No sense crying over spilled milk, Sabrina berated herself. But before either she or the enemy shifters finished their game of chicken and made the first move, Zach had hopped off the waiting dragon and landed agilely by her side.
A small blue pill waited between her brother’s thumb and forefinger and Sabrina accepted the offering as if in a dream. “This should let you call the wind,” Zach’s tablet said for him, and Sabrina dry swallowed the capsule before her sibling had time to elaborate.
Sure enough, the breezes that had been ignoring Sabrina for the last several minutes clustered back around her face in the time it took Zach to step back onto the waiting dragon’s back. She didn’t even have to hum or sing to feel them there, beating against her defenses and begging a way inside her lungs. Whatever miracle Zach had been cooking up in his lab appeared to have worked.
In response, one of the enemy shifters flared into human form and advanced across the deck toward her. But his footsteps slowed as Uncle Walt’s voice came tinnily to life above all of their heads.
“Look east, niece,” the water mage admonished. And despite all of the other factors jockeying for her attention, something in his tone prompted Sabrina to obey.
For a long moment after that, she thought Uncle Walt was merely playing with her. Because she surveyed the choppy ocean and at first saw nothing. Well, nothing except Raft City and the stark absence of a honeymoon pod where she and Nicholas had recently spent the night.
But then, at last, the captain picked out a slight undulation to the ocean’s surface. The minor disturbance could have been caused by anything from a bubble of deep-ocean gases to a pod of whales. Unfortunately, the deep rumble that accompanied the sight was far too similar to the one Sabrina had heard over a decade earlier to allow her to dismiss the agitated water out of hand.
Because back when she was a tween, Sabrina had watched a waterspout form as she stood on this very same deck. Uncle Walt’s vengeance had pulled a pirate ship down into the ocean with ease at the time, the vessel disintegrating long before it bobbed back to the surface reduced to a mass of indistinguishable parts. She distinctly remembered Frank watching from this exact railing while his pursuers perished in a not-so-natural disaster beyond their ability to control.
Now—thanks to the camera that had broadcast recent events back to Raft City and proven Sabrina wasn’t willing to give up her friends for the sake of her ship—her uncle’s weapon would have a different target. Walter’s magic was coming for them. And, as if to ensure she hadn’t missed the point, the older man’s voice rang out through the speaker yet again.
“This is your last chance, Princess,” Uncle Walt said grimly. “Your last chance to make the right decision. You’ve lost your husband, you’ve lost your ship. But you still have time to bring yourself and your crew back to land unscathed.”
Lost your husband. The words tilted and twisted in Sabrina’s mind like a scrap of paper caught in a dust devil. The statement didn’t make any sense.
Not because she didn’t have a husband, but because the dragon Uncle Walt would refer to as such was still alive. She knew it. Nicholas wouldn’t have pushed her to swim out of that pod if he hadn’t known a way to close the door and hole up somewhere safe.
Would he?
But Zach’s face was turning white on the other side of the rail. And when her brother tilted his tablet in her direction, the scene on display made Sabrina just as ill.
The honeymoon pod had appeared so luxurious the night before, with its king-sized bed and Egyptian cotton sheets. Now, in the dim glow of emergency lighting, the space resembled nothing so much as what it actually was—a submarine grave.
The pod was entirely filled with water. Fabric and furniture drifted in a gentle current that undulated sheets and pillows in a deep-sea dance. A fish bumped against the camera lens, attracted to the glow of the nearby LED, while a mass of seaweed wafted in the open hatch to partially obscure the view.
There was no safe spot for a fire-powered shifter to hide. Nowhere that Nicholas could have hidden while waiting for her to bring the pod back to the surface once the danger aboard the Intrepid was safely controlled.
One gasping breath erupted from Sabrina’s lips, the associated wind forcing back a shifter who had wandered too close while her attention was focused elsewhere. “You didn’t.”
“I did,” Uncle Walt assured her. “The Aerie dragon was incidental...as you will be as well if you don’t turn that female shifter over to her keepers immediately. Hurry, Sabrina. My patience is wearing thin.”
