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The sound of my name on her tongue sends a shiver of delight through me. She is an obsession now, one I can’t easily shake. I fear my passions are too great for her, especially in her vulnerable state. I need to protect her while she heals.
She is relying on me to keep her well.
“You understand what happened to you?”
Her eyes darken, and she feels the skin at her throat where her gills sit inert. I want to see her use them again, but not yet. Not until the magic has dissipated from her flesh. “You changed me. You said so before.”
“I did,” I say, looking over the invisible marks.
It’s not easy to explain what happened. I was in a rush to keep her alive, and I truly didn’t know what would come of the ocean’s magic. But it always has a way of fixing things. “You were dying…”
She nods, her fingers drawing up the side of my own neck. The gills there flare at her touch, and she pulls back slightly, then strokes the feathery extensions. “Yours are different.”
“Of course. I was fashioned from the sea foam.”
Penny scrunches her nose at me. “Don’t you have parents?”
She has asked questions like this before. If there are any others like me. If there were, I doubt the other would survive my attack. I am a territorial, solitary creature. But to answer her… “I don’t know.”
She looks bemused. “That’s terrible.”
“I do not see it that way.”
Penny glances away, towards the setting sun peeking out behind the clouds. “I don’t have parents anymore, either,” she says as an afterthought.
My heart is heavy for her, understanding it must weigh heavily on her for how often she mentions them despite their absence.
Perhaps that is why she cannot defend herself, having learned nothing from her predecessors. It makes her all the more tender in my eyes. “I will teach you to hunt.”
She glances back at me. “I can fish just fine. If you’re talking about when they dragged me onto the boat, I wasn’t exactly focused on the task at hand.” She nudges me with a humorous look. “I was a little too distracted by the sea monster following us.”
I grunt but say nothing.
She’s still too vulnerable for my liking. She’s been weakened by the magical change and the lifetime of suffering beneath the dark elves, made into a slave for their amusement. Even the humans considered her something to toy with at their master’s behest.
I can only imagine how they would have mutilated her to sate their appetites. With renewed focus, I appreciate the softness of her thigh and her unmarred, sun-kissed skin.I’m glad you are mine, I want to whisper in her ear but hesitate.
She needs to rest, and I’m only riling myself up further.
I sit up abruptly.
It’s nice to notice that she watches my every move. There is less fear but no less apprehension than the first encounter. She doesn’t know what to expect from me, and I like it.
“You will stay here.”
She opens her mouth to protest, but I press my thumb against her lips to silence her.
“Don’t argue. You need to stay hidden. The ocean is a dangerous place, especially for you.”
She catches my arm, leaning into my touch, but her gaze never leaves me. “I can come with you now. You’ve made it possible for me to breathe underwater, right?”
“Not yet,” I say, almost too sharply. “I will not risk losing you again.”
Her eyes flare with surprise and an emotion I can’t quite read. Humans have such a wide array of expressions, I’m coming to learn, and I’m eager to discover every single one of them. But now is not the time. She needs sustenance, and I need to clear my head.
She doesn’t protest when I rise, or when I move towards the tunnel. “Will you be back soon?” comes the echo of her voice, wavering with uncertainty.
I pause in the archway, collecting my thoughts. When I finally answer, I merely glance over my shoulder. “You should sleep.”
