The Dragon Legion Collection 9 (27 page)

“I wish I were an Earthdaughter,” Damien muttered.

Petra laughed. “You aren’t. Hurry up.”

He clenched his fists and tried to control his breathing. He eyed the distance to the far shore and tried to estimate the number of steps. He wished he hadn’t lost his shifting powers. He wished the river wasn’t full of snakes. He wished he didn’t have to cross it to ask Hades to make an exception. He wished he wasn’t so terrified.

But Damien had to follow Petra. He forced himself to take a step closer to the water, and then another. He took a trio of deep breaths, told himself he could do it, and took a step into the dark water. The first snake wound over the top of his boot, sinuous and revolting.

But it continued on its way. Damien felt cold sweat slide down his back as he took another step. The water was over the top of his boots in three steps, cold and slimy enough to make him shudder as it ran over his feet. He wouldn’t think about snakes slithering in there with it, wouldn’t think of how many of them there were, wouldn’t think about the way it was hard to push his legs through the barricade of their bodies. He shivered, feeling chilled to the bone.

He kept his thoughts on his goal. He lifted his gaze to Petra and the far shore.

He looked up just in time to see her slip.

She cried out as she fell and he guessed that she had lost her balance because of the baby.

Then she disappeared under the water.

“No!” Damien shouted Petra’s name in dismay. She didn’t answer, and she didn’t surface. He tried again to shift shape, but it still didn’t work.

All the while, he was striding further into the river, wanting only to reach her. She couldn’t drown, not in this place. He couldn’t lose her again.

He flung aside snakes, clearing his path with his hands and fighting his disgust. The only thing that mattered was Petra. Damien targeted the spot where he was sure he’d seen her go under. It was taking too long to reach her, he feared, and he would find her when it was too late.

He barely noticed the slight pain on his chest, and he certainly didn’t see the dark green dragon scale slip from beneath the hem of his shirt, slide over the bodies of the snakes, then disappear as it was submerged in the River Leche.

Forgotten.

He didn’t know if Petra could die again, but he did now that if he lost her in this river, he’d lose her for all time.

Nothing could keep him from giving his all to prevent that, even millions of snakes.

* * *

Petra was drowning all over again. She felt that first dismay like a sharp pang, reliving the moment when they’d realized the vessel was in danger. She saw the dark water gathering on the bottom of the boat, and knew it was coming in too fast. She looked, as she had that fateful day, and noted how far it was to shore. In a heartbeat, she knew they could never reach safety before the boat sank.

She fell to her knees, helping to bail the bottom of the boat, shaking with the certainty that all efforts were futile. The wind whipped at the sails, spinning the boat like a toy. The women on board wept. Petra could only feel the weight of her unborn child, and the burden of her failure.

The water was up to her knees in no time, dark and so cold that she soon couldn’t feel her feet. She wished her gift had been associated with water or with air, but this was one place her link with the earth could do no good.

She felt powerless for the first time in her life, and despair washed over her.

She cried out to the Erinyes to avenge her on the father of her child.

Then the boat sank with startling speed. Petra was terrified when the water touched her belly and she heard herself scream when the boat dropped from beneath her feet. She was plunged into the cold sea, struggling to reach the surface. She wasn’t a swimmer and never had been, but her instinct to survive was strong.

She reached the surface and took a single breath before an angry wave crashed over her. She was driven down into the depths again, as if Poseidon himself was determined to claim her forever. Petra fought her way upward again, losing her direction as the sea churned around her. She was alone and wondered what had become of the other people on the boat.

This time, she had a chance to look when she broke the surface. All she could see was churning water in every direction. She shouted, but the wind snatched away her voice. She thought she could hear cries for help, but couldn’t guess the direction.

She couldn’t even see land anymore. The sea rose and fell, swirling around her and tugging her down. Petra panicked, then saw a piece of the boat not far away. The wood was smashed but floating. She fought to approach it, then the sea lifted it on a wave. She had a moment to think that providence was on her side, that the water was bringing her the piece of wood and she’d be able to survive. Then the wave crashed over her and the wood slammed into her temple.

Then there was only darkness on all sides.

Darkness and oblivion.

Petra sank, knowing there’d be no reprieve for her now.

* * *

Damien’s knees weakened when he reached into the snakes and felt the curve of Petra’s hip. He plunged his hands in so that he was up to his shoulders in cold water and slithering snakes.

Petra was there. He grabbed her and hauled her to the surface, clearing the muck of the river and a few smaller snakes from her face. He couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not and didn’t intend to linger in the river to find out.

Her expression was peaceful, her features so tranquil that he feared the worst.

He strode to the shore that had been their destination, relieved to find the ground rise up quickly beneath his boots. He laid Petra on the dry bank, even as rivulets of water ran from her clothes. Her lashes fluttered slightly, but he saw that the color that had bloomed in her cheeks after his kiss had faded again. Her pallor and the chill of her hands terrified him.

He found himself whispering her name, as if his voice alone could rouse her or repeating her name could reassure him. He ran one fingertip across her cool lips before he realized the same strategy might work again. He bent and touched his lips to hers, hoping against hope that she would revive beneath his touch.

To his relief, darkfire burned and shimmered between them, touching Petra’s features with its ethereal glow, filling Damien’s body with heat. He could only hope that his kiss passed it to Petra. He kissed her again and again, hoping the spark would light to a flame, that the power of his kind could save the woman he loved.

He loved Petra, and he’d never told her so.

Damien only hoped he hadn’t realized the truth too late.

