Chapter 29
Ro
Adoration fills me as I watch my mate. My cock is also twitching eagerly in my sheath, but that is easy enough to ignore for now while my mate works. She has been at it ceaselessly since the meeting with her formidable aunt, though my unslakable desire has caused enough disturbances on the rare moments I can catch her alone, even if it is quickly matched by hers. For now, I am content to simply watch and appreciate the beauty of my female as the sun makes her appear as bright and radiant as a pearl.
I may have little to contribute to Keri’s research outside of answering whatever questions may come to mind as she works, but I am enjoying these days trapped within the small confines of her room with her while she studies whatever book she has selected and set in front of her. Normally I dislike being indoors in human dwellings as they lack the coziness of the Aquana nesting caverns. But this is only a temporary inconvenience. I have already personally sent in designs to a contractor to build the long network of halls and adjoining round rooms that will make our home a comfortable nest for us. There is even space made for all the books she seems to be collecting rapidly, all because she has been reading ceaselessly in her determination to find a better option to replace the supplement.
And I am awed and humbled by how determined she is to find a solution. I suspect that she would still search even if we were not so tied together, but she is possessed by a certain unyielding drive that I like to think is due to her need for me, though I do not dare to hope that I yet possess her heart. She did not claim me in front of her aunt, after all, although she was given the opening to do so. It was all I could do to smooth things over and attempt to redirect the conversation. For now, this is enough for me. She even took some days off—a vacation she calls it—so that she could devote more time to her research when we are not working on the council’s assignment at the aquarium, though not before taking several volumes from the vault to study in depth. I am not sure if she had permission to actually take the books from the library, but I do know that if anyone tries to punish her for it then they will have to deal with me.
Adiele has been helping off and on—but of course, she has a reason to since she already made an agreement with Keri for the Emporium to distribute the new supplement once it is developed and has been determined to be safe by the local council. She had to return to the shop early today, but I have no complaint since Gryn shortly left afterward, following after her like an orphaned pup following hopefully after a prospective mother. I shake my head with amusement. He listens to Adiele even better than he heeds me. The fact that she is far more patient with his juvenile antics certainly works in her favor. He also behaves better for her, though. She is only a few years older than my Keri, too young among humans to have a mostly grown offspring, but she exhibits a maternal affection for him that sets my mind at ease when the male is out of my sight.
More importantly, it gives me some much-needed time alone with my female. Over the last several days we have stolen minutes wherever we can find them whether to share a kiss, mate, or fall into exhausted slumber in each other’s arms. Although every moment we can find is precious, days like this are rare and treasured. A bubble of warmth settles around my heart as I watch her read. I never tire of this. She has so much passion for her studies that it pleases me to watch her expressions shift and change.
She is much like this when she is practicing her magic, too, though I enjoy that even more through the subtle interplay of the lure that she doesn’t even notice is subtly feeding and influencing her power. I want to offer it to use as hers, to anchor and develop her magic as she wishes but I have not yet worked out how to introduce the subject. After all, I still have not asked her to be my mate and have not revealed the true depth of my feelings, though I have hinted at it. It is well known among aquatic species that Aquanas share their magic with only their mates due to the unique nature of the lure of a male and the base power of the female being so utterly interwoven.
If it was even successful—which is a significant uncertainty while the lure’s state hasn’t fully become embedded and accepted within her power—if she has come across this information, she would immediately know what it means by even making an offer to explore this interplay of magic between us. That is not how I wish to speak to her about mating. Nor can I just boldly come right out and speak of my desire when I do not even know whether or not I have been harmed by the supplement, and by extension by worthiness to mate now. I have certainly bred with her enough times to have initiated our mating with all of the magic we have exchanged and yet I’ve repeatedly failed to get noticeably close to a point that will drive me to take her into the water. Maybe the fault is in the fact our times of joining are too erratic with long periods in between when we are unable to breed?
Or perhaps it is because we have only been breeding when I am in this form. There are limitations to it that may be affecting the purity of my magic that rises with the release of my seed.
I hiss softly to myself in frustration. How troublesome. I should be filled with thoughts of how to woo and seduce my female into mating when the time comes, not possessed with such doubts. And my mate should be wearing a look of happiness rather than the exhausted tension that has followed her everywhere lately.
