Read Online Demand of the Dragon by Kristin Miller - Free Book Online Page B

beginning to lose her
strength, she might’ve swam back to the beach and retrieved the gold. But they’d
already come this far. Regretting the deal already, Lucy removed the necklace
and handed it to Emerly, who eyed it lovingly. “I’ve got a satchel of gold on
the beach worth far more than this. When we get back, we’ll trade the medallion
for that. Deal?”
    “Luce, I wouldn’t—” Caleb began.
    But Emerly cut him off, sliding the necklace over her head.
“Deal.” She pulled two diamond chips from her hair and held them out.
    “No need,” Lucy said, and shoved her hand into her jeans. When
she pulled out two of the tiny diamonds she’d taken from the chest and handed
one to Caleb, Emerly smiled.
    “Still know the routine, I see,” Emerly said. “How many of
those do you have left?”
    “Just enough. Guess you could say I borrowed them from
Tristan.” Lucy popped one of the chips into her mouth and pushed it against her
cheek. “Suck on it,” she told Caleb.
    “Excuse me?”
    She understood how crazy it sounded. It had sounded crazy to
her the first time she heard it, too. “The chips of these diamonds are from
Emerly’s hair. They’re cut from the Merfolk Stone. It harnesses their shifting
energy, just like the Draco Stone controls yours, allowing you to shift. By
sucking on a piece of their stone, we’re able to draw from some of that energy
to breathe underwater.”
    “I’m not going to grow gills or fins, right?”
    “You’ll be fine.”
    His eyebrows perked disbelievingly.
    “Would you just trust me and put it in your mouth? It’s for
Tristan.”
    It seemed that was all she had to say. He shoved the tiny chip
into his mouth and shrugged.
    Emerly led the way, diving below the waves. Lucy and Caleb
descended after her, diving down, down, deep into the sea’s cold embrace.
    Lucy’s lungs tightened, squeezing with pressure. She had to
breathe. Even though she knew the logistics and had breathed underwater while
sucking on one of Emerly’s diamond chips before, Lucy still had to steel herself
against the idea that it might not work.
    She braced herself. Grit her teeth. Felt the pressure in her
lungs rise. Then breathed through her nose as freely as she had before.
    Thank heavens . It still worked.
    As they swam into a black tunnel at least fifty feet beneath
the surface, Lucy glanced at Caleb. He was breathing fine, swimming hard. No
qualms. No twitching muscles showing his fear of sucking in a bunch of
seawater.
    Did everything have to come so easily for him?
    They followed Emerly’s violet streams of light for what seemed
like an eternity. The water got icy cold deep in the tunnel, and Lucy’s hands
and feet began to freeze. Still, she swam, kicking as forcefully as she could.
They swam side by side in the dark, passing tunnel after tunnel that branched
off and delved farther into stifling darkness. Up ahead, a pinprick of light
caught Lucy’s eye. It looked like fire—a tiny flame burning in the dark.
    It couldn’t be. Her eyes must’ve been playing tricks on
her.
    Emerly sped her pace, swimming quickly toward the light. Lucy
kicked harder, but her frog kick was no match for the strength and efficiency of
Emerly’s fins. The thick violet haze flooding from Emerly’s tail dissipated to
lavender, then to a hushed amethyst. In a single blink, the color was gone.
    No , no , no !
    The diamond chips allowed Lucy and Caleb to breathe, but she
wasn’t sure for how long. As a teenager, Lucy had always been forced to swim to
the cliffs on the surface of the water before using the diamond chip to swim
through the caves; she’d always assumed it was because the chips didn’t last
very long on non-Merfolk. If Lucy and Caleb got lost, how long would it take
them to find their way back? Which tunnel would lead out? And how long would the
chips allow them to breathe underwater?
    Before Lucy panicked completely, Caleb grabbed her hand and
powered through the water, dragging her behind him. The