A Kingdom Submerged (The Vazula Chronicles Book 1) by Deborah Grace White

Author:Deborah Grace White [White, Deborah Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781922636171
Publisher: Luminant Publications
Published: 2022-06-16T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

For an instant, Merletta remained frozen, her arms locked in place as her blood thundered in her ears.

A dragon.

Was this it? Was she about to die? Merletta’s paralysis suddenly lifted, her arms jerking uncontrollably as she scrambled to move. But she forgot how far she’d inched up the rocks in her eagerness to connect with the human—Heath—and discover all the answers he could provide. She wasn’t used to being so far out of the water, and her fear made her clumsy. Instead of pushing back into the water, she somehow managed to flip her tail up onto the rocks with the rest of her.

A horrible pain seized her, and she felt her whole body spasm. Her agonized gaze passed from the dragon to her own form, and she realized with a jolt of horror that only the very tip of one fin was still in the water. Panic seized her, and her hands scrabbled frantically at the rocks in a frenzied attempt to pull herself back into the ocean. She was breathing too fast, unable to properly take in air, as a hot, dry sensation rushed over her body, starting from her fins and moving up her tail.

She reached the water at last, throwing herself in with a splash that was anything but graceful. She could hear Heath shouting to her from above the surface, but she kept her head under for a long moment, taking in deep steadying mouthfuls of water as the painful prickling feeling subsided. She twisted in the water, running a hand down her tail to reassure herself that she was in one piece.

So that was what drying out felt like.

It was just as painful as she’d imagined. Merletta shuddered. That had been far too close. She’d had some narrow escapes in her adventures outside the barrier, but she’d never been that close to death before. And it was self-inflicted, the result of a mere moment of distraction. She’d had a good reason, perhaps, but even the fear of the dragon paled in comparison to the terror that had just passed through her entire being.

The dragon.

Merletta’s eyes darted upward. She could see the beast—it was now close behind Heath, its huge form skulking over him. Her instincts told her to flee deeper into the water, but from all she’d been told, that would be useless. Dragons were much too fast, below water as well as above it, for her to be able to outswim an attack.

Of course, it was possible that what she’d been told wasn’t true. But then, she’d thought that the tales of land always being infested by dragons must be an exaggeration. Apparently some of the warnings were real.

And yet…the beast had made no move to attack her, even when she was so distracted that she would have been embarrassingly easy to pick off.

Merletta waited until her heart rate had slowed slightly, then re-emerged above the surface. Heath was at the lagoon’s edge now, on his hands and knees as he watched her below the water.

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