My shoulders slump in frustration and I quickly peek at my mate, noting that her brow is drawn and there is a dark smudge between her eyebrows where they are knotted as she squints at the text. The dark smudges are also apparent beneath her eyes from her obvious lack of rest. She is tired. I can see that clearly. My gaze rakes across the room, noting the unmistakable taste of my mate and the faint impression of her power lingering upon everything she has claimed is hers. There is a table set up in one corner with all manner of tools set up orderly upon it, and another where there are traces of spell work lingering, but everywhere I look there are books, whether on shelves or stacked neatly on tables. Even those workspaces are not excluded from being buried beneath at least a couple volumes.
My lips twitch as my gaze falls on some new editions piled upon the table in front of the couch where we are sitting. It is not surprising. My mate lives in the world of her books so naturally this is an ever growing and ever-changing thing. If only there was a way to add to my own magic stirring within her. Instead, my magic is like the little teapot in the center of the table slowly being swallowed by the stacks of books around it. I tip my head as I regard it. It really is a very small and insignificant looking teapot.
White with a scattering of pink flowers across it, it marks the softness within my mate in contrast to the hard angles of the books everywhere. If that was my magic it would be just as small and distinguished within the heart of power. My eyebrows slowly rise as I belatedly realize that I am staring at it. I close my eyes in frustration. Ridiculous. A teapot is not going to help my own magic grow to knot my lure more firmly within her. Unless.... My eyes fly open as an idea begins to form.
Water carries the imprint of all things it touches, and therefore it carries life. This is something that all Aquanas know, for it can carry our own magic far and amplify it depending on how we enchant it. So why not make that work in my favor and give her a stream of my magic even when we are not joined?
I glance at my mate beneath my lashes as I reach forward and rest my hand over hers before she can think of turning the page. Her eyes shoot up to my face in surprise, but I smile and stroke the back of her hand with my fingertips, taking care with my claws.
“Time to take a rest,” I murmur. “You have been working very hard. Allow me to prepare some tea for you.”
Her expression clears and she returns my smile with a nod of agreement. “You are right. Tea sounds great if you do not mind making it.”
I brush the back of my claw very gently against the tip of her nose affectionately, enjoying the way it wrinkles with her responding smile. Though I have enthusiastically claimed her a dozen times, my sweet mate has no idea at all how enticing she is. A lock of pale hair hangs forward, brushing her cheek with her every motion, teasing me with its silky glide over her smooth skin.
“I would not have offered if I minded,” I whisper, tucking her hair behind her ear.
With another fond smile I rise from the couch and pick up the tea pot as I straighten. I can feel her eyes following me as I leave the room, and nothing pleases me more than knowing that, for the time being, I am the sole focus of her attention. Even with the space of the living room and kitchen between us, I can feel it dancing over my fins and every nerve ending as I move through her kitchen. I feel like a male of worth at this moment and it entices my lure to dig deeper. My eyelashes flutter close to savor it and for a moment there is a lurch within my belly and a flare of arousal so intense that I am forced to lean into the sink to keep from falling. I relish it, however. Such sweet agony.
A shiver runs along my fins, but I push the feeling away to focus on the tea as I set to work in preparing it. Filling the teapot with hot water, I lean over with my back to my mate and breathe over it, infusing my magic directly into it with a soft hum, my tongue clicking at the roof of my mouth to send the magic forth with my body’s electric pulses. Once I am satisfied that a good quantity of my energy dances within the water, I add the tea leaves and allow it to steep for a minute or two before straining and carrying the pot back out and setting it upon the small table erected in the middle of the couch. She looks up with a smile and sighs when she slams the book shut and gives it a look of disgust.
“No luck?” I inquire as I drop to the couch on the side of the table.
She shakes her head and thumps the book with her finger. “There is no getting around the fact that we need a suitably strong core ingredient to raise the tide of the magic. I have tried it on my own with everything from ground shells, sand, and other findings from the beach. I even paid for saltwater pearls to be shipped and tried them all without success. I just can’t seem to get the tides to shift high enough.”
“Perhaps we can try together,” I suggest hopefully.
Keri taps her finger to her lips as she studies me as I pour the tea. I smile and lift my fins slightly, hoping for all the world that I look magically competent enough for her to accept my offer. I am being ridiculous again, but I do not care. A smile teases her lips mirthfully, confirming the matter but she does not call me on it or reject my offer. Instead, she accepts the teacup I offer her, and we sip in silence as we consider the matter.
