Instead, Sabrina’s fingers drummed impatiently against the wall, the breezes that usually spun around her braids when she was irritated now quiescent or absent against her skin. Every indication suggested that the captain really was willing to give up Steph and her egg for the sake of her own freedom.
A week ago, Nicholas would have opened his mouth and tried to make a deal of his own. But instead, he waited, face grim but body quiescent. I can choose to doubt, or I can choose to trust, he decided. With his mate by his side, Nicholas opted for the latter.
Then Sabrina twisted around to face him at last, the wait for Walter’s reply apparently pushing her patience past its limits. And in her eyes, Nicholas read exactly what he’d guessed would be present—anger, willpower, and the stark determination to save far more than her metal and canvas ship.
Relief was instantaneous. Nicholas wanted to pull his captain close, wanted to plant an enthusiastic kiss on those parting lips and thank her for remaining the person he’d hoped she would be.
But if Walt was able to stream live video into the pod, then their host likely had the ability to send information in the other direction as well. Which meant it was time for a little playacting to keep the captain’s ruse intact. He just hoped Sabrina would see through his farce as easily as he’d—eventually—seen through hers.
So, crossing his arms and allowing wings to carry him backwards out of reach, Nicholas narrowed his eyes in mock anger. “What do you think you’re doing?” he growled.
“I...” Sabrina’s eyebrows came together ever so slightly as she flinched away from his aggressive stance. Which was precisely what Walter needed to see—dissension in the ranks. Nicholas just hoped his mate would be clever enough to realize that his anger was all for show...and soon, because the subtle pinching of her lips was having a far less subtle effect on the interior of his chest.
“I can’t believe you’d even consider helping those dragons,” Nicholas went on, ignoring his own discomfort and hoping the sham wasn’t so far over the top that even Walter would catch on. “It’s always your damn ship with you. Well, that and your pocketbook. I don’t understand how you can be so mercenary.”
And, finally, Sabrina smiled. Well, she didn’t smile in any way that Walter Atwater would notice. It was just the faintest crinkling of skin on either side of her eyes, a loosening of muscles in her jaw. In any other woman, though, the change in aspect would have equated to a snort-water-out-your-nose belly laugh.
“We can’t all be ultra-wealthy dragons, now can we?” Sabrina rebutted, all amusement absent from her voice even though a breeze had begun dancing through her unbraided hair. “Some of us have to make a living through the sweat of our brows. And, yes, through the work of our ships. A ship I still owe money on, as you may recall.”
It was all Nicholas could do not to give their parody away by pulling the captain into his arms. She was so glorious when she feigned anger, glaring at him with ice glinting in her eyes and magic spiraling around her head. Luckily, a mere glance at the screen, where flames were beginning to lick at Intrepid’s rigging and endanger the nine people and one egg hidden inside, reminded him of the solemnity of the occasion.
Then Walter’s voice was crackling out of the speaker behind their backs. “I hate to interrupt this lover’s spat, really I do,” the older man said. He felt no need to hide his amusement at their unlikely coalition crashing and burning. “But a decision needs to be made. I won’t bring the pod to the surface, but I will unlock the door and let you swim free, Princess. I’ll even sweeten the pot by paying off whatever debt you owe on your father’s ship. Assuming you’re willing to part with your current ballast then offload the ship’s living cargo, that is.”
The ballast in question didn’t even attempt to hide his reaction to Walter’s plan. The offer felt like a physical slap in the face...and was extremely clever on their host’s part too.
Because opening the pod’s door while underwater might allow Sabrina to make her way to safety...but the action would be a death sentence for any dragon caught in the ensuing deluge. Best-case scenario—and even that chance was slim—Nicholas would struggle against the pressure of ocean water and somehow slam the door shut before his flame winked irreversibly out. At which point he’d be trapped and weakened, stuck in a box surrounded by conditions antithetical to his continued existence while Sabrina was sent on her rescue mission alone.
