Chapter 129
Nix
“Can I take my blindfold off?”
“Nyet. Wait.” Volik grips my shoulders and turns me a little to the left.
All weekend, he hasn’t let me out of the house because he was working on a surprise.
And I haven’t the faintest clue…
“Okay. You can look.”
I reach up and pull the scarf off my eyes. “What are…”
Volik steps to the side.
And my smile freezes on my face.
In the middle of the yard, in front of the house, is a pool.
A round, above-ground, metal-framed, four-foot-deep pool.
Pressure surrounds my heart, and I realize Volik is keeping my pulse from jumping.
I look up at him.
“I am sorry.” His expression is stricken. “I thought we could learn… It is stupid.”
“Shut up,” I whisper.
Then I launch myself at him.
My gravito helps me jump up. And even with his confusion, Volik catches me.
I wrap my arms around his neck and hold myself up until we’re face-to-face. “Volik.”
“Da?”
“I love you.”
His worry melts away. “Da.”
I roll my eyes.
“I love you too, my Nixy.”
“I also love this pool.” I make sure he can hear how much I mean it. “I want to learn. And there’s no one I’d rather learn with.” I kiss the tip of his nose.
“Okay. Let us learn.” Volik jumps up, with me still in his arms, and splashes us into the pool.
“Volik!” I laugh as our clothes soak through. “Can you at least warm up the water?”
He lowers me to my feet, then sends a burst of heat into the water.
I grin, because now we just have a giant hot tub.
“Ready?”
I keep grinning. “Sure. How do we start?”
“I watched some videos.” Volik moves so his back is against the side.
I have some doubts. Based mostly on the fact that the pool looks about twelve feet wide. And with his horns, Volik is over eight feet tall.
Not to mention the pointy horns…
Then Volik does a little hop as he pushes forward to swim across the surface.
But he sinks.
Like a damn boulder.
Straight to the bottom.