He studied me for a long time before he shrugged and smirked. “Don’t tell me you don’t dream about it, Fielding credit cards, planes, personal buyers. You don’t have to tell me because I know you don’t. Maybe this will inspire you.” He opened the table to the side and pulled out a pink and gold striped box.
“This is a graduation present, so like a notebook, right?”
“Exactly like a notebook.”
I looked at him skeptically. “If it’s something big, I’ll have to get a job to buy you a gladiator winner present.”
He smiled. “I’m going to pay you for every Vashni appearance you make with that irritating decal across your face. By the time I win, you’ll have enough pretty pennies to buy me something really big.”
“Like a bed?”
“Like a house to put a bed in. And an island to put the house on. And a big stretch of water to put your island on. Open it.”
My hands were a little shaky as I tugged on the gold ribbon and opened it up. A black rectangle stared back at me. “It’s another box.”
He sighed and reached past me. When he touched it, the whole thing lit in a kaleidoscope of color and made a happy trilling sound, delighted to have him touch it. That’s the sound my heart made when he touched me. Not really. Mine was in the key of D flat.
“Ooooh. It’s so pretty. What does it do? Is it an alarm clock?”
He set it on my lap and rustled around in the paper for another smaller package. He didn’t wait for me to open it, instead ripping apart the tissue paper to reveal a pair of ear buds and a black pen.
Ear buds meant music. “It’s a music player?”
“Recorder, player, this is the exact same model that Gerveeg uses for his compositions when he’s on tour. I had spies investigate and everything.” He sighed. “The things I do for you. I expect at least an island for this.”
I slumped down against him, squeezing him super tight. “Is that what you want, an island? You always give me exactly what I want.”
He rumbled a laugh. “Compose me a song. Something about my bare chest, glimmering in the glow orbs. Afrateau. That’s glow orb in Soremni. Say it.”
“Afratoo?”
He pushed on my cheeks until my mouth was shaped right. “Try again.”
I gazed into his eyes and said breathily, “Afrateau. Show me how my present works.”
He bumped my forehead then proceeded to show me notation in gill people. They used different notation. Seriously? It would take me all summer to adjust to that. Other than that, the interface was super intuitive. I loved it, sitting on the cushy couch, jammed up against Sean while we both pored over the screen, him showing me the ins and outs of a whole new world of music. It was beautiful, that world, but him even more. So beautiful.
Chapter 6
By the time we reached our island and circled for a landing, we’d composed something titled, ‘Bare chest of Epic proportions.’
I sighed and glanced at him as the plane screeched to a stop. “This was really nice.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Do you think so? It’s my baseline.”
I nudged him gently with my elbow. “Not the song, that’s pretty terrible, but this flight. You’re kind of fun to hang out with. We’ve been so busy, I forgot how much I like you.”
“I had no idea your memory was so bad. I’ll have to remind you more often. Come on.” He pulled me up and walked towards the door, my hand firmly in his. “Spyguy should have covered everything, but just as a reminder, Soremni show a lot of affection. As my female, you’ll have to cope with me kissing your hands a lot. You’ll have to gaze at me like I’m Gerveeg’s newest album. None of that icy reserve, all warm affection. Do you think you can handle it?”
I gazed at him, letting my eyes run over his broad shoulders and down the length of him. I was probably blushing by the time my eyes came back to his face. “Like that?”
He shook his head. “Not remotely. You look at Gerveeg’s album like that? You probably do. Not desire, adoration.” He kissed the back of my hand while gazing at me, deeply, like I was the only thing in the world.
My heart started pounding and I could practically feel my mucous production increase. I gazed back and leaned closer until my lips brushed his. He pulled away immediately.
“Soremni don’t kiss lips, not unless they’re under the curse of obsession or particularly edgy. Absolutely no marking me, not the entire summer. You have to really channel Soremni if you’re going to be an intern. Are you really sure that’s what you want?” He frowned at me, his pale blue eyes intense in a different way.