Worst-case scenario? Well...Nicholas wouldn’t go there. Because this was their only option to save Sabrina’s ship, passengers, and crew. The shifter meant to jump at the chance.
Glancing sideways, though, Nicholas saw that Walter’s test of the wind witch’s loyalties was well chosen. Because Sabrina watched him with anxious eyes, her lips parting as she prepared to make a sham of their previous argument.
Which was sweet...but wasn’t going to save Steph’s life. So Nicholas pushed her over the edge in the only way he was able.
“I should have known you had no honor.” He paused, then added the clincher: “Just like your father.”
And this time, there was no smile on his mate’s face at all when she turned back around to face the intercom. “All right, Uncle Walt. Open up the door.”
***
Sabrina enjoyed water. Summer thunderstorms when wind and rain merged together into blowing sheets of excitement were some of her favorite times to be aloft. If given a choice, she always docked the Intrepid beside oceans and rivers so she could bask in the encircling liquid, reveling in a sensation that was only a few short steps removed from flying. And she hated to put on a coat to block out drizzle, even on gray winter days when water droplets solidified into icicles in her frizzing hair.
Today, though, she wasn’t a fan. Because when the hatch leading to the balcony began to open, all she could see was water rushing in to fill the space, water splashing up to sizzle against Nicholas’s wings, water breaking the connection they’d forged in fire the night before.
But her lover’s eyes said Go even when her heart said Stay. So she ignored the disaster she was leaving behind and allowed exiting air to push her up and out until she was entirely surrounded by saltwater.
The swim to the surface wouldn’t have been possible for an ordinary human. But air magic made it simple to cup hands before her face and suck oxygen out of the water during three short stops. Then she was breaching the surface, shooting upward like a cork out of a bottle as wild wind welcomed her back into the world above.
Sabrina risked only one glance backwards. The pod was a dark rectangle beneath her feet, the door impossible to make out from her current distance. Was it open or closed? Was her dragon alive or dead? She couldn’t tell and understood that even certain knowledge couldn’t impact the past.
After all, she’d already made her choice. It was too late to rescue Nicholas even if he’d been unable to close the hatch behind him. It was too late to rekindle his flames if he was currently drowning in the deluge of water and salt.
Well, that wasn’t quite true. Sabrina was powerful enough to save him. She could beg the wind to push water aside, to scoop the pod out of the ocean, to blow liquid out of Nicholas’s lungs and replace it with life-giving air. The feat wouldn’t be simple, but it could be done.
It could be done...and then the Intrepid would burn and explode, complete with every innocent human trapped inside. Because Sabrina was starting to understand her own limitations. After saving Nicholas, just breathing would be all she could handle for quite some time.
He wants me to do this, the captain reminded herself. Her dragon had all but told her so aloud when he helped wrap Uncle Walt around her little finger then jolted her into action with the mention of her father. Still, Nicholas’s self-sacrificing intentions weren’t enough to tip her hand as she treaded water directly above what might be her lover’s grave.
Strangely, it was the memory of what they’d shared the night before that gave her the strength to go on. The memory of super-heated palms stroking muscles into gl
orious submission that buoyed her up and taught her how to fly.
Quite literally. There wasn’t time to swim along the surface toward her waiting airship, wasn’t time to take the middle road and use herself as a sail, gliding forward as if she were walking on water. Instead, after one last lingering glance down into the depths, Sabrina opened her mouth and begged a boon at the top of her lungs.
Instantly, the wind obeyed, lifting her off the surface and flinging her toward the Intrepid far faster than even a dragon could dream to soar. Water rose beneath her feet in a wave so massive it threatened not only Raft City but also her not-so-distant ship. In response, Sabrina sang yet louder, calling wind and water together and hoping the latter would be sufficient to quench the flames that were nearing flashover status as they raced up the lines toward her hydrogen-filled balloon.
The wind-swept wave slapped into Intrepid’s side seconds before her own body achieved the dirigible’s deck, fire sizzling out as quickly as Nicholas’s flames had weakened when water rushed into their honeymoon pod. Please be alright, she begged her lover, losing track of where she was for a split second despite wind whipping hair into a frenzy while water cascaded off the balloon onto her unprotected head.
