Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
WINDSONG
H e caught up to her a few seconds after diving into the frigid waters. “Get back to shore,” Bastian ordered.
Sage kept swimming and yelled over the deafening sea. “You go back.” Between strokes she watched Princess Mekale’s blonde head bobbing and dipping with the swells, visible only for a split second after each breaking wave. “You were leaving anyway.”
“I made a promise.”
Sage didn’t need the verbal confirmation. She had seen the rage on his face when the princess declared she would join the competition. He had made a promise to his brother to look after her.
She also recognized the second Bastian sensed it; the strangeness that had overcome the king. It hadn’t been Calian that agreed to his daughter joining in. Something else was influencing the king.
Sage dove under a wave, the violent water rushing over the top of her, a sharp contrast to the muted pulsing of sound all around. She broke the surface on the other side. Bastian still swam on her right.
His gaze searched her face. A part of her wanted to scream at him to focus on his own abilities. But another part of her, decidedly feminine, appreciated the protectiveness–leaned into it.
Another swell. They dove. The princess was still in view. Good. Sage had grown unexpectedly fond of her.
Someone shouted to Sage’s left. She dared a glance between strokes. A competitor was thrashing about, his body propelled in violent circles by something under the water.
The fae around him were panicking, everyone swimming harder, trying to put distance between themselves and the blooming red surf. Many turned back for the shore. A couple hesitated too long and went under with the next cresting wave.
Sage and Bastian, apparently on the same page, pushed harder, precisely timing their strokes against the sea’s bone-crushing assault. Swimming swiftly between breaks. Diving when the swells were right.
The screaming became gurgles, as the victim was repeatedly pulled under, his body popping up every now and then like an adrift buoy.
“Don’t look,” Bastian instructed.
Sage didn’t waste breath agreeing. She kept her focus on the princess, and the islet beyond that. Blessed land.
A massive wave was building on the horizon. It obscured the island, too big for any of the fae ahead of them to swim under. A few tried, their shadows dragged down with the currents. The princess was in that group of swimmers. Sage watched her body climb higher and higher with the water. She wasn’t going to make it.
“Go under,” Bastian yelled. “Now!”
Sage took a huge gulp of air and dove. The wave’s energy threatened to pull her back to the surface. She kicked harder and dove deep, deeper. Her ears popped and she opened her eyes. The salt felt like shards of glass, but she could make out his form beside her– Bastian .
And not far ahead, rolling under a violent cyclone of white water, was the princess, her body no more than a rag doll in the ocean’s grip.
Bastian speared toward her, his muscled body slicing through the raging sea. Sage tried to keep up, though her lungs burned and her limbs grew heavier with each stroke. His body was getting smaller and smaller.
That’s when she saw it…
A silhouette glided through the water. Not a shark or a whale, or even a dolphin.
A sea dragon!
Headed straight for Bastian and the unconscious princess.
B astian tracked the princess’s lifeless body, even as the light above was blotted out.
A giant shadow was patrolling the waters. He had little doubt what it was, but also no time to change course. Not if he stood a chance of saving the princess.
Bastian pushed his body harder, diving so deep his joints pulled and stretched, the pressure on his skull blinding. He had last seen Sage swimming for the surface. She would get there, he had no doubt. Hadn’t for one second questioned her abilities or the risk of her embarking on this mission.
Bastian knew in his heart she was more than she pretended to be. It was written on her soul. She would survive.
She had to.
A bubble of air escaped his lips. He couldn’t hold out much longer. His lungs were begging for a breath, pleading to end it. Bastian propelled his body one more time and kicked hard, reaching for…
Her arm was colder than the water around him. But Bastian held tight, pulled the princess to him, and reversed course. With all his might, he raced for the surface. The sun winked at him through the tumbling waves. He was close. So close.
Something hit him.
Bastian didn’t look, only grasped the princess tighter and swam faster. It knocked him again. So hard he almost let go. He could see the white caps breaking on the water’s surface. One more foot…
That foot became three.
Six. Nine.
Too fast .
Twelve.
It was dragging him down. Down to his death.
Lightning flashed overhead, limning the rolling waves with silver, illuminating the water. Bastian’s magic surged against the binding cuffs, plunging so deep into the well of his power he feared it might kill him before the sea did. The storm raged on, the thunder loud enough to hear beneath the surface. Flashes of blinding light came without pause across the sky.
Never again… never again would a dragon be chained.
The thought struck him out of nowhere, just as a shape came into focus. Closer, closer. Until the face became clear.
Sage...
Dark hair floating around her pale face like a halo of silk, she reached for him. Her luminous green eyes were determined, and the fiery circle of gold around them blazed.
The grip around his leg released–so swiftly, Bastian felt the ripples of its retreat.
Sage took hold of his collar and pulled him up, up.
Her lips met his.
He opened his mouth–opened for her–to the lifesaving breath. It was just enough to get him to the surface. She drew back and towed him with her.
Bastian kicked, willing the lightheadedness to abate, still holding tight to the princess. Sage swam with a strength he hadn’t known possible, hauling them toward the surface in tugs and steady strokes .
Air fractured around him. Bastian gulped it down.
Sage lifted the princess’s head and performed CPR. Treading water, Bastian held Mekale, hands bracing under her back for support. Sage repeated the procedure, both of them fighting to stay afloat amidst the raging currents.
“Come on,” Bastian begged. Sage applied pressure to the princess’s chest.
It wasn’t enough. They needed to get her to land. To a surface where they could…
Sage hit the princess square in the chest with her elbow.
Water sprayed from Mekale’s mouth. Bastian rolled her in his arms.
A flood of seawater poured from her lungs. He wanted to cry. She coughed, then rasped, and finally–she took a deep breath.
Bastian looked at Sage, at the tears streaking down her face, mixing with the rain and ocean spray. He had never seen anything more beautiful in his whole life.
Lightning crashed close by, a barbed spear connecting sky to sea. Sage looped an arm under the princess. Together, with Mekale between them, they swam for the islet.