Chapter 36
At first, Nicholas thought both of his slippery workarounds had been successful. The thrum of engines vibrated into his heels as the pod pushed its way upwards toward the border between darkness and light. Meanwhile, a window popped up on his tablet to display the same location he and Sabrina had watched together half an hour earlier—the top-down view of Intrepid’s uppermost deck.
This time, though, Nicholas’s breath caught at the sight of a scene that was far from empty. Sabrina was both ocean-soaked and soot-streaked as she braced herself atop the deck, accepting a small, blue pill from her brother’s hand and popping it into her mouth. She clutched what appeared to be Steph’s egg in the crook of her other arm, no sign of a smile bordering her eyes at all as she absently sidestepped a ball of flaming something that descended from the air above her head.
The fire was the least of her worries, though. Because a man Nicholas didn’t know—a shifter—was inching toward the captain’s left shoulder while two other dragons stood poised at the opposite end of the ship. Strangely, the captain appeared oblivious to the closest danger, her focus intent upon the same camera that provided Nicholas entry onto the battlefield. Meanwhile, defenseless crew members were just barely visible at the edge of the screen as they clung to Steph’s undulating back.
Nicholas growled as the closest shifter reached out to nab his prey...then the two-legged dragon had fallen onto his butt as Sabrina’s wind cast him blithely aside.
She barely needs me, Nicholas realized. Still, he fiddled with a few more controls and was gratified when the sound of crackling flames blared through the small speakers on the tablet’s bottom face. Access to Gunnar’s bug was now complete.
Unfortunately, the first voice to invade the tiny fireplace wasn’t the one Nicholas had expected. “The Aerie dragon was incidental,” Walter Atwater intoned, his voice presumably carrying through the same connection Nicholas currently utilized since the water mage wasn’t physically present on the deck. “As you will be as well if you don’t turn that female shifter over to her keepers immediately. Hurry, Sabrina. My patience is wearing thin.”
At the sound, Nicholas’s enjoyment abruptly hardened into bone-chilling dread. He could easily imagine what was being demanded of Intrepid’s stiff-spined captain. The same thing Raft City’s ruler had wanted all along—for Sabrina to relinquish the egg and mother they’d all risked their lives in an effort to save.
And what other choice did his captain really have? Nicholas tapped into the long-range view now, this shot taken using a telephoto lens located atop one of Raft City’s above-ocean balconies. From afar, the shifter could see what had only been hinted at by the other camera, this new sight further lengthening the icicle that had settled into his gut at the sound of the water mage’s voice.
Because Walter wasn’t bluffing. Flames had nearly consumed Intrepid’s balloon, the inferno so intense that Nicholas was surprised the hydrogen inside hadn’t yet exploded. And although Steph appeared to be carrying everyone he cared about other than Sabrina herself, the stubby-winged dragon would be hard-pressed to evade the upcoming devastation of the dirigible, let alone outpace all three enemy shifters who were arrayed across the open deck.
“How about I sweeten the pot one more time,” Uncle Walt continued, his voice a croon despite bouncing through one tiny speaker then being relayed a second time into Nicholas’s waiting ears. “You’re a Fairweather after all, and I�
��d hate to see you left with nothing to your name. Do me this one small favor, and I’ll set you up with a state-of-the-art ship. I’ll offer you the route your father used to run supplying my insatiable colony. You’ll be set for life, Sabrina. No more need to struggle. No more worrying about your future or that of your brother....”
Walter kept speaking, but Nicholas stopped listening. It was too hard to watch the emotions flickering across Sabrina’s enigmatic face as his mate was once again faced with an impossible decision. After all, how could Sabrina not save her skin and that of her crew when the only other option was to watch them all go up in flames?
Meanwhile, Nicholas’s ears had tuned in to a more personally applicable sound while Walter Atwater droned on. The motors that had initially carried his pod closer to the surface with each elapsing moment now faltered, slowed, and whirred to a halt.
