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Arys dropped my hand to wrap his arm around my back, pulling me into his side as we walked through the halls. The ship was no longer as quiet as it’d just been. It was becoming crowded as we rushed above deck. No one stopped to notice my close proximity to their captain.
“The ship is,” he glanced at me, something akin to fear on his face.
I swallowed thickly. “What is it?”
“I need you to stay by my side,” he said quietly, as if sharing a secret. “Should we capsize—”
“Capsize?” I hissed, skidding to a stop. “Like flip over?”
Arys watched me carefully. “You cannot swim,” he said quietly, like sharing a dirty secret. I guessed for him, a male that couldliterally breathe underwater, it was kind of an insane concept. It wasn’t exactly normal back home either.
“I know that,” I mumbled, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth. “Does this happen here often?”
Arys stopped then, staring at me with a blank look on his face.
“Arys?” I shook his arm, alarmed as he began to pale. It took far too long to shake him out of it. “What is it?”
“You are not meant for Vyessa,” he said to me, this heartbroken look on his face. “How can I keep you here if you are in constant danger of drowning?”
It was inappropriate for the situation at hand, but I couldn’t help but grin a little. Who even was this guy? One minute I hear he’s trying to sell me to some terribly hated species and then next he’s worried about me drowning.
“So you’ll take us home?” I asked, watching himveryclosely.
He ducked his head, palming the back of it with a weighty sigh. “I’m going to have to steal a Loyobv spacecraft,” he mumbled to himself. “If only Lyv were here to witness this humiliation.”
“I am,” the big man called, rushing by us. He winked but kept on in the direction of my room. “I’m refraining from gloating!”
“Esther and Albert?” I shouted to his back.
Lyv held up his hand but kept jogging. “On my way!”
Arys grabbed up my hand again, rushing us in the other direction. He still looked so forlorn that I couldn’t help but give his hand a squeeze. “You didn’t even want me here,” I reminded him.
Arys scoffed, “Untrue. I was merely in denial.”
“About what? We barely know each other.”
Arys smiled tightly over his shoulder, thrusting open the heavy door to the upper deck. “You are my mate, Layla. You fell straight down from the stars to me. Whatever happens between us from this moment on is inevitable.”
I must have looked a sight, gaping at him in shock, but a blast of freezing salty water wiped my expression clean off.
“By my side!” He shouted, pulling me out to a chaotic scene.
A storm on Vyessa was unlike anything I’d ever seen on Earth. It waspetrifying.
There was rain, heavy rain. Lightening so bright it nearly blinded me. Thunder that rolled through the sky and vibrated beneath my feet. But that wasn’t the worst of it.
The waves wereenormous. When the first one hit, Arys smashed me back against the door, holding me in place as the huge ship rocked violently. I could see the lights from Lyessa in the distance. We were already a great distance away from the city and that distance was growing rapidly but if we were this effected by the sudden storm, I couldn’t imagine being on that floating city while it raged.
But then I watched in shock as the city slowly began to rise into the air. I hadn’t been able to tell while standing in Dyande’s home or walking the boarded walkways at the time, but the barrels the city had been held afloat with, were actually metal risers. They slowly expanded, lifting the city several stories into the air. The walkways hung down like limp noodles from the buildings they were attached to, but the huts and the Lyessan populace were much safer higher in the sky. The waves crashed into the risers, but they were made of thick metal and barely moved with each powerful wave.
“Wow,” I mumbled amazed at the ingenuity.
Arys followed my stunned gaze, smiling faintly. “The posts are there to support the city and keep its structure intact. Most of the females, however, will be enjoying the storm from deep below the surface of the water.
I squinted, watching as small figures dove off the rising structure. A hysterical chuckle left me. They really were leaping into the water. “They’ll just swim down there? What about theserpents.”
Arys grinned. “A Vyessan storm is the only time our kind can truly enjoy the waters without fear. The serpents of the sea avoid the turbulent waters.” He winked. “Upsets their stomachs.”
