Shadow on the Water

by Katya Moore

  Too late.

  Aric laughed bitterly. "She’s got more common sense than that. She knows a snake when she sees one."

  Another slap. I felt my fingertips stretching into talons. With effort, I fought it back.

  "That’s no way to speak of your betters, boy." His mother’s voice was a low hiss. "Your brother is honoring our family. Honoring our lineage. He serves the Council in a way you could never hope to."

  "Or want to," Aric countered. "They sure as hell don’t want what’s best for the Shadow Queen. They just want a nice little puppet to prance out for society functions, to use as breeding stock so their fuck-up doesn’t cost us all our precious dragon forms."

  "So what if they do? It’s not your concern. None of this is. You and your team need to stand down and let the Alpha Squad take over."

  "That’s not my call." I could hear Aric’s smirk. I maneuvered in closer to peek around the corner. "She’s got her own voice. Her own power. I’ve seen her shift. Seen her spread her wings. She’s not going to be as easy to control as you all hoped." He chuckled. "Ask Meriwether about that bruise on her neck if you want to know how tame the Shadow Queen is."

  "Do you think this is a joke?" His father sounded pissed.

  Aric stepped up and planted his finger in his father’s chest. "I think you’re a joke, Father. You want to rise to power so badly, you’re practically drooling at the thought of one of your sons getting in Sia’s bed. It’s perverse. You’re pimping out your kids with no thought to what any of us actually wants."

  "If you don’t want her, why are you protesting all of this so much?" Venom dripped from Mrs. Beauvais’ words.

  Aric fell silent for a long moment. "She deserves better," he said softly. "Better than Dario. Better than us. Better than the Elders."

  "You’re soft," Mr. Beauvais growled contemptuously. "You’re useless to us. Stand aside, and take your Omega Squad with you. Leave the rule of dragonkind to those who can make the hard choices."

  My dragon was threatening to break out of my chest. Best to stop this before I full-shift and break the chandelier. I stepped away from the wall and strode into the foyer.

  "Mr. and Mrs. Beauvais. So nice to see you." I plastered on a diplomatic smile. "When did you get into town?"

  Aric ran his hand over his face and turned to leave. I walked over to him, put my arm around him, and gave him a gentle squeeze. He stiffened, looking at me as though I’d lost my damned mind. I didn’t let go.

  "Miss Bellmont. Charmed to see you again," Mrs. Beauvais oozed. I could see where Dario got it. "Are you enjoying the house? Anyone giving you any trouble?"

  "Everyone’s been absolutely wonderful," I gushed. "Especially Sanders. I’d be lost here without him. He’s making me feel right at home."

  She flinched slightly, but her smile never wavered. "Excellent. We’ll be taking up residence in the west end. We’ll stay out of your way. If you need anything at all, from any of us, please don’t hesitate to ask."

  "You’re so generous. Thank you. Now, I have to borrow Aric back. He was just filling me in on some of the finer points of draconic society functions." I gave Aric a tug. He blinked, then ambled off with me toward the dining room.

  "I didn’t need saving," he hissed at me as we rounded the corner.

  "No." I gave him a grim smile. "Your parents did."

  Chapter Twelve

  The mansion in Jamaica Plains was surrounded by trees, a lush forest at the edge of Boston. It felt like we were worlds away from the city. Aric informed me that it was "new money," that it was a recent acquisition by the water dragons to have more space for training. "It’s a waystation for dragon diplomats. They like to have space to shift into their half-forms and try to be real dragons for a little while." He snorted. "Pathetic, really. The ones old enough to remember what it was like to be a full dragon still haven’t gotten over it. They all say, ‘I need to stretch my wings again. They’ve been folded inside me too long.’ Then they yell at us to get off their damned lawns."

  I nodded, more acknowledgement than approval. "I’ve only been a full dragon a couple times. I can see where you’d want to go back to it. It’s… a rush."

  "Rub it in, why dontcha?" Aric sniffed at me. "Pick your mates and get down to it already. I wanna fly."

  I looked around myself. We stood in the middle of the spacious grounds, surrounded by trees. Could I?

  "If I shifted here, could I fly?" I turned to Chase. "Would it be okay?"