Then the air current slowed beneath her and Sabrina settled onto the saturated deck as gently as if a giant hand had placed her there. “Thank you,” she murmured to the world at large, sensing how much power the wind had expended on her behalf.
A subtle tightness to her lungs suggested she’d spent just as much energy and might soon crash. But for now, her head felt light as thistledown and her muscles were loose and ready for action. So Sabrina spun to take in her surroundings as easily as sunlight streamed through thin ocean air.
Only to find that the deck was empty. After all of her fear and haste, it seemed tremendously anticlimactic that the enemy dragons—for the moment—were nowhere to be seen.
Glancing above her head, though, Sabrina picked out Gunnar’s camera far too easily now that she knew where to look. That bastard, she thought, glaring at the tiny lens as it reflected sunlight back into her sky blue eyes.
And then the bastard in question swooped in from behind and settled onto the deck with a heavy thump.
Chapter 33
Sabrina knew she lacked the magical stamina to fight off a dragon. She’d used up far too much juice already to be flinging air currents willy nilly at enemies who could easily dodge out of the way.
But before she could do more than brace herself to resist the waves of fiery heat beating against her exposed face, Gunnar succumbed to every super-villain’s Achilles heel—the urge to needle and tease his prey. Flame wreathed her enemy’s draconian body. And when the fire faded, an ordinary human being was left behind in its wake.
“Captain Fairweather,” the shifter said, bowing his head slightly by way of greeting. “Or should I say turncoat, traitor, double-crosser, fink.”
“Somebody get the man a thesaurus,” Sabrina muttered under her breath. But before she could come up with a more constructive reply, a hiss of escaping air behind her back was followed by the clang of the hatch. Then the captain felt rather than saw warm bodies pouring up out of the belly of her ship, causing her heart to sink into her boots.
Just what she didn’t need—more innocents running directly into harm’s way.
The captain knew she needed to keep her eye on the prize, but she couldn’t resist glancing backwards long enough to assess who had chosen to help defend the Intrepid against further attack. And, to her surprise, the sea of numerous—if grim—faces appeared to encompass the majority of her crew up to and including the newly added teenage water mage.
“I’ve come to collect what’s mine,” Gunnar continued, snapping Sabrina’s neck back around to face forward. She winced at his tone but wasn’t at all surprised to hear well-founded annoyance in her opponent’s voice. After all, she’d promised to obey the dragon’s orders...then had spent days fleeing from his approach. Meanwhile, the shifter’s quarry—Steph—was even now locked up tight and safe in the belly of the ship.
Or was she? Because the enemy’s eyes lit up as he glanced over Sabrina’s shoulder, his frown curving upward into a smug smile. And when the captain swiveled around to look more closely at the defense force, she found Zach and Steph stepping onto the deck behind the sailors, massive egg cradled in the teenager’s skinny arms.
Counting heads, Sabrina now realized that only two people were still unaccounted for. The apprentice engineer was absent, presumably manning the engine room and waiting for commands from whoever was able to make it across the deck-turned-battlefield to access the helm. And Donald—the father of Charlotte’s unborn child—had presumably decided that fighting against superior forces wasn’t in his job description. Not much of a surprise since Sabrina had already concluded the man was her airship’s weakest link.
Except maybe even that assessment had given Donald too much benefit of the doubt. Because even as Sabrina realized who was missing, the tall sailor in question strode up from below, his eyes skittering past those of his pregnant lover before settling on the enemy shifter instead. And Donald rather than Sabrina was the one who responded to Gunnar’s curt demand.
Only he didn’t voice his answer aloud. Instead, the sailor broke into a run, catching Steph in an iron grip and swinging her away from her companion before Zach could even attempt to intervene. A flash of silver made Sabrina gasp, then a knife was pressed up against the tender skin of the female shifter’s exposed neck.
