Water Games (Watergirl Book 4)

by Juliann Whicker

  The first few minutes were Sean slipping around the creature, but it was pretty flexible. Sean looked incredibly vulnerable, his skin so delicate compared to the massive monster. Why wasn’t he wearing an assault suit?

  “Breathe, princess. Look confident instead of terrified. Takeo could defeat a warlo in his sleep, particularly this one. He personally trained it when he was younger.”

  I let my gills flap, drawing in oxygen. Think happy thoughts. Sean had this, no problem. Even without dimatrax, he could defeat this monster.

  I gasped and almost choked on water when the monster lunged at Sean. Sean twisted and somehow the creature gored itself with its massive tusk.

  Sean backed away while blood bloomed in the water but he shook his head. That wasn’t a win. The creature went kind of crazy, going after Sean, trying to pin him against the floor of the arena, but Sean slipped out with his hand extended, slight pink on his nails. He’d drawn his own blood, not nearly as much as the creature had done to itself.

  The crowd cheered, but there was some murmuring. Sean helped the handlers with the injured warlo, stopping the bleeding right where everyone could see. He strained, enormous muscles bulging while he helped hold it in place so they could stitch the monster and bandage him up. When he was all finished, the fans finally cheered, Takeo’s, and Oliver’s as well. I stood up, clapping and probably smiling too warmly at Sean.

  He didn’t swim off right away, instead he turned, found me and bowed. He stayed like that for a long time before he straightened, waved at the crowd around me and darted through the gate to the stadium’s crushing cheering that he’d left behind him.

  For a second I felt like I was part of the crowd, all of us cheering for the most amazing gladiator in the world when I felt like someone was watching me. I looked up and over, into the green section, in the prince’s bubble, and there wasn’t anyone else in the world. Oliver.

  “Nod back, princess. Don’t stare at him, not like that. Sit down. Look into the arena. Keep it together.”

  I sat, but whatever else happened was a blur that couldn’t hold my interest as long as my obsession existed in my world. That’s what I thought, but a few minutes later, the bubble opened and my cure stepped in. He had a hoodie over his head and he sat down, took my hand, kissed it, and suddenly I could exist. I needed to kiss him. I needed to put my head on his shoulder and let the rest of the world fade away. Instead, I gripped his hand tightly and held on.

  Chapter 25

  After Sean was with me, there was one more fight, Oliver against the Queen. Oliver’s team was the most popular contender after Takeo, but the Queen didn’t care. She was cold, icy, constantly in control. And I held Sean’s hand.

  We had a big party afterwards. Did I say party? All of Sean’s players hung out in the training lounge and talked about strategy while drinking their bottled varen juice. It was nice to be at Sean’s side, but I kind of wanted to be alone, to breathe.

  I left the big training arena and headed through the halls towards the Cluverai. It was starting to feel like my escape, like the one place in this world that belonged to me. My room in the mushroom tower didn’t feel like that, and neither did Sean’s volcano room, although I was getting fond of the red chair.

  I went inside the changing room and stopped short when I saw Piper. Her nose was red and her eyes bright and shiny.

  “Are you okay?” I asked before I remembered that she was a human without gills.

  She swam away from me, through a door that had a skin to keep the water out. That was really dangerous for her to be down here without a mask. I followed her.

  In the room, she was changing quickly into a tank top and jeans, normal clothes.

  “Piper, is everything okay? Is something wrong with Otto?”

  She whirled around at me. “Don’t worry about the Cluverai. He’s my responsibility. I don’t ever fail my responsibilities.”

  “Cool. I’m sorry to bother you. I was just going to hang out with him.”

  “Were you? Do you know what he’s been doing all day? Waiting for you. Every time he hears anything outside, he smashes against the glass, looking for you. He’s going to hurt himself, and all because some girl who doesn’t really care about him, likes to ‘hang out.’ Why would Sean have him imprint on you? You aren’t his trainer. You aren’t with him twenty-four seven, trying to keep his spirits up, keep him eating when he’s sad because his monster mommy hasn’t come by in awhile.”