“It is not that I don’t want to,” she says as she lowers her cup back to its saucer. “It’s more that I’m afraid that it will be a waste of effort and we will both be disappointed.”
“Our magic has danced together before,” I remind her. “We know that our magic could work together or else it would not dance at all. The question is if our current alone is strong enough for what you need. And if it is not...” I shrug, allowing that to finish my thoughts. If it is not, then we can continue moving forward as always.
She gives me a searching look but finally nods and clears away the teacups from the small table between us and replaces them with a small bowl filled with glittering powder that I immediately recognize. Ground pearls acquired from the seas. Although the members of my pod used talaxi pearls for the more difficult magic, my own mother used sea pearls enough that I am filled with optimism. Surely this will work with me helping her. She will see that it can be done with both of us working together without risking the dangers of gathering a talaxi pearl.
A thrill of excitement rushes through me when she suddenly reaches for my hands. I thrust them toward her eagerly and grin at her giggle at my enthusiasm as she takes them in hers. Her eyebrows jump playfully as she smiles, drawing another burst of warmth to my heart to the point that I am tempted to burst into song even though she will chastise me later for interrupting her work yet again when we climb from her bed.
The clasp of our hands stirs my lure within her as my magic rises and flows in response to that pull while her own power answers, shifting and moving around mine. My lure is still not entirely connected but the link is stronger between us, which fills me with a great deal of satisfaction. I know that she is aware of magic spinning between and within us because she looks up at me with an excited smile as the crushed pearls beneath our hands shimmer in reaction to the growing dance of our magic spinning together.
“This is our own natural current,” I murmur. “It flows continuously between us now even when we aren’t aware of it. It chases between us in its natural state, but to create a tide, it is more of a pull and give as we make them move together.”
She nods again, this time with determination, and her brow pinches slightly with her concentration. “I suppose one of us should begin.”
“I can start,” I offer. “Just follow me.”
Shifting the threads of energy within my lure, I push my magic, driving my energy into hers so that they roll together in a glittery wave toward my mate. Keri’s eyes widen as the magic flows over her and responds by pushing forward on her own magic, allowing the wave to crest and roll back toward me. My blood hums with excitement as it rushes back to me and crashes through me at the same moment that I drive it forward again. Back and forth we pass the tide over the pearls, and brighter they grow in response until they glow like the moon and shards of starlight. I am so certain that we are nearly there. The dust begins to spin and rise from the bowl, spinning in numerous delicate threads, the heart connecting the threads grows and brightens with an increasing intensity as the core begins to form.
The sea sings between Keri and me. We are one. We are part of the core, breathing it into existence, marrying the element of the sea with the magic of our love. Our tiding is growing and swelling, rushing forward in massive waves that crash through the room.
“Just a little more,” she whispers. “All of the threads need to be contained within the core.”
I nod but my entire body is rocking with the force of our magical tide eclipsing over me. I have never felt such a thing. I look up at my mate and notice that she is shaky with the effort to confine and direct the swelling rise of magic growing more feral by the moment. She turns the tide back toward me and something shifts with a wrongness that strums through me. My eyes widen in horror and try to tighten my hold on her but our hand-lock breaks from the force rippling out from the core as we are both flung backward by the sonic explosion that rocks through the house. The sand from the pearls abrades my scales sharply and I know her delicate skin in suffering similarly when I hear her draw in a sharp breath of pain, though she doesn’t cry out.
Groaning, I slowly push myself up from the floor and blink hazily across the room to where my Keri was thrown from the toppled couch. The coffee table is likewise tipped over, its piles of books scattered over the floor. A layer of fine pearl dust coats both pieces of furniture but it looks dull and flat—the natural magic within it exhausted. Brushing her hair out of her face, Keri peers up at me and smiles weakly.
“I guess that didn’t work.”
“I guess not,” I agree as I go over and help her to her feet. “We will figure out something else to try next.”
She nods in agreement but frowns at the powdery remains of the pearl as she swipes it off the couch with one finger. I worry that she is thinking of the talaxi pearl once more. Its presence in the world is far too seductive for my determined mate. With a soft hiss, I tug her into my arms, my own determination rising to divert her from such thoughts even as my heart melts at her giggle. Even in the midst of her obvious disappointment, I am pleased I can make my mate laugh. My mouth drops to hers silencing her laughter with my kiss until it turns into throaty moans and she twines her arms around me.
My love can chide me for the distraction later.