Blue Voodoo: A Romantic Retelling of Bluebeard (The Hidden Kingdom Series Book 2) by Jennifer Blackstream Read Free Book Online

child free from the tree, Parlangua was forced to use its grip with its jaws, back legs scrabbling at the loose, muddy earth as it tried to drag the child into the water. The monster’s movements were sluggish, but determined, eyes fixed on its prey as it pulled.
    There were no adults, no parents here to save the child—or to witness the child being saved. Moving quickly, Julien bent down and laid Dominique against the trees, propping her as best he could against two trunks. He stared at her as he shucked out of his clothes. Her breathing was blessedly even, the color in her cheeks closer to normal, a reassuring sign that she wasn’t still losing blood.
    As the child’s screams filled his veins with the bite of adrenaline, Julien gave himself over to the change. Air rushed out of his lungs, the release of a breath held too long. His skin parted under waves of feathers. His bones cracked, shifted, and hollowed. His teeth merged, extending into a sharp beak. The world around him grew fuzzy, then sharper, details blooming to life that human eyes could never have seen.
    Parlangua hesitated, eyes rolling back to glare at Julien. Indecision held it immobile, the desire to face the new threat warring with its need for food, its need to replenish its strength to heal its wounds. The energy whirling like a vortex inside of Julien spiraled up as he raised his wings, stretching high into the air. The grayish-blue sky darkened, faint clouds forming like the first smoky tendrils of a bonfire. He brought his wings down with a sharp snap, power rolling out, thrusting the air down.
    Thunder broke overhead. It crashed and rolled above them, coming to the call of Julien’s magic, the force he wielded as his birthright. Hungry on the heel of the thunder was the crackling promise of lightning. Julien focused on Parlangua, on the monster’s renewed struggle to drag its victim away and the child’s fierce struggle for survival.
    Another beat of Julien’s wings, a piercing scream erupting from his beak like an offering to the storm. Lightning speared the clouds, arced down toward the water and Parlangua. Blinding light. The giant reptile released the child, rolling with speed no normal alligator could have managed.
    It wasn’t enough. Electricity struck its thick hide. Acrid smoke curled from the blackened scales and the monster choked out a ragged roar before throwing itself away from its would-be meal back into the foggy marsh. Random sparks sizzled across the water’s steaming surface as the beast submerged, the hatred in its greenish-yellow eyes promised another encounter. Thunder shook the clouds above as Julien shrieked viciously in answer.
    As soon as the beast had disappeared, Julien threw himself back into the change. This time it was not so seamless, his flesh objecting to being forced back so quickly, the energy of the storm demanding he fly into the air, soar through the thunderclouds he had summoned. He held his breath, straining through the shift, reaching up to the sky with human hands. His knees connected with the thick blanket of grass beneath him as he half-collapsed, chest heaving.
    The boy Parlangua had intended to have as its next meal lay crumpled on the ground, unconscious—the price to pay for the beyond-human strength a near-death situation blessed all living creatures with. Julien grunted as he straightened, his body aching from the rapid shift, but healed from the shallow wounds Parlangua had inflicted. He dressed as fast as his shaking hands would allow, scanning the area around the boy, waiting…
    He had barely managed to get Dominique back into his arms when new voices erupted onto the scene. A man and a woman half ran, half fell toward the unconscious boy. Their dark skin made the whites of their eyes stand out like beacons of their terror, both of them lost in the mad dash for the child Julien guessed was their son. The woman fell to the ground and gathered the youth in her arms, slender hands smoothing