Page 49 of Hot Summer's Prey

I hold in my laugh as he hands the necklace over. As soon as he has, I pull his arm towards me and kiss the spot where I hit him.

“There, you big baby.”

“We should always kiss it better after we hurt each other,” he says.

God, he’s cute. “Yes, agreed.”

He spins me and pulls me to his front before bending into my ear.

“I will kiss your ass better after all the times I slapped it earlier, but for the sake of your friend, I will wait.”

“How did you find this?” Dawn asks, staring at it in fascination, completely oblivious to our flirting. Or at least pretending to be. It’s hard to tell with her, sometimes.

“Over there,” Pacari motions to the grass with his chin, not letting me go.

The feel of him at my back is very distracting. This was supposed to be a short pitstop, but I’ve made the mistake of starting up the mystery machine.

“Wait, but you had something else for me, too, right? You only just found this?”

“Ah yes, can you watch Slugger?” I ask, waving his paw at her.

Putting on a little baby dog voice, I add, “Take me away from these crazy people, look at me, I look like a drowned rat!”

Dawn sighs, brushing a stray strand of hair back behind her ear.

“Well, you are cute and you do look like you’ve been under attack. I hope you’re a mystery-loving dog, because I have plans.”

Slugger barks—in agreement? All three of us laugh.

“Okay, the dog is settled, can we go see your fancy garden now?” I beg.

“That’s all the mysteries?” Dawn asks, almost saddened.

I throw my head up to the heavens and close my eyes. One track mind, this lady.

“Please let me tell you about it later, but there’s apparently smuggler caves a little bit down the beach. Take good care of Slugger, love you! See you later!” I say quickly.

Before she can fully process, I grab Pacari and run around the side of the house to the trail to the beach.

“Wait! A smuggler cave? Teresa! TERESA!”

22

PART OF HIS WORLD

PACARI

The deeper we get, the more worried I get. Teresa keeps insisting she’s fine.

While I knew she’d have no problem breathing, that’s not the only difficulty humans face in the depths. Past the depth of a shark, they already face risks from pressure.

But Teresa triggered a hardening of the magic stored within me. With her wish, she bonded us. In truth, there are not many yacunayi left. I spent much of my youth alone, until I ran into an elder who informed me much of what I know now. He said several hundred years ago, those of our people who did not die by starvation went into hiding. There was a time when it was a danger to seek out the magic necessary to our survival. He told me many things.

But he did not tell me it was possible for our people to produce such hardened pearls should our pleasure be overfilled. He did not tell me what to expect of the magic thence created.

“You really don’t feel anything? I will be despondent should you implode,” I grumble, holding her tight as I swim us further downwards.

“The biggest problem I’m having is that it takes so long to get down there. You’re getting all morose and worried. But I feel fine. I’ve hurt my ears in the deep end of a pool before and I haven’t felt anything like that this whole time. And we’re like a scary amount of deep into the ocean now.”

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