A Bride for the Water God (Divine Dragons 1)

Leaning on one of the bedroom columns facing the sea, I watched as Calder waded into the shallows. Darkness crept into the corners of the horizon as the sun descended and the full moon arose. The early sunset over the pale ocean looked like a painting, but it was the Water God my eyes remained on.

Though he grew farther away with each step into the gently lapping waves, his form grew larger. His body was stretching, pulling, expanding, as he shifted into his gargantuan dragon form. He dipped under the surface before I saw the last of it. Though the rising ripples growing into waves as he drove away from shore gave away his direction.

Not a moment later, I threw myself from the column, racing down the steps, over the stone path and onto the sand. I darted around the massive seashell palace, aiming for the little cove where Calder kept his boat collection. He’d shown them to me one day, telling me how to use them and which century of human time they were from.

I had to be careful because the boats were near the resting place of the rusalka. I’d have to steer around them and toward my home island. A bigger boat was sure to get me there.

In the back of my mind, I remembered the oversized waves of my home shores and the choppy waters I’d grown up watching from afar. But in that moment, I was so riled up and pissed off at Calder telling me what to do that my fury carried me forward. I had an obstinate confidence that things would work out in my favor, if only to prove him wrong.

Perhaps it was naïve to think I knew better than a centuries old god. I could admit that growing up in a small village might have warped my sense of the world and what I was capable of. I didn’t have the worldly experience to second guess my actions.

And I didn’t have a fantastic sense of self-preservation.

I was already fucking a dragon. Nothing seemed off limits after that.

Around the island, I arrived at the pier, each breath punching through me from the effort of running at top speed. The wind had picked up, blowing harder and faster. The always calm seas around the Water God’s island had also kicked up into overlapping waves. But I didn’t notice the change in the weather as I targeted the boats.

My people weren’t sailors. The water of our sea was unstable and treacherous. When we had ample water and our rivers were full, we fished, but those were small, shallow boats meant for gentle waters.

I didn’t know what I was doing as I untied a larger vessel and kicked off. With only the knowledge Calder instilled in me on our brief tour of his ships, I set sail into the darkening ocean. I knew how to read the stars and find my way home, as did everyone whose only way to tell time was by reading the sun and constellations.

It was still too early to read all the stars, but with the sun and moon, I got myself aimed in the right direction. My family likely thought I was dead, drowned at the bottom of the sea. I hated to think of them imagining sharks tearing at my corpse and crabs feasting on my bones. They needed to know I was alive and well as badly as I needed to see them.

Calder said they were well, and I believed him. But to what extent? Were they still struggling, waiting for their crops to grow from whatever rain the god sent their way? Sprouts didn’t rise enough to feed a starving village in a week.

The vessel rocked and teetered on the surging waves. My heart rate kicked up, racing with the realization that seas weren’t as calm as I’d hoped they’d be. With each passing minute, the ocean became increasingly violent, and the sky overcast with the reaching arms of night and heavy storm clouds.

Oh, fuck. Maybe I needed to turn back to the island. I didn’t have the sea legs to accomplish my harebrained mission.

My head whipped back, watching the shrinking island in the distance. IT was still close enough that I could turn around and get back before Calder ever knew that I’d tried to go off on my own.

Shit. How pissed would a godly dragon husband be with a disobedient human wife?

He’d been so good to me thus far. Surprisingly gentle, sweet, fun loving, and good natured. Commanding in bed, but I’d loathe if he wasn’t.

Then there were the consequences he’d warned me about. I had to cross my fingers and hope that his forgiving side won over. Unless I made it back to the island before sunrise. In that case, he’d never need to know that I left at all.

With some struggle, I wrestled the boat around. Steering back toward the pier, I shivered from the increasing winds and wild spray crashing into the boat. The water surged like slithering limbs were churning beneath the surface. A flash of fins made my heart claw at the back of my throat.

Clicking, croaking siren song drifted through the clamor of crashing waves. The music of the rusalka snuck through the thunder further out to sea, sounding closer and closer by the second.

“Oh, fuck me,” I gritted out.

The sea-bitches popped their head through the surf, leering and snickering at me. Rows of sharp teeth flashed in their dark mouths and black shark eyes blinked at me. Those eyes were full of vengeance and hunger.

They wanted to kill the prey that got away.

Rusalka leapt, slamming themselves into the side of the boat. Though my current ship was larger than the last, I had no doubt with their numbers they’d have no issue overwhelming me.

The ship veered to the side, threatening to tip over into the inky blue waves. One sea-bitch after the next threw herself into the boat, clawing and scratching at the wood. They used their weight and power to knock the ship off course until I was facing the wilderness of the stormy seas again.

Far, far away, a heavy wall of fog over the sea mingled with the low storm filled clouds. Lightning flashed and the brief strike illuminated something massive rising from the sea shroud.

Another monster with my current luck.

During another crash, the rusalka tipped the boat over far enough to kiss the surface. Riding the waves, the sea-bitches surged on board, using the slippery wood and their claws to slither forward.

Fear zipped up my spine and collared me around the throat. A scream struggled through the fist of fright around my throat to soar into the air. The panic curdled my blood and threatened to force up my dinner.

A boom of thunder reverberated through the sky. It sounded like a roar so powerful it vibrated through my bones. A mountainous shadow rose behind my boat, casting me further into darkness as rusalka raced for my legs.

Another booming roar nearly shattered my eardrums. My hands slapped my ears, and I cringed. The eldritch, beastly sound made the rusalka pause, eyes wide and staring at the monster behind me.

Pulled by curiosity and fear, I twisted around. Rising higher and higher from the sea was a wall of green and blue scales. Wings snapped out, disrupting the waves and the wind. A long, long neck rose into the clouds with a long maw full of dangerous teeth.

He narrowed his eyes at the little boat and everyone on deck. Steam coiled from his nostrils and flames licked at the back of his teeth as he growled.

He was as beautiful and terrifying as the first time I saw him. Only this time, I knew I’d upset him.

The rusalka screeched as a massive, webbed claw swiped over the boat, knocking them back into the sea. I screamed louder, slipping on sea water and sliding over the wood. My back hit the rigging pole and my head knocked back into the wood.

Stars flashed behind my eyes as the world spun into a frenzy. Everything blurred into violent shades of blue and gray as the boat was sent at rapid speeds through the water and back to the island.

The Water God was sending me back to shore.

But what would he do to me when I arrived?

The moon was still full, and he was in his divine dragon form. I didn’t think he’d ever hurt me, but for the first time in days, I dreaded what awaited me at the hands of the dragon god.