28. Rhaek
RHAEK
T he surface was three inches above my head.
I could see them through it. Distorted, shifting with the chop, but readable. The deep-water male had her now.
I had my hands on the eastern shelf.
I did not come up.
The sharks were close. Too close. Two of them, maybe three, moving along the spire's base in long slow arcs.
If I broke the surface fast they would feel the displacement.
If they rushed I would have to deal with them before I reached her and every second I spent in that water was a second I wasn't between her and the males on the rock.
I ground my teeth and waited.
I watched the amphibian one hiss and struggle to hold onto Helsa. She drove her elbow backward over and over into something that didn't even notice.
She was fighting them every step of the way.
I smiled. There’s my mate.
I inched closer.
A creature drifted closer too. Not a shark. Something else. I angled toward the seam's inner edge, putting more rock between us. It banked away. Came back. I inched away again. It banked away again.
My scales were moving constantly now. I had stopped trying to press them flat.
She was right there. Right there.
Fifteen feet of air between us and I was below the waterline doing nothing. I hated every second of it.
Not yet. I told myself.
The sea creatures banked closer. I went still. Watched them pass. Watched them arc back.
If I could just get a little closer, maybe I can snatch her from them…
I inched forward.