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Neri tapped my shoulder, wrenching my attention from the seahorse to her face. She pointed at the surface and gently unwound the seahorse’s spiny tail from around her thumb. Passing it to me on a buffet of water, she kicked off with a flex of her powerful core, leaving me on the reef while she caught another breath.
I’d never been more in awe of her.
I’d spent hours timing her breath holds in the pool, yet I hadn’t appreciated the freedom it gave her out here. To swim unencumbered. To be just like the fish who belonged here. The fish she believed she was.
While waiting for her to return, I placed the seahorse back near its crevice. I didn’t have the guts to put my hand into its home, but the creature fanned the fins on its back and vanished without a trace.
I lost myself to the chaos.
All around me life bloomed. Luminous prawns and cheeky crabs, flounder fish burying themselves in sand, and a shoal of yellowfin goatfish spiralled in the distance. A drifting piece of seaweed tangled itself on some coral, revealing a seadragon hiding in its folds.
I wished I had a camera.
I wanted to capture this insane day, this insane world.
Neri tapped me on the shoulder, making me flinch.
Twisting to catch her eyes, I frowned.
She’d put on a mask.
Her eyes blinked behind the clear covering, and the strap around her head did its best to trap her dancing seaweed hair.
My pulse crept higher as she waved the diving knife I’d used on Ethan in my face.
Why the hell does she have a knife?
Bubbles rushed from my regulator as I fought with questions I couldn’t ask. Cursing the lack of ability, I shrugged. What?
Twisting, she used her monofin to spiral on the spot, pointing toward the edge of the reef in the blue-hazy distance.
A flicker of something grey.
Is it Sapphire?
I had no idea what the hand gesture was for a dolphin. Had her pod come to see her? Did they know The Fluke’s engine? Perhaps they’d been waiting just off the reef since last night, patiently waiting to see Neri.
Giving me a come-hither wave, Neri kicked her fin and cut through the water. I jumped off the bottom and swam behind her. Without flippers of my own, I wasn’t nearly as fast, but I focused on my breathing. On the effort it took to inhale and exhale, following her path through the reef, keeping my legs far away from stinging coral and my feet from venomous stonefish.
When we reached another sandy area, I sank to the bottom and shrugged again.
Neri hovered above me.
Holding up her finger, she kicked toward the surface. She broke the water above, her fin swaying backward and forth as her head remained in the world where humans were meant to exist.
She stayed up there longer than I expected and another flicker of grey whipped my attention to the murky depths beyond the atoll.
Shit.
Every muscle in my body froze.
I went rigid.
I forgot how to breathe.
Every instinct told me to fight for the surface, but Jack’s lessons echoed loudly in my ears. “If you see a shark, hold your ground. They’re most likely just curious. You have a much better chance of surviving if you make eye contact, stay head on, and punch it square in the nose if it charges.”
The shark twisted in the water, its fins slicing effortlessly. Rows upon rows of jagged teeth glittered in the sunlight spearing through the water. Scars branded its side and part of its gills looked torn, but the wounds were old, not new. They spoke of a vicious war that it had won.
Its tail never quickened, but it changed direction, swimming directly for me.
Fuck.
FUCK!
I glanced at Neri still hovering on the surface.
At least it wasn’t going after her.
At least she was safe and—
Shit.
The shark picked up its pace.
Its powerful grey body undulated and weaved.
Three metres, two metres, one—
Neri shot in front of me, blocking my vision and placing herself in harm’s way.
Instinct roared through me.
Grabbing her around the waist, I shoved her to the side, desperate to put her behind me.
She fought and struggled, elbowing me in the stomach.
I doubled over, losing my regulator and sending a tornado of bubbles flying.
The shark baulked and swam around us.
I grabbed the mouthpiece and shoved it back between my teeth. Neri cupped my cheeks and studied me. She mouthed, “I’m sorry”, then took off after the damn shark.
What the actual fuck—?
Spinning in place, I almost lost my regulator again as Neri swam alongside the shark, gently touched its dorsal fin, then cut in front of it.
My heart tried to leap into the sea.
I swam after her, panic and fury pouring through me.
How dare she put herself in such danger?
How dare she try to protect me, then swim after the same monster she protected me from!?
