Free Unleash the Storm by Annette Marie

scraped the scales that protected her forearm.
    “Holy shit!” she exclaimed in a burst of bubbles.
    Heart pounding, she kicked the fish hard in its underbelly. It let her go. She pulled her feet back, planted them on the bottom, and launched upward with every bit of force she could muster. She shot toward the sparkling surface, and her senses screamed at her that the entire school of fish was rushing up after her, led by the one she’d scratched up. She would reach the surface at the same time they reached her—and then they would take some very large bites out of her mostly unprotected flesh.
    As she closed in on the surface, a dark shadow from near the shore flashed toward the center of the pool. She crashed through the surface, sending water spraying everywhere, and flung her hands into the air. Ash grabbed them as he swooped over her, yanking her out of the water.
    Right behind him, Zwi swooped down on huge dragon wings. As the school hit the surface in a thrashing, churning mosh pit of enraged seafood, the dragon snatched one giant fish in her jaws and another with her front talons. Ash banked back toward the shore with Piper hanging from his hands by her wrists. Her audience had multiplied—pretty much everyone was standing there, watching.
    Raisa, Coby, and Ivria cheered as Ash set Piper down on the shore and landed beside her. Zwi flew over their heads and dropped her catch on the ground. The two fish looked even more massive out of the water. One was dead, its head crushed by Zwi’s jaws. The other flopped violently, throwing itself in every direction, gills pumping.
    “You did it!” Raisa bounced up and down, clapping her hands together. “That was awesome!”
    “First you were almost bird food,” Coby said with a smirk, “and now nearly fish food. You seem determined to feed the local wildlife.”
    Piper threw her hands up. “They didn’t look that big from the surface. Is everything here so oversized?”
    “No, you’re just extra lucky.” Coby rubbed her hands together. “I’m starved. Let’s get camp set up so we can start cooking.”
    Laughing and talking, the draconians headed back to the unpacked gear, passing many thanks and congratulations to Piper as they went. She couldn’t help her embarrassed smile, standing beside Ash in her underclothes as she dripped water everywhere. As the others moved away, Lyre came to join them.
    “Um,” he said, holding her clothes in his arms with a towel folded on top, “I, uh, owe you an apology. I had no idea those fish might be dangerous.”
    “Really? I assumed it was all a devious plot to get rid of me. How could you not know that those were super murder-fish, just waiting to rip me apart?”
    He snorted and held out the towel.
    She grinned and accepted it. “Don’t worry about it, Lyre. We might need a different strategy for next time though.”
    “We’ll come up with something.”
    She quickly dried off and Lyre passed over her clothes.
    “Where did everyone come from?” she asked as she pulled her garments on. “Did they all run over the moment I dove in?”
    Lyre glanced at Ash before answering. “They had lots of time to wander over and see what was going on. You were underwater for over ten minutes.”
    She froze halfway through shoving her right foot in her boot.
    “Ten minutes ? No way.” She looked at Ash in disbelief.
    He nodded. “At least. We didn’t know what to do. You didn’t look distressed, but …”
    “But we couldn’t believe how long you were down there,” Lyre finished, his eyes alight with admiration. “That was damn impressive.”
    She stared at them. “Ten minutes ?”
    “Yup. Are you sure you aren’t hiding gills anywhere?”
    “Very sure,” she said weakly. She hadn’t noticed the strain of holding her breath. It really hadn’t felt like she’d been underwater that long.
    Shaking her head, she hastily finished putting on her boots, thinking it was too bad she’d had to leave the ryujin after