"I have you." His voice was close to my ear, low and reassuring, vibrating through the water in ways that shouldn't have been possible. "I have you, little human. I won't let go." I opened my eyes. The world underwater was blue. A hundred shades of blue, from the pale turquoise near the surface to the deep indigo of the depths below. Sunlight filtered down in golden shafts, dancing and shifting with the movement of the waves above. Around me, surrounding me, were four shapes that seemed to glow with their own inner light.
Kaelan behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist, his obsidian tail brushing against my legs with every subtle movement. Riven to my right, massive and bronze, his golden eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made my skin prickle. Thane to my left, his amber eyes soft with concern, his green-gold tail swaying gently. Vale in front of me, his silver hair floating around him like a halo, his sharp smile gentled into something almost reverent.
I realized I was holding my breath. My lungs were starting to burn, that familiar pressure building, the instinctive panic of a creature not meant for this world.
Kaelan's arms tightened around me. "You need to breathe." His voice was calm, patient, but I could feel the tension in his body, the way he was holding himself carefully controlled. "The potion—you need to drink it, and then you need to breathe."
He pressed the bottle into my hand. I could feel the cool glass against my palm, the weight of it, the promise contained within. My lungs screamed for air. My body screamed to surface, to flee, to return to the world where I belonged. I didn't belong there anymore. Maybe I never had. I uncorked the bottle and drank.
The liquid was cold, colder than the water around me, cold like winter storms and deep trenches and places where light never reached. It slid down my throat and spread through my chest, and for a moment, I felt like I was dying. Like my lungs were being remade, restructured, transformed into something new.
Then the burning stopped…and I breathed.
Water rushed into my lungs, and it should have been agony, should have been drowning, should have been death. Instead, it was... air. Not air exactly, but something that filled me the same way, that satisfied the desperate need in my chest, that made my body relax with relief.
I was breathing underwater…..I was breathing underwater!!
A laugh bubbled up from my throat, literally bubbled, the sound strange and muffled in the water, and I pressed my hands to my mouth in disbelief. It was impossible. It was miraculous. It was the single most incredible thing that had ever happened to me.
"How does it feel?" Thane drifted closer, his gentle voice carrying easily through the water, his amber eyes bright with wonder as he watched my reaction. His hand found mine, his fingers interlacing with my own, cool and strong and reassuring. "Is it strange? Does it hurt?"
"It's..." I shook my head, unable to find the words. "It's amazing. It's like... like nothing I've ever felt."
Riven made a sound low in his throat—something pleased and possessive that vibrated through the water and seemed to resonate in my bones. "Good." His rough voice was softer than I'd ever heard it, almost tender. He moved closer, his massive body radiating heat despite the cool water, and his hand came to rest on my hip, a casual touch, almost unconscious, like he couldn't bear not to be touching me. "We want you to love it here. We want you to love our world."
"I already do." The words came out without thought, honest and raw. "I already love it."
Vale's laugh was like silver bells, like stars falling into the sea. "You haven't even seen anything yet, little human." He swam closer, his movements fluid and graceful, his iridescent tail catching the filtered sunlight in flashes of green and blue and purple. His fingers brushed against my cheek, feather-light and cool, tracing the line of my jaw. "Let us show you. Let us show you everything."
Kaelan's arms loosened around me, though he didn't fully release me—one hand stayed at the small of my back, a constant point of contact, an anchor. "Can you swim?" His breath was warm against my ear, his voice low and intimate. "Or do you need us to carry you?"
I tried to move my legs, to kick the way I did when diving from the ship. It worked, sort of—I moved forward, clumsy and graceless compared to their fluid elegance. "I can swim. I'm not very good at it, but?—"
"We'll teach you." Thane squeezed my hand, his thumb stroking across my knuckles in a soothing rhythm. His smile was bright enough to light the depths. "We'll teach you everything. But for now, just hold onto us. Let us take you where we want to go."
I nodded, and then they were moving, all four of them, surrounding me, their powerful tails propelling them through the water with effortless grace. Kaelan's hand stayed on my back, guiding me forward. Thane's fingers remained interlaced with mine. Riven swam close enough that his tail kept brushing against my legs, a constant reminder of his presence. Vale led the way, glancing back every few moments with that sharp smile, making sure I was keeping up.
They were touching me constantly. I realized it gradually, the awareness building like the tide coming in. Someone's hand was always on me, my back, my hip, my hand, my shoulder. Someone's tail was always brushing against my legs, wrapping briefly around my ankle, sliding along my calf. It should have felt overwhelming. It should have felt suffocating, after so long spent avoiding touch, flinching away from any contact.
Instead, it felt like coming home.
The first thing they showed me was a coral reef.
I'd seen coral before, dead fragments washed up on beaches, pale and brittle and sad. But this was nothing like that. This was an explosion of life, of color, of impossible beauty. Corals in every shape imaginable, branching like trees, mounding like clouds, spreading like fans. Colors I didn't have names for, reds that shaded into oranges that shaded into pinks that shaded into purples. Fish darting between the formations, silver and gold and electric blue, schools of them moving in perfect synchronization like they were dancing.
"Oh." The sound escaped me without permission, a breath of wonder that I couldn't contain. "Oh, it's beautiful. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
"This is just the beginning." Vale swam in a slow circle around me, his silver hair trailing behind him like a banner, his blue-green eyes bright with pleasure at my reaction. His voice was silk and starlight, wrapping around me like a caress. "Thereare caves where everything glows in the dark. Forests of kelp that stretch up toward the surface like they're trying to touch the sky. Places where the water is so clear you can see for miles, and places where it's so dark you can't see your own hand in front of your face." His fingers trailed down my arm as he circled, a teasing touch that left goosebumps in its wake. "We want to show you all of it. Every wonder we've discovered in centuries of swimming these waters."
A fish swam up to me, a tiny thing, bright yellow with blue stripes, curious and unafraid. I held out my hand without thinking, and it brushed against my fingers before darting away.
Thane made a soft sound, something between a laugh and a sigh. "The reef fish have never seen a human before. Not alive, anyway." His gentle voice was wistful, his amber eyes soft as he watched me. "They don't know to be afraid of you."
"Lily won't give them any reason to be." Riven's voice was a low rumble, fierce with conviction. He had moved closer while I was distracted, his massive body a warm presence at my back, and I felt his hand settle on my hip again, heavier this time, more deliberate. His breath was warm against my hair as he spoke. "She's not like other humans."
I should have asked what he meant by that. Should have asked what had happened to other humans who had come to this reef, who had seen these fish. I was too overwhelmed by sensation, the cool water against my skin, the impossible reality of breathing beneath the surface, the constant touches from four different directions.
"Look." Kaelan's voice was soft, and his hand on my back guided me gently forward, toward a particular formation of coral. It was shaped almost like a flower, petals of pink and white spreading outward from a central column. As we approached, I saw movement within—tiny creatures, translucent and delicate, pulsing with bioluminescent light. "These are moon jellies. Theyonly come out at dusk. We've been waiting for a week to show you."
