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“I do, but I don’t like it.” He half closed his eyes. “It’s Gen.”
“Gen,” I said firmly. “I promise I’ll get you out.”
An eye blinked open. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, especially not in Ai’long.”
It was an odd thing to say, but I didn’t get to ask what he meant. My breath became short, water rushing into my mouth the way it had before I’d gone unconscious.
In response, the mirrors tinkled, clanging against one another in an unnerving percussion.
“Your sangi’s running out,” Gen whispered. “They’ll be here any minute.”
But no one came.
Instead, my shackles dissolved, and a whirlpool suddenly roared behind me. Catching me midbreath, it devoured Kiki, the Wraith’s pearl, and me into its gushing void.
* * *
Down into a watery abyss I plunged, Kiki’s scream echoing the one I let out in my head. I held two things tight: my breath and the pearl. My life depended on both.
I came to a halt, and a current tossed me upright before the Dragon King.
Only he was not a dragon anymore. From the waist up, he had taken on a human form. Pale blue hair sprang from his scalp, and sapphire sea silk swathed his body, the color the exact vibrant shade as his scales. The cloth trailed far behind him like a river, blending into his long, winding tail.
My starstroke net was draped over his shoulders like a cloak. Its shimmering threads made his heart glow and bulge; for him to don it so boldly was a show of might.
Still, it must hurt him. I wondered if he liked the pain.
The last of my breath was leaving me, and the lack of air made a searing heat tremble up from my lungs to my throat, nose, and temples. By the great gods, it was agony, and I lifted my chin, struggling for calm. The Wraith’s pearl did nothing to help. It knew, as I did, that Nazayun wouldn’t kill me.
He’d simply make me suffer…as long as possible.
The Dragon King’s eyes turned hard, and another excruciating second passed. The agony fractured my calm, and the very moment I thought I might die after all, a riptide of water thrashed me into a kneeling bow, and air suddenly rushed into my lungs.
“I almost admire your brazenness, human, unenlightened as it is,” Nazayun growled. “But that is not what saves you today.”
Still on my knees, I gasped, choking on my breath. Over my chest dangled the necklace with Seryu’s pearl—as if I had never lost it.
I inhaled and exhaled, over and over until my lungs stopped burning and I no longer felt the crushing weight of the seas against my head.
“Why?” I rasped.
“My grandson has informed me that he gave you that piece of his heart.” The Dragon King stroked his glacier-blue beard. “Fortune smiles upon you, Princess. In accordance with dragon law, you are under his protection.”
I had a feeling the Dragon King and I had very different definitions of the word fortune, and I didn’t like where mine was heading.
“The binding ceremony shall take place immediately,” said Nazayun. “Be grateful for this chance. Another one will not come.”
“Binding ceremony?” I croaked, finding my voice. “What is—”
“Quiet, Shiori.” Seryu unfolded from the shadows, his claw swiftly covering my mouth. He forced me into another bow. “You will show His Eternal Majesty respect.”
Seryu’s attitude bewildered me even more than his sudden appearance. I craned my neck toward him and searched his red eyes. I didn’t know what I was looking for: remorse, guilt, a hint of a plan? Whatever it was, I didn’t find it.
And that left me with a sinking, undeniable truth: Seryu had betrayed me.
I lashed out, but Seryu caught my arms easily.
His talons grazed my skin. Like his grandfather, he had discarded his dragon form, mostly. Gone were the scales, the serpentine tail, the leonine nose and sharp, pointed teeth—replaced by a human face and body. But his hair and skin still glowed a faint mossy green, and he’d kept his crown of horns, naturally—as well as the claws.