  Chase shrugged. "It’s actually the whole point of this mansion. It’s the fly-zone for the diplomats, and their guests. City dragons never got to stretch their wings a whole lot, once dragons went to ground in the Middle Ages. It’s why so many of us fled to the New World once it opened up. Wide open plains and all that." He paused and looked around at the grounds. "One of the perks of diplomatic service was the ability to be a dragon now and again."

  "When is Alpha Squad due? I don’t want them bugging me while I try to shift again." I flexed my arms, trying to psych myself up.

  Galen looked at his watch. "They’re due any minute. If you want to get a couple laps in, I’d do it quick."

  "No pressure, huh?" I winked at him, then took several steps back from the four of them.

  Think dragon thoughts. Smoke. Scales. Wings. I poked at my dragon. She was unimpresssed. Think angry thoughts. Grr. Nothing. I looked at Cass and Chase and thought back to our fun in the hot tub. My dragon began to relax a bit. I closed my eyes and really let myself get into it. I felt my face flush. Slowly, I ran a hand over my chest as I remembered Chase’s mouth on my breasts. I swayed slightly, my knees weakening as I remembered Cass taking me by the hips and…

  "Are we late?"

  Fuck.

  I opened my eyes. Dario and his minions were making their way past the gate.

  "You should have waited until we finished scouting the perimeter," Kane blustered as he strode up. "The security wards on this place are old. It hasn’t been used for diplomats for too long. The mansion’s not even properly staffed, and the ethereals have been lax on updating things."

  "The ethereals have a lot on their plates," Quinn shot back. "Keeping up with the Chosen’s advances in dark magic is a full-time job, and there aren’t enough of us at the Academy to ward every single mansion in the country."

  "It may be worth prioritizing." I chewed at my lip. "I wanted to wait until I had you all together to mention this." All eyes were on me. I swallowed hard. "I got a call from the Elders’ attaché today. Five dragons have gone missing. One of them was an ethereal dragon working at an Academy library. They think the Chosen are involved. That they might be trying to extract their essence, as a practice run for extracting mine."

  I looked around at their silent faces. Chase’s brow was furrowed. I wasn’t sure if it was from the news or that I hadn’t told him first. Cass and Galen both looked horrified. Aric was watching his brother. Dario was expressionless, like something had short-circuited in his emotional processing unit. I wondered if the Elders had left him out of the loop. Jared looked pensive, as did Quinn. Kane looked irritated. It seemed to be his default setting.

  "Did they give a name for the ethereal dragon?" Quinn asked at last.

  "I… didn’t think to ask," I admitted.

  Quinn ran a hand over his beard. "I should make a call. See if it was anyone I worked with. See what they were studying."

  I nodded. "That’s a really good idea."

  Chase spoke up. "Were they local?"

  "Scattered around New England." I pondered for a moment. "They might be keeping the abductions close enough to transport their victims here, though."

  "Or close enough for the Boston cell to commute." Dario straightened his shirt. "Chances are, they wouldn’t want to haul a pissed-off dragon too far."

  "Good point." I chewed on my lip some more. "Anyway, I wanted you all to know about that. Stay on your guards. I don’t want this happening to any of you."

  Dario looked amused at that. My bo
ys did not. I shook my head at them. Annoying though they were, I’d still feel bad if Alpha Squad wound up getting their souls sucked out and ground to powder on my account.

  "Have you gotten the chance to spread your wings yet, Miss…" Jared began.

  "Sia. Just… just call me Sia." I sighed. "No, I haven’t. Just stand back there and let me concentrate. Without interrupting this time, okay?"

  Jared bowed his head, then took a step back. My boys gathered off to one side, Alpha Squad on the other. I stood back several yards and went back to my happy place, as best I could with eight pairs of eyes boring into me. I closed my eyes and tried not to think about them. I thought about the hot tub. About Cass and Chase. I tried to remember what their hands felt like. Their mouths. Their…

  "Get down!" Chase shouted. I opened my eyes in time to see him hurling himself at me. Something whistled past us as he knocked me flat on my back. It exploded against the tree in a shower of blood-red sparks.