I straightened my spine. “I don’t want to do anything stupid, but I don’t see why I shouldn’t if I work hard and am extremely careful. If you can be a gladiator and a college student at the same time, I can do an internship along with the whole Vashni cleaver queen thing. That’s only a couple of appearances a week, right?”
He kissed my hand, gazing at me like he was a snake about to catch a mouse. Still super hot, though. His lips. Was I supposed to actually go an entire summer without kissing him? Hold on, Watergirl, are you insane or just stupid? Not kissing Sean just because you want to do an internship? An internship with Gerveeg, the greatest composer in the world.
I sighed. “Apparently I have a streak of ambition. Who knew? I really can’t kiss you? Even if we hide in the bushes or seaweed?”
He tugged me out of the plane, down the ladder of the airport which was surrounded by palm trees and the crashing ocean. The warm breeze blew my hair across my face. I pulled on my pumps, balancing while I kept a grip on Sean’s strong hand. He had my bag, where he’d stuck my new black box. I was already half in love with it. I’d kind of been freaking out about what to do without my amazing computer and music program at home. Composing underwater would be a whole new game, but one I would crush with the help of boxie, my new music friend.
I followed Sean across miles of airport, okay not miles, but I was wearing heels. I should ask Sean to carry me. That would be Soremni, right?
I almost got up the nerve, but then we’d reached a little building that looked kind of islandy with a grass roof and a riot of fuchsia flowers all over the front. After we walked inside the dim room, I blinked a few times until my eyes adjusted.
A man at a desk smiled a truly charming smile. Soremni. Had to be. “Welcome Captain Fielding. Everything is exactly as you requested. Currents are favorable, the tide is going out, and the sun is shining.”
Did we need the sun underwater? Weird.
Sean flashed a charming smile back at him, a smile I’d only seen once or twice and then shook the man’s hand. “I appreciate your attention to detail. Marco, this is my fair love, Genevieve Castle.”
Marco smiled, but his eyes didn’t quite meet mine before he bowed. He didn’t take my hand, either. I’d kind of expected him to kiss it. He sounded foreign and charming, like a hand-kissing guy. Like Oliver. Oliver. I missed the rest of the exchange and followed Sean, holding onto his hand as I replayed every beautiful moment with Oliver in my head.
I blinked when we stepped out of the elevator. I didn’t quite remember getting into an elevator. Sigh.
We’d come out in a cavern filled with spaceships. Okay, probably not spaceships since they floated on the water. Sean led me to a particularly streamlined vessel on the end, crisp white with gold accents. It was shaped like an elongated teardrop, but had a lot of curves, like the body of one of those super fancy, super expensive foreign cars.
“That is pretty,” I said. “Is that yours?”
He shot me a glance. “It is. You have a thing for boats?”
“That is not a boat. It’s a spaceship. I have a thing for spaceships. Apparently. Can I touch it?”
He snort laughed and let go of my hand to run his own over the sleek side. “You can do whatever you want with it. I really want to take this one, but I don’t know how you’ll handle the pressure. It’s not as fully equipped as some of the other vessels. If you feel any discomf
ort let me know and we’ll switch out.”
“Pressure? I can handle pressure.”
He slid his hand along my jawline. “I don’t want to damage your ears. Or any part of you. The ocean is very, very heavy, and we’re going very, very deep. The moment you feel any discomfort, let me know. Promise?”
He looked so serious.
I almost kissed him but somehow only nodded.
The door slid open and Sean entered the ship. I followed, ducking into a small space that Sean could barely straighten up in. It was all white and gold with patches of blue. It was all very prince charming. And I couldn’t kiss him for three months.
Seriously?
I was going to die.
He stashed my bag into a locker on the side before he went to the front and sat down in a captain’s chair. The front window covered most of the ship, and when he turned it on, the body of the ship became translucent.
