Chapter Eighteen

 

Chloe

 

We swam on, and I barely saw the seafloor change beneath us as it went from empty sand to outcroppings of rock.

I couldn’t understand it. Noah. Why he’d just…

“This way,” Zeke said quietly.

He turned, leading me toward a mound of boulders jumbled together in a precarious mess. Dipping low in the water, he slid through a dark opening at the base of the pile. I followed.

The rocks closed in around me, and then opened into a cave. In the darkness, I felt Zeke swim to one corner, shrugging the bag from his shoulder as he moved. He retrieved something from inside, and then let the bag sink to the floor.

Blue-white light flooded the space, making rainbows sparkle from the fissures of ore in the stones around us. Reaching up, Zeke notched the torch into a crack in the cave wall.

I sank down, sitting on a small shelf of rock. My gaze wandered across the light playing over my scales.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I didn’t respond. I still wasn’t sure what to say.

“Fucking asshole,” Zeke muttered.

I opened my mouth and then caught myself, not wanting to sound like a girl defending her jerk boyfriend. Especially when, truth was, I didn’t even know what to call him. Boyfriend. A guy I’d kissed. Something else that didn’t have a category.

Psycho who’d been so kind a few days ago and now inexplicably hated the sight of me.

“What the hell was he, anyway?” Zeke continued.

“Greliaran,” I answered without looking up.

“Which is?”

I gave a helpless shrug. “That.”

Silence fell between us. My grip tightened around the edge of the rough stone shelf.

I didn’t get it. How could someone change so completely? There had to be a reason. Something I wasn’t seeing. Something that could have prompted him to just–

Cold horror spread through me and set my heart racing.

I looked to Zeke.

“What?” he asked, alarmed at my expression.

“Ina. She said we… we have this thing. Magic thing. Ava… ave-something. She said it feels all great for dehaians, but for humans it’s like a drug. Makes them fall for us. Like, if we just want them to.” I gulped down a breath. “So, what if I did that to him? Accidentally, I mean. What if I made him like me, and then he woke up from it and–”

Zeke swam over, catching my hands. “No, no, aveluria doesn’t work like that.”

I stared at him.

“It doesn’t,” he repeated. “Trust me.”

“How do you know? You’ve done it?”

He hesitated. “Once. But not much. And that’s not my point. People don’t come out of it like that. They’re either confused and not sure what happened, or they… you know…”

“Die.”

He nodded uncomfortably.

“Did the person you used it on die?”

“Chloe, I – no, she didn’t. She was fine. But I’m trying to tell you, that’s not what happened here. You didn’t cause this.”

“Why would you do that to someone?”

Zeke paused. “Because I was trying to get past security to save a friend’s life.”

I looked down. Of course it was something like that. Zeke had never given me any reason to think he would hurt somebody that way.

But then, Noah had seemed like a good person too, until about twenty minutes ago.

Tears stung. I closed my eyes.

“You didn’t do anything to deserve the way he treated you, Chloe,” Zeke told me quietly.

I didn’t respond.

“Hey.” He put a hand to my cheek. “You didn’t.”

I looked up, meeting his insistent gaze. I managed a small nod.

He nodded as well, and for a moment, his eyes studied my face. His brow flickered down, and then he drew a short breath. Taking his hand away, he swam back to where he’d left the bag by the far wall.

“We should be safe here till you decide where to go next,” he said, his voice tight.

I turned away, not wanting to think about it.

“So I… I’ll just go find us some food,” he continued, drawing a rope and some stone hooks from the bag. “Jirral’s provisions aren’t that great and there’s usually–”

“Zeke?” I called, nervousness gripping me as he headed for the opening to the cave. I didn’t want to be here by myself in the middle of nowhere.

I didn’t want him to leave as well.

He glanced back.

“Don’t?”

He hesitated, and then set down the rope. He swam toward me, pausing at the stone ledge for a heartbeat as though he didn’t know what to do, and then he sank down by my side.

A moment crept past.

“Bad few days, eh?” I tried.

A small scoff escaped him as he watched the blue flames. “Yeah.”

And I didn’t know what else to say.

Shadows and torchlight danced on the sand of the floor. Beyond the cave entrance, the current rushed over the rocks with a whispering sound.

I closed my eyes. A shudder ran through me, making my breath catch, while something so much heavier than exhaustion pressed down on my body like a blanket of lead. I knew I needed to keep moving. Get to land as fast as I could. The safety of anyone near me pretty much depended on it.

But I was tired. So tired. I hadn’t slept in days and everything in the world was painful right now. I didn’t know where to go anymore, or what I wanted at all, except maybe for the fresh hells of people hurting me every time I turned around to finally end.

Tears leaked from beneath my eyelids to join the saltwater.

“Hey,” Zeke said quietly, taking my hand.

I sniffled and looked over.

“Please don’t cry,” he urged. “It’s going to be alright, I promise.”

I gave a tiny nod, wanting desperately to believe him despite everything that’d happened so far.

He echoed the motion, his eyes not leaving mine.

A moment passed. He didn’t look away. His brow twitched down, as though he was struggling with something, and he swallowed hard as he began to draw his hand back.

My fingers tightened on his. I didn’t want him to go. It felt good to have him here. Comforting. Safe.

And more than that…

He paused. Questions flickered through his eyes. His other hand lifted to my cheek again. He drew closer to me even as I moved toward him.

Gently, his lips met mine.

Warmth spread through me. A quiver tightened my stomach and chest, the sensation fluttery and amazing and desperate to grow. And I wanted it. More of it. My hand reached up, finding his side, holding him for fear he’d pull away and make this disappear.

His mouth pressed harder to mine as his fingers moved through my hair, gripping me as though he never wanted to let go. My body turned, leaving the ledge and meeting him as he rose as well. His hands slid around my back, pulling me to his smooth chest, and his tail pressed against me, contouring to every curve. My skin tingled with pleasure everywhere he touched it, the feeling building in intensity till it was all I could do to breathe.

I didn’t know what I was doing.

The thought wasn’t welcome. I didn’t care. I wanted him touching me. Holding me.

This wasn’t right.

I gasped, my mouth breaking from his. “I-I’m sorry. I…”

He drew back and let me go, the confusion on his face swiftly transforming into regret.

I turned away. It was too hard to look at him. I wanted his hands on me again. The desire for it was agonizing.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated.

“Chloe…”

I felt the water move as he came up behind me. His fingers neared my shoulder and I flinched away.

A breath left him.

I looked back.

The pain in his eyes was worse than anything.

“Me too,” he said quietly.

Turning, he swam from the cave.

A choked sob escaped me. Tears stung my eyes.

I sank to the ground and cried.