“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, becauseyes, 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 ofthreepink 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 fewslow, gentlekicks.
“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 ofemotionas she passed. “This is going to soundcrazy, 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.
