CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I’D NEVER SEEN A HIPPOCAMP close up before, but the illustrations in various texts painted them as gorgeous. Nereids had bred them for centuries and theirs were every bit as stunning and pampered as any land noble’s favorite steeds.
From Ozora’s personal journal.
I waited on deck while Fraser went below to change into something he could swim in.
The sound of his bare feet on the wooden stairs pulled my gaze from the water and sky.
He had a towel slung around his bare, sculpted copper shoulders.
My gaze slid across his firm pecs and down those lean abs before I gulped and yanked my eyes out to the horizon.
My mouth dried out and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, I was not prepared for him to be half-naked.
Did not think that one through, I scolded. This was my idea, and I did say he’d be swimming. Why I assumed he’d put on the same clothes he wore earlier, I couldn’t say. Maybe finding out that the monster I took him for was a figment of Gordon’s making had addled my wits.
He broke my musings by slinking up behind me.
“If you wanted me to strip, all you had to do was ask.” He was so close, his breath tickled the fine hairs on the back of my neck.
Surely the heat of my blush must’ve burned him too. Without a word, I jumped out of his reach and quick-stepped down the gangway to the end of the quay, and the top of the stairs where I had found him. He let me run ahead, since it meant I had to wait, and watch him stroll to me.
Okay, he strutted.
I kind of wanted to kiss that smug half-smile off his scruffy face and struggled to squash the impulse.
He gripped the ends of his towel with both hands as he rolled to a stop, and stood with one hip cocked. Fraser was all lean muscle on a tall frame. Not a bulked-up fighter like a knight or paladin, but no one could mistake him for anything but powerful.
He still wore that lopsided little-boy grin, and I tore my gaze away, looking anywhere but at him.
“S–so.” Dammit! I sneaked another peek, and he caught me.
His grin grew wider, because he knew damn well I was struggling to keep my composure.
“Tell me what it feels like to feel numin underwater.” At last, I sounded cool, businesslike, although I was far from it.
Hold it together, Ozora. It’s no different from teaching any new apprentice. Just pretend it’s not him.
“Like those. Ripples, or waves, sometimes like...tentacles?” While he answered, I slowed my breathing, and my thudding heart followed suit. It helped that he pointed down the stairs to the choppy wavelets, and I had a reason to look away from him.
He paused, and his brow creased, as if searching for the right word. “Or rope? Something cord-like, dragging across or wrapping around me. Sort of like currents feel underwater, but different.”
With my magesight I saw enough elemental magics across the surface and below that Fraser should have no trouble locating them. Their lines and splotches formed a network altogether different from the waves crossing the surface.
A flutter of numin over by Mayhem pulled my attention. He’d mentioned spells that kept her together after the fight, but that looked nothing like binding or water-repelling spells. It was gone before I got a close look.
The quick exhale of his breath against my cheek drew my attention back from the waters.
Fraser immediately straightened and tugged at the towel around his neck.
He coughed and reddened and wouldn’t look me in the eye.
Had he stepped even closer? Was he kissing close when I was lost in my magesight?
Perhaps it was better I hadn’t noticed, and firmly shoved my attention back to the lesson.
“So, to you, numin feels like something touching your skin? A ripple, a strand of something, a wave?” A quick surge of triumph coursed through me when I managed not to stutter.
Even though my heart sped up again as the distracting memory of his lips pressing against mine rose up to taunt me.
This is not getting any better. Pull it together, Ozora.
“But how did you know it’s numin and not a current? ”
Probably would’ve been easier if he wasn’t standing so close, but to move away would’ve been admitting...well, admitting he was getting to me.
“Numin is alive. The current is not. There’s no comparison.” His low voice was nearly a caress, and the heat coming off his bare skin did not help my control.
I gave up caring what he thought and walked around the well the stairs created to stand at the end of the quay on a narrow outcrop of stone, out of reach. Yes, it was much easier when he wasn’t close enough to touch.
The stairs in front of me stepped off the side of the pier, and giant stone blocks capped the end I stood on. Behind me, the deep waters of the bay lay at the bottom of a sheer drop-off.
Don’t step back.
Don’t step back.
Don’t step back.
I pointed down the stairs and said, “Get in and stop when you feel anything that’s numin.”
He cocked his head, gaze sharpening with curiosity, and gave a short, sharp tug on the towel. It slid off his shoulders; he let it fall to the top step, and without another word, walked into the water. After swimming out about eight feet away from the stairs, he paused.
“There’s a...stream of numin two feet below mine,” he called.
Magesight helped me peer through the water to find the pale gold track of a dolphin’s song-spell flowing where Fraser described.
Since I wasn’t fluent in dolphin magic, I couldn’t tell much about it.
It didn’t matter, though; he’d accurately found the closest numin source.
“Well done!” I told him. “How does that feel different from the current going past you?”
His arms sculled below the surface, and his brow smoothed as he considered.
“Like I said, it’s alive.” He lifted his shoulders, and new ripples spread outward.
“Good, but what else can you sense from it?” I prodded. “Is it an animal? Another nereid?”
He blinked. “A dolphin.” His expression was almost blank, as if he spoke as soon as the answer popped in his head.
“Very good!” He grew up with nereids. Dolphins and hippocamps are always around their cities.
The cynical side of me finally spoke up, tired of horny me slobbering over Fraser’s perfectly chiseled abs.