  “I’m sorry Piper. I can come by in the morning and in the evening if that helps.”

  “No, you can stay away and stop pretending to care about him.”

  I frowned at her. She was clearly hormonal, probably also sleep deprived. What she needed was less stress. She needed more help with Otto. She was starting to feel like the only one who could take care of him, which was ridiculous. He was brilliant. He could fend for his own in the wild probably better than I could. Far better.

  “Piper, Otto is mine. I know that you feel responsible, but you need to take a step back, take a deep breath, or we’ll find someone else, a few other people, to help with the Cluverai. I’m going to talk to Haverre about who would be a good choice to help with Otto’s training. You’re clearly over-stressed.”

  Her eyes narrowed and I expected some kind of violence. Piper wasn’t that kind of person, though. She wouldn’t strike out violently. She was an overall sweet girl. “Maybe I am. Can you go in with him for a few hours? Make sure he eats. He hasn’t eaten all day.”

  I exhaled. “Of course. Take it easy.”

  I turned and headed back through the skin into the water of the changing room, then down into the tank where Otto was floating sort-of lifelessly.

  I headed towards his food station. I didn’t make it all the way there when he saw me. He did his jelly-fish puppy routine and ate everything I gave him, just like a good little monster. Not that he was little.

  “Otto, you hurt Piper’s feelings. Piper is nice. She likes to take care of you, but we’ll have to get a new trainer if you don’t eat when she asks you to. I love to visit, but I can’t stay here all the time. I’m going to be gone all weekend and I want you to be happy. Can you do that?”

  He sang a happy song so maybe he got being happy. I don’t know. I repeated myself a lot of times but in the end, I played with him, fetch and then wrestle. That was terrifying. Apparently he knew how to subdue an opponent. I lay there on the floor of the tank with the Cluverai on me. He wasn’t going to hurt me, I knew that, but I couldn’t move and I couldn’t breathe. Things got spotty until I heard a splatty sound and there was Sean with his bare chest. Apparently he’d knocked Otto off me. I swam upright, but things were kind of blurry around the edges. Sean swam back and forth between me and Otto, blocking him.

  “I’m okay,” I said, but Sean didn’t take his eyes off the Cluverai. Otto spun around, shifting those swirling eyes from me to Sean and back again.

  “We’re backing away,” he said in a voice that did not belong to Sean.

  “Owen.”

  “I saw through the window. He wants to keep you. He’ll probably need a break from you until he realizes that this isn’t the right way to get what he wants.”

  “No. Squishing me is not a good way.” We backed towards the exit while Otto spun around, agitated, but not quite attacking, just following, keeping us in his sight until we were out of the tank and through the doors to the woman’s changing room.

  I sank down on a bench and put my head in my hands.

  “Are you all right? Do you need med help?”

  I shook my head, staring at my knees. Pants were so nice. “Why aren’t you at the party?”

  “Your mate doesn’t do very good parties, does he?”

  “Oh, he does, he just hates them. That’s the kind of party he likes. It’s more productive. He hates hanging out.”

  “I don’t believe that he would hate spending time with you, whatever you did.”

  I looked up and was aware of how close h
e was, how big he was, how he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

  “Do you have something against shirts?”

  He raised his eyebrows in a completely non-Sean look, really pleasant and mild. “To be honest, I can pass as Takeo better without a shirt than with one on. I can’t quite get his shirts right.”

  “He irons his t-shirts.”

  He stared at me. “You’re joking.”

  “I wish I was. No, I don’t. It’s adorable.”

  “Iron as in with the hot metal torture equipment that requires dry air?”

  “Torture equipment is right. I need to go find Haverre. Thanks for helping with Otto. I hope he’s okay.”

  “You mean that you hope he can stay a pet instead of a work animal.”

  “He’s too smart to be an animal.”

  “That’s part of the problem. You want him to be happy and play all day, but the more intelligent a creature, the more they need to work. They aren’t satisfied by play, by relaxation. It has to be in moderation. I think your Otto should be work trained.”