  The world went insane. Seven half-dragons fanned out in a circle around me and Chase as Chosen poured in from all sides. Chosen serpents led the charge, blades held high in their scaled hands as they slithered forward. They were followed by more shifted sorcerers than I’d thought possible. Men with the heads of dogs, pumas, wolves, foxes, bears, all bore down on us in a crashing wave of horror. Beyond that wave, back by the fences, I saw two more Chosen serpents standing with an all-too familiar face. Kiernan Donovan stood smiling, watching.

  What the fuck is he doing here?

  Chase rolled off me and shifted, standing in front of me as a dragon shield. I shifted to my half-form and shoved him aside.

  "I can fight," I roared at him.

  He grabbed my arm. "We need you alive. We’ve got to get you out of here. Someone gave away our location, and I don’t know who to trust right now. They had to know we were coming here." He snarled under his breath. "The fact that Alpha Squad scouted this out and didn’t see them coming makes me wonder."

  My eyes widened. Sure, I’d pissed them off, and forcing them to wait tables at my pub was a bit demeaning. But would they sell me out? To Donovan?

  No time to think about that now. A Chosen serpent with a head hooded like a cobra’s hurled a ball of crimson light at us. Chase tightened his grip on my arm and hurled me out of the way, narrowly ducking it himself. It smashed into the back of one of the sorcerers. The light engulfed the sorcerer, making his skin glow like the embers beneath my scales. He screamed in inhuman agony as the light consumed him. He crumpled to the ground in a heap of charred flesh.

  Fuck.

  I picked myself up off the ground and started to charge at the priest who hurled the ball. Chase lunged to block me. Kane flew at the priest from the side, tackling him to the ground and sinking both sets of talons into his sides, teeth at his throat. It was a primal battle. Kane’s knees dug into the sides of the writhing priest’s tail as he tore into him like a badger digging a burrow. It was entirely unlike Chase’s more human martial-artist’s style, and both fascinating and horrifying to watch.

  Chase grabbed my arm again, shaking me from my reverie. "We’ve got to go. We’ve got to get you out of here," he repeated.

  I looked around. The dragons were outmanned four to one, and I could see them struggling even as they lashed out with lightning, earth, and ice. Being outside gave the earth dragons an advantage. Galen and Jared were slamming Chosen left and right with vines and saplings, and pounding them with fists encased in stone. But even they were getting piled upon. Cass and Quinn were nearly overrun. Dario and Aric were on opposite ends of the field, blasting as best they could with fountains of ice. The Chosen were dragging them further apart, scattering the dragons. I could see it clear as day. Divide and conquer.

  I couldn’t leave them. I wouldn’t.

  My dragon awoke.

  Chase got knocked to the side as my body expanded, as my wings unfurled from my back like war banners lofted into the air. I stretched my long neck and roared through dagger-like teeth. Without pausing for breath, I lunged onto the battlefield to save my men, heedless to Chase’s cry to stop. I could hear him roar in frustration.

  The pack of sorcerers I charged reeled back from their assault on Quinn and Cass, eyes wide, jaws dropped low in astonishment at the size of me. I took advantage of their distraction and exhaled a long plume of night-black smoke into their faces. They screamed as I drew it back into myself, red and glowing with their life essence. They dropped to the ground like rag dolls. Quinn’s eyes were as wide as the sorcerers’. I nodded my head at him as the rush of the stolen life energy flooded through me. It was warm and potent, like a long swig of Kitty’s favorite whiskey. My stomach flipped a little as I started to think of what I’d just done. No time. Don’t think. Just do. I turned and loped back toward the fray.

  The priest had managed to writhe out from beneath Kane’s onslaught and was whipping at the half-dragon with his tail. When he saw me coming, he began a hissing chant. His hands began to glow red once more. Kane saw it and lunged, sinking his teeth into the cobra-man’s hooded neck. The priest didn’t halt his chant. I opened my mouth to unleash my smoke, then thought better of it. I didn’t want to catch Kane in the blast. I reached out and grabbed Kane with a foreleg, hurling him aside. Black blood spattered as he took a chunk of the priest’s hood with him.

  We struck at the same time, the priest with his ball of light and me with my death-smoke. It struck me in the chest, a burning mass of agony. I drew my breath back in sharply, surprised by the intensity of the pain. The priest’s body lurched, his life force ripped from him as the smoke filled my lungs. The pain receded, but not quickly enough. The world spun, and I collapsed to my knees. The sorcerers saw their opening and charged at me, leaving my exhausted half-dragons in the dust.