The shifter slid his thumb across the tablet’s screen to change windows. Probably just a fluke, he thought, even though he knew better. Sure enough, his sinking gut rather than his optimistic assessment turned out to be right.
The subprocess that had guided his pod’s ascent was still accessible, but now the coding was read-only. And as Nicholas watched, letters and numbers that didn’t originate from him filled the small screen.
The conclusion was as unpalatable as it was obvious. A Raft City programmer had not only removed his escape route to the surface but had also squashed Nicholas’s ability to remain where he was. Because the motors had started up again...this time in reverse so they carried him deeper and deeper into the perils of the ocean.
Nicholas’s fist clenched as his eyes skimmed across the stream of programming language. He’d hoped for another loophole, a way to wiggle his code back in where it didn’t belong. But Walter’s lackey, despite not having the sense to change an out-of-the-box password, was skilled. There was no weakness to be exploited this time around.
And even as Nicholas tapped in a query anyway, needing to try even if there was no hope for success, his situation turned from bad to worse. Because now the fan murmuring above his head winked out. And, instead, a sly trickle of water began running down the wall behind him, saturating the skin along the shifter’s naked back.
***
“You’ll be set for life, Sabrina. No more need to struggle. No more worrying about your future or that of your brother....”
Uncle Walt’s insidious words slowed the captain’s footsteps as she turned to join her crew the dragon’s waiting back. She tried not to listen, tried not to think how empty her life would be now that Nicholas was dead and her flame-riddled airship appeared poised to follow in his footsteps. And yet....
As if sensing her hesitation, the water mage continued to speak, this time tapping into her deepest hopes and fears. “I’ve been watching your career from a distance, Princess,” Uncle Walt continued, his voice silky and seductive. “Frank would have been proud to see you make such a quality name for yourself. You’re considered one of the most dependable airship captains running cargo today, one of the most honest too. I’d be honored to acknowledge you as my niece.”
Even though Sabrina knew she was being manipulated, she also heard the truth behind her uncle’s carefully chosen words. Walter was offering her something powerful that transcended the money, the ship, the trade route. He was offering her a ready-made family, one that included her brother and crew...and Raft City’s ruler as well.
Yesterday, she would have scoffed at such a proposal. After all, she hadn’t needed the approval of a man like Walter when Nicholas held her in his arms with hooded flames sparking beneath the irises of his seductive eyes. She hadn’t needed to lower her standards and accept a man into her life who might cherish and protect her...but who also traded in sex slaves and bartered with rapists.
That was yesterday, though. Today, seeing the interior of that watery pod had cut a gaping wound into her chest that continued to bleed several minutes later. The unvoiced dreams that had buoyed her up the night before fled at the vision...and with them went any hope that she might walk side by side with an equal partner who accepted her for who she really was.
If Sabrina was going to lose both her dragon and her ship all in the same day, shouldn’t she receive something equally valuable in return? Shouldn’t she find acceptance somewhere, even if that safe harbor required her to lower her standards and act a little bit like her greedy father?
And then the same shifter she’d recently brushed off—and had once again forgotten—took advantage of Sabrina’s lapse in judgment. Hard hands came down to grip her left arm, then the cobbled-together egg was being wrestled out of her grasp.
The shell flew much further through the air than it should have had Steph’s dragonet still been inside. And when it hit the hard deck, the white oval shattered on impact.
“It already hatched,” her assailant muttered, his final word turning into a throaty growl. This time, his arm whipped out and settled around Sabrina’s neck instead, pulling her back against his chest in a chokehold that cut off all access to life-giving air.
Sabrina struggled against her assailant’s grip, elbow flying backwards to punch him in the gut. But he was fast and strong and her arm smacked into nothingness instead, wrenching her shoulder painfully then pressing her body closer against his fiery length.
The contact, for one split second, reminded her of her dragon. And that loss of focus was all it took for the shifter to gather both of her wrists in one broad hand, preventing her from reaching for either pistol or sword.
Quickly enough to be embarrassing, Sabrina was entirely and totally caught.
