Page 12 of Waking Her Dragon

“Sydney, wait…” Carrick started, but Ginnie cut him off, stepping forward instantly.

“Anchor her, Carrick,” Ginnie instructed, her fingers already flying through the air, weaving a stabilizing protective web around Sydney’s glowing aura. “Don't stop her. Hold her steady!”

Carrick swore under his breath, but a heartbeat later, a wall of pure, roaring Dragon Magic slammed into Sydney's back. It wasn’t intrusive and did not crush her. It was there to brace her against the pressure of the Void.

With Ginnie anchoring her spirit and Carrick fueling her fire, Sydney thrust her consciousness directly into the fading echo of Garrett’s final cry.

The world shattered.

For one agonizing heartbeat, the darkness broke. Sydney gasped as a blinding rush of images flooded her mind. It was a chaotic, fractured montage, but through the static, a single, horrifyingly clear vision locked into place.

She didn't see Garrett. She saw his prison.

Carved into a floor of weeping black stone was a massive, ancient sigil. It twisted in the dark, forming the unmistakable shape of a black, serpent-like Dragon… the mark of Leviathan.

Then came the sound. Beneath the crackle of the phantom fire, Sydney heard the heavy, rhythmic churning of water. Not a gentle stream, but a massive, crushing pressure. It was the terrifying echo of primordial waters shifting in absolute darkness.

The Abyss.

“No!” A nameless, echoing voice hissed from the shadows.

The connection snapped like a whip.

The magical backlash hit Sydney like a physical fist, throwing her backward. Carrick caught her instantly, his massive arms locking around her waist as they both stumbled into the table behind them.

Sydney’s chest heaved. Sweat soaked her hairline, and her vision swam with angry black spots. But as she looked up into Carrick and Ginnie’s panicked faces, she didn't cry. She didn't despair.

Slowly, a sharp, fierce smile spread across her lips.

It wasn't a smile of happiness. It was the dangerous, predatory smirk of a hunter who had just caught the scent of blood.

“I have the trail,” she whispered, her brilliant blue eyes glowing brightly.

The room was suffocatingly quiet, except for the ragged sound of Sydney’s breathing. Carrick’s hands were still steady on her shoulders, grounding her, his face a mask of intense anxiety. “Sydney,” he urged, his voice tight with a desperation he rarely showed. “What did you see?”

Slowly opening her eyes, the disorientation faded, replaced by a cold, hard focus that settled deep into her bones. She looked up at Carrick, then over at Ginnie.

“Enough,” she simply said.

Inside her head, Kara erupted. “What?!” The Dragon Queen was practically tearing at the boundaries of Sydney’s mind. “ENOUGH?! Tell them! Tell them about the serpent! Tell them about the dark waters! Tell them everything!”

Ignoring Kara’s frantic, mental screaming, Sydney held Carrick’s gaze. The fear that had paralyzed her on the floor just minutes ago was completely gone. “I know where to start,” she added, her voice steady and deliberate.

Letting out a short, sarcastic chuckle, a dark, humorless sound that echoed off the walls. “He told me to run...”

For a fraction of a second, the human warmth in Sydney's eyes vanished. A fierce, blinding spark of gold ignited in her irises. Kara’s unmistakable Dragonfire flared to the surface, bright and lethal.

“He really should know me better than that.”

4

“Who?” Carrick asked.

His voice, sharp and demanding, cut through the fading echo of Sydney’s defiance. Looking up, Sydney found him staring at her, his eyes tracking the last flickers of golden Dragonfire as they receded from her irises.

In the blink of an eye, it dawned on her that he hadn’t been privy to what had happened in her mind. From his perspective, she had just had a silent, internal standoff with herself and come out the other side making cryptic jokes.

Sydney blinked, the fierce adrenaline rush giving way to a sudden, heavy exhaustion. She looked at Carrick’s hard expression, then at Ginnie, who was still holding the remnants of her stabilization spell. Realizing that she had kept the vast majority of the vision locked inside her own skull while Kara was screaming at her to spit it out, she nodded.