“Sit.” He gestured at the captain’s chair beside him. It swiveled around. I climbed in, sitting back and buckling in. “This trip will be about three hours, depending on currents and speed of vertical transports.”
“And traffic.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s true, sometimes those migrating sea turtles can really slow you down. Luckily, this ship has an excellent honk.”
“Really?”
He sighed. “Not really. It does displace water and disrupt enough that most animals get swept out of the way. Except for the big ones. Let me know if you see any blue whales or Lochness monsters.”
“Sophies.”
He gave me a slight smile, his lips so beautiful and kissable, more and more kissable every second I wasn’t supposed to kiss him. “Definitely if you see any of those.”
The engine whirred and then the ship went down, beneath the water until there was only a glimmer of the cavern lights above us. Sean switched on the lights of the vessel and I could see the deep shaft we descended into very well.
“How deep are we talking about? How deep can you go without your body cavities getting squished?” I asked, staring at a bright orange fish before it darted away.
“Soremni tech is very adept at dealing with pressure that humans couldn’t begin to approach. Soremni like to be in control of the technology humans have regarding deep sea exploration.”
“What kind of technology?”
He glanced at me. It was a look that said, ‘I know that your grasp on basic mechanics is incredibly weak, so telling you about advanced mechanics will be a waste of my time.’ He said, “It’s mostly a mixture of electromagnetic pulses and multiple micro-nano black holes that reverse gravity. Not really, but there aren’t really human terms for Soremni tech. This ship has a shield like that only small, wrapped around the exterior to keep the pressure low. How do you feel? Does it hurt at all? Headache? ear pressure?”
I shook my head. “I’m good.”
“I can arrange a tour of the machinery, if you’d like a more thorough explanation.”
“Hm. That sounds cool. Could we make out behind a generator or something?”
His lips twitched. Agh. His lips. I was going to die.
“Hm. You, a machine responsible for protecting the lives of thousands of people, and making out. That would be one way to test your ability to control your emotions and not bring the ocean to life. How do you feel? Can you sense it?”
We were still going down, faster and faster. “I’m actually feeling a little bit nauseous.”
He shifted and the descent slowed slightly. “Better?”
I reached out and grabbed his hand. “Why can’t I kiss you?”
He squeezed my hand back. “Soremni don’t kiss. You can’t pretend to be a Soremni, you have to actually adapt and become that. You can, as a Siren, you’re extremely adaptable, but not if you’re holding onto human customs.”
I sighed. “So, you become Soremni?”
“Something like that. I’m not pretending to be anything, since everyone knows I’m a half-breed, but I do channel my Soremni tendencies. My father insisted.” His mouth tightened.
I put a hand to my throat and forced myself to breathe evenly. I could breathe just fine, but the water was so heavy, and it wanted to crush me. I shook my head.
“I can feel the weight of the water. Remind me to breathe, okay?”
He glanced at me and flipped a switch. The body of the ship glowed blue and then a web sparkled around the outside, maybe five inches away from the exterior. The shield. I could immediately breathe a little easier.
“You are so interesting,” Sean said, giving me a glance that would have been flirty on anyone else. It still felt flirty.
“Thanks. Me and Water are like this.” I held up my entwined fingers. “So, no kissing?”
He snort laughed. “Maybe after a few weeks we can go to the surface and do something touristy, pretend to be human. We could kiss then.”
“Ah. Let’s plan on that. Pretending to be human sounds so fun. I can’t believe I just said that. I really feel human.”
He ran his thumb over the back of my hand. “I know. You’re going to have to forget about that.” He shifted again and the ship stopped descending, instead darting forward into the open water.
I stared out the window at the bright and beautiful ocean life. The ship swept along with only the low hum of the engines and the throb of the ocean beyond. I put my hand on the glass windshield. It was a little bit rubbery, not at all like glass. I looked at Sean and he smiled at me.
