but he lashed out with heated wind. The gust slammed into me, and I fell backward into the sand. All I could do was watch in horror as he ran toward certain death.
Several things happened in the span of a breath.
Oz disappeared in a chaotic mess of shadows.
Selenis saw the charging young and reacted, pulling back on the force of her water wall.
The mother took one look at my beast’s weakened stream and decided the risk was worth saving her child. She barreled toward it, ignoring the endless blades and shouts from Noc, Calem, and Kost.
And Oz reappeared, wrapping his body around the child to protect it from the spray of water misting the air.
“Oz!”
The mother towered above him. A roar shook the ground, and grains of sand bounced around us. Fire erupted, and Oz’s scream shook the treetops. Heat clawed outward over the beach, bringing welts to my skin. My gaze found Noc. Horrified, he stood before the insatiable maelstrom of fire with Calem and Kost on either side, helpless to save Oz.
And then a different kind of wall burst from the earth. Crystallized black rock as thick as Selenis’s stream surrounded Oz in a perfect circle. Simmering red veins drizzled through cracks and cooked the air with enough heat to evaporate the remaining spray of water. The mother Laharock paused, calling back her own fire to stare at the fortress. She blinked. Sniffed it. A worried call rumbled from her chest.
A soft whine answered from behind the stone. Slowly, the walls shuddered until they crumbled, revealing the baby standing protectively over a dazed Oz. His clothes had been scorched to ash, and shiny, burned skin covered his arms and back. He groaned.
Alive.Relief spurred me into motion, and I ran toward him. Slid across the sand and fell to the ground beside him. “Gods, Oz.” Noc, Calem, and Kost joined us, varying expressions of panic and anxiety readily on display.
The ground began to tremble, and the baby speared me with wary, pupil-less, white eyes. Then turned his damning gaze to the assassins. Oz’s shaking hand found his snout. “S’okay. They’re good.”
The trembling stopped. The mother hovered above us, uncertain but not aggressive. She shifted her weight between her front legs, left and right. The baby stepped away and extended his neck upward. A snort scorched with fiery heat came from the mother’s nostrils.
The child looked back at Oz. Whined.
My jaw hit the floor. “Oz, the baby wants to go with you.”
“Really?” He tried to sit up, but recoiled. Tight skin glowed a blistering red. My gaze darted to the mother. All the fight had left her eyes, and she continued to linger. Sad, soft calls working their way through her. She didn’t want to leave her child. Not yet.
I stood and walked toward the pair. The mother was wary, but the child seemed to understand. To know that, by going with me, he’d end up with Oz. The child cooed, rubbing up against my leg and nudging my fingers. I stroked his crown gently. Unlocking the well of power in my core, I showered the surrounding area in a loving light. The child leaned in closer, the charm solidifying his connection with me.
Now I just needed the mother. The wet heat of her breath hung over my face, and my heart skyrocketed to the heavens. Lifting her head, she peered at the volcano. At the place that had likely been her home since she was born.The realm is good, I thought, begging her to understand.You will not suffer. You can stay with your young.She turned back to her child and let out a quiet huff. The heavy swing of the beast realm’s door groaned, granting her access to my world. To her world.
I let out a shaky laugh. “Thank the gods.”
“Some plan, Kost.” Calem crouched by Oz, examining his blistering skin. “Didn’t see this coming?”
Kost glowered. “Like I said, what I see is more like photographs. I saw which tactics would work to draw them apart, and I saw Oz and Leena with a beast. Not this.” He jerked his chin over his shoulder and signaled to Felicks. His beast bounded across the sloping sands, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. Without prompting from his master, he ran straight for Oz. Tongue coated in saliva, he began licking the length of Oz’s back.
Oz’s face screwed up in pain. “It’s so scratchy.” The baby inched toward him and watched Felicks work.
