Aquamarine
Terry Bolryder
Copyright © 2017 by Terry Bolryder
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For the many, many readers who asked me for Mercury’s story. Thank you for refusing to give up on even a very difficult dragon.
Contents
Author’s note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
Awakened Dragons Boxed Set
Terry Bolryder Reading Guide
Author’s note
Wait! This book is the third in the series, and while each has a standalone couple and happy ending, you definitely want to read them in order!
Get the first here:
Zircon (Awakened Sea Dragons 1)
Second here:
Tourmaline (Awakened Sea Dragons 2)
And if you haven’t read the Awakened Dragons Boxed set, you’ll want to read that series for some of the world building details! All six are on sale for the price of one!
Awakened Dragons Boxed Set (best deal!)
Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Marina felt a tingle of anticipation as she closed the door to her bedroom and went down the stairs into the main hall of the mansion she’d come to call home.
Anticipation for what, she wasn’t sure. Maybe it was seeing those dark-silver eyes again. Maybe it was because she owed a debt to the dragon they kept locked in the basement dungeon, a debt she had no clue how to repay. Maybe there was just something funny in the air today.
Alastair, the diamond dragon, greeted her as she walked past.
“Going to see our resident prisoner?” he asked, stopping her.
“Yeah,” Marina said, so deep in thought she almost didn’t respond.
“Hey, maybe you’ll be the one to finally crack open that psychopath. Sometimes it just takes the right person,” he said with a nod as he passed her, continuing on his way in the direction of the kitchen.
She’d heard the stories of all the awakened dragons and how they’d found their mates. Alastair’s story with his mate Bridget was certainly an interesting one, given that he’d been a bit of a bad boy himself.
But with time running out, Marina wasn’t so sure she could get Mercury to budge.
She took the stairs, going down slowly, her memory flooding with how he’d helped her when she’d needed it most. Her brother, Kai, had been in danger. And Mercury had been the one to release Marina’s collar, freeing her to go help him.
He’d also kissed her, and her lips felt phantom warmth at the memory of it.
Mercury, despite his coldness, his lack of affect, had been warm when he’d kissed her. Rough and gentle at the same time.
And maybe it was just Marina’s mind playing tricks on her, but lately, Mercury seemed less closed off, less shut off from the world around him. Granted, he’d still gone back to not talking to her when she came down to visit, but that didn’t change the feeling she got around him now.
That, coupled with the fact that she was still getting strange premonitions of things, things she couldn’t explain, made the world feel it was changing around her at times.
She reached the heavy, barred door to the prison and opened it, closing it behind her. For a second, she felt Mercury’s gaze boring into the back of her skull, but when she turned, he was sitting back on his bench, looking away as if he’d been doing something interesting and she was interrupting.
“Good morning,” Marina said, not letting his coolness affect her. She knew deep down there was something hidden behind the Mercury that everyone else, including the oracle, thought they knew. A Mercury that would risk his own life so she could save a sibling. A Mercury that could care about more than himself or vengeance.
“The weather outside is lovely today. I wish you could see it,” she said, slipping into her habit of talking to Mercury even though he made her feel more like she was talking at him.
To her surprise, Mercury’s head tipped to the side, eyebrow raised, as if to sarcastically say, Really, is it?
Any reaction was a good one as Marina saw it.
Maybe she’d get him to talk, too.
“Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you, again. Kai and his mate are very happy now, thanks to you.”
Mercury’s gaze turned away again, his attention glazing over. Where was he going in his mind?
She pushed on. “I’ve been thinking about my promise to you. I’m still hoping to figure out a way that I can get you out of here that would satisfy the oracle and the others. I really don’t think you’re going to hurt anyone now.”
As she talked, her focus shifted to his lips, curved slightly downward at the ends, full and masculine. His nose was straight, with high cheekbones and a sculpted jaw. Prince-like features, if not for his bearing and complete nonchalance.
“I’m not worth saving,” he said quietly, shocking her, though his gaze remained fixed on the wall to her left.
“How can you keep saying that when I know—”
But as Marina tried to finish her sentence, a frozen chill went down her spine, like an arctic wind, from the inside out. The hairs on the back of her neck raised as if there was something imminently wrong, but she didn’t know what.
Mercury, aware of the sudden change in the mood but still trying to act unconcerned, glanced at her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked sardonically. “Your brother isn’t going to die again, is he?”
Marina might have laughed if not for the growing intensity of her suspicion. It was as if the walls were closing in around her, though nothing had changed at all.
“No… it’s just, has anyone checked on Lead today?” Marina asked, her mouth feeling dry.
