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By the time I arrive, Penny is limp again, but her heart is strong and her gills are working twice as hard to make up for nearly drowning under my care. I slip into the underwater cave, and then come up to its entrance.
I let her down onto the rocks, watching her every move.
Her wet hair is a dark halo around her face, and her lips are slightly parted. I’m tempted to taste them again but do not. The torment of the change she endured would be enough to kill a lesser creature. She needs rest and sustenance if she is going to weather the trauma.
Now that she is safe, I have time to consider things with more clarity.
It’s not like me to care whether a creature of land survives, and my actions since laying eyes on Penny have been reckless. There is no predator in a hundred clicks that could best me, save for a handful of dark elves, and here I’ve risked exposure to them to take one of their own. They will want her back, no doubt, and now that my magic has changed her irreparably, they might consider her an abomination and try to have her killed.
A low growl escapes me at the thought.
Penny moans softly in sleep, her brow knitting together. I draw closer, casting a shadow over her in contemplation. “You are mine,” I say, letting the sentiment echo off the cave walls, then lean in as if to get a better look.
I remember how she spoke to me long into the night about her world, recalling the first moment when I knew I needed her for my own. And yet to have her in my lair, so close and so vulnerable, it sends frisson up my spine and over my flesh.
I closely monitor her breaths, listening for the whistle of trapped water in her lungs.
But she’s breathing easily now. There’s no imminent danger, no angry fishermen to distract me from my prize, no fear or terror in her beautiful countenance. Now I am allowed to look upon her with undiluted focus.
There’s something soft about her, even as the magic ripples across her skin.
I pushed more magic into her than I realized when I thought I was losing her, and as a result, she still glows softly even now. Her gills are unseen. I stroke where I know they are, feeling the slight ripple of flesh that saved her from my urgency to claim her.
I wonder what she’ll think of this place when she wakes up.
The pressure of the ocean is not present here, the magical dome protecting us from the crushing weight of so much water. Will she find it full of wonder, or terrifying? I’m almost apprehensive about when she wakes, and still, I’ll be glad that the cave protects her from outside influences.
The fishermen had nefarious plans for her. I could taste it in their blood and hear it in their foul words. Even the dark elf would have let his baser nature get the better of him, and I could not allow her to be submitted to such disgraceful handling.
If anyone is going to discover her flesh with their cruel intent, it’s going to be me.
10
PENNY
Darkness folds over my vision.
It’s not painful anymore. The burning in my lungs has gone, replaced with a cool acceptance.This is it.This is the end.It’s not a question anymore, even as I feel arms around me, squeezing me tight. The sensation is distant, fading.
And that’s okay.
I’m surprised to find there’s still a part of me, of Penny, that carries on, aware but not feeling, exactly. There’s really nothing left to feel. This has to be death. I’m certain of it. At least, the death ofsomething. I thought there’d be all panic and struggle until this end, but this is nice.. I’m not afraid of whatever’s coming when that accelerating darkness swallows up the rest of my being.
I would go easily into it.
But something prickles at the back of my throat. It’s an agony more intense than anything has a right to be. It brings me back to my failing form, first as a small, terrible prickling, then growing into something luminous that burns away the darkness.
Hot, white fire.
My eyes open, and I see nothing but its flames. It’s changing me, destroying and remaking me into something else. Something not quite Penny anymore, but close. The fire chases through my veins, twisting and twining, forcing my body to convulse. It’s distantly that I feel another’s body against mine, holding fast against the endless brine.
Something snaps, and then it all comes rushing in.
My first breath is one of resurrection, rippling with agony.
I want to scream, howl, gnash at the sensation, and tear it to pieces. I want my darkness back, that velvet embrace that did not rake me over the coals.
“You aremine.”
