Page 8 of Dry as a Fish
I let out a sigh, feeling the wave of exhaustion that came with feeding Kili energy, and sank down to get my hair wet. There was a collection of bottles on one side of the hot pool, and I began opening them, sniffing them. I found one that smelled good and lathered between my fingers and got to work cleaning the sand and smell of the lake out of my hair. When I was done washing, I squeezed out my hair, dried off with the towel, and went to look in Delphion's sister's drawer. In it, I found a hairbrush which I made use of and a bunch of different brightly colored sarongs.
I lifted one up, admiring the beautiful flower pattern.
"My parents would hate this," I murmured as I tied it up around the back of my neck. I used a different sarong as a belt to secure it at my waist. I doubted there would be any wind blowing through to blast the fabric open, but it still made me feel more comfortable to have a belt. If I had to wear something to go back to my parents, this would only be slightly better than that dress. They would want to see me in long sleeves.
I couldn't find a hair dryer, so I let my wet hair just drip down my back as I walked out of the room.
When I entered the living room, Delphion wasn't there, but I could smell a rich umami scent and could hear the sizzle of something cooking from a doorway. I wandered over to it andlooked through. Delphion was in a kitchen, standing in front of a stove that was carved into the wood, with a vent chimney leading up into the ceiling above it. I couldn't see any sunlight from the vent. There weren't any flames coming from the stove either, but the spot where Delphon had the pan was glowing.
He smiled as he looked up from the pan at me.
"Just a few more minutes," he said. Then he nodded to a doorway just past him. "I have some drinks poured in the dining room if you want to head in there."
I walked through it. The dining room was exactly what I expected, just large enough for the round coral colored table in the center of it. The chairs around it were made out of the same smooth pearlescent material as the table, and though the table was large enough to fit quite a bit more, there were only four chairs. Two of the chairs were closer together and had place settings in front of them, with forks and knives. There were two wine glasses set out in front of the chairs that already had a soft pink liquid in them. There was a wine-shaped bottle that was open on the table in front of them. I picked up one of the glasses, and bubbles drifted upwards through the liquid.
I took a small sip.
It was a bubbly rose wine.
"I hope you like it. I can get you something else if you don't," Delphion said from behind me. I turned to see him standing there with two plates. He stepped past me and set them down at the place settings. Then he grabbed the back of one of the chairs and pulled it out.
I sat down, and he pushed the chair back in for me.
I watched him as he sat down next to me, close enough to reach out and put a hand on my leg, but far enough that I wouldn't bump into him if I didn't want to.
"You're staring at me like I'm a tiger shark and you need tokeep an eye on me in case I'm about to bite you," he said with a soft laugh.
I took another sip of the wine.
"You run into a lot of tiger sharks in an underground river?" I asked.
"No," he shook his head. "But I'm fond of the mundane ocean and I've run into a few there."
"So you can get to the mundane," I said softly, my heart unclenching just a tiny bit.
"I won't ever lie to you," Delphion replied as he leaned into me, his eyes intent. "I can and will take you back home to the mundane, if that is what you want."
"Why wouldn't I want that?" I asked. I knew I was speaking in a hostile and defensive way. My momma always said I needed to be soft and sweet to men. So far, soft and sweet meant that I had to deal with having my tits grabbed or being dragged through the water while a sexy siren kisses the breath into me.
"Some of the mundanes we've rescued don't want to go back to the mundane realm," he said.
"You drowned Chad," I said. "It isn't rescuing if you only save the women."
"That guy was on the list," Delphion said, running a hand through his hair.
"What is the list?" I asked.
Delphion let out a large exhale. "There is a list of Proper Students who are more of a danger to the mundanes than others. If we have an opportunity, we drown those ones."
"More of a danger?" I asked. "Who made the list?"
"They did," Delphion said. "The ones on the list made the list. They treat hurting mundanes as a competition, and theymade a list to keep score of who was winning, and one of the mundane women we rescued had the list and gave it to us."
"Oh," I said.
Delphion and I both sat there silently for a moment in the intense awkwardness of the moment. I wanted to ask more questions, like how exactly they hurt the women and what they were keeping score of, but at the same time, I didn't want to know the answers.
"I made salmon," Delphion broke the silence.
