Page 44 of The Demons in the Deep: Extended Edition
He’d never felt such a possessive compulsion before. He tried to shake it off as Mai tucked the breathing device between her jaws, clasped it at the back of her head, and rolled from the shallows into the deeper water.
She sank immediately, ineffectually wriggling her tail, clawing at the water with both hands. Rake swept in, placing both hands on her waist just above the belt. She stilled, eyes cinched tight. She was still holding her breath, not trusting the device.
Rake pulled her back to the surface and Mai ripped the breathing device from her lips, drawing lungfuls of air. “I can’t do this,” she gasped. “What if it doesn’t work? What if I inhale water?”
“I’ll suck it back out of you,” Rake said, though he wasn’t sure such a thing was possible. Still, it made Mai laugh, which he considered a victory.
“Toss me my goggles,” he shouted, and Corklan complied.
“Hold onto me while I do this,” Rake said. Mai’s thