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HELP WITH WHAT?
I felt the question in my soul rather than heard it with my ears, but the question was said in a rusty, echoing voice that reverberated around my head.
Help me protect them!
Desperate, I glanced at my friends who had gathered on the lake shore.
Whatever I was talking to, I felt its heartbeat—slow, but achingly loud.
Help me protect everyone!
A few heartbeats passed.
The skull monster roared and started to lunge for me.
I began to shift my magic, preparing a ward, when the voice spoke deep in my bones again.
YOUR REASONING IS ACCEPTABLE.
Behind me, something burst out of the water.
I swung around and gaped at the creature that had surfaced. Its wedge shaped head topped a long, sinewy neck that stretched impossibly high.
The creature landed somewhere between dragon and snake with its scaly neck, and the winged fins/frill that extended across the top of its head, behind its gleaming horns.
As I watched, another head shot out of the lake, spraying water everywhere. Then another head surfaced, and another.
In the end, nine serpentine heads popped out of the lake—which was now significantly lower and left a huge ring of lakeshore dry with flopping fish.
The heads roared together as one, and lightning crackled around them as clouds covered the sky and thunder rolled.
A hydra.
I stared in shock.
Lord Linus said an ancient creature lived in the lake. It’s a hydra. It must be as old as the realm itself to be that big and to have that many heads!
The hydra’s necks and heads bobbed and wove in a soundless song as its abrupt appearance sent huge waves crashing across the lake. Each head was the size of a small house, and my brain was having a hard time processing that.
YES, LITTLE QUEEN, the hydra said in my soul. WE ARE HYDRA. WE WILL DEFEAT YOUR ENEMY.
The skull monster shrank back, then chattered a challenge to the hydra.
It was the last thing it did.
The hydra—like the lightning that danced up and down the scales of its necks—struck.
Two heads shot past me, so close that if I had flinched they would have taken a limb off.
Another shot over my head, and the rest convened on the shadowy monster.
One hydra opened its mouth and closed it around the white skull of the shadow creature. A vicious yank, and it ripped the skulled head free from the magic that held the monster together. Its silver teeth gleamed as it crunched down on the skull—which drained of shadow magic. Bone splintered, then shattered entirely.
Another hydra head ripped one of the clawed legs free, destroying it with a chomp of its teeth. The biggest head went for the tail, ripping it off and biting through it. The tail turned into shadows, then disappeared like darkness retreating from light.
The hydra made quick work of the rest of the monster, ripping the body apart and separating the magic, which drained away.
In seconds, they’d dismembered the monster, and the only trace of it left was the path of wreckage it had left behind it when it chased after Eclipse and me.
I could hear my heartbeat in my ears as I looked from the empty shore, to the hydra heads stretched high above me.
Oh boy. I hope this wasn’t a mistake.
The lake water churned, as the hydra’s many necks moved. The creature roared—a deep, throaty noise that shook the realm.
T-thank you, I stammered, trying to project my thoughts to the creature, even though I had no idea how.
One of the heads lowered until it sat just above the lake water, and then it inhaled deeply.
“Leila!” Lord Linus shouted.
I stayed still as the monster brought its head closer, letting me see the lake scum and seaweed that was caught in the crevices of its scales.
YOU ARE THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT COURT, the hydra said. AND YOU HAVE SEEN ONE OF MY KINSMEN.
It took me a moment to remember the much, much, much smaller hydra I’d seen in August. Ahah—yes. Yes I have. He was very…um…cute?
A few of the heads swiveled around, taking stock of the realm.
WE WILL RETURN TO OUR SLEEP. WE DO NOT CARE FOR THIS REALM NOW THAT THE ELVES DO NOT WALK IT. BUT YOU INTEREST US, LITTLE QUEEN. WE WILL LISTEN FOR YOU, AND RISE WHEN WE WISH TO.
That’s great, I weakly thought. Just wonderful. I’ll keep an eye out for you.
The hydra abruptly retracted the head closest to me. All nine heads gave me a tiny nod, and then the necks lowered, snaking downward. The hydra