Chapter 33
Kiora
IT HAD BEEN TWO WEEKS since I’d found out the truth, and I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. A part of me got used to the idea that Billy was dead, and I didn’t slip up as much, calling him Dad. Still, another part of me didn’t fully believe it.
My relationship with Dylan had become a little less weird. It helped that he didn’t try to be a father figure, and that he treated Mom well. She also never acted surprised when he was nice to her. So, hopefully he wasn’t just putting on a show for me.
Mom was busy today. Something about making sure the oil pipeline didn’t leak. Apparently, she made a job out of keeping our water clean.
I sat on the couch in the living room, pretending to watch a movie while Dylan tended the fish living inside the coffee table. It was basically a small pond with baby koi fish. There was another pond in the backyard that held the adults.
Earlier, Dylan pulled out these mop-looking things made of green yarn from the outdoor pond, and he was now transferring them to the indoor aquarium. Weird. I thought he was supposed to keep the water clean, and those things couldn’t be that clean.
“Why are you putting them into this aquarium?” I asked.
Dylan looked up from what he was doing. “There are eggs on them.”
He gestured at something I couldn’t see. I scooted closer and looked at the mop, but for the life of me, I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
Dylan shrugged. “It’s not a guaranteed thing, but the way the adult koi were acting made it look like they were spawning eggs. They usually do it around seaweed that the eggs can hide in.” He pointed at the mops again. “These things are supposed to look like the perfect place to spawn. So, when it looks like they’ve finished doing their thing, I transfer it to the smaller pond.”
I nodded slowly. Dylan had quite a few baby koi already, so he clearly knew what he was doing.
I, on the other hand, had no hobbies and was an expert at nothing. Billy had squashed all my hobbies way before I had the chance to learn how to do them. Dylan wouldn’t have done that.
Waves, I needed to stop comparing the two. One was a kidnapper, and the other one was a normal guy who loved his wife. There was no comparison.
Troy’s accusation that I never really trusted him came back to haunt me. He was right. I had trust issues. I always expected the other shoe to drop.
Even now, watching Dylan, I kept thinking the mask would slip, and he’d prove to be just as bad as Billy. Mom has been living with him for six years while I was on the run, and if his mask would’ve slipped, she would’ve known the truth, but here she was, still with him.
Maybe I didn’t fully trust Mom, either. Realizing she had been trapped in that house didn't erase the feelings I had about the situation before. I still expected her to be a pushover. She wasn’t one, not now when she finally had her sealskin back.
Ugh. I just needed to go for a swim to clear my head. Just shed my human side....
I scratched at my arms as if I could physically remove my skin. The water would definitely help this feeling. Lots of water, and the sooner the better.
“Is everything okay?” Dylan asked.
I stood up, needing to go. Now. To the river. How far was it, anyway?
“I need to go for a swim,” I said, frantically looking for my phone, for car keys, anything that would get me to the river.
Dylan gave me a worried look. “Hold on, I’ll drive you there.”
I scratched at my arms, legs, neck. My skin felt like a prison I needed to escape. Now. Right now.
Dylan grabbed his keys and gestured for me to come with him. I did, and this time, I didn’t even consider he might trick me. Until now, the thought was always at the back of my mind. Everyone could potentially be working for the traffickers, as far as I was concerned. But Dylan was taking me to the river, and that was all I cared about.
“Do you have any specific place in mind?” Dylan asked.
“Somewhere private,” I answered on autopilot.
Dylan gave my scratched-up arms an assessing look. He didn’t slow down to question me, though. Instead, he rushed outside, then opened the car for me and hopped in the driver’s seat. I rushed after him, but it wasn't fast enough. His driving wasn’t fast enough either. I needed to swim. Now.
“What’s wrong?” Dylan asked with a note of panic in his voice.
“I just need to swim.” My arms were raw from scratching. Blood trickled down my left forearm. It didn’t matter. Only getting to the water mattered.
Dylan drove us to the same spot Troy had taken me on that first day. The moment he stopped the car, I tore the door open and sprinted for the shallow water, pulling my clothes off as I went.
Finally, as I reached the blessed cool river, my skin cooled, but then it started to twist and pop. No, wait, that wasn’t my skin—those were my bones.
I plopped down in the river, and I was no longer the one in charge. Kitty pushed me back and took over, making us swim to the deeper water.
A splash behind us told me Dylan was still here, following. Of course he’d follow. He had lost me before I was even born, and he wasn’t about to lose me again.
Kitty seemed to know where she was going, or at least she acted like it, her movements sure, like this wasn’t her first time taking over our body.
Waves help me, she took over our body. Troy had been right—I had gotten my second birth.
As I tried to process all the implications, Kitty brought us to the harbor, found Troy’s yacht, and jumped on board. Figured she’d come straight here. She was kinda obsessed. Okay, fine, we were both obsessed, but she had no self-control.
Kitty screeched, calling for the man she considered ours.
Dylan hopped on board after us, but Kitty didn’t seem to care. She did this weird flipper hopping thing that helped her get to the stairs faster.
“To what do I owe...” Troy trailed off as he saw the seal hopping on his boat. He took a careful step forward, then leaned closer to look at Kitty’s face.
“That’s Kiora,” Dylan explained.
“I see that.” Troy brushed Kitty’s face, his thumb stroking the spot just under our eye. “You have a spot in the same place where your human had a beauty mark.”
Kitty pressed her head into his chest and chortled.
“She just shifted,” Dylan went on. “She started scratching herself, said she needed to go for a swim, and then she shifted. She doesn’t have a sealskin. How the hell had she shifted?”
“Second birth,” Troy explained, stroking Kitty’s head, her neck, her torso.
Kitty lapped all the attention up, twisting and turning so Troy would scratch her in all the good spots. He didn’t disappoint.
“I should get Eirlys. She’ll know what to do,” Dylan said, but didn’t move an inch from his vantage point.
“Go. I’ll keep an eye on Kitty.”
Slowly, Dylan backed away, but he kept his eyes on me until his fluke was back in the water. The moment he was gone, Kitty doubled her cutesiness, rubbing her head into Troy’s hand. She flipped on her belly, begging to get it rubbed.
“You’re a gorgeous seal, Kitty. How is your human doing? Is she worried about what’s happening?”
Kitty shook her head, and she was right. I was concerned about having a sealskin I now had to protect, but this felt right. I was part selkie. Kitty had lived inside me this whole time, and she finally wasn’t trapped.
“Good, because I got you covered.” Troy gestured for Kitty to follow him, and she happily hopped to the cabin below deck.
“I have to say, I didn’t expect you to be this graceful. I mean, this is your first time in this body, right? Shouldn’t you be getting used to the way it moves?” Troy rummaged through a box by the door. “Here it is.”
He showed Kitty the bag that looked kinda like a fanny pack, but the compartment was longer, and it had a mesh on the side that would be touching the body. An image of Kitty and Mimmy on the front told me he got it specially for me.
“That’s a bag for your sealskin,” Troy explained. “The material it’s made of is kevlar, so no one can just slice it open to get to your skin. The mesh will allow you to maintain physical contact with the sealskin, so you can shift at will.”
Oh. That was so thoughtful of him.
Kitty was so happy that Troy gave us a gift that she released her hold on my body, but only half our body. My fluke appeared. I turned into a seal with a mermaid’s fluke.
Ugh. This shifting thing was going to take some time to adjust to.