Nori continued stirring the water. “Stranded barefoot for miles in a desert of broken glass, the creature pretends to not see when she passes an oasis of shoes.”
Well, that made all the sense in the world.
I stooped to pry a crustacean from the sandy bubbles. “Consider me enlightened, Nori, listening to you speak of creatures needing shoes. You don't even have feet.”
“I do not need feet to sense lies.”
What inMihauna’sname? Lies?
Arms wide in confusion, I shot her a look. “Who is lying, Nori?”
She only chuckled, tail flicking like a cat amusing itself with a mouse. “You are. To yourself.”
I gave a sharp sigh, hands on my hips. “Listen—”
“Don’t bring him to Neris Island. My queen would not tolerate it. It is against Naiad law for a human to see—”
“I wouldn’t bring him here. I wouldn’t let him see you.”
Nori’s eyes darkened. “He would have to be killed if he did.”
I swallowed, crossing my arms. “I know.”
“It’s law.”
“I know. I wasn’t even going to—”
“And do not mate with theboy.” Nori enunciated the word as though I didn’t understand the meaning of it, rolling onto her belly, her wine-red hair like blood streaming from her scalp. “You would never be rid of him.”
I threw an exasperated hand through the air. Mate with him? Of all the ideas under the sun and moon I might dredge to life, mating with some Calderian was the least likely to ever solidify into action.
The thought alone made me want to throw salt water in her face. “He almost drowned in shallow water. He doesn’t have two halves of a brain to rub together. Trust me, I’m not going to mate with him.”
Playing with her whirlpool, Nori ignored me.
“The only thing I want is for him to leave,” I told her, yanking the bucket up so I could travel down the beach, away from the Naiad and whatever odd mood she was in.
A week or more passed, and the stupid man still hadn’t left.
I ignored him, of course, though my eyes and ears always seemed to search for him. I’d hear a voice across the fields, and look up to realize it was his, chatting with Nola and Kimo as they deboned their meal. Or I’d hear a scuffle through the grass just after the fishing boats returned, but it was Kye, not my father, who crossed under the palms to rinse off in the water.
He seemed intent on pausing in front of my house to do things like stretch or observe island insects with vague curiosity. Of course, the entire moon-damned island seemed to follow him around.
Scowling, I could only sit on my veranda and wait for them to pass. My father sat beside me, pretending not to notice both my foul mood and the flocks of mindless islanders as they tramped through our yard. A sizzle snapped through the air between our feet, his fish smoking in the underground oven—the sign of a successful day on the boats.
“Another sailor went missing this morning,” my father said.
I paused briefly, lowering the buckets to the floor, eyes hard on his face. “Which ship?”
Across the fields, loud, feminine laughter broke the silence of the neighborhood, and a strange twinge of frustration vibrated in my head as my cousin Nola emerged through the eastern palms, leading Kimo and the Calderian down the path to Palunu and Naheso’s house. Nola and Kimo disappeared up the stepsand out of view, but Kye halted when he looked across the crop lines and caught my eye.
I quickly glanced away.
I’d passed him on the trail that morning. His blisters had receded into his flesh, leaving large and inconsistent patches of brown. His red veins had also begun to fade, his freckles dark, leaving the illusion someone had sprinkled brown sugar across his nose and shoulders.
Even under the mask of a half-healed burn, it was clear a handsome face lay hidden below. High cheekbones, a cupid’s bow mouth, the dark shadow of an emerging beard drawing dusky hollows in his taut jawline.
It had been over a week since he’d landed in Leihani. Why was he still here?