  “I don’t want him out there in the arena getting gored.”

  “There are other things for monsters to do, other roles they can play.”

  “You sound like you know a lot of monsters.”

  He nodded slowly. “Yeah, I do. Are you sure you’re okay? The Cluverai had his tentacles around your neck.”

  I put my hand to my throat. “I should have noticed that. I thought that he was just heavy. Do you think he was trying to make me pass out.”

  “He was. I think he wants to keep you with him, to sleep with him again.”

  I shivered and rubbed my arms. “As much as I love Otto, I can’t do that.”

  “I know. Do you want me to accompany you back to Haverre? I’d like to. You still look a little bit unstable.”

  “That must be why everything’s so sparkly. Okay.” I grabbed onto his arm a few times when things veered sideways. Otto really had done something to me.

  Sean took one look at me and left his players, taking me in his arms instead. He held me close against his chest while he questioned Owen. Owen told everything simply without any embellishment, he was walking by the window, saw Otto hold me down on the ground, he swam inside and got him off me, that’s it. But it was even scarier told like that, so emotionlessly.

  I suggested that they find someone to help Piper so she wasn’t so stressed, and Haverre told me that I needed to stay away from Otto for the rest of the week. After that, Sean took me to the volcano room. He had hot pizza waiting, and we ate it in bed.

  “Aren’t we worried about pests?” I asked as he lowered the pizza box onto my lap.

  He crashed down beside me, making me bounce. “Only this one.” He touched my face and throat gently. “I don’t think that Otto would have hurt you permanently, but he would try to keep you. I should have seen that. I’ve been too distracted lately. I’m trying to let you be free to walk down the halls, visit your Cluverai on your own instead of strapped to my chest at all times.”

  “Think what a good upper body workout that would be.” I poked his chest. “I wouldn’t hate that. Why did you fight without your shirt on?”

  He raised his eyebrows. “You assume I have a reason.”

  “I do not assume.”

  “Well,” he said with a slight curl of his beautiful lips. They were much nicer than Owen’s.

  I pulled him close and kissed him, soft, sweet, then a little deeper, a little more inquisitive before he pulled away and shook his head.

  “It’s a public persona thing. The media sees you as my wife, so it’s okay if I fight bare-chested while you’re watching, but if you’re not there, I keep it covered.”

  I frowned at him. “I’d prefer it if you were in an assault suit.”

  He kissed my hand. “Really? You don’t like watching me fight half naked?”

  I squirmed. “It’s not that I don’t like watching you, but I’d rather see you half naked privately than watching you get gored by a monster. What was that thing? It came out like a black rolled up burrito and then became some kind of Sophie walrus. Skinny fat.”

  He brushed my cheek then down my throat. “I have work to do tonight. Do you want me to stay with you until you fall asleep?”

  I took his hand and held it tight. “The sooner you get to work, the sooner you can get to bed. I’m a big girl. I can fall asleep all by myself. You know that I could have stopped Otto if I’d wanted to use my voice of power.”

  “I know.”

  “I didn’t want to charge the water.”

  “Good.”

  “You aren’t really worried about me, are you? Otto wouldn’t ever hurt me. He saved me.”

  “Gen, Otto was trained by my mother during his most formative period. Protecting you and keeping you might be the same to him. Are you sure you don’t want me to stay for a little while?”

  “I’m fine. I don’t know why you’re babying me so much. It’s kind of cute.”

  He scowled at me. “Cute. Get some rest. You can wake up and do your schoolwork before your internship tomorrow. I’ll let Gertie know.”

  “Gertie. Human Gen is Gertie. Vashni Gen is Sorsha. What’s Soremni intern Gen’s name?”

  “Hanne. She has some musical talent, but isn’t quite as adept as a double.”

  “That’s so weird that’s an actual real career. I can’t get over Owen.”

  “You keep talking. I’m going to have to choke you out to put you to sleep.” He bent over me and kissed my hair.