“I’m certainly not the right person to ask. But yes, I think Redmond brought breakfast down an hour ago or so,” Mercury said, looking puzzled. “Maybe he choked on it. One can hope.” He laughed a little at his own joke.
But Marina’s head was still swirling. She looked to her right, and the thick steel door that separated Lead and Mercury’s room stood between them.
The oracle had tried putting Lead and Mercury in the same room but different cells, but she’d found out quite quickly the two were like water and oil, not meant to be mixed.
Marina watched the door as if it could move at any second, but the only thing that surrounded them was an eerie silence. Silence so overpowering it felt the walls themselves could be heard to speak.
Then, from nowhere, Marina heard quiet muttering. Low whispers coming from somewhere, followed by several muffled clicks.
Maybe Red was just upstairs, whipping up breakfast for the kids.
But as Marina looked over to Mercury, she saw him bristling with tension like a cat ready to kill. In an instant, he was on his feet, facing the direction of the heavy door.
“Something’s not right,” Marina said quietly, unsure why she felt the need to be quiet, but not questioning her intuition.
“Obviously,” Mercury said.
There were more sounds as other voices could be heard, still indistinct but present nonetheless. Marina was quite certain none of the o
ther awakened dragons had been down here when she came to visit Mercury. So what was making those sounds?
A flash of light shot through her mind like lightning, and she raised her arms, condensing the water particles in the air around her into a protective shield. Not even a second later, a heavy rumbling sound began to vibrate the walls all around them, making the earth shake.
“Get down!” Mercury yelled as the wall before them exploded, throwing him completely off his feet and onto the ground with a thud. The steel door blasted off its hinges like a cannonball, ricocheting off Marina’s shield and into the corner as heavy concrete rubble cascaded around them, creating a thick cloud of dust and smoke.
For a prolonged second, everything was gray as the debris settled. When Marina looked up, she saw four men walk through the gaping hole in the wall and into the room with them.
All were tall, powerful, intimidating. And at the front was a man with thick, shoulder-length brown hair and bright-yellow eyes.
Lead.
Marina’s mind raced with possibilities. Who were the other men? She remembered the oracle telling her that Lead had been from another planet. A planet with other men like him. But how did they get here?
“There he is,” Lead said, pointing at Mercury, who was now pulling himself off the ground, covered with rubble and dust.
“This is the bastard we came all this way for?” A man with black hair streaked with gray and white stepped forward, shaking his head. His bright-green eyes were pinned on Mercury.
“To think such a noble house could have fallen so far,” another man said, stepping forward. He had shoulder-length, dark-blond hair and brown eyes. He was handsome, like the others, and seemed slightly friendlier.
Each of them was bare-chested, as if that were totally normal, and they wore an assortment of armor covering their legs and hips. Some had protection on their arms or straps across their chests that held scabbards.
The last one walked to the end of his group and looked down at Mercury. This one looked the oddest, with bright-white hair, thick and long, reaching his shoulders and a handsome, almost boyish face, except for the harsh lines there. His eyes were a calm, sea-green. He glanced at Mercury with slight interest and then went back to watching Lead, who was clearly the leader here.
“I’ve heard more than enough from these people to condemn him,” Lead said. “We must return him to our home to stand trial for his crimes.”
By now, Mercury was on his feet, eyes darting between the men before fixing on their leader. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but at least I finally get a chance to pound your pompous face in,” he growled, charging at Lead with feral intent in his eyes.
Marina wished, just for once, that Mercury could stop trying to fight people.
Lead didn’t even flinch as Mercury leapt. Instead, he caught Mercury by the throat with shocking reflexes and lifted him off the ground as if he weighed nothing, though both men stood at almost equal heights.
“This planet has made you weak. These humans and their pet dragons that serve them have no honor, collaring the dragons that should rule them,” Lead said, frowning as he looked at the collar still around Mercury’s neck, restraining his powers. Lead held out his own small chain that he must have pulled off already.
“Put him down now!” Marina shouted, stepping forward to stand squarely in front of the four men surrounding Mercury.
She still owed him for her brother’s life, and she wasn’t about to let anyone take him from her.
All men turned their attention toward her, looking a mix of angry and annoyed. But to her surprise, their annoyance quickly became stunned incredulity as they realized what was standing in front of them.
“A female Earth dragon?” the one with blond hair said.
“A dragon princess?” The one with black-and-gray hair seemed astounded. “What is she doing here with this filth?”
The quiet one with white hair just grunted, but he looked at her like the others did, with a mix of admiration, shock, lust, and awe. They were like sailors stranded at sea who’d just seen a drink of water.
