Page 10 of Tears of Gold

“Now I'm going to drown you,” Skye says with a wicked rumble that might be a dragon giggle. I back up, but he's slick as lightning and whacks me in. Spluttering, I surface, but he wraps me in the coil of his tail.

“Let me go, or so help me, I'll kick your balls in,” I growl.

He spits a stream of water into my face, and I turn my head away, swearing. “Calm down, Harps,” he chides. “Take a joke. You're going to practice qi building.”

He loosens his grip, and I wipe the water from my face. I stick my tongue out at him since it's all I can do. I haven't felt this helpless since I saw Ava’s back disappearing through the portal—both times I lost her.

“Can you swim?”

Rolling my eyes, I answer, “Now he thinks to ask.”

He grins, releasing his grip on me, and I dog paddle in the deep dark water with no clue where the bottom is.

Skye’s voice in this form is deeper and rumbles, but the words are clear. “Good enough. The world is different once you go underwater. It’ll help you release distractions. You simply need to tap into your qi and tell it to grow.”

“That easy, huh?”

The water ripples with what might be a dragon shrug. “Qi is the beating life force of your cells. Every moment of the day, your body, led by your mind, signals your cells based on your needs. Create this protein, heal that wound, feed this organ.”

He glides in a circle around me, his tail pulling me around to stay facing him. “Hormones, temperature, oxygen; all these things make the cells work harder or slower. You’re in control of that process; you just don't know it yet. If you want your qi to grow, treat it aggressively. Be demanding. Try sitting on the bottom as long as you can hold your breath and see what you come up with.”

He might be pulling my leg, but it's worth a try. The way I've seen Erritt and Skye throw up shields as big as rooms does make me a little envious, especially since mine are hardly bigger than skateboards and difficult to sustain.

Taking in a deep breath, I try to sink to the bottom. When I keep floating up, Skye pushes me down with his tail. He rests it across my knees, enough to pressure me without trapping me.

Sound distorts, and cold seeps through my skin. It's a pretty deep pool now I’ve hit the bottom. Several yards overhead, the green water lightens, rippling with patterns of light near the surface. Rolling easily in the water like a giant silver eel, Skye taps a claw against my skull. I close my eyes. Skye and Erritt didn't know what meditation was, so I doubt silent reflection is the answer. From what I’ve seen in the academy classes, qi is trained through movement and command. So, just tell it?

Grow, qi, grow! I yell silently as I push my hands through the water, feeling unbelievably stupid. At least Skye can't hear me. Only the muted wash of underwater noise answers, along with pressure in my chest as my lungs request air. I kick for the surface. Slanted chestnut eyes blink at me from the water line.

“I don't know what I'm doing,” I grumble.

“Then try sensing my qi,” he suggests, lifting his dripping snout from the water.

Grimacing, I dive back down. Although his tail stays on me, Skye moves in constant motion in the water, his silver mane that hangs down on land now fanning out in the water like it has a life of its own. Here he’s an otherworld spirit, a rolling and twirling force of nature. Ripples of water brush across me from his movements.

I grip his tail with both hands. On land, he’s big and droopy from gravity’s tug on his heavy form, but here, I think I can understand the awe that Ava feels, or that she used to feel, in seeing his dragon form. His smooth scales glide under my palms, hard and slippery. I close my eyes against the distracting glimmers of light bouncing from his silver body.

He and Erritt can sense each other's emotions, right? So, what does Skye feel right now? Given his movements in the water, he'd have to be feeling joy. He says being in human form is like having an itch. An awareness of his constant motion presses on me, and a faint prickle of gloom fills my mind. Is Skye sad, or is that my own frustration breaking out?

Letting go, I push up.

“Your essence flickered a bit this time,” Skye reports as we both surface.

I skim my arms back and forth, keeping my head above the water. “You can see it?”

“Kind of. If you could see heat or see what something smells like. Try again. This time, hang onto that sensation.”

I don't know what he means, but I find out when I run out of breath again. My lungs clamp in warning, and I try to push his tail away from me. Instead of letting me rise, Skye pins me to the bottom of the pool. That fucking sneaky bastard! Was he serious about drowning me? So much for not holding grudges.

I hammer my fists against his tail as my lungs contort, the last of my air bubbling out between my numb lips. He responds by winding more of himself around me.

My lungs burn, and my whole body quivers with desperation as I thrash against Skye’s death grip. What’s he thinking? I dig my fingers into his scales, looking for an opening. For a moment, I feel like he’s a thousand individual pieces of pure energy pulsing in harmony.

The sensation runs into my own body. I slam my qi into him with a blinding flash of pink and boiling water. I gasp, unable to hold on any longer, and water pours into my mouth. He grabs me with his claws and catapults us into the air.

When I've finished coughing up my lungs on the bank, I punch his thick leg weakly. “Who needs enemies with friends like you?” I gasp.

He sets me upright on the bank, and his damn snaky head comes level with mine, his mustache dripping with water. “Did you feel anything different? Because I did.” He lifts his tail to inspect a smoky red graze three feet long running along the tip. “Hmm, that almost stings.”