Her instincts screamed at her to get back to the water, but the prickling had turned into a fire so intense it paralyzed her. She could no longer feel her arms, or her fins.
She raised her head with one last effort, straining her eyes toward the life-giving water of the ocean. Her gaze locked with Ileana’s, and she could see the other mermaid’s astonishment that Merletta had been willing to dry herself out to save the human. The former trainee looked from one prone figure to the other, and it was clear from her expression that she was satisfied. She believed they were both finished.
Merletta didn’t even consider calling out to Ileana to help her reach the water. Even as Merletta lay dying, there was a hint of malice in the other girl’s eyes as she turned her shoulder to the pair, and dove once more below the surface.
Merletta’s head fell back against the rain drenched sand. Heath remained unresponsive, and she couldn’t help the hot tears that poured from her eyes. Ileana’s assessment of their chances was accurate. Merletta had gotten Heath out of the water, but it was all for nothing. She couldn’t save him from the injuries the guards had inflicted. Perhaps his own kind could, but she had no way to get him back to his home.
Her eyes shot open. Rekavidur could get him home! She’d seen no sign of the dragon, but if Heath was here, Reka must be nearby.
Hoping dragons’ hearing was as good as Heath claimed, she gathered the last shred of energy she possessed, and raised her voice in a desperate cry for help.
“REKAAAA!”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Heath could hear Merletta screaming as if from very far away, and he tried with all his might to open his eyes. But everything was a swirl of pain and darkness and driving rain. His leg throbbed mercilessly, but the real center of the agony was in his side. The pain was so overwhelming, it was all he could do to cling to consciousness.
What was happening? He’d been dreaming about the mermaid, but this time he was in the water with her. He remembered blood in the water, and spears. He gasped as memory returned. And Merletta, drying herself out to save him. He forced his eyes open with the greatest effort of his life, squinting against the heavy raindrops. The familiar shape of Reka was descending from the sky, right on top of him.
Yes, good, he thought, in a detached way. Reka would help Merletta get back to the water, and then she would be fine.
“He’s hurt.” The faint voice from beside him made Heath turn his head, and his eyes widened at the look on Merletta’s face. He had never seen her so afraid.
“I don’t know if the humans can save him,” she continued, her voice barely more than a whisper. “But please, try…”
“I will carry him to his people,” Reka’s gravelly voice responded.
“No,” Heath tried, but no sound came out. Before he could try again, he felt the dragon’s talons closing around him, one set around his shoulders, and the other around his knees. He cried out involuntarily from the pain in his injured leg, and for a moment his senses swam.
He was dimly aware of the familiar sensation of lifting into the air, and by the time his head flopped to the side, Merletta was already shrinking out of sight below him. She was stretched fully on the sand, her shining purple tail curled up around her, and no part of her touching the ocean.
“No!” Heath cried, his protest faint on the wind. “Reka, stop!”
The dragon ignored him, and Heath struggled in his grip.
“Go back! You have to help her get to the water!”
“Stop struggling, Heath,” Reka responded, his voice unreadable. “If you fall, you will certainly die.”
“But she’ll dry out!” Heath cried. “It will only take a moment to help her reach the water!”
Still the dragon didn’t turn. He continued to ascend, and when Heath looked down again, Vazula was merely a dot, Merletta no longer visible, even to his eyes.
“It is for the best,” Reka said, a hint of sadness in his voice this time.
Heath went still, clinging to consciousness by a thread as he tried to make sense of the dragon’s words. Anger rose up within him, but he had no energy left to express it. The pain was overwhelming his awareness. The last thing he knew, Reka was speeding over the water at a pace that put their former journeys to shame, the wind and rain so ferocious against Heath’s face that he could no longer open his eyes.
Some part of him remembered that something was desperately wrong, and that it was imperative that Reka turn around. But he couldn’t quite grasp the information from the edges of his fading mind, and it was with relief that he abandoned the attempt and sank into blackness.
* * *
Heath groaned as awareness returned. The first thing he recognized was the pain in his side, still present, but now a dull throb. The second was his sister’s voice.
“He’s awake!” There was a pressure on his hand, and the voice spoke again, more quietly. “Heath, you’ve come back to us.”
He opened his eyes slowly, blinking in the dim light of a candle.
“Laura?”