Page 20 of Emerald Waves (Primordial Protectors #2)

I prefer to go where the waters are unspoiled and the risk of human contact is nil, especially if I choose to take to my human form and swim naked or sunbathe on the beach.

Unlike some of our brothers I have no desire to become either a meme or a TikTok video, or worse, wind up on an X-rated website somewhere.

I’m sure the degree of difficulty any of us would have finding you out here has never once been a consideration.

His sarcasm was impossible to miss, and honestly, he’s always known me too well for me to lie and attempt to deny it, so I didn’t even waste the energy.

I needed all I could muster to share my land and sea abilities with Ionus for our trip beneath the ocean, to depths that Ionus’ dragon had never experienced before.

You need to communicate if you start to feel spacey or disconnected from your dragon. I will caution you not to descend too fast, but once we reach a certain depth, there will be no turning back, at least not safely.

Understood.

Mattias, do you see that rock formation three hundred feet out?

I do.

That’s where the shelf gets steep. Keep watch over it, if I’m forced to send Ionus back, he’ll need your help.

I will be ready.

I know you will.

Be safe. I’ll be pissed if you don’t return to us. I’ve grown used to your grumpy, illusive ass. Maybe in the future you’ll allow us to spend more time with you. I’ve missed you a great deal these last few centuries.

Now that shocked me for a moment. My only response was a nod of acknowledgement before Ionus, and I flew out to the spot I’d indicated and plunged beneath the waves.

Fueled by my concern for Emerson, my dragon and I had little difficulty sharing our ability to breathe beneath the sea with Ionus.

Raven’s tutoring had played a big part in that.

Once I’d stopped focusing so hard on keeping so many aspects of myself and my abilities hidden from my brothers, sharing was easy.

As we descended, I felt brief flashes of wonder and amazement from him, along with soft, tranquil pulses that felt a great deal like the cool currents and slipstreams I loved to drift in.

It shocked me. Had I denied him the chance to share in this measure of peace with me by keeping myself separated from him and the rest of my brothers?

In ways, it made sense that could be the case what with how intense his storm element was.

In his little ones, especially the twins, I’d been given the opportunity to see how unpredictable it could be, and how difficult it was to contain it, especially in one who hadn’t learned how to control their temper or emotions yet.

Let’s just say that saying no-no to excited dragon babies had produced more than one tiny fireball and lightning bolt from escaping as they’d expressed their displeasure at the words.

It was definitely something to think harder on later, as were the rest of the things I’d gleamed from my brothers during our training session with Raven. I had more than one apology to make, that much I knew.

The first, however, needed to be to the ones holding my mate. They deserved that as well as an explanation from me. It had never been my intention to cause such a grievous offense.

How are you faring? I inquired, touching base with my brother when I felt, though our shared magic, an increase in his heart rate.

As if I am being squeezed in a vice while the heat is leached from my body, but it is tolerable.

Ahh, that would explain his accelerated heart rate.

It truly was enlightening to know that it wasn’t just our elements that were different, the way I had always assumed.

Our very physiology seemed to vary. Was that to accommodate our own elements?

Or perhaps it was because of it. I wondered if my amazing archivist mate had come across research and writing about this very thing in his studies of the different clans.

If he had, then I wish to learn more, so that maybe I’d have a better understanding of myself and my brothers in the future.

Emerson was right when he’d made a point about the research I’d been doing as I’d sought to learn about the artifacts I’d come across and who they should be returned to.

Working together would not only strengthen our bond, but allow us to learn about one another organically, instead of playing twenty questions whenever we happened upon a topic.

Perhaps, in allowing Emerson to see just how deep into researching my finds I got and how much I enjoyed not only the process, but the side journeys they took me on whenever I discovered a new sea legend or piece of old seafaring lore, my mate would finally be assured that I had not kept my finds to myself as a means of avoiding him, but because they were one of the few pursuits that had ever brought me a true measure of contentment.

The same way they did for Emerson.

The realization smacked me across the snout just as we reached the tunnel entrance to the caverns I’d discovered the day Emerson had taken his fall.

I was glad for it too. Ionus’ heart rate had increased the deeper we’d plunged. It would likely be a relief for him to reach the cave, where there were pockets of air, like the one I’d discovered when I’d emerged onto the ledge deep within the tunnel system.

I am fine, mostly, Ionus conveyed when I touched base with him again. I could feel his weariness though and knew that the pressure and cold of the depths, factors I didn’t feel in the slightest, were taking their toll on him.

Shaky and staggering, Ionus emerged beside me, doubling over and needing a moment to center himself while I looked around, immediately spotting my mate standing beside one of three figures I was certain I'd seen the last time I’d been here.

This time I wasn’t bombarded by a horrifying disorienting level of sound.

Just giggles, as a little Merdragon waved from where he clung to Emerson’s leg.

“None of you swim very well, do you?” he said. “Well, except him. Hi! He’s the one who saves all the sea creatures, Papa.”

When he spoke, he was clearly addressing the stern man whose heavy, piercing gaze tried to bore a hole through me.

“He’s also the one who stole you,” the man said, with such power in his voice that I knew exactly who it was that’d been responsible for the noises that had sent me tumbling out of my dragon form. “Something I do not take lightly. What do you have to say for yourself, protector?”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, immediately turning away from my mate and the little one to face him, though I’d have preferred to do so with Emerson in my arms. “I believed him to be a relic. Had I known that I’d discovered your home, not an ancient temple of some sort, I never would have handled your child, let alone removed him from here.

I make no excuses for what happened. It was a grave error, and I am sorry for any upset I caused to him or your family. ”

“Tasi, much like your Emerson, didn’t see the danger, which is why he didn’t immediately return to us.

He found your collection of creatures fascinating and spoke of several that existed in your cave that can no longer be found in the wild.

He said you handled his stone form like he was precious, despite not knowing that a living being was behind it.

While that does not make it okay, it has left me curious. I think it’s time we had a talk.”

Even as he spoke, I noticed the walls moving as the space expanded.

Having Emerson tell me that the Merdragons turned to stone was nothing like seeing the stone give way to scales as they revealed themselves and opened the ginormous lair we were actually standing in.

When I cast a glance over at Emerson, my mate had the biggest look of awe on his face as he studied it with all the intensity I’d seen him display when he poured over his books.

Then I glanced over at my brother, and the look on Ionus’ face was one he usually reserved for Odem.

It was the one that screamed ‘Holy Shit, what the hell have you gotten us into.’