Chapter 51
It was a miracle she wasn’t dead yet. Everything felt like flames searing her skin, and she couldn’t differentiate between what was her own fire and what was the acrid burn of venom seeping into her.
Perhaps it was because, as a dragon, she was infinitely larger than a human and the poison took longer to reach her heart.
But that didn’t explain the pain slowly fading.
After some time, the unbearable, acidic, burning sensation dulled to a numbing sizzle.
Adara shook her head, water showering from her scales with the movement.
Flames seared her throat, her maw widening to aim another plume of fire at the lykren.
It dove beneath the waves, giving Adara the chance to dive toward the ship, where Dominic, Tobias, and Tyson kneeled, their shoulders slumped in defeat.
Silas was nowhere to be seen, but the only other figures on the ship were the pirates desperately clinging to their sinking ship or uselessly trying to swim away, swallowed by the rough waves.
She prayed that Silas had crossed the gangplank before their ships drifted apart, and she’d merely missed seeing him in the midst of the melee.
There was no time to dwell on that. She had to get the rest of them out.
Tobias and Tyson were in her claws within an instant.
Wings flapping steadily as she neared the starboard side of the ship, where Dominic clutched the railing for support, Adara bowed her head.
“Get on, mishente.” Her instructions were a deep, guttural rumble from the back of her throat, more of an animalistic growl than words. “Quickly.”
Dominic’s brows furrowed at the foreign word, but he obeyed. A grunt escaped his lips as he vaulted over the rail and landed roughly on her snout. His hands tightly clutched the ridges of her scales, carefully making his way to her back.
Once he was seated, she sped across the sea toward their ship.
That haunting call echoed across the vast ocean, a dark shadow trailing beneath her.
No, no, no. She had to make it in time. The stupid creature was supposed to stay focused on the few pirates that remained on the enemy ship, not follow her to their own, still floating safely intact.
Her wings beat faster, spearing for their ship. She hovered above the deck, gently dropping Tyson and Tobias.
Dominic leaped from her back. His legs buckled as he hit the ground, as if the weight of the world shoved him down.
He collapsed to his knees, pressing a hand to his bleeding abdomen.
When he looked up at her, there was a glossy sheen to his eyes that reflected a pain so much deeper than any physical wound.
The water churned in a mass of undulating waves before falling eerily still. Adara’s scaly head swiveled back to Dominic, and she began to lower herself toward him.
The lykren shattered through the calm surface of the water, causing waves that made the ship shudder.
Its teeth pierced her hind leg. Sparks of agony rippled through her leg and up her spine.
Adara’s roar rattled the sails, but then she snapped her teeth shut, whirling as rage and determination flared through her. None of them were dying today.
Adara whipped her body around and sank her fangs into its long neck.
The lykren released its hold on her leg, its blaring wail ringing in her ears.
Corrosive blood flooded her mouth, the taste so foul and scathing as it slid down her throat that she almost released her jaws from its neck.
But Adara held steady. She shook her head viciously, fangs shredding through the scales and soft tissue of its neck until they reached bone.
With one last forceful clench of her jaws, she snapped the beast’s neck with a sickening crunch that reverberated through her mouth.
Its howl of pain was cut off instantly. The lykren’s lifeless body crumpled, and Adara released her hold, teeth sliding free of its rotten flesh. Then it sank into the depths of the Plagued Sea, throwing them all into an uncanny silence broken only by her wingbeats, slowing with fatigue.
Darkness danced at the edges of her vision. Blood spilled into the sea below, the weight of exhaustion slowly dragging her with it. Fire ran through her veins, no longer comforting and warm but burning, burning, burning its way through her, melting her bones, tearing her apart from the inside.
She knew the feeling of burnout, and this was exactly that.
It had been so long since she’d used this much power, and her body wasn’t used to it.
She needed to turn before she lost control completely, but she didn’t think her fragile human body could handle the extent of her injuries.
Would she succumb to the lykren blood the second she changed?
But she had no other choice. Her wings gave out, and a silent scream ripped through her.
Then her vision faded into oblivion. Alarm shot through her veins like ice freezing her fire as energy skittered over her scales, morphing back to skin and clothes.
Wind whipped at her hair as she plummeted into a free fall.
Ice chilled her down to her bones. Frigid water enveloped her in its suffocating embrace as she plunged into the Plagued Sea. Water flooded her mouth as she gasped for breath, all too late.