Free Tempest Revealed by Tracy Deebs Page A

sheer, flat face of the most mammoth wave I’d ever ridden.
    It was amazing, exhilarating, terrifying, and awe inspiring all at the same time. More than once I thought I was going into the drink, but I managed to hold on—by my toenailssometimes—until the wave brought me in. I didn’t get as close to shore as my dad did, didn’t get a chance to shoot the barrel as the wave turned choppier, started to break up.
    I jockeyed for position, hung on as long as possible, then dropped out right before the thing crashed into the surface of the ocean. As the waves bumped me around some—the water was getting rougher—I fumbled for my board. Once I found it, I straddled it and let out a war whoop of epic proportions. My dad echoed it from his spot on the water. He was paddling out to meet me and probably do the whole crazy thing again, and I couldn’t wait. I’d ridden the hell out of that wave and couldn’t have been prouder.
    Grinning, thrilled with myself and the whole world, I turned toward my dad, wanting to share my exhilaration with him. He was close enough that I could see his grin and I smiled back, waving a little. He was as stoked as I was that I had not let that swell take me down.
    “That was awesome, Temp—”
    He stopped talking midsentence, a strange look crossing his face before he disappeared suddenly beneath the choppy surface of the ocean.
    What the hell?
    “Dad!” I called, but he didn’t answer. Seconds later, I saw his board floating several feet away.
    Confusion turned to alarm, and I ditched my board, diving deep between the crests of one wave and the next. As I did, I blew the air out of my lungs and let my gills take over so I wouldn’t have to worry about hitting the surface for air. Though I was prepared, that first breath of salt water hurt like a bitch asmy human lungs fought instinctively to reject it. I ignored the pain, ignored the messages that warned me I was drowning, and dived deeper. Swam faster.
    As I did, visions of sharks and swordfish and even huge, carnivorous seals ripped through my head. As did images of Tiamat and her vicious pet, the Lusca. Something had my dad—of that I had no doubt. Now it was a matter of finding out if it was just an animal doing what came naturally or if it was a darker, more dangerous force.
    Smart enough to know I wasn’t going to be able to find him out here in the dark, I closed my eyes and tried to focus through the terror ripping me apart. A couple deep breaths, a little shot of power, and I’d created a large, encapsulated ball of light that illuminated the ocean around me. I quickly tethered it to me with another blast of power so that it moved where I did, and then I went deep.
    As I dove, I didn’t know what to wish for: a shark could very well have killed my father by now. But then, so could Tiamat—unless she wanted something from him. Like to use him as bait to make me swim directly into one of her traps.
    If it was her, she was getting her wish, because while the logical portion of my brain was shouting warnings at me, I was paying it absolutely no attention. Sheer terror had seized control of me, and I was bumbling around like a total frube, desperate for some—any—sign of my father. It had been two and a half, maybe three minutes since he’d been grabbed. I had only a couple more to find him before brain damage started to kick in.
    Freaking out, panicked beyond just about anything I hadever felt before, I forced myself to surface. To look out over the black water and try to see if I could spot anything. But there was nothing except the inevitable push and pull of the waves and the glowing blue of the algae all around me. In the distance, I could see the lights of my board glowing purple against the dark water, but there was no sign of my father.
    And that’s when it registered. While the ocean all around me was lit up an otherworldly blue, there was a heavy concentration of the phosphorescent light about thirty feet in front