Chapter 37
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
The beach was dark except for the circle of firelight. Beyond it, the ocean rolled in and out. The waves reminded Phin of whispers in the darkness.
Basil stood with his hands clasped behind his back, watching everyone roast marshmallows with the stern concentration of a royal chef inspecting a state banquet.
“No, no, no!” he lamented as Jessica thrust her marshmallow directly into the flames. “You are murdering it!”
Jessica laughed. “It’s a marshmallow.”
“It was a marshmallow,” Basil corrected. “Now it’s a lump of charcoal.”
Pearl snorted into her paper cup but wisely kept silent. Louise nearly dropped hers laughing.
Phin smiled and turned her own marshmallow carefully over the coals.
Basil pointed dramatically at her stick. “Now there. Observe Miss Ironwood’s patience. The proper rotation. Bringing the marshmallow to a beautiful golden brown.”
Phin grinned. “You mean I finally passed?”
Basil frowned at her for all of two seconds before heaving an enormous sigh. “I admit, though, you have potential.”
Everyone laughed. For the first time all evening, some of the tension hanging over the group eased.
The men had left hours ago to continue searching for the creature. Nobody said much about what exactly they expected to find, and Phin wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Whatever it was had already killed people.
She turned her marshmallow slowly and listened to the waves beyond the firelight.
Betty leaned against a driftwood log nearby. Sam tended the fire, poking at it every few minutes whether it needed it or not. Aaron occupied a folding chair between the fire and the ocean, far enough from the group to sit quietly but still close enough to hear the conversation.
Everything felt almost normal.
That is, until Aaron sat bolt upright.
Phin’s smile faded. Every muscle in his body had gone rigid. His head snapped upward toward the darkness overhead.
A second later, something enormous descended from the sky.
Phin looked up and felt her heart leap into her throat. “Rhaz.”
Moonlight glinted off crimson scales as the dragon dropped from the darkness and landed beyond the firelight in a shower of sand.
Aaron was already moving.
The others hurried after him, and Phin found herself running too. By the time she reached him, Rhaz had lowered his head.
Something was wrong. She couldn’t have explained how she knew. Perhaps it was the tension in his body or the look in his eyes. Whatever it was, it made her stomach knot.
“What happened?” Betty asked.
“Did you find it?” Louise demanded as she hurried closer.
Aaron exchanged a glance with Rhaz.
Rhaz’s golden eyes found Phin for the briefest moment before returning to Aaron.
“I am to go with him,” Aaron said.
Betty blinked. “What? Why?”
Aaron shook his head. “We have a plan. There is no time to explain.”
He placed a hand against Rhaz’s shoulder. The dragon crouched. Aaron climbed on at the base of his neck between the great crimson shoulders. A second later Rhaz launched into the sky.
Sand exploded beneath his wings. The force nearly knocked Phin backward. She raised an arm to shield her face and watched them disappear into the darkness.
The silence that followed seemed enormous, with the same question hanging over everyone gathered around the fire.
Were they coming back?
Nearly an hour passed before she got her answer, and movement appeared along the beach.
Several figures emerged from the darkness in the direction of the parking lot.
Anon, Jackson, Caelen and Quill looked exhausted.
Phin searched for Rhaz. He wasn’t there. Neither was Aaron. She hurried forward. “Where are they?”
Anon glanced toward the sky. His expression was grim. They’re bringing the body.”
The words settled over the group like ice water.
Hana gasped. “Jackson, your arm!” She rushed to him and grabbed his sleeve.
Blood stained part of the polo shirt he wore, his forearm and one hand.
Jackson caught her wrist gently. “It’s fine, baby. Shifter healing, remember?”
Hana stared at him, nodded, and threw her arms around him.
Phin’s eyes widened. Shifter healing?
Nobody seemed to know what to do with that statement. Before anyone could ask questions, a rush of wind swept across the beach.
Every head snapped upward.
Rhaz descended from the darkness, Aaron on his back. And something enormous dangled from the dragon’s claws.
Phin’s breath caught. “What is that?”
Rhaz released it. The shape struck the sand with a sickening wet thud.
Several of the women screamed. Phin was one of them. The thing was enormous. Nearly the size of a truck.
Its body was burned black and twisted into impossible angles. A multitude of limbs sprawled across the sand. One leg bent completely backward. Great sections of flesh had burned away entirely.
Yet its eyes remained. Dull red, open and staring. It looked like a giant spider dragged from a nightmare.
