Page 124 of Heir of Broken Souls

“Stop!” Knox calls out, wrapping his hand around my wrist.

The fourth shadow emerges, a water dragon similar to our attackers, yet entirely different.

This is no ordinary water dragon.

It suddenly drops, disappearing entirely before water explodes, spraying in all directions as Harlow, shapeshifted into a water dragon, larger than our attackers, opens her mouth—and snaps it closed around our enemy.

Black blood spurts from its body, staining the ocean like an oil spill.

The dragon in her mouth thrashes wildly, spinning this way and that at such an alarming rate Harlow is thrown to the side, her hold on the dragon dropping. Before the water dragon can turn on her, I send golden fire after golden fire, making my power rain down upon it.

Its cry of pain is different from the rest. It doesn’t simply flinch or roll in discomfort, it’s pure agony. The golden fire not only hits its scales but latches onto them, burying a hole into its side through scales, flesh, bone, and muscle.

The two dragons around it pause, yet only for a moment before the largest of them all—the leader who set its sights on me—turns as quick as a snake and takes off, shooting through the water, heading directly for Harlow.

Knox lifts his hands behind me and claps them together. My eyes widen as the water below is disturbed by two large rolling waves, coming to smash against one another right where the water dragon swims. Its body is momentarily stunned, rolling in the undercurrent that Knox created.

I search for Harlow but come up short. The water dragon does the same once it escapes the turbulent water. It pauses, its follower doing the same.

The corner of my lips lift, a cunning smile spreading across my face as color begins to bloom below the water dragons.

Knox sucks in a sharp breath as white, red, green, blue, pink, and purple light shines from the ocean’s depths, creating a circle around the water dragons that they try to swim through, only to cower back as if they were burned.

The mermaids rise, their hands lifted above the water. Their lips are moving a mile a minute, their cold voices drifting toward us on a breeze of Knox’s doing as they chant in a language I’ve only heard once before.

When Eleanor was taken by the sea.

The water dragons begin to writhe in pain, their screams filling the air around us. It makes me pause completely, until shadows looming along the surface of the ocean in the distance snag my attention.

I lift my head, my brows furrowing, for I can’t see a cloud in sight. But as they grow closer, I can see the shadows dancing along the water aren’t shaped like clouds, nor do they move like they are.

Suddenly, I know why Axel, Elysia, and Zephlyn haven’t arrived yet.

Along the horizon are Phookas, with blades of steel, riding among the spines of demonic dragons.

Chapter44

Knox

Delilah stiffens before me and stops breathing.

Following her gaze, I find out why.

Three demonic dragons fly for us. The two at the back fight Zephlyn with their razor-sharp claws and teeth as Axel and Elysia battle with the Phookas atop the monsters. It’s a creature I know all too well, one I have fought against for years. One that no matter how many times you kill, it continues to come back.

Until Delilah—the golden witch as they call her.

You can tell the moment Aurora spots Zephlyn fighting against two demonic dragons. One minute we’re watching the mermaids trap the water dragons within their mystical powers, and in the next we’re careening through the air, her feral growl and snarls slapping the sky like thunder.

Golden fire arrows whiz through the air as Delilah sends one after the other for the Phookas atop the demonic dragons.

I’ve never seen Aurora fly as fast as she does now, though perhaps Delilah is manipulating the currents of air for her. Raising my hands, I assist her, sending a pocket of air behind Aurora all the while firing my own arrows at the demons. The demons dodge my and Delilah’s magic as if it were nothing.

The sight of Elysia’s quivering hand covering her mouth as she screams, attempting to strike the demon coming for Zephlyn’s back while Axel fights at the front, has my heart clenching.

Why isn’t Axel flying?

Does he not want to leave Elysia?