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my fear vanished. And I felt exhilarated.
    Abernathy twisted and turned, like a corkscrew, and I heard him chuckle. “It’s been ages.”
    He shot into the air. Stopped, and curled his body into a ball, then cannonballed toward the ground. I was having too much fun to be scared.
    A few minutes in, something occurred to me.
    How are we not falling? I shouted the question at Abernathy.
    He growled happily, letting out a long stream of fire.
    “Magic, vampire. Always magic.”
    I tested the theory, releasing my death grip on one of his scales. In the same second Abernathy flipped out of the ball, and expanded his wings. We all should’ve shot into the air. No matter how tightly we held on, the suddenness of the stop should have sent us sailing off his back. None of us moved though, like we’d been seat belted to the dragon.
    “ Woohoo,” I shouted.
    I sensed the others relax.
    Cindy glanced back, and though her features were tight, she tried a smile. “Are you glad we came?”
    “Yeah,” I said, unable to help the giddy happiness gurgling in my chest.
    It reminded me of Silindra, and how she swore she’d rather die than lose her wings. I thought maybe I understood her a little better.

Chapter 11
     
    I peeked over Abernathy’s side, and saw sparkling blue water below. It was in every direction, along the sides, and above us. The others followed suit, and Cindy grabbed hold of Gabe tighter. He whispered something to her, and she nodded.
    Dorian asked what I was thinking. “Where the hell are we?”
    “I don’t know,” I answered.  “Abernathy, what is this place?” It was like we were inside a raindrop.
    “This is the land of Mizu. Your mother dwells here.”
    “Abernathy, my mother died a long time ago.” Tears stung the edges of my eyes.
    “You were told your mother died. It was for your safety. Now that you are the Seal, none of the secret nonsense matters. Do you want to see her or not?”
    He laughed like he’d made a joke.
    “Yes,” I said, but I was suddenly nervous. My teeth chattered, and I couldn’t slow my racing heart.
    Abernathy dove, his body shooting toward the water like an arrow. Despite Abernathy’s words, telling us magic held us in place; I clutched one of his scales, holding on like my life depended on it.
    My mind was in a torrent of crazy. Did my father know my mother was still alive? Was he keeping it a secret all these years? I remembered what Professor Pops said, about my mother being proud. Did he know she still lived as well?
    When we entered the water I had another moment of panic. But there was a bubble around the four of us, keeping the water away, allowing everyone to breathe.
    “This is ridiculous ,” Cindy whispered.
    All around , outside the bubble, was thick water. Abernathy coasted slowly downward, like a golden submarine. At first we didn’t see anything but water, water, and more water. But after several minutes, a random fish darted by, then a large school of dolphins. A few minutes later a large, strange looking whale swam alongside us. Abernathy’s eyes glowed in front of him like twin flashlights. And as we got closer to the bottom, there was a colorful reef with all manner of plants growing on it, and creatures living amongst the twisty coral.
    “It’s beautiful,” I said .
    Gabe, Cindy, and Dorian all spoke their agreement.
    “But why are we down here? Elves don’t live in the water. On its shores, sure, but never in it,” Gabe said.
    I grimaced. “Maybe you don’t know as much as you thought you did about elves.”
    Cindy touched his arm. “Let’s see where Abernathy is taking us. If he says Snow’s mother is down here… somewhere, then it must be true.”
    Yeah, because dragons may be lazy, but they’re honest, my inner voice huffed sarcastically.
    Dorian wrapped his arms tighter around my waist. A part of me felt guilty for being in the arms of another guy. But I consoled myself. This was an extenuating circumstance, and Christopher would