“I did as you asked, my lord,” said the sailor who was apparently not only a sloth but also a rat. “I assume you got my pigeons. Once you give me and my girl our reward, I’ll hand over the dragon you came for. Then we’ll both have everything we want.”
Around them, the formerly jubilant defensive force fell abruptly silent. This wasn’t what Intrepid’s crew had expected—for Steph to be captured before they found the opportunity to so much as strike a single blow. Charlotte, in particular, was beginning to turn green as if the sight of her lover made her physically sick, and Zach’s lips moved with silent words that were the closest Sabrina had seen him come to actual speech.
Catching the latter’s eye, Sabrina raised one eyebrow, hoping their shared blood would lead to similar thought processes without requiring overt communication. Because what she needed was a distraction, and Zach—holder of the egg—was just the one to accomplish that end.
Sure enough, Fairweather blood ran strong in Zach’s veins. Because the teenager paused only long enough to tuck his burden beneath one arm before he keyed a sentence into his tablet. Then, stepping forward, he drew the enemy’s eye.
“What kind of reward do I get?” the youngest Fairweather asked, his jaunty smile looking eerily similar to that of their dead father. “Assuming, that is, you also want the female dragonet encased within this egg.”
***
Greed filled Gunnar’s eyes, and he licked his lips avariciously. “Another female dragon?” he asked, and there was no paternal pride in his voice at all. Instead, Sabrina could tell the enemy was counting his chickens—or rather dragonets—before they hatched, unimaginable riches dancing in front of his eyes as he imagined prostituting out his daughter as soon as she came of age.
“No!” Steph exclaimed, the female’s former passivity dissipating in an instant as she began to struggle against Donald’s hold. A thin line of red welled up beneath the latter’s knife, but the shifter didn’t appear to notice the cut. Instead, she flung her weight to and fro so violently that the sailor was forced to drop his weapon and grip his prisoner with both hands in an effort not to slit her tender throat.
This was precisely the sort of distraction Sabrina had hoped for. So, calling up the tiniest hum of breeze to muffle her footsteps, she slunk sideways, working her away around the crowd and out of Gunnar’s line of sight.
Meanwhile, Zach continued to play his part effortlessly. “I’m not just going to hand over the egg,” the teenager elaborate
d, pulling Gunnar’s attention back in his direction while Sabrina rounded the bend and slipped behind the helm. “I want to be adequately compensated. I want....” The innocent teenager paused, his selflessness making it difficult to come up with an adequate request. “...I want a female of my own. I want Steph.”
Sabrina nearly choked in shock at her brother’s words. They were so believable, so much like something Frank Fairweather might have said that she nearly blew her cover and leapt out of her hiding place to shake some sense back into Zach’s hard head. Instead, she angled her body so she could more clearly take in the scene...and could prepare for her one shot at ending the current farce.
Gunnar, for his part, merely laughed off the teenager’s demands. “Steph’s out of your league, boy. The dragon is mine. Now, Donald’s mate—that one might be up for grabs if you play your cards right. The human is a little curvy for my tastes, but her porkiness probably doesn’t matter as long as you screw her in the dark....”
Now it was Charlotte’s turn to choke on unvoiced words while Donald complained aloud. “Hey! I did everything you asked me to. You promised that Charlotte wouldn’t be involved....”
Despite his objections, though, the treacherous sailor continued to frog march Steph forward. Apparently his greed outweighed his love for the mother of his child, a fact that wasn’t lost upon the gestating chef.
Charlotte’s face was so red at this point that Sabrina was actually afraid the woman might blow a gasket. In contrast, Steph’s initial resistance had faded as the timid female realized the futility of further struggle.
Or perhaps the latter had caught on to the playacting’s purpose just like Zach had? Because the female, like any other dragon, possessed magical fire just waiting to spring to life on her fingertips. Surely Steph would have no compunction against damaging an airship if she truly thought she was about to lose control over her only child.
Cerulean Magic: A Dragon Mage Novel Page 20