“Don’t hurt her,” Uncle Walt ordered through the speaker above both of their heads, reminding Sabrina that she and this enemy shifter weren’t the only participants in their current dance. The older man’s voice shook slightly, as if the preceding conversation hadn’t been a mere flimflam, as if he really did consider Sabrina to be his beloved niece.
But, now that her own escape was no longer possible, Walter’s feelings abruptly ceased to matter. Because the shifter’s attack had brought home the reality of the occasion and reminded Sabrina of her nearly relinquished honor.
Of course she couldn’t sacrifice Steph on the altar of personal greed.
Good thing Walter bought me some literal breathing room, the captain thought, opening her mouth and tapping into every ounce of magic Zach’s miracle pill had returned to her body. Then, flinging out words like a whip, she finished the task she should have performed moments earlier. Calling up the wind, she sent the female dragon soaring away from the Intrepid far faster than any magic-less being could follow.
Except, at the very last moment, Steph hadn’t brought all of her passengers along for the ride. Because in the second between when winds began to form and when the powerful gust whipped her off to the west, one figure had leapt from dragon to rail, landing cat-like on the dirigible’s scalding deck.
Zach had refused to leave his sister to die. And as Sabrina watched in horror, the teenager walked up to her captor as if one young man who lacked both magic and weapons was sufficient to face down three enemy dragons while a mage’s waterspout waited in the wings.
Sabrina opened her mouth once again in an effort to come to her brother’s aid. But all that emerged this time around was a croak, the pill’s power fading as quickly as it had begun.
Meanwhile, the rebound was just as intense as the initial magic overload had been. Sabrina’s knees collapsed beneath her, only the shifter’s grip holding her upright. And despite Zach’s wide blue eyes begging her to resist her body’s weakness, there was nothing else the captain could do when her muscles rebelled against overuse.
Instead, Sabrina closed her eyes. Then she slid into darkness.
Chapter 37
Nicholas flipped over to the long view as soon as Steph was wafted away, and what he saw there made him wince. Because the minutes his mate possessed were rapidly shortening into seconds if the state of the balloon above her
head was any indication. And Sabrina seemed no closer to escaping than she had been half an hour earlier.
Luckily, Nicholas had one final trick up his sleeve, and now he activated the auditory connection between himself and Sabrina’s ship with a flick of his thumb. Here’s hoping the programmer didn’t notice this intrusion while shutting my other subprocess down, the shifter thought, preparing to speak above the roar of distant flames.
Switching back over to Gunnar’s bug, though, all air gushed out of Nicholas’s lungs as Sabrina’s body sagged bonelessly into the enemy’s arms. The resemblance of his mate’s posture to death clawed a growl up out of Nicholas’s throat, but he pushed the terror down.
She’s alive, the shifter reminded himself. And she’s not the one I need to speak to either.
Instead, he addressed the mute teenager who hovered indecisively before three grinning shifters. The enemy might have lost the war, but they were clearly willing to accept the consolation prize of two Fairweather siblings. And why not when the sister was already in hand and the brother appeared to be an easy mark?
Revenge, the lead shifter’s eyes said, would be sweet.
Not if I have anything to say about it, Nicholas resolved. And this time, when he opened his mouth, he spoke loud and clear.
“Zach, now.”
For a split second, though, he thought the teenager would refuse. It was asking a lot, after all, to expect the younger Fairweather to relinquish a lifetime of caution on a near-stranger’s say-so. It was asking a lot to respond to a disembodied voice when death and destruction was raining down around him on all sides.
Because Nicholas wasn’t requesting an easy favor. Instead, he was asking the teenager to kill.
But misplaced empathy wasn’t the issue holding the boy back, or at least so Nicholas assumed when Zach’s shuttered eyes darted to his sister’s unconscious face. “You have to trust that your experiments will work,” the shifter said into the silence that followed, picking his words carefully to ensure he got his point across without lying. Pulling upon every secret he’d gathered while snooping through the Intrepid, he continued: “I trust your ingenuity. I trust your understanding of the scientific method. Sabrina would trust you too.”
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