Oceanborn

by Amalie Howard

  I groan and disentangle myself. “We are so not making out on a public beach. I can’t think when you’re doing that.”

  “When I’m doing what?” he says, sliding his hands up my rib cage.

  I swat his hand away with a shiver. “You know exactly what.”

  “Sorry, can’t help myself. You’re irresistible.”

  Despite my wanting to fling myself back into his embrace at his words, we sit in quiet silence for a while, staring out at the ocean. I close my eyes for a second when something delicate and wet flutters against my neck.

  “Stop that,” I tell him. “I’m serious, Lo. Glimmering is the same as touching, probably worse.”

  “Stop what? I didn’t do anything,” he protests. I sit up straight, my senses going into sudden overdrive as the feathery sensation envelops my entire body before evolving into something unrecognizable. Shivers—not the good kind—race over every inch of my skin and my blood crawls with the foul force of it. “What’s the matter, Riss?” Lo says in alarm.

  “Get it off!”

  “Get what off?” Lo says, looking at me wildly.

  “Can’t you sense it?” I say, my entire body shuddering as Soren and Echlios race down the beach toward us. I stand, dragging Lo with me and clawing at my arms. “It’s all over me, scuttling under my skin like a thousand spiders. Can’t you feel it?”

  “What is? Riss, you’re scaring the hell out of me.”

  “Them. They’re everywhere!”

  22

  Second Chances

  “Get these people off the beach,” Echlios commands in a brusque voice to a police officer, who snaps to immediate attention. “Doras, shield. Now.”

  Within seconds, Doras and the other guards join us, folding Lo and me into a protective circle. Miraculously, the cop and the beach patrol take charge of the situation and manage to disperse the remaining stragglers trying to get a glimpse of the crazy girl scratching at herself. I huddle down, my skin pulling tight.

  “Riss!” Jenna shouts, plowing through. “Is she all right?”

  “She’s okay,” I hear Lo say.

  “What happened?”

  “She said they’re here,” he says. “The hybrids. But I didn’t feel anything. I think it was only her.”

  “Why would they single her out?” Jenna blurts out. Her eyes widen. “Oh.”

  “It’s a message,” Soren says quietly. I can feel her kneeling next to me, running her fingers tenderly along the foot-long claw marks on my arms before wrapping them in gauze. “He wanted her to know that they were watching all along. That we aren’t alone.” She pauses with a grim look to Echlios. “That we can’t protect her.”

  “What did he do, exactly?” Jenna asks, staring nervously out into the expansive ocean as she’s expecting Cano himself to emerge like a giant beast.

  “A glimmer.”

  I find my voice, shaky and uneven, to answer her. “No, it wasn’t a full glimmer. It was something else. I sensed the essence of the hybrids, and the minute I reacted to them, it was like he swooped in. It felt like a million spiders crawling along my veins with knives for legs piercing into me.”

  Jenna shivers, clutching her arms. “That sounds horrible.”

  “But that’s impossible,” Soren says, frowning. “Humans can’t...they don’t...”

  “He synthesized my DNA,” Lo offers. “Nerissa and I are bonded. We don’t know what he can do now.” He glances at me. “Obviously he can get to her and hurt her without any of us the wiser for it.”

  Echlios kneels down. “Did he communicate anything to you?”

  “Nothing,” I say. “It was gone before I could even reach back out. I mean, it caught me by surprise. It was nothing like I’ve ever felt and by the time I realized that it was all in my head, it was gone.”

  “Hey, Nerissa!” someone shouts. It’s Cara running down the beach with Carden in tow, followed closely by Speio and Rian. They’d both been warned to keep the girls away the minute the attack happened, but when Cara gets something in her head, nothing but a tornado will stop her.

  “Fell on some broken glass,” I improvise as she reaches us, gasping for breath. I force a weak grin. “What’s a party without a little blood, right?”

