But sleep felt like wasting precious time, and he wanted to memorize every detail of this moment—the weight of her against him, the sound of her breathing, the warmth of her skin, the faint scent of the soap she favored.
When he finally drifted off, his dreams were peaceful.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The next morning he escorted them all down to the boat, then ran through the safety protocols with Anya and Corinne while Mikoz explored the deck with determined curiosity.
“Life vests stay on at all times,” he said firmly. “No exceptions. If you fall overboard, do not panic. The vests will keep you afloat and I will retrieve you immediately.”
“What if you fall overboard?” Anya asked.
“I will not.”
“But what if you do?”
He pointed to the emergency beacon mounted near the helm. “Activate that. It will alert the harbor authority and they will send rescue vessels.”
“What if?—”
“Anya. I am Cire. We are natural swimmers and I have trained for water emergencies since childhood. The likelihood of medrowning is approximately the same as the likelihood of this vessel spontaneously transforming into a land mammal.”
She giggled. “So, zero?”
“Precisely zero.”
Corinne finished securing Mikoz’s small life vest and set him on a bench where he couldn’t easily tumble overboard. The infant immediately tried to remove the vest, clearly offended by its existence.
“He hates it,” she said.
“He will become accustomed.” He fired up the engine, feeling the familiar vibration through the deck. “Ready?”
They cast off from the dock and motored slowly through the harbor traffic. He kept them at cautious speeds until they cleared the breakwater, then opened up the throttle and aimed for the open ocean.
The wind caught Anya’s hair and she laughed with pure delight, leaning against the rail to watch the water rush past. Corinne held Mikoz, pointing out various features of the coastline and explaining what they were seeing.
Selik guided them to one of his favorite spots—a shallow area where the water ran clear and schools of small fish darted between rocks. He dropped anchor and killed the engine, letting them drift in the gentle current.
“This is beautiful,” Corinne breathed.
It was. The water reflected the sky’s pale blue-green, and the two moons were visible even during daylight, faint crescents hangingabove the horizon. Rocky outcroppings broke the surface nearby, creating natural tide pools filled with colorful creatures.
“Can we swim?” Anya asked.
“If you stay close to the vessel and heed my warnings about currents, yes.”
She whooped and dove over the side before he could add more instructions. Corinne made a worried noise, but he had already tracked Anya’s trajectory and calculated she’d surface safely.
She did, sputtering and grinning. “It’s cold!”
“It’s ocean water. What did you expect?” Corinne called back.
“I don’t know. Warmer?”
He stripped off his shirt and dove in after her, the shock of cold water against his skin bracing and pleasant. He surfaced beside Anya and demonstrated a basic floating technique, then showed her how to use the current rather than fight it.
Jarrek had been teaching her theory. He taught her practice.
When Corinne called them back to the boat, Anya climbed aboard shivering and happy, wrapping herself in a towel while she chattered about everything she’d seen underwater.
