Page 112 of In Your Light

“I like your tattoo,” Fyn said.

Sawyer looked down at his chest. “Oh, yeah. Thanks.” Then he gasped and turned to Ciaran. “You need to get another tattoo with my ink. Do I have ink?”

Ciaran nodded. “Hell yes.”

“Hey, Sawyer,” Fray yelled from the other side of the bonfire. “Show us your new skin.”

Sawyer held out his hand, and a light blue tentacle flopped down, which made Fray bust up laughing.

“Leave him alone, Fray,” Ciaran warned. “He’s new at this.”

Sawyer concentrated on his tentacle, which seemed to have a mind of its own. He stuck his tongue out, concentrating so hard, but then he managed to make his tentacle look like a hand sticking its middle finger up.

Fray laughed and laughed. “Love the ice-blue colour, I must say,” he said. “Matches your eyes. Not as nice as mine, though. You’re, like, the second-best blue one of us.”

“Hey, Fray,” Ciaran said.

“Shut the fuck up,” half of them chorused.

Fray just laughed as he came over and hugged Sawyer again. “Just kidding, Sawyer. You’re one of us now. I’m so excited for you. I can’t wait to teach you stuff. Like how not to ink yourself when you first see a shark.”

“Fray, it’s hard enough to deal with the changes in my body right now without thinking about sharks,” Sawyer said. He looked down at his feet, and sure enough, one foot was a blue tentacle.

Fray laughed again.

“I’m telling ya, Fray, you don’t wanna piss him off,” Ciaran said.

“Why? What’s he gonna do? Clap like a seal?”

“Show him, babe,” Ciaran said.

Sawyer winced. “I don’t know if I can do it in this form.”

“Picture it in your mind, like we did in the water,” Ciaran said gently.

Sawyer closed his eyes in concentration, and Tobin made a weird sound as he pulled Fray back, his eyes wide.

“What is it?” Fray asked him, concerned now. “What can you see?”

Then Sawyer released a puff of air, his torso shimmering, his arms now long tentacles, but his skin.... His skin was pale blue and covered in dark blue rings.

The cephamorphs gasped collectively, eyes all comically wide.

“No fucking way,” Fray cried. “A blue-ringed octopus! Are you fucking kidding me?”

Sawyer laughed. “Come give me a hug, Fray.”

He put his hands up. “No thanks. I’m good.”

Sawyer shook his arms back to human, his skin fading to his human-pink. He grinned at Ciaran. “I did it!”

Ciaran threw his arms around him. “You sure did, baby.”

Hadeom looked down at Sawyer’s legs. One foot was still a tentacle. He looked at Cern. “He might need another day or two.”

Cern nodded. “Yep. Maybe three.”

Fyn laughed, pressing his lips to Hadeom’s temple. “Are we doing this?” he asked. “Living here, in Tenebrae, together?”