Chapter 8
Eight
Moby
After I make love to my little human, she falls asleep, of course.
With Darla wrapped around me, I guide the jet ski carefully to the shore and turn off the engine.
Holding her to my chest, I step onto the small beach within the cove and sit down, propping my back against the bottom of a stone cliff.
Inhaling the sugar and roses scent of her hair, I allow her to sleep, cradled like a treasure in my lap.
For once, I am glad she has fallen asleep, because I need to think.
The sun is dipping down into the horizon, painting the sky pink and orange.
If only I could enjoy the beautiful sunset with my love.
But I can’t. Not at all. Because the setting of the sun signals the end of my twenty-four hours as a human.
According to the sea witch’s Blight, I am destined to shift back into a whale… imminently.
There is only one way I can remain in this human form.
For Darla to tell me she loves me—and mean it.
But who could love me after such a short period of time?
That would be asking the impossible.
Sure, I am painfully in love with Darla, but what if I admit the depth of my feelings and she feels pressure to say it back? Or she doesn’t love me yet at all?
I shiver at the thought.
But it’s more than possible. No one has ever said they loved me before.
Not even my own family.
No, my best course of action is to allow myself to shift back into a whale.
I will find the sea witch and beg her to restore my human form—permanently.
I will do whatever it takes. The sea witch is notorious for gleefully denying requests and she has no reason to grant me this wish, but maybe I can find some leverage?
Doubt beats in my veins, and that scares me.
I cannot abide any doubt where my Darla is involved.
Sweat breaks out along my hairline, rolls down my back. My heart knocks violently into my ribcage, as if it’s trying to my break bones.
I can’t leave her. I can’t live without her. What do I do?
“Moby?” Darla whispers, her cool fingertips stroking down the side of my face. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to get you back to the resort before…” I swallow a fist sized lump. “I don’t want you driving back in the dark alone.”
“Alone?” She sits up in my lap, her supple body kissed by the pink sunset, making her glow like a fallen angel. The ethereal sight of her only worsens my condition. As does the tears creating a sheen in her eyes. “Oh…y-you decided to shift back into a whale?”
I shake my head. “As if I could ever decide to leave you, little human.”
“Then I don’t understand why you’re leaving.” She turns in my lap, wrapping her legs around my hips, her arms squeezing my neck. Clinging. “Don’t go.”
“Darla,” I say thickly, the pain in my chest intensifying. “I wasn’t totally honest about the terms of my curse. It’s true that I only have twenty-four hours, but…it’s not up to me whether or not I stay a human.”
“Whose decision is it?”
“No one,” I lie, a sour taste flooding my mouth.
Better to lie than make her responsible for sending me back to the ocean forever, right?
If I ask her to confess that she loves me, and she doesn’t, she will have to shoulder the blame of my departure.
Lord, I don’t want that. “I am going to shift soon.”
“No,” she sobs, her tears dripping onto my neck. “Don’t leave, Moby.”
I’ve never felt closer to dying. “Listen to me. I am going to find the sea witch and beg to return. I will agree to whatever terms she gives me. I will make it back to you.”
“A sea witch who doles out curses doesn’t seem very reasonable to me,” she whispers in a rush. “I’m scared.”
A trapped bellow makes the insides of my throat ache.
My little human is scared and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Agony is dismantling me, limb by limb.
“I need to get you back to the resort,” I say, standing up with Darla tight to my chest. “I need to make sure you’re safe.”
She nods, reluctantly, taking a deep, if shaky, breath.
“That’s my brave girl,” I choke, stumbling for the jet ski. Don’t think about the separation to come. Not yet. Get her to the safety of the resort. Afterward, I will figure out my next move. The fates can’t keep me from my love, now that I’ve found her, right?
I’m going to tell Darla that I love her, before I leave.
I won’t explain that a returned declaration will break the curse. I won’t force her into saying something she doesn’t mean yet. But she needs to know my feelings run endlessly deep. She needs to know I will do anything and everything to return to her side.
Go.
Move.
As soon as I deposit Darla on the jet ski and she sets about retying her bikini top, I start to feel funny. Oh no. Not yet. I can’t leave her in this dark cove. She faced her fear of the jet ski today, but not alone. And not in the dark.
“Darla,” I say, my words followed by a faint echo. As if I’m already under water.
My right arm begins to burn like it has been set on fire.
It blasts into a fin. My fin.
I’m now a human with one, giant fin weighing down the right side of my body.
“Moby!” Darla cries, panicked.
“I thought I had more time,” I manage, winded, because the rest of me is beginning to burn and that’s a sign. I’m shifting. I’m going to be back in my whale form within minutes.
Frantically, I hit buttons on the jet ski with my human arm, remembering what the instructor said about lights.
Sure enough, I find the right switch and two spotlights shine from the front of the machine.
“There,” I pant, my chest starting to ripple and stretch.
“Keep the lights on as you drive. I will swim beside you until you’re safe. ”
Darla starts to cry in earnest, tears coursing down her cheeks.
“I have to get away from the beach or I’ll get stuck,” I say, my heart shattering over the fact that I can’t hold her, soothe her.
No, I must focus on her safety. Though I want to reassure her more than I want my next breath, I drag the jet ski into the water with me, because I know she doesn’t have the strength to do it herself.
“Tell me you’re going to be okay, little human. ”
She’s shaking with the force of her tears now, her teeth chattering when she says, “I’ll be okay.”
It’s the least convincing thing I’ve ever heard.
My other arm transforms into a fin, and I have no choice but to walk backward into the water. Away from Darla where she drifts upon the jet ski, trying to keep her chin from wobbling and failing miserably. Oh, my perfect little human.
“I’m sorry,” I rasp, the trunk of my body starting to stretch. Elongate.
My time is truly up.
“I love you, Darla,” I gasp, just as my human form ceases to exist.