Now that the dust in the air had cleared, she could scent they, like Lead, were dragons as well. All tall, built, incredibly handsome, with the kind of arrogance that came with being at the top of the food chain.
But they were different from her brothers and the other Earth dragons she’d met, and not just in the strange clothes they wore.
There was something wilder about them, something fierce in their bearing, though some hid it better than others.
Lead, still holding Mercury like a struggling fish, took a step forward.
“Water princess, I’m sorry to have barged in on you like this. We had no intention of involving you in our… dispute. Our time here is short. But I have an offer to make,” he said, his voice surprisingly calm and reassuring. A side of Lead she’d never seen.
He’d always been stoic and silent, a captured soldier refusing to give any intel to the enemy due to his heightened sense of “honor.”
“Don’t listen to this crap. Run!” Mercury said, sending her an angry glare that was nonetheless worried about her.
“Silence, ingrate!” the black-haired man said.
Lead continued. “Come with us to our home, Marina. In our world, you’d be treated like royalty, revered and respected and desired by all, with your choice of partner.”
Marina took a step forward, unintimidated, only a few feet from Lead now.
“I do not need anything you offer, and this dragon’s life is mine. I cannot let you take him,” she said.
Mercury was watching her now, scowling horribly and clearly unhappy with the situation, but unable to fight back with his powers restricted.
“Are you certain? Dragons from our world are excellent companions,” the blond one said with a wink, stepping closer to Marina and coming around her from the side.
Without a second thought, Marina whirled on him and threw a punch into his chest, throwing him against the opposite wall with a loud crack that shattered rock.
“How’s that for your answer? Now release him immediately,” Marina said angrily, turning back to Lead.
The stoic shake of his head said everything. “I’m sorry, but I cannot do that.”
She was done trying to negotiate.
Marina charged at Lead, and the other two at his sides jumped forward to block her path to Mercury.
“I love a woman with some fight in her,” the black-haired dragon said, green eyes sparking with amusement. Before he knew what even hit him, she kicked him upward in the torso, knocking him up into the ceiling so hard he rebounded off it and back onto the ground with a loud oof sound.
The other dragon, the one with white hair and pale, gray-green eyes, hesitated, looking uncertain about what he should do.
Using that as an opening, Marina solidified the moisture in the air into tiny projectiles, dozens of them, and sent them shooting like bullets at Lead and the other dragon before her.
With a wave of Lead’s hand, a thick wall of solid metal was pulled from seemingly nowhere in the ground beneath them, blocking off him and Mercury. The other dragon, slower to react, was pummeled by the blast of her water bullets, the force of it so strong he was knocked off his feet and thrown bodily into the back of Mercury’s cell.
“Get back to the ship, now!” Lead barked out, and she heard something beeping very oddly. Before her very eyes, she saw shimmering light fill the room, surrounding Lead and Mercury both as their bodies began to dissipate into thin air like sea spray.
Panicked, she leapt for Mercury, her hand outstretched, trying to reach him.
Mercury, still watching her, just shook his head.
“Good-bye, Marina,” she heard him say, and then he and Lead were gone.
At her sides, the other men began to be consumed by the light as well and disappeared one after the other.
She whirled around, and the first dragon she’d struck was muttering something to him
self as he stood, something about, “Just starting to have fun,” and she rushed at him in the hopes of capturing him and acquiring more info. But before she could reach him, he too was gone in a flash, leaving her alone in the basement.
The silence was quickly interrupted, though, as the door leading upstairs flew open, groaning from the force of it as she saw Alastair rush into the room, diamond claws extended, multicolored eyes rapidly surveying the destruction.
“Where’s the fight?” he growled, clearly a little too excited about it, as she saw the amethyst dragon follow down behind him.
“Where’s Mercury? Where’s Lead?” Dom asked.
But Marina had no answers.
All she knew was Mercury was gone. And for some reason, it felt like there was a hole in her soul.
She had promised to save him. Promised to free him. To pay Mercury back for doing the one thing for her she could not do.
“Marina, are you all right?” Dom asked, coming up to her and putting an arm on her shoulder.
Whatever Lead and the others had planned for Mercury, it wasn’t good. She had to stop them, whatever the cost.
And only one person could help her.
“I need to see the oracle. Now.”
Chapter 2
Marina burst into the great hall of the oracle’s home and headed straight for the office where she knew the old woman would be.
The oracle had left Aegis’s place and come back here after the incident between the wolves and Kai, because this was where she kept contacts with Pride Island and the rest of the shifter world.
Aegis’s mate was still due to give birth, but with several of the other dragons there for help and protection, she’d be fine.
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