She blows fat bubbles from her nose, and I quickly place my mouth over hers and breathe. She parts her pillowy pink lips and accepts the air I give her.
I linger over her mouth longer than I need to. My entire body tingles in anticipation of something I cannot ask Leeenuh to give me. As I pull away, I see the entrance to my nest.
The perimeter of the cave's opening is decorated with the scales of the scripiat—the blue glinting against the iridescent purple of the island formation.
Pulling her tightly against me, I embark on the winding and narrow tunnel toward the nest’s opening.
Cresting into the air pocket, Leeenuh gasps.
At first, it’s for air, but as her eyes adjust, her mouth gapes at her surroundings.
Worog worms hang from the cavern’s high ceiling, their purple glow illuminating the space. Their light reflects off Leeenuh’s wide green eyes, the white portion of them now an angry red. Maybe her camouflage is eye based.
Only a few months are left of my proving, and my nest is nearly complete. Jewel-toned tapestries woven from dried miyhu weeds decorate the walls. They’re patterns similar to the skin I was born in—a nest is not a place you should have to hide or camouflage.
I gently set her on the pool’s lip, even though something inside me screams to show her more.
I want to lift the tapestry behind me and show her the dried dredlin and nuite fruit stores. Tell her I’ve tapped the spring from above, so fresh water will run when the cap is removed. I want her to approve of it all.
I ignore every instinct except one.
Pulling my body onto the stone floor, I lift Leeenuh and carry her to the sleeping nook. The rocks form a natural pocket, big enough for two Andjin. The bedding is fresh, as I just completed it yesterday morning. I lay her down, pulling the woven miyhu blanket over her body.
“Rest,” I tell her, tucking the edge of the blanket under her chin.
For a moment, she looks like she might fight me, but I think she’s too exhausted. Leeenuh sighs and wiggles her body deeper into the bedding, her scent filling the space.
As I move to the other side of the cavern, near a secondary seawater pool, she begins whispering things I can’t understand.
“Sleep, Leeenuh. We can figure all of this out once you’re rested.”
She nods, closing her eyes. I can hear her breathing slow as she succumbs to sleep. My muscles ache from the exertion of her rescue. I pretend to inspect the pool, but instead, I run through a mental list of everything I would ask for her approval on.
Those thoughts are nothing more than folly.
We are different, she is not mine. She could even be mated to another. I am not yet even worthy of a mate.
Mate—the word feels bitter on my tongue.
“Leeenuh,” I whisper as I dip my hands into the underwater garden that, just yesterday, I hoped my future mate would use as our nursery.
Leeenuh.
3
an accident
I rubthe tops of my feet back and forth on the soft textured blankets underneath me, stuck somewhere between incredibly rested and not wanting to leave the comfort of my bed.
Stretching my arms over my head, I flop onto my back and open my eyes.
Wait—this isn’t my bed! Yesterday’s misadventures flood my mind.
Kitaico sits cross-legged, his elbows propped on his knees, observing me like his own personal little museum exhibit.
“You can sleep longer if you want,” he says, tilting his head as he looks at me. “Or maybe you’re hungry?”
He scrambles to his feet and pulls back one of the woven curtains covering a storage nook in the wall. He produces several pieces of what looks like whole dried fish and offers me one.
