AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“A nest?” Braxton asked, realizing the gravity of what had happened.
I nodded. “A Dragon’s shed skin is sacred. They use it to warm their eggs and keep them safe while they are away hunting for food, or in this case, protecting the sea. For their kind, it is the male who takes care of the eggs before they hatch.”
Swallowing, Braxton glanced back at the ocean guardian, only to find its slitted eyes filled with rage. “Okay, I can fix this.”
“Don’t move!” I whispered-hissed, but Braxton slowly stood anyway, his every movement followed by the raging creature.
“I’m sorry. I am new here and I didn’t know,” he explained, reaching for the blanket that covered me. “I’ll put it back, just as I found it.”
“No,” I breathed before he could touch it, my heart jumping to my throat. He was going to get us both drowned to death.
The second his fingers wrapped around it, the Water Dragon reared back in fury, and the large winged-fins on his back began to stir the sea behind him. The water rushing through his gills quickened, and when his mouth opened, a raging wave began forming in the depths of his throat.
“Take a deep breath and hold on to me!” I urged, struggling to stand with my injured ribs. “We are about to be swept by a tsunami.” My hand flew to my side with the sharp pain that ran through me. My ribs had begun to heal through the night, but it was still too soon to endure something like this.
“A tsunami?!” he glanced at me, shocked.
“It means a very, very large wave.”
“I know what it means,” he replied and reached for me, pulling me into his arms just as said wave began to rise behind the ocean guardian. The sound alone already drowned everything else around us.
“No. Please stop!” Braxton shouted, lifting a hand to the creature before he could release his attack.
His golden ring’s glow increased.
“I mean you and your eggs no harm,” he declared, suddenly grabbing the Dragon’s attention. “Scan me, read my mind, or whatever it is your kind does. Feel me. I don’t have any malicious intentions here. I just…” Braxton paused, glancing at me briefly. “She got hurt yesterday after escaping a man who wanted to kill her, and I was just trying my best to protect her.”
Both of his arms wrapped around me, covering my bare body while the creature keenly watched us.
“Look at Evie. She is in pain. Her ribs are broken, and she is naked because she can no longer wear her suit.”
The Dragon’s eyes travelled to me.
“I’m truly sorry I mistook your skin for something that could help us as we slept in the open. I apologize for leaving your eggs without the shelter you carefully laid for them, but it kept her warm and safe last night, and for that I’m truly grateful. Please, don’t punish us for that. It was an honest mistake.”
Adrenaline coursed through both our hearts, making them slam against our pressed bodies as we prepared for the attack. My dread was soon replaced by shock while I watched the ire leave the guardian’s slitted eyes. The swinging of his winged-fins slowed almost to a crawl, settling the ocean, and the wave forming in the back of his throat dissolved. Tilting its head, the Water Dragon observed us, its gaze bouncing from Braxton to me, and what resembled a sympathetic whine escaped his throat.
Had Braxton’s ring made the guardian connect to him somehow?
My gaze went to the band on his finger, and the beaming light exuding from it said he had. Stunned silent, I witnessed for the first time in my life, how the Harbinger of Justice’s ring actually worked. There was no doubt that Braxton carried his father’s essence, and probably his powers too… whatever they were.
“Oh, thank God. I can’t believe that worked,” Braxton breathed next to me, his chest sinking with relief after we’d somehow averted the tsunami. “He forgave us,” he concluded with certainty, and my surprised gaze returned to him.
How could he possibly know that? Not attacking didn’t mean forgiveness, yet he seemed so sure of it.
Slipping his large form into the sea again, the ocean guardian glanced at the sacred skin and slightly nodded towards the nest, swiftly submerging himself out of view. Braxton’s arms guided me towards one of the boulders behind us, and he gently nudged me to the rock where his pants and armor lay.
“Can you sit down?”
“Yes,” I finally answered, and carefully sat on his pants, thoroughly disconcerted by what was happening. I’d never seen anything like it. “Where are you going?”
“I think it wants me to take the skin back to the eggs.”
Kissing my lips, he bent to grab it, holding it with far more care than I suspected he’d shown last night, and then made his way along the shore to where the nest lay, surrounded by logs on the sand. Letting the wind blow it open, Braxton placed it on top of the eggs with the same kind touch he usually showed me. He made sure they were fully covered, like he was swaddling a young babe.
He was unreal.
All of this was unreal.