When Petra lifted one hand to his shoulder and parted her lips beneath his own, Damien’s hope surged. He caught her close and deepened his kiss, pouring all he felt for her into his touch, telling her with his embrace what he’d never told her in words. Petra clung to him, her arms wrapping around him to hold him close, her kiss meeting him measure for measure. He saw the darkfire brighten between then and heat to a brilliant white glow, a hot white light that wouldn’t soon be extinguished. When he lifted his head and reluctantly broke his kiss, she was flushed and rosy again.

Even more importantly, she smiled at him. Her gaze was so warm that he could have basked in it forever.

“Well,” she said. “Thank you.”

“I owed you for Cerberus.”

“Does that make us even then?” Petra teased. “So we now go our separate ways?”

“No! Though we are even,” Damien said gruffly, pleased and confused. Feeling both at the same time was disconcerting, but not all bad. He’d survived the electricity of living with Petra before, after all, and had missed the spark she put in his day.

She was waiting for him to say something, so he tried to indicate his changed feelings. “It’s important in a partnership to keep everything balanced.”

“Is that so? Suddenly you know so much about balanced relationships?” She was teasing him, her tone light and playful.

“No, but I’m trying to learn.”

“Oh, I want to meet these other
Pyr
,” Petra said with purpose, reaching for his hand to get to her feet. Damien caught both her hands in his and lifted her up. “I want to meet the dragons who managed to change your thinking.”

“It wasn’t them,” he admitted. Damien saw the tentative hope in her eyes and reached to draw her closer again. “It was you.” He tipped up her chin with one fingertip. “I love you, Petra. Let’s be partners.”

She smiled and her eyes lit with the promise of their future. “Oh, Damien, I’ve loved you all along.”

Damien bent his head to kiss Petra again, to secure the agreement with a scorching kiss, but his lips never touched hers.

There was a scream overhead, and he looked up to see two enormous birds descending toward them. He tried to shelter Petra beneath him and struggled again to shift shape without success.

“The Erinyes!” Petra whispered, and Damien saw that she was right. Just like the creature he’d killed, they were women, not birds, women with wings like bats and blood running from their eyes. They had fangs and long yellowed nails, just like their sister.

And writhing snakes for their hair.

Of course.

“Is this when we pay death’s price?” Petra whispered, but Damien pulled his dagger. He was aware of Petra humming, but concentrated on the Erinyes. They swooped low, snatching and screaming. The stench of them was foul. When they dove at him, Damien managed to nick the wing of one of them.

They screamed even louder, even as the blood spurted.

“You broke your word!” she cried at Damien.

“You betrayed her trust,” screamed the second.

He expected Petra to do something, because she’d been humming as she did when she invoked her power. He spared a glance her way and she shook her head.

So, neither of them had their powers.

This was not good.

The Erinyes swooped low again and Damien leapt up to stab at the second one. There had to be a way out of the underworld and a lesser price they could pay than death. What sacrifice would work? He’d already killed one of these creatures.

A snake launched itself from the leg of the second sister, falling on Damien as it hissed and spat. He decapitated it and flung its body aside.

“Oath-breaker, oath-breaker,” chanted the Erinyes overhead.

“He didn’t break his word,” Petra shouted. “He never promised me anything.”

It was true, but didn’t sound like much of an endorsement to Damien’s ears.

“I invoked you in anger,” Petra said, her tone firm. “It was a mistake.”

The Erinyes screamed as if being tortured, but they didn’t fly away. They dropped lower, wings flapping, eyes bleeding, snakes hissing. Damien wasn’t sure what to watch or where to strike.

Petra distracted him then by crying out in dismay. He looked back to see that her water had broken, and that dark liquid was spreading across the ground. “Our son,” she whispered, the light of hope in her eyes. “He’s coming.”

Damien had to get Petra and their son out of this realm.

“He still murdered our sister, Tisiphone,” the two Erinyes whispered in unison, then lunged at him, claws bared as they screamed for vengeance.

Damien roared and dove after the Erinyes, his dagger held high. They leapt out of his path, in the same moment that a flash of lightning blinded Petra.

She opened her eyes to find Hades himself standing before them. The god was dressed in long dark robes. His beard and brow were silvered and his expression was grim. They weren’t in the same place anymore, because the River Leche was gone. To Damien’s dismay, they were back in the forest of stone trees.

And the corpse of the Erinye he’d killed was at the god’s feet.

“Who dares to slaughter one of my own?” he demanded in a voice like thunder.

The two surviving Erinyes landed on either side of Damien. Before he could evade them, they seized his arms and shoved him forward, so that he fell on his knees before the ruler of the underworld.

He looked up and doubted he had anything to offer that Hades might want.

But Damien was determined to try.

* * *

Damien loved her.

It was everything Petra had ever wanted and more. He hadn’t just said the words she’d wanted to hear: he’d proved his feelings with actions, as a dragon ought to do. He’d saved her, he’d committed to being partners with her, and now she had to use her powers to get them free of the Erinyes and the underworld.

She would have tried but her water had broken, and the sensation had been enough to take her to her knees. Her womb contracted and she felt her son moving downward.

Petra had feared the worst when the Erinyes attacked, for they could devise the most vicious torments. Damien was determined to defend her, but she knew he was weary. They couldn’t both be confined here forever, not now!

Petra couldn’t argue her case, not with her whole body tightening in preparation for another contraction. It seemed that her son wasn’t just as stubborn as Damien but as resolute, too. Now that he’d decided to be born, he wasn’t going to waste any time about it.