Chapter 32 #2
His arms shrugged around me. “Only people I don’t like, Aneah.” He held my shaking body tight, not letting me thrash or try to swim back to the deck. “Be still with me. You’ll see it’s safe. They won’t hurt my mate.”
“Yiri!” My teeth chattered in my skull, the warmth of the water no longer a comfort. Clinging to him, I tried to be as small, as still, as quiet as possible. Maybe… maybe they wouldn’t notice me if I—
“It’s touching me!”
“She’s just curious,” Yiri said, extending a hand to the pointed pink nose of the shark-like creature. I made a wordless whimpering sound in my throat and buried my face against the curve of his shoulder and neck.
“I don’t like this,” I said, holding him with more strength than I thought I had.
“Give them a chance,” he gently coaxed. “And as much as I love it when you dig your fingernails into my back, try not to do it right now. If I start bleeding, they’ll get feisty.”
I almost let go of him entirely, because yes, I was digging my nails into him in my panic. Something else brushed against my ankle underwater, and I latched on again. “Oh, god, Yiri. If I survive this, I’m going to kill you.”
He chuckled, taking one of my hands in a firm grip and dragging it out to touch one of three pink cekets circling us in the water.
“No, no, no,” I whined, but Yiri shushed me, forcing my hand carefully closer until the thing brushed my knuckles as it swam by.
Now that I knew what to look for, they were easier to pick out in the water, but their scales so closely matched the sandy lagoon bottom that they quickly disappeared again.
“They’ve been out here this whole time?” I asked, my eyes darting all around to keep track of them.
“These three just came in,” he said. “They’re the grandmothers. They’ll tell the others you’re mine.”
I snorted. “Oh yeah? Gossiping grandma sharks?”
“Something like that,” he said, smiling as he kissed my cheek. “Touch this one, Aneah. She’s sweet like you.”
I made another embarrassing, terrified sound, but let him hold my hand still as a ceket swam around and bumped her nose under my hand. Not stopping, she swam on, letting my hand skim over the scales of her side.
“Good girl,” Yiri crooned as another followed close behind, bumping my hand and moving along.
“Me or her?” I asked, not daring to look away from the killer pink fish.
“Both.” His other arm loosened around my middle, and I jolted. “Don’t be scared, Cora. I’m right here. I’m going to let you swim on your own so you can see how gentle they’ll be with you.”
“Yiri!”
But he pushed me an arm’s length away, and I called on every scrap of willpower, forcing myself still. Yelping, I started to sink below the surface and gave my feet a few slow, gentle kicks.
“You know how to swim, right?” Yiri chuckled.
“Yes, husband,” I muttered through my clenched jaw.
“Just swim in place like before,” he said. “Let them come to you.”
“I’d rather they didn’t,” I said, nearly jumping out of my skin as one of them neared.
“Breathe, Aneah,” Yiri soothed me from a few feet away. “I would never put you in this water if I thought it wasn’t safe.”
A ceket brushed by my elbow, swimming slowly enough that I got a good look into its eye.
“Huh,” I mused as she swam on, circling Yiri next. Her eyes didn’t look vacant and terrifying like I thought they should.
“What is it?” Yiri asked.
I looked closer at the next one who swam by me, getting the same feeling of emotion as she passed. “This is going to sound crazy, but… They look like they’re laughing at me,” I said. “Their eyes? They look… amused.”
Yiri’s chuckle was a low rumble as he swam close and hugged me against his chest again. “Oh, they are, sweet girl. They are.”
“What? How can you tell?”
He nipped playfully at my earlobe. “I see it in their eyes, same as you.”
A few more joined the three that had been circling us, these a brighter pink with light spots on their sides.
These were the adolescents, Yiri explained.
They usually stayed close to the grandmothers while the rest of the family hunted the nearby reefs.
They were pretty, but they moved much faster and made me extremely nervous.
One of them swam toward me with its jaws open, sharp, pearlescent teeth gleaming in the water, when one of the elder cekets suddenly cut it off, snout plowing into snout until the youngster was diverted.
“See?” Yiri said proudly. “They’re teaching them.”
“Oh my god.”
He gripped my elbow to keep me from swimming back to the deck. “Be calm. You’re safe. Here. Look at this one.”
Another young ceket swam right up to him, bumping his side in an almost silly gesture, before rolling in the water and showing its paler underbelly. Something dark caught my eye, but it was out of sight again before I could discern what it was.
“Ah, come back here,” Yiri said, voice raised in excitement as he dove after the little ceket.
“Oh shit.” I held my breath as I watched him under the rippling water.
Catching the youngster, he wrapped his arms and legs around it, flipping them both upside down while he grasped at the dark thing on its belly.
Whatever it was, it came away in his hand, and he released the ceket.
Bobbing back to the surface, he shook water out of his eyes and beckoned me closer.
“Come see, Cora.”
I swam carefully to his side as he pulled a blade seemingly out of nowhere and began to pry at the thing in his hand.
“What is it?” I tried to watch and keep an eye on the circling cekets at the same time.
“Eslu,” he said. “It’s a shellfish. They grab onto the cekets on the reef and ride with them until they decide to let go, usually in places like this where the waves aren’t as strong.
Sometimes they make pearls. If I can get it to open up…
.” He worked at the black clam-like shell some more, and I realized he was being careful not to break it.
When it finally opened up, his fingers dove in quickly, feeling around.
“Yeah, there’s a pearl for you,” he grinned, wiggling it free.
A second later he passed me a pale, mint green pearl as big around as my thumb, and let the eslu fall through the water.
“Wow.”
“You like it?” he asked, taking my hand and holding it up away from the sunlight (starlight, whatever) so we could see it better.
“It’s gorgeous,” I said. “I’ve never seen a pearl this big. At least not up close.”
“Della will make it into jewelry for you if you ask,” he said. “I take them to her all the time.”
“She would?”
“Of course,” he said. “You’re my Aneah. She’ll be very happy if you ask her. What do you think? A necklace? A ring? I could keep diving and try to find more if you don’t like the shape.”
“No,” I said. “It’s perfect. I love it. I think a—Oh my—Mr. Darcy!!”
My cat, the little idiot, had been bread-loafing right at the edge of the deck, but now decided to test his luck against a young ceket.
Tail twitching, he waited until the fish came within reach, its mouth open wide, and booped it right on the nose with his little kitty paw.
The ceket sank under the water again, ushered away by one of the grandmothers, as Mr. Darcy drew his paw back and licked it clean.
Utterly unbothered as usual, he heaved a sigh and settled back into loaf formation.
Yiri laughed, but he sounded a little nervous. “Maybe we should keep him inside next time.”
“I guess the cekets’ courtesy doesn’t extend to cats?” I asked, wide-eyed and heart racing as I made my way back to the deck so I could reassure myself that Mr. Darcy was safe.
“I have no idea,” Yiri admitted. “You’re my mate, but… Mr. Darcy is… well, it’s not like he’s my child or anything.”
I gasped, covering Mr. Darcy’s ears with my wet hands, which he did not appreciate at all. “I can’t believe you just said that where he can hear you!”
Yiri eyed Mr. Darcy, but didn’t take it back.
“It’s okay, Mr. Darcy,” I cooed. “Daddy will accept you. He just doesn’t know you well yet.”
With a snort, Yiri followed me out of the water, giving my ass a swat as he reached for a towel.
“I’m his stepfather at best,” he said under his breath.