Page 49

Amir reaches for me. “Ezra, don’t⁠—”

“Volume eight, chapter three: hesitation is the thief of blessings.” Josiah taps his notepad against his hand. “Tick-tock. Tick-tock.”

“You are the worst fucking deputy ever,” Amir growls.

I turn on him. “You didn’t help.”

“I am helping.” Amir jabs a finger at the water. “They know she’s House of Zorah. They’re giving her air. She’s not drowning down there.”

Smoke pours from my nose and ears. My dragon shoves at the inside of my skin. The sky over the lake is already answering him. She’s been under four minutes now, maybe more. My hands won’t stop shaking. Amir wants me to take his word that the Mer are keeping her alive, but I don’t trust a damn thing coming out of his mouth today.

“Do it,” Josiah urges under his breath.

I raise my face to the clouds as my dragon rises up to meet them. He knows the power, even if I spent my whole life thinking my father’s stories about commanding storms were bedtime tales to make a hatchling feel special. The hair on my arms stands up.

I roar into the air. Blue light pulses out of me. The wind picks up and drives waves at my feet. Thunder rolls in from all sides until everything above us churns black. When lightning strikes the water, the depths flash white.

Bolts keep cracking into the lake from a storm already too big for me to rein in. I can’t see her down there or tell if any of it reaches that deep. For all I know, I killed my mate trying to save her. My dragon wails. Mother Fate, please give her back to me.

Less than a minute later, Aya breaks the surface up to her chin. Somehow she’s breathing easy after this long under. Her scent reaches me, and my dragon shuts up. She finds me on the shore. Even from here I can read her face, confused and annoyed with relief underneath all of it.

“See?” Amir gloats. “They weren’t going to drown her.”

“Some king you are,” I tell him.

Josiah steps in beside me and sizes Amir up. “You know what your problem is, King Amir? You do too much talking. Action! That’s what gets things moving around here. You’d rather talk your way around stuff because of the guilt you’re still holding on to from that bear shifter clan you annihilated. Remind them who you are! You are king! The Father of Shifters! And vampires too!”

Amir’s golden eyes flare. “This is why you disrespect me?”

“I don’t disrespect you.” Josiah straightens his cuffs. “I just think you could use a little more⁠—”

“Enough.” I’m not standing here listening to them bicker while my mate is out there in the lake.

I throw my wings open and launch off the ground, then drop low over the water to scoop Aya up. She yelps and digs her fingers into my shoulders while she drips all down my front. I press my nose into her neck as we climb.

I fly us straight over King Amir and Josiah on the way to Wintermoon Medical. From the sound of it, they’re still arguing down there.

“What are you doing?” Aya squirms against me and strains to see behind us. “We have to go back!”

I tighten my arms around her. “I’m taking you to the medical center to get looked over. Then I’m taking you home.”

She pushes at my shoulder. “You don’t understand, Ezra. They weren’t trying to hurt me⁠—”

I cut my eyes at her, and she snaps her mouth shut. I might be overreacting, but my dragon doesn’t think so. She should have listened. The thunder I called keeps booming behind us while I track her heartbeat under my arm. It stays strong and steady, but I still don’t trust it.

She clings to my neck as I bring us down easy on the concrete outside the medical center. Uncle Sam steps out through the sliding doors and stops short at the sight of Aya dripping wet in my arms.

I don’t put her down no matter how hard she kicks. Has she lost her mind? She has the nerve to scowl back at me when I glare at her.

“Where’s my mom?” I ask Sam. “I need her to look over Aya for me.”

“She’s in Ash Clan with your father due to the alarms.” Sam eyes us. “What’s the problem? I’ll look over her.”

Aya kicks her feet again, then turns all sweet for Sam. He bows to his future luna. I know Lauren can’t wait to hand the position over so she can focus on her family.

“I’m fine, really,” Aya says. “But I met a pod of the Mer. Real Mer! How awesome is that? They were about to shift and step onto land, but then—” She elbows me in the ribs. “Ezra scared them away. They didn’t know I was fated to a Stormscale.”

Sam clears his throat, but he can’t keep his face straight. “Come inside. I’ll look her over.”