Cynical me did a great job dampening my carnal thoughts.
He’d be familiar with dolphin magic. I cleared my throat.
“Find the next numin source.”
I had him find and trace the numinous trails and spells around the docked ships and out into the bay.
Have to say, I was proud of myself for staying calm and efficient.
It helped my focus that he was out in the water and only his head and shoulders were visible.
I assumed we were doing great until, after about fifteen minutes, he stopped and swam toward the quay.
“What are you doing? We aren’t done!” I shouted. Yeah, it came out louder than I wanted. There were a few more numin sources I wanted him to find.
“I am,” he snapped back. “I’ve been doing this sort of thing since I was a boy.
I know how to feel for numin. We’ve gone over that plenty of times.
How does this help me see it? Unless you can answer me that, I’m done.
I’ve got better things to do than swim around the bay.
” His voice was raised in an echo of mine, and he’d reached the stairs.
I had to stop him, before he could climb up the steps and walk away.
I could not let this spiral into another fight.
“S–stop.” I paused, and to my surprise, he did. It gave me a chance to take a much needed breath. “Please. Just...give me a few more minutes.” Water ran off his skin, dripped from his chin and tangled curls, and his face and chest glowed with his exertion and anger.
“I promise, it’s all about to make sense.” It was true. Blue eyes, like the clear waters of the islands, were vibrant with more than frustration.
“Promise?” His gaze was a tangible force as it grazed over me. “What if you break it?” he taunted. He knew that taking the cheap and easy route of sleazy comments would infuriate me. Of course he did it on purpose. I refused to give him the satisfaction of responding to his innuendo.
“Turn around. Take some deep breaths and calm down.” I did the same, slowing my breathing while he spun to look back over the water. “Can you still feel the numin you found?”
He frowned in concentration, glaring at the water.
“Close your eyes.” Instead of gritting my teeth and mirroring his frustration, I paused so I could keep my voice tranquil before telling him.
“Just feel. Keep your eyes closed and concentrate on what that dolphin’s spell feels like against your skin.
” Another deep inhale, and his tightly crossed arms relaxed a fraction but, a frown remained carved across his face.
“Let that sensation, that feeling, form an image in your mind’s eye. ”
His chest lifted as he took a deep breath, pushed it out, and closed his eyes. “Got it,” he said after a few more breaths, his voice tight.
“Now do that with the rest of the numin you sensed.” I swear he growled, but his shoulders dropped another fraction, and he didn’t argue.
So far, so good.
“Keep your eyes closed,” I told him. “And imagine the numin glowing with different colors. Picture it in your mind’s eye.”
He swung his head to give me an irritated look, eyes most definitely open. “Seriously? Make believe?”
I made a twirling motion with my finger. “Eyes closed. Use your imagination,” I said.
“I can think of better things to use my imagination for than picturing swoops of color.” His bright blue eyes heated to flame, with another attempt to distract me, but it fell flat.
“Yes, we both know how talented you are.” I made my voice not only cold but dry, discouraging as the glacier fields of the far north. “Now close your eyes, turn around, and feel again for all that numin you located.”
He pouted but did as I bid.
“Can you feel them?” I asked after he’d been quiet for a minute. He gave one sharp nod of his head. “Now, imagine, with your eyes closed, seeing them in bold colors.”
His shoulders rose and fell; I counted half a dozen breaths, half dozen more.
He said nothing but, the tension that clenched his back and shoulders melted away when he uncrossed his folded arms, and let his fingers trail in the water.
Rivulets chased droplets, running down the dips and valleys of his arms, and suddenly I was jealous of the water.
“You’re seeing it in your imagination, aren’t you?” I asked, my voice low, husky from my own thoughts. He nodded. This time, instead of an angry jerk, his head dipped a fraction, as if he didn’t want to take his inner gaze from the water.
With his eyes closed, I didn’t have to avert my eyes from his physique, and a deeper sort of longing rose. I wished I had something to drink and had to make do with a few swallows.
At least he can’t see me ogling him, I mused, relieved he was blind to my stare. I shifted my gaze before saying, “Now, open your eyes and picture what you’ve imagined overlaid on your vision.”
My feet were on the edge of the quay, but I had to see his reaction, the moment that magesight revealed a whole new world. Smooth stone blocks ended in a straight drop down to the water but, my fear of deep water was overcome by my need to get back in Cassyrra’s good graces.
His jaws relaxed, and no frown lines creased his brow. A faint smile lifted his lips, only to spread into a wide grin that filled his entire face. Sparks of numin lit his eyes, like daystars coming out in the summer sky.
“It worked!” he shouted, his words echoing my thoughts.
“What color is that dolphin spell?” I asked, and laughed along with him when he shouted back the right answer.
“Yellow. It’s yellow. The little sea sprite that lives in the rocks below Mayhem warded her door in bright red. The selkies at the river mouth have marked their boundaries in green.”
“Very well done! Impressive, you found the selkies.” The glowing green wards were strong and bright, but much further than I would’ve expected him to sense.
Fraser’s delighted smile dimmed, and he seemed to track something under the water, right before a ringing neigh blasted out as a wave burst up from below.
I gasped with double shock. The surge of water swept my feet out from under me as a massive blue hippocamp leaped to the top of the quay and struck me with his broad chest.
I toppled over the edge and splashed into the bay.