  I did fall asleep almost right away. I dreamed of a lot of things. Monsters, mothers, and the master of Deepness. I felt like I was being chased all night and finally my prince came to rescue me. Oliver. His green gaze glittered like fresh grass sparkling with dew. His lips parted as he breathed my name then he kissed me. My body came alive and I knew perfect happiness and then misery as he dissolved away leaving me aching a million times worse than before.

  I sat up, body damp, sheets wrapped around me. What time was it? How long had I been trying to sleep? Where was Sean? He should have come to bed by now. He was my cure. I needed him. I needed Oliver. I needed everything about him so mindlessly. I stumbled off the bed and shoved my hair off my face. Oliver.

  I went to the door. He was there, just on the other side, waiting to take me away forever. I paused with my hand on the doorknob. No, Oliver wasn’t in Sean’s room. I needed to do a kata. I needed to get a drink or take a shower or find Sean. Right. Sean was in the room across the hall.

  I opened the door a crack before I froze. Voices came from the room, voices I knew. I sank down to the floor with my head on my knees while Oliver’s voice floated over me making every particle of me raw and hungry.

  “I’ve looked over your notes. Do you want me to personally sign over every single objection? We can’t push too hard, too sudden. I have a lot of other legislation going through this season. I need the support of your opposition. I can’t pass bills limiting my power while overextending my authority. Is it hot in here?”

  Sean’s voice was cold, icy and for a second my mind almost came back. “Are you feeling uncomfortable? I’ll get you a drink.”

  I heard a pop and crackle and closed my eyes while I imagined Oliver’s mouth on the rim of a glass, his strong hand curled around the stem. My stomach knotted and I couldn’t breathe. Oliver.

  “Thank you. She isn’t here, of course.”

  “Do you want to talk about her? We have so many other issues to discuss.”

  Oliver laughed, low and melodious with a slight edge. “I always want to talk about your wife. No, you’re right. Your suit against the Examiner isn’t going well. He has five of the justices in his pocket. His reputation is impeccable. Nothing can be traced to him, absolutely nothing. What your doing feels like a slap to all respectable Soremni males of a certain age. I’ll grant you that some of the younger generation feels that traditional roles and attitudes should change, but there has to be balance. There are reasons for tradi
tions.”

  I heard rustling then Sean’s cool voice.

  “Whether I win the suit isn’t the point. The point is that no one is above the law, not me, not you, not the examiner. Are you sure you’re feeling okay? You look a little pale.”

  Oliver laughed again. “It has a few side-effects, but the obsession isn’t as potent. It’s as though there’s a barrier between me and the obsession in which I can function. Still, I’m looking for her.”

  I opened the door all the way and stepped out. He was looking for me. Neither of them noticed me at first where they sat at a table, drinks and papers sprinkled over the surface. Sean was bent over what looked like a diagram to a very complex machine, and Oliver was examining lists.

  I put my hand on his shoulder and he stopped breathing.

  “You said that she wasn’t here.”

  Sean glanced up and took his glass, drank from it and shrugged. “She was sleeping. She couldn’t have heard you, but she sensed you. Genevieve, you should go back to bed. I’ll be there soon.”

  I dug my fingers into Oliver’s shoulder. “Oliver.”

  He gasped and stood, twisting out of my grip before he faced me. “You should do as your husband suggests. Go back to bed. I’m not here for you.”

  My heart shattered into a million pieces. Oliver was saying no? Tears trickled down my cheeks as I gazed at him, aching for one touch, one kind word, one sweet look.

  “I should go,” Oliver said, turning to Sean.

  Sean stood and leaned over the table to grip Oliver’s hand. “In that case, see yourself out. I’ll take my lovely fake Vashni wife to bed. Gen?”

  Sean held his hand out to me. I summoned the will to move my hand two inches to touch his. He gripped mine firmly and led me to his room. I stared over my shoulder at Oliver, willing him to look up at me, to say something, to acknowledge me, but he gathered up his papers like he’d never met me.

  “Oliver,” I whispered at the door.