Page 48 of The Withering Dawn
“Let me see you,” I said calmly, trying to coax her away from the opposite side of the pool.
She skirted along the bank for a bit, her head tilting subtly to the side like she was a curious animal wondering whether to take food from my hand or not. But soon, she began to drift toward me, slipping beneath the water to swim to my side of the pool. I watched her scales shimmer in the light as she neared, her long tail acting like an entirely separate entity. Then, mere inches from me, she emerged silently fromthe water and opened her beautiful, haunting eyes up at me. She slid her hands onto the bank by my boot displaying her elongated, red-tinted nails, the color of which faded up the length of her fingers.
She stared, her body doing everything it could to cover up the fact that she wanted to sink back into the water and out from under my scrutinizing gaze.
I could not read her thoughts like she seemed to be able to read mine, but I could see that she was preparing for me to be appalled by her changed form. But I was anything but appalled by what I was looking at. I was entranced, which perhaps should have worried me, but I didn’t care. My heart sighed at the enchanting sight of her.
“Muñequita, you…” I whispered, slowly extending my hand toward her face. “Are stunning.”
She looked nervous at first until my fingers grazed her cheek and then she began to lean into my touch like it was all she’d ever wanted. I could still see her fangs and admitted to myself that she could so easily bite off a finger. I knew she would not and that made her all the more gorgeous. She was so lethal under her soft expressions and her gentle demeanor. So capable of violence and yet so hesitant to inflict it.
“I lost track of time,” she said, her voice a strange mix of what I was used to and something faint and high pitched. Something I was sure could be heard much clearer underwater like the shrill whistle of a whale or dolphin.
“Have you been here all day?”
She nodded, an air of shame in her eyes. “I… I have not felt this form in a very long time. I thought, in this small pool, that I might find the courage to reacquaint myself with it.”
“And? Are you reacquainted?”
She nodded again, biting her lower lip as if there was more.
“Then, come out,” I said. “The sun will be setting soon. I want to take you back to the ship.”
Her eyes wandered again.
“Nazario,” she muttered. “I am not fond of changing. Less fond now that I have refreshed my memory of it.”
“Yes. You said it was painful.”
“I will be along. I just need some time.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “How long have you been here because you did not want to change back?”
She didn’t reply, but that in itself was an answer. Taking a deep breath, I stood from the bank and slid my coat off my shoulders, dropping it carelessly onto the ground.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
I kicked my boots off and then unbuckled the leather belts around my waist and tossed my bandelier to the ground with everything else. When I started to walk into the water, she drifted away, giving me room to do so. I got in until the water was just below my chest and stopped, realizing what a vulnerable position I would be in if Aeris was any other violent mistress of the sea. I held out my hand, coaxing her toward me, and like she’d become that suspicious animal again, she hesitated.
“You fear changing,” I pointed out. “But what you fear does not have to be faced alone. Not when you are part of my crew.”
“I am part of your crew?”
“Mmm,” I smirked.
She eyed my hand and then finally, reached out to take it. I pulled her closer, wrapping my other arm around her waist. The slick, finely textured scales where her fins turned to flesh were unfamiliar under my fingers. I could feel her powerful length coiling like a snake around my legs as if to steady herself. Curious, I moved my hand lower, tracing the stiff fins along her hips and then gradually moved them up, finding two grooves following the angle of her ribs. She shivered when I touched them and as she sucked in a breath, the grooves pulsed.
“I am sensitive there,” she whispered.
“Your gills,” I said.
She nodded, her posture still telling me that she was expecting me to wrinkle my nose with disgust. And why wouldn’t she expect that?She’d never been looked at as anything but a foul creature and she’d been treated as such.
“Do you just will the change?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Go on then.”