“This is a Soremni ship? Soremni tech?”
He nodded. “Strong doesn’t have to be stiff. Flexibility is highly valued by Soremni. Vashni tech is more angular, Soremni more organic. I think some of it might be actual differences in their cultures, but mostly I think they strive for variance to prove that they aren’t the same. Do you want to listen to music?”
I inhaled sharply. “Always. But I kind of am already. In my head. I still have your bare chest song, but the base line is getting lower and lower and lower until it’s in my bones.”
“So that’s where you keep your baseline. That makes sense. You’ll have to get used to listening to music underwater, feeling things difficult to control. We’ll start with my fallback playlist.” He said, “Play the list, Blondie.”
“Blondie?” The music started, loud, a voice I would recognize anywhere. I’m too sexy blasted through the ship.
I stared at Sean and he winked at me, all slow and sexy. Oh yeah. He was too sexy. He started grooving as he drove, pushing a lever down so the ship sped faster. He played through his entire Egotistical Jerks playlist while I curled up on the seat beside him, watching the passing world, holding onto his hand. If this was the Soremni life, I could probably handle it.
Chapter 7
We almost hit a cow.
After hours spent in the thick and heavy darkness called the midnight zone, we past through a glowing net of sparking blue and gold. Our ship had acquired more layers of glowing blue, but I could feel the pressure until we reached the net. Instead of the ocean getting heavier, it grew lighter the further down we got. That felt really disorienting. Like the ocean was disoriented and told me about it. At least it didn’t tell me to stop breathing anymore.
When I looked up, the nets glowed, a shimmering web like the milky way. Beneath us were glowing orbs of gold and green, orange and pink laid out in stripes among waving plants as far as the eye could see.
“What are those?” I asked, pointing.
“Afrateau. Those are the grow fields.”
“Ah, that’s the afrateau. They go on forever.” They were beautiful, each ball a glowing mass of shifting hues casting colored lights and shadows on the surrounding plant life.
“Not forever, but Terramore prides itself in self-sufficiency. It’s not as technologically based as most provinces. Here on the edge the edge of the civilized Soremni kingdom it’s more independent with a slower pace and more traditional people, those who want the old ways. Do you see the mountains?”
“That’s the village. The house is in the middle of the fields.”
“So the house we’re staying at is a farmhouse?”
He shot me an extremely flirty smile. “Farmhouse? It’s the center of Terramore, the heart of the province. Sure. We’re staying in the farmhouse.”
I didn’t trust that smile, but I trusted him. I grabbed his hand and took a deep breath as we went lower and lower until we were zooming through the water directly above the glow lights. I held the cashmere wrap tightly around me that Sean had put over my shoulders once we’d entered the midnight zone. The ocean was cold, but here I could feel the heat from the orbs of happy dancing light. They were so pretty and friendly. The plants around them waved in the current whipped up by Goldie.
Ahead of us, a dense forest rose up higher in the middle of the grow fields. “Is that the house?”
“Past the kelp mardu, yes.”
“Mardu?”
“Woods, forest, thick growth of plant life. You’re going to have a really fun summer learning a whole new vocabulary.”
I was more worried about the not kissing than the language. I pulled his hand up and kissed his knuckles. He gave me a weird look. That’s when we almost hit the cow.
He spun the wheel and kicked a lever. The ship shot up and spun sideways. We’d been very upright the entire trip. I only really noticed when we weren’t. I clung to his hand until we came down on the other side of the enormous animal that looked something like a legless hippo-cow, strands of seaweed dangling from its mouth as it stared at us.
“What was that?”
He laughed, the kind of sound he very rarely made, not a snort, full-out laughter. “Brogge. It shouldn’t be out here. It must have escaped from its pen. It didn’t have its collar.”
“Collar?”
“A sort of shock collar, only it works with sound waves. The sound gets more unpleasant the further they swim from the pen.”
Water Games Page 5
