I roared back. “Here I am, you ugly fuck!”
A thick tentacle whizzed through the waters and I turned, dragging my claws through his rubbery flesh with dark satisfaction.
Jolting from the injury, Cronin’s appendage flung me outward and I shuddered just moments before slimy sludge sands and rotting corpses became my new safe haven. My black water fae body camouflaged perfectly in the darkness.
I needed a plan.
“Get on with it then, it’s not like you listen to me anyway.”The cat grumbled.
I chuckled softly, my beast wasn’t going to like this.
“Here kitty kitty kitty!” A laugh from Cronin vibrated the waters. Powerful enough to send me tumbling sideways.
“Here fishy fishy.” I hissed back, my eyes glowing with power in the darkness.
Chapter 23
“Timetowake,cousin.”
I moaned at the sharp commanding tone splitting my skull in half. Every single inch of me was riddled with pain. Death, I had been waiting on death.
“He will not be coming this day, although it would make for an interesting reunion.”
Gasping, a jolt of power coursed through my body, wrenching me from the darkness. Shivering from the intrusion, my pain subsided, and I slowly blinked my eyes open.
A pair of large orbs, cerulean blue, came into focus.
I blinked again, inhaling sharply.
“I hadn’t realized my cousins had become this dense.”
“Water dragon.” I rose slowly, hands raised and cautiously floated backwards from his patronizinggaze.
“As you see.”
I winced at the invasion of his voice booming inside my head and attempted not to stare stupidly while I gazed upon his beastly beauty.
His cerulean blue eyes were ferocious, housed in a gigantic square shaped head decorated with sharp white fangs extending well past his thick leathered lips. Two long whiskers, alongside his monstrous jaw, floated elegantly in the static water. Wide, round nostrils, the size of my own head, flared much like the gills on a fish and the creature's scales were nothing short of awe inspiring, a wondrous array of purples, greens, and indigo that constantly changed with his movement and trailed over his serpentine body that was coiled neatly on a bed of white rock. Waving lazily and reaching into the waters were webbed spiked fins, like the sails of a boat, changing color with each flutter.
He was magnificent.
I breathed deep, steadying my racing heart. Beasts like him detected weakness and if you were weak, you were prey…something I didn’t want to be.
“Where are we?”
He tilted his head indicating the white rock around us with a snort.“We are within my wall.”
My gills fluttered. “You are Shen, the great mirage water dragon.”
The dragon's deep chuckle unsettled me and I braced against his laughter. “As you see.”
“Sweet goddess.” I breathed. “No one has seen you since the dawn of our time.”
The dragon curved his head around so that one beautiful blue eye blinked at me head on.“Is Faerie sweet now? Last time I spoke to her she said my wall was a blight upon her grand design and demanded I remove it. She was rather presumptuous and arrogant, if you ask me. There is no greater masterpiece in this world than my wall dividing an entire ocean.”
I gave him a sympathetic smile that was cloyingly sweet. “Your wall is widely known and is admired by many.”
The water dragon’s webbed spikes fluttered in the water and he bared his sharp teeth in a ferocious smile.“I’ll take your flattery even if it is purposefully done to appease me. Now tell me. Why do you look like those pests? You are not water fae. What is your business here with them?”