  “That’s only a little morbid,” she says. Her eyes rove around the faces surrounding us. “Glad to see your parents are here. They should probably get you home. Don’t worry about wrapping up here. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Carden,” I say. “Make sure she gets home safely.”

  He starts to bow and then checks himself at a warning glare from Echlios. “It would be my pleasure.”

  We hobble to the car and Speio announces that he and Rian are going to help Carden and Cara before he takes her home. “Hang in there,” he says to me with forced cheer and a quick hug.

  “Hope you feel better,” Rian says.

  Without thinking, I hug her, too. It’s the first time we’ve ever touched. I don’t know if I’m still sensitive from what happened with Cano’s hybrid glimmer on the beach, but a shudder of something formidable ripples through me at the brief contact of skin on skin. I meet her eyes for a brief second, and what I see there makes the breath hitch in my chest—she knows. She knows that there’s something different about us, that we aren’t quite who we say we are. Someone who studies human relationships that closely would notice little things that would separate us, mark us apart.

  Great, this is all I need on top of everything. We’d be the perfect study to an overzealous student looking to make a splash in the anthropology world. I make a mental note to speak to Speio about it, and see if he’s inadvertently revealed anything about himself to her. Maybe that’s why she seemed different tonight—more detached. Living on land brought with it so many prying eyes and unnecessary complications. I sigh and rub my temples.

  “What’s wrong?” Lo says, climbing into the car beside me.

  “Nothing. Inventing things.”

  “Like what?” he says. “Tell me.”

  “I get the feeling Rian knows more than she’s letting on. About us,” I add, and then shrug tiredly at his skeptical expression. “Just the way she looked at me before. I know it sounds weird.”

  “A little,” Lo says, replacing my fingers with his and gently massaging the aching areas near my temple. “You’ve had a bit of a shock. I mean, think about it—nothing she could ever imagine in her wildest dreams would be close to the truth. She studies human patterns, and we are so far outside that it’s not even funny. I wouldn’t worry about what you think you saw. There’s no way that Rian could even suspect what we are, unless she was shown, and we both know that Speio would never go against you.” Lo brushes some loose strands of hair out of my eyes, his voice soothing and nearly lulling me to sleep. “Plus, what’s the worst that could happen? She tells everyone her boyfriend is an alien? Yeah, that’d go over well.”

  “Good point,” I say, and lean against his warm shoulder, closing my eyes. “Maybe she thinks we’re a modern cult or something.”

  By the time we arrive back at my house, I’ve drooled all over Lo’s shirt. I blink as strong arms lift my body and carry me around the side of the house to the pool. Soft lips kiss me awake. “Wake up,” Lo’s mouth murmurs against mine. “Time for a dip.” He removes my clothing, like a parent would a child, and lowers me into the warm salt water, before undressing and joining me there.

  “Where are the others?” I ask.

  “Soren’s inside. Speio and Carden are still at the Marine Center. Echlios and the rest of the guards are securing the perimeter.” He smiles at me, stroking the side of my face. “Good, you’re less pale. Let’s have a look at your arms.” Gently unwrapping the layers of gauze, he smiles and lifts my palm to his mouth. “Already healing. You really did a number on yourself back there.”

/>   “It was awful,” I confess. “That feeling. I wanted to peel my skin off my own bones.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lo says with a kiss to my bare shoulder that makes me shiver. “The silver lining is that you’ll be able to brace against it, know what to look for if he tries it again.”

  “He won’t try it again.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do.” I stare at him. “It was a onetime thing.”

  I don’t tell Lo how much the sensation had initially felt like his own glimmer—the feartherlight intimate sensation of him—just before it’d became warped into something dark and ugly. Cano knew exactly how to distort and taint it—how to twist what I feel for Lo into something monstrous. A tremor rips through me at the visceral memory.

  “You’re safe now,” Lo says, correctly reading my expression and slipping his hands about my waist. “You’re home, and Echlios has got it covered. Just try to forget it. The more power you give it, the more it’ll have over you, and that’s what he wants.”