  A roar filled the air. The next thing I knew, something large and golden coiled itself around me. The air crackled with electricity. I could see the half-dragons stepping back quickly, even as the sorcerers and Chosen froze in fear and awe. The crackling turned to a bright flash, a deafening roar of death from above, striking down on all sides. I could smell burnt hair, charred flesh, scorched grass filling my nostrils. My stomach roiled at it. I raised my weary head and looked around. Five half-dragons stared at the two of us in awe.

  Something nuzzled at my neck. I turned my head to look. A broad golden head, with emerald-green eyes, gazed back at me.

  "Cass?" I gasped.

  The dragon’s face lit up with a broad smile.

  I smiled back, then winced. My chest still ached, even as it healed. My dragon coiled itself again, and I sank to the ground, exhausted and human. Cass joined me, landing with a thud next to me.

  "That… is exhausting," he gasped. "How’s your chest?"

  I looked down at myself. The skin was red, but the redness was fading fast. "I guess I had enough life essence absorbed to heal it before he could hurt me too badly."

  "Good thing, too. Even in dragon form, that magic can be lethal." Chase knelt next to me. "What the hell were you thinking, Sia?"

  I glared at him. "What the hell do you mean? You thought I was just going to abandon Cass? Galen? Aric?" I looked over at Alpha Squad. "Or those guys? You were all fighting to protect me. The least I could do was have your backs."

  "The point of us fighting was so that you could escape," Kane growled. "You aren’t meant for the front lines! Not as long as you’re the only shadow dragon! Damn it, woman, we need to make that perfectly clear." He stormed over and got in my face. "We are expendable. You are not."

  "No one is expendable. Especially not my friends." I shoved a finger into his chest. "Not even you. I don’t abandon people to die. You might, but I sure as hell don’t."

  "Things change. Things need to change." Dario sauntered over. "You need to think less like a grunt and more like a general." He offered a hand to help me up. I shoved my hands into the ground and pushed myself to my feet without it. He tucked his hand into his pocket. "Because you are the queen. And we�
��re at war."

  I looked around at the serious faces staring at me. Even my boys looked like they agreed. Exasperated, I looked for Aric. At least he’d agree that this was fucking stupid.

  My heart lurched.

  "Where’s Aric?"

  Dario’s mouth snapped shut. He looked around himself. I was already off at a run toward the fallen bodies, screaming Aric’s name at the top of my lungs. My boys scattered, turning over corpses. Dario barked orders at Alpha Squad that I barely comprehended, but they ran to the perimeter, looking for escape routes.

  My heart pounded in my ears as I reached down and grabbed the bodies of the fallen, struggling with all my might to roll them off what could be my friend. My mind was a constant soundtrack of every time I’d called him an asshole, every time I’d been pissed off at him, every time I’d wanted to punch him in the face. Every second of it was a symphony of guilt, tearing at my soul. Tears poured down my face as my search turned up nothing but maimed Chosen and sorcerers.

  "Here! Over here!" I heard Kane shout. We all ran over to a hole blasted in the back gate of the property. "Fresh tire tracks." He pointed them out to Chase, who looked at them in despair.

  "They peeled out of here pretty fast," Chase muttered, sniffing the air. "They must’ve taken him."

  "For what?" Dario asked. His face was pale, his eyes unfocused.

  I stared at him for a long moment.

  "To get to me," I moaned softly. "Donovan was here. He knew who to capture. Who to target. Who I’d need to save."

  Dario looked at me with an expression I couldn’t read. But I could feel the pain. "I hope that’s all."

  Chapter Thirteen

  Aric

  Pain. Aching, throbbing, piercing, penetrating pain. It blurred my vision and left me a limp, panting pile of flesh on the hard stone of the floor. I fought to control my breathing. Fought to remember the basic training all dragons had to go through in their year at the Proving Grounds. I wanted to laugh at myself, but that hurt too. Water dragons’ year at the Proving Grounds is commonly called ‘summer camp’ for good reason. Basic combat, basic first aid, basic bullshit. We’re lovers, not fighters. I’d fought more in the past month than most water dragons fought in their whole damned lives.