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Merletta laughed openly. “You look like a baby sea turtle, still learning how to swim.”
“Hey,” Heath protested. “I’ve been able to swim since I was a child.”
“Maybe, but floating on your back is all about balance,” said Merletta. “If you keep kicking your legs like that, you’re going to overturn.”
“Easy for you to say,” grumbled Heath. “You don’t have legs. I can’t help kicking them a little. It’s involuntary.”
“Well, you asked me to teach you,” said Merletta, splashing water over his bare chest with a grin. She poked his side. “At least you’re not all wrapped up today. All those coverings must hamper your movement. You look much more natural now, almost like a merman.”
Heath righted himself, trying to be as nonchalant as she was about her touch. They were floating above the reef today, past the breakers, rather than in the lagoon. Back home autumn had already turned into winter, but on Vazula, it seemed to always be hot. The sun was particularly fierce today, and he had discarded his tunic before going in the water. Merletta still didn’t really understand the concept of clothing, and she was much more casual about touching him than anyone he’d ever met before. It was exhilarating and terrifying in equal measures.
“You show me how it’s done, then,” he said, sidestepping the topic of clothing.
“All right,” Merletta agreed, stretching onto her back compliantly. She closed her eyes, looking utterly relaxed as she floated, her body perfectly still, moving only with the gentle swell of the waves.
His eyes darted to the warm skin of her shoulders, mesmerized by the way they rose and fell with her breathing, as if mimicking the rolling waves. Sometimes, like in this moment, she seemed almost to be a part of the ocean. And yet, at the same time, there was something so human about her. After months, he still wasn’t quite sure what to make of her.
She opened her eyes suddenly, and he wasn’t quick enough to avoid being caught staring. For a moment the silence stretched between them, uncomfortably charged, as Heath cast around for something suitable to say.
“You’re wearing your hair differently,” he said at last, his eyes latching on to her thick dark braid. She was still watching him closely, the tension hanging between them, so he tried to adopt a teasing tone. “It makes you look less like a wild creature of ocean legend.”
He expected her to laugh, but she didn’t. Her face didn’t change, but he got the strong impression that she was trying to decide whether his comment was a compliment or the reverse.
“I like it,” he added quickly. “I just wondered about the change.”
She sighed, leaning her head back against the water much as he might rest his head on a cushion. “I’m trying to blend in a little more at the Center,” she said. “Not put everyone’s backs up so much. Or at least,” she amended, “choose which things are worth putting their backs up over.”
“That’s wise,” said Heath, nodding.
“Do you think so?” There was an element of anxiety in her voice as she turned to him. “I don’t want to let them change me into a conforming trainee, who doesn’t question what she’s taught.”
Heath smiled, daringly reaching out to tweak her braid. “I think it would take a lot more than a change in hairstyle to do that.” His expression grew more serious. “I’ve always believed in the importance of choosing your battles. Or, if I’m honest,” he added ruefully, “avoiding battle altogether wherever possible.”
He sighed, his eyes drifting overhead to where Reka was hovering, far above them, riding the current of the wind as he sniffed out the traces of dragon magic still lingering around Vazula. He had lost interest in Heath and Merletta’s endless lessons, teaching each other about their respective peoples. His main interest in coming to Vazula now was in attempting to unravel the mystery of its missing dragon inhabitants.
The thought made Heath feel guilty. His whole excuse for coming to Vazula in the first place was that it wasn’t just exploration for the sake of satisfying his curiosity. It was a genuine attempt to find answers about how Valoria’s growing magical population could successfully integrate. But the truth was, since meeting Merletta, he had all but forgotten about that quest. He hadn’t even explored the ruins in weeks now. Instead he spent all his time in the shallows, pretending that his new companion, and the endless depth of discovery she represented, didn’t belong to a completely different world, one with no possibility of crossover with his.
“What battle are you fighting now, Heath?” Merletta asked, her voice searching, and unusually gentle.
He looked up quickly, and this time she was the one watching him. But she didn’t look in the least embarrassed. Her forehead was creased in concern, and she was clearly expecting a serious answer to her question.
Heath released a long breath. “It’s more the battle I’m not fighting,” he admitted. “And I’m struggling to decide whether I should be.”
Merletta regarded him in silence for another moment, her eyes flicking to his arms, which were working harder to keep him afloat the longer he was treading water.
“Come on,” she said, gesturing with her head toward the shore. She turned, flipping from her back and slipping below the surface in one fluid motion.
Heath followed much more clumsily, and soon they were both resting their hands on the sand of the shallows. Merletta turned over, sitting on the sand, with her tail in the water, and the waves lapping over her.
“Be careful,” Heath said anxiously, as a receding wave left more than half of her tail out of the water.
Merletta just smiled, not bothering to respond to the warning. She closed her eyes for a moment, leaning back on her hands and turning her face up toward the sun. As much as he didn’t want to be caught staring a second time in one afternoon, he couldn’t stop his eyes from being once again drawn to her form. She looked unusually peaceful as she soaked in the sun, reinforcing his impression that she was relaxed above the surface in a way that was probably rare in her underwater life.
He remembered thinking she was beautiful the first time he’d seen her, back when he thought she was human. If anything, she seemed even more beautiful now. Her eagerness for life drew him magnetically, but his own admiration unnerved him. When they were floating in the water, it was alarmingly easy to forget for a moment. But here, in the shallows, it was impossible to miss the way her slim, graceful form merged into an enormous—and very not-human—tail.
The whole thing was discomfiting, to say the least.
“It’s so warm in the sun,” Merletta said, her words startling him out of his scrutiny. His eyes darted to her face, but she still had her eyes closed, her face turned up toward the sky. “Sometimes I wish I could stay up here forever. I can’t help but be jealous of you. The depths of the ocean are freezing.”