  I wrap my arms around Lo’s shoulders, ignoring the immediate wave of revulsion at the feel of his glimmer swirling around me. “I know exactly what he wants.” I kiss Lo’s warm, salty lips, feeling his waters surge against my body. “He wants me to hate your touch...to revile it.”

  “How?” Lo’s eyes widen with horror as understanding dawns when I release my glimmer to him, letting him experience what I feel. “Oh.”

  “Help me forget,” I tell him, pulling his head to mine in a frantic openmouthed kiss and submerging us both beneath the surface. Despite what Cano tried to do, I open myself to Lo completely, our glimmers merging via the bond between us. Help me forget what it felt like. Bring me back to you.

  * * *

  Several hours later, something jolts me awake in my bed, but the house is quiet. It must have been a dream. I turn on my side to stare at the boy lying beside me, the blue sheet tangled between his lean limbs. Lo’s face is peaceful in sleep, the sandy winged eyebrows relaxed and his mouth slightly open. His silvery-blond hair falls over his brow. He’d done exactly as I’d asked—made me forget Cano’s filthy touch—and had completely eviscerated even the memory of it.

  Cano wanted to punish me...show me that he could take something from me, just as I’d taken something from him. But it was just like him to make his payback so insidious. I hope the false glimmer took its toll on him—wreaked havoc on his pitiful human body. It would have, too. Human bodies aren’t meant to withstand what we Aquarathi can do, which is why our glimmers are always stronger in our true form. I can only hope that the cost to him was great.

  Lying on my back, I stare at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Something tugs at me again—nonthreatening. It’s more of a plea than a summons. Slightly apprehensive, I pull on a T-shirt and a pair of shorts before walking out onto the patio. The moon is high in the dark, cloudy sky, and the air, balmy. The ocean is whispering to me on the breeze. Pushing out a brief glimmer, I confirm that the beach is clear before walking down to the water’s edge. The sea is choppy, waves splashing against my feet in an angry staccato. I sit in the shallows, enjoying the rise and fall of the tide.

  “You shouldn’t have come alone.”

  I don’t look up. “I knew you would be here.”

  Neriah emerges from the darkness of the waves, her body transforming with each step. She sits beside me on the sand, smelling of salt and seaweed. A slight sour odor wafts past my nostrils, but I can’t pinpoint what it is. She doesn’t say anything, but I can feel the power swirling around her in waves. Her face is serene and calm, her eyes glittering in the shadowy light.

  “Why do you serve him?” I ask quietly.

  She laughs. “Is that what you think? That I serve Cano? A human?”

  The way she says it surprises me, almost as if I’ve disappointed her with the question. “Don’t you?”

  “Hardly,” she says. “He’s a scientist with a larger-than-normal ego who has access to all of my research. If I were to challenge him, he’d disappear with everything we’ve shared with him, and who knows what he’d do then? Wasn’t it you who said that you like to keep your enemies close?”

  “So kill him,” I say bluntly. “It’s not like you haven’t killed anyone before.”

  “Contrary to what you may have been led to believe about me, I have never killed another Aquarathi,” she says. “Is that who you really think I am?”

  “I don’t know what to think.”

  “Have a little faith.”

  “In you?” I scoff. “That’s a little too much to ask, don’t you think?”

  “Nerissa,” she says, her voice even. “Look beyond what you see. I’ve always taught you that, even as a child. Look past what is right in front of you, and trust yourself. Where do you think you get that? That ability to see into someone—to see the potential in them? Not from your father...you get that from me.”

  “You tried to kill me.”

  “I tried to save you,” she counters.

  “You were with her. Ehmora.”

  I can feel the weight of her stare in the gloomy darkness. “That doesn’t mean I wasn’t with you. I’ve always been with you.”

  This time, I meet her eyes in incredulous silence. “You gave up on me. You left me alone in a kingdom of strangers. You bonded me to the hybrid son of your lover.”

