Chapter 43
Blue Fire on the Skin
The water brightened as the tide changed.
At first Nathan thought it was his eyes adjusting, or the lingering shock of everything they had admitted. Then Marissa gasped and pointed past the rail.
"Look."
The surface of the cove shimmered with sparks.
Every small movement woke a trail of blue light. The anchor line glowed where it entered the water. A fish darted below and left a living signature behind it. The sea seemed full of stars that had fallen and learned to swim.
"Bioluminescence," Dane said.
Marissa laughed softly. "Of course this place has magic water."
"Only on certain nights."
Nathan watched the glow gather around the hull. The yacht looked less anchored than enchanted, held in place by blue fire and bad decisions.
Dane moved to the swim platform at the stern and released the safety rail. The platform was low, close enough to the water that the small waves licked against the edge.
"You don't have to get in," he said. "But if you touch it, it answers."
Marissa turned to Nathan.
There was a question in her face, but not the old one. Not are you angry? Not may I? This one was newer, brighter, frightening in a different way.
Will you come see what happens with me?
Nathan nodded before courage could run out.
They moved to the stern together. Dane stayed nearby, silent and watchful, one hand on the rail. Nathan noticed that about him now: the captain seemed most powerful when he was not trying to take the center of a moment.
Marissa slipped off her shoes and sat on the platform. Nathan sat beside her. Their feet hovered above the dark water.
"Ready?" she asked.
"No."
She smiled. "Good."
They lowered their feet together.
Blue light burst around their ankles.
Marissa made a delighted sound so young and unguarded that Nathan's chest tightened. She swept one foot through the water and the glow followed, painting a crescent in the sea. Nathan did the same, slower, watching light wrap around his skin and vanish behind him.
"It really answers," he said.
"Most things do," Dane replied from above them. "If you touch them honestly."
Nathan looked up. "You make everything sound like a sermon."
"Occupational hazard of taking strangers into the dark."
Marissa leaned closer to Nathan, shoulder against his. The moon painted her face silver. The blue glow below painted her legs in moving light. She looked both like his wife and like a woman he had only just met.
"Do you remember our honeymoon?" she asked.
Nathan smiled despite himself. "The hotel pool that closed at ten?"
"And you convinced me that closed meant private."
"I was more persuasive back then."
Her smile faded into tenderness. "You were less afraid."
The words hurt because they were true.
Nathan moved his foot through the glowing water again. The sea answered instantly, as if it did not care how many years he had wasted being careful.
"I don't want to be afraid of you wanting more," he said.
Marissa turned toward him.
"I don't want more instead of you."
"I know."
"Do you?"
He watched the blue sparks gather and disappear around their feet.
"I'm learning."
Dane stepped down onto the platform then, keeping distance enough for the choice to remain theirs. He crouched on Marissa's other side and trailed his fingers through the water. Blue light flared around his hand.
Marissa watched it, mesmerized.
Nathan watched her watching him.
The old ache came again, but this time it did not swallow him. It moved through him like the glow moved through the water, bright, then fading, leaving proof that something had been touched.
"What happens after tonight?" Nathan asked.
Dane looked at the water, not at Marissa.
"That depends on what you take home," he said.
Marissa laced her wet fingers with Nathan's.
"We take home the truth," she said.
Nathan believed her.
For a moment, with blue fire on their skin and the captain close enough to be possible, that was enough.