Ethan groaned when he came to. His head throbbed, especially his face, and when he opened his eyes he saw his father looking down on him. The next thing he noticed was, he was still at his room in the inn. Dani was nowhere to be seen.
“Where—?” he started.
“They took her,” Darien said quietly. He let out a deep sigh. “I came as soon as the purchases started showing up. Your mother got a call from Kat, warning us about what might happen. I still can't believe you disobeyed me. Did you two actually think there would be no severe retaliation? That the Terran would just let you go?”
Ethan rolled his eyes. “Lectures.”
“You could have been killed!”
“At least I'd have died happy, having known her. That’s better than being miserable without ever having the chance,” he mumbled.
His father clenched his fists and then ran a hand through his hair. “Obviously, what's done is done. There's no way to take back something like this, and I know you wouldn't even if you could. I…” He closed his eyes. “I respect you for doing everything you could to be with her. And I… was harsh. She is worthy of you. If I hadn't gone off the deep end, then maybe you two wouldn't have plowed into things and—”
“So now you're going to blame yourself? Not productive right now, Dad. They have her, and we have to get her back.”
“It could start another war if I show up on a rampage,” his father whispered.
Ethan shook his head. “So then you aren't going to help me at all? You're just going to let them keep her and hurt her? Maybe even kill her?”
“She's more useful to them alive, but what they might do to her could be worse than death anyway,” his father mumbled. “All the Terran want from her is a pure dragon child. They want the Great Dragon. And if they do anything they can to make it happen, then she might rather be dead. A lot of women don't recover from that kind of a trauma.”
Please tell me you're okay, Dani. That they haven't touched you. Please talk to me. Ethan waited, hoping she'd reply, but none came. “I won't let them,” he vowed. “I won't let them get anywhere near her.”
His father placed a hand on Ethan's shoulder. “I hope so, but if not… I know you'll be the man she needs to help her. There's only so much I can do to help, but I am going to do it. Are you ready to do what I tell you? Because if you aren't going to listen to me, then this is quickly going to get much more complicated than it already is. The Terran must be dealt with a certain way, you see.”
Ethan nodded, happy for whatever help he could get. “You have a plan then?”
“To get you into the country, but beyond that I don't know where she is or who has her.”
“Lord Bolton has her.”
“Are you sure of that, though? Because something in my gut is telling me this goes beyond him. There's someone even more powerful you're going to be dealing with. Just based on what I've heard.”
Ethan closed his eyes, trying to ignore the searing pain in his jaw. “I don't understand what's going on or what the big deal is.”
“Because we purposefully kept you all in the dark, so you didn't freak out. Pretty positive that's backfired. You know this has to do with the Great Dragon, right?”
“I gathered as much, yeah. Dani mentioned it. The most I know is, He's supposed to be the great bringer of peace, right? The defeater of the Great Evil? Religion was never my best subject.”
His father nodded. “You've got the gist of it. The Holy Book clearly states that the Great Dragon will be of Inero blood and born in the city by the sea.”
“Which is Oceina City.”
“Yes, and it also indicates that the Great Dragon will be of pure dragon blood. That's why Danielle is the first female dragon to ever be born, and quite possibly the only one—all for this one purpose. What isn't clarified is what the other half of the Great Dragon's blood will be. So when it came down to it, the Terran obviously wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.”
“Right, I'm following,” Ethan said.
His father frowned thoughtfully for a moment. “Deep down in my heart I always knew you would be with her. My father told me once that you were the answer. And I'm wondering if this is the question you are the answer to. It explains, to me at least, why the Great Dragon will be born in the city by the sea. Of course, everyone wants to bring the Great Dragon into being. Peace would be nice, you know? But there are also those who want to stop it at all costs.”
“Seems stupid to me,” Ethan mumbled.
“People are greedy and easily blinded. The three most powerful motivators for any person are survival, love, and power. I'm not going to pretend to have all of the answers here. Let's get you cleaned up, and then we can work on getting you energy. You'll need a lot of it.” He rubbed Ethan's back and then got up to grab a wet wash cloth and a bandage. “When we transform, it should heal you all of the way. But we still don't want to risk you getting an infection.”
Ethan winced when the wet cloth made contact with his skin. “That bad?”
“Pretty intense, yeah. You've got a cut, but for the most part only a lot of bruising. I hope you don't have a concussion, because what we're going to do is pretty dangerous as it is.”
“What do you mean?”
His father bit his lip. “We can't fly in. They'll be expecting it. We're going to have to swim. Across the ocean.”
“Yeah, and? We breathe underwater.” Ethan shrugged.
“There are also boats, big ones, so we'll have to avoid those. If we go too deep, though, there are other things we'll have to dodge. Giant squids, sharks, et cetera. The sharks, I think, are pretty scared of us since we're bigger. The squids I'm not so sure, since they're probably bigger than us. Not like I've ever seen one, but they supposedly exist. We're both small. Saltwater, also, isn't the same as fresh. It can do a lot of strange things to my magic. One of them is making me glow in the dark, which could attract unwanted attention as well,” his father explained. “The good news is, the Terran mainland isn't far from here.”
“How far?”
“Far enough, but not too far.” His father gave him a small smile. Ethan couldn't help but wonder if he was purposefully trying to dodge the question. It had to be further than he would have preferred if it was considered a dangerous trip. But Ethan also didn't have any other options. His father was right. The Terran would expect an air raid.
While Oceina dragons did fly in and out of the country frequently, the Terran would know what to look for. Ethan's body was small, much like his father's. A boat could take hours or even days longer, depending on how outdated of a model they rode in on. Plus, there would always be the chance of a dragon working the customs office. Too much to deal with. Swimming would be the one way for him to make it across undetected.
Ethan let his father finish tending to his wounds then stood up. “We need to go now.” He glanced at his father. “Thank you.”
“You're welcome. Come on, let's transform, so you can bring your wife home.”