  “Ehmora wanted to kill you. What would you have had me do? Serve you up on a platter?”

  “You kind of did,” I argue.

  “Nerissa, I tried to release you from her son’s bond,” she says gently. “And you didn’t want to let him go, and with full knowledge of who he is, you accepted him as your regent.”

  I dig my toes into the sand. “Well, it’s a moot point now. I’m no longer queen. But I’m sure you know that already.”

  My mother doesn’t immediately respond to my bombshell. Instead she just sits quietly beside me, staring at the breaking waves. “You can’t just stop being who you are—you should know that by now.”

  “Someone else will be king or queen now,” I say. “The Aquarathi will be better off without me.”

  “Do you really believe that?”

  “Yes.” I stare at her perfectly carved profile. “Say it,” I tell her. “Say what you’re thinking...that I am a fool for giving up my crown.”

  A smile curves the end of her mouth. “I wasn’t going to say that at all. In fact, I was going to say that walking away must have taken a lot of courage. Not everyone is willing to give up that much power.”

  I exhale slowly. “They couldn’t accept Lo as I did. He was too different. In their world, he was the alien.”

  “So you gave it all up for him.”

  “I told you,” I say. “I love him...as the humans do. It’s not just about the bond for us. There is no part of the earth that is deep enough to match the depths of my feeling for him. And maybe you think that I’m foolish or that human emotions are weak...” I trail off. “But the truth is, when I’m with him, I feel far from weak. I feel...invincible.”

  I don’t know why I’m telling her all this, but it feels good to talk to someone. Even if it’s her. Or maybe I’m talking to her because I want to know why she’s really here, and why she’s pretending to care after so many years. “Why’d you do it?” I ask her. “Why did you let me save Lo back at Cano’s house? Why did you let me...hurt you?”

  “You didn’t hurt me, my darling. It is more than I deserve.”

  I turn to face her, my frustration evident. “Seriously, what is with you and all of your cryptic comments? Can’t you just say what you mean for once? If I ask you a straight question, can you give me a straight answer?”

  “Ask what you will,” she says with another of those annoyingly knowing half smiles, as if she can see right through me and all my bravado. The smile is erased b
y a slight grimace as she readjusts her position on the sand. “The reason I let you fight, encouraged you even, is that the attack had to look real for Cano. I couldn’t exactly let you have the prince without so much as a scratch for your efforts.”

  Her revelation makes something strange flutter in my chest. “Why did you help Ehmora develop the hybrids?”

  “They are the future,” she says simply. “We have to evolve to survive. Sooner or later the day will come when the humans discover our home, and what will we do then?”

  “So you don’t want to take over the human race?”

  “No,” she says. “My research was meant to provide alternative survival options to our people.” She takes a breath as if she’s unsure of whether to continue. “Once her son was born, Ehmora became consumed with a quest for power. Lotharius was the perfect hybrid, and she wanted him to become king of Waterfell. She murdered your father and claimed the throne in his stead. He was meant to challenge you—and kill you—for the crown when he came of age. I was the one who suggested you be paired together to avoid all-out war.” She smiles. “Then Lotharius ended up being prey to those very emotions you speak about and, as the humans say, fell in love with you. It was not what we’d planned.” She trails off again, staring out to sea. “I didn’t expect Lo to do what he did. He must hold you in high regard.”

  “Don’t expect me to feel sorry for her,” I snap. “She was insane. She tried to kill me. I offered her leniency and she refused.”

  “Thank you for that,” she says, a spasm of something—discomfort—shimmering over her face before she breathes it away.

  “Do you miss her?” I don’t know where the question comes from or why I ask it. Or why I should care whether she misses her or not, but the minute it’s out of my mouth, I wish I could take it back. The moon disappears behind a batch of clouds, shrouding the beach in darkness. I flip the human covering off my eyes and lean back on my elbows, watching her. She doesn’t answer, not at first.