Phin stumbled backward. Her vision blurred, and her stomach lurched violently. For one terrible second, she thought the creature moved. It could stand, come for them…
Unable to help it, she screamed again. Strong arms wrapped around her, cutting the scream off.
“Rhaz!” she choked. One second the dragon stood beside the corpse, the next he was holding her. She hadn’t even seen him shift.
Phin buried her face against his chest and trembled uncontrollably.
“It’s dead,” he said softly against her hair.
She nodded. It didn’t help.
“It is dead, little flame.” His arms tightened around her, the nickname making her fall apart even more. Rhaz held her close, one hand moving gently through her hair.
Slowly, her breathing began to steady. Behind them, others were finding comfort where they could.
Betty clung to Aaron. Louise and Pearl had attached themselves to Sam. Jessica was wrapped around Richard, and for once nobody seemed embarrassed by it.
Everyone looked shaken. As well they should. The thing lying on the beach was proof that monsters existed. Real monsters.
And in that moment, the world became far larger, and far more dangerous, than Phin could have ever imagined.
To escape the thought, she buried her face against Rhaz’s chest again. She couldn’t look directly at the thing lying on the beach. She knew it was dead. Rhaz said it was. But some primitive part of her brain refused to believe it.
As if sensing her renewed fear, his arms tightened around her. “Do not look at it,” he murmured against her hair.
“I wasn’t planning to,” she said with a shudder.
A few nervous laughs drifted through the group after Richard asked if anyone had a can of Raid. The sound helped, but only a little.
Rhaz lifted his head and looked around. “It cannot remain here.”
Nobody argued. The thing was an abomination. Phin could only imagine what unsuspecting beachcombers would do if they stumbled across the twisted mass of charred flesh and malformed limbs. Even dead, it felt wrong somehow.
Aaron stepped forward. “The ocean will take it.”
Phin peeked around Rhaz long enough to ask, “What do you mean?”
Aaron looked toward the dark water. “I have already spoken to it.”
That earned several stares, including a slack jawed look from Richard.
“You say that as if it explains everything,” Jessica said.
Aaron shrugged. “It explains enough.” For the first time since arriving, a small smile touched his face. “The ocean answers when I speak to it. I have asked it to carry the remains into the deepest trenches and bury them beneath the sands.”
“Good,” Louise muttered. “The sooner we get rid of that thing, the better. It’s hideous.”
Pearl gave a firm nod of agreement.
Several yards away, Quill approached the monstrosity and crouched beside the corpse. Phin immediately looked away. Unfortunately, not before Quill chose that exact moment to hold up what looked suspiciously like a severed claw. “Hm.”
“What are you doing?” Betty asked.
“Collecting samples.”
“Of course you are,” Anon said. “And you’d better hurry up.”
“Emory will want tissue samples.” Quill received a curt nod from Anon and immediately got to work.
Sam approached more cautiously. “You’re standing next to a nightmare.”
“Yes, Sam, I know.”
“And your first thought is science?”
Quill nodded and produced a small glass vial from somewhere inside his coat. Phin wasn’t sure she wanted to know where. A moment later he clipped off another piece. “Huh.”
Anon rubbed a hand over his face. “What now?”
Quill turned to him. “The internal structure is fascinating.”
Anon made a face. “Stop talking and do more working.”
Quill arched an eyebrow. “You are all remarkably unsupportive of scientific inquiry.” He returned to his work.
Rhaz lowered his head and rested his cheek against the top of Phin’s hair. For a long moment neither of them spoke. She listened to the steady beat of his heart beneath her ear. The sound was strong, steady, safe. Phin closed her eyes. Tonight had reminded her how easily safety could disappear.
Rhaz’s arms tightened around her. When he finally spoke, his voice was low enough that only she could hear. “When I left tonight, I did not wish to go.”
Phin looked up. Firelight danced across his face, and his golden eyes seemed brighter than usual, almost luminous. “Yes,” she whispered. “I know.”
His fingers slid gently through her hair.
“I went because the creature needed to be stopped. But every moment I was away, I thought of returning to you.” Something in his expression stole her breath away.
She’d never seen such conviction in anyone’s eyes, the sort that seemed as old as the mountains themselves.
“When I found the Sarian, I thought of you.” His thumb brushed her cheek. “When I fought it, you were at the forefront of my mind.”
A lump formed in Phin’s throat.
“When we believed there might be another hidden nearby, I thought only of getting back to you, Seraphina Ironwood.”
The sounds of the beach faded away. The waves. The fire. Even the nervous chatter of their friends. Everything narrowed until only the dragon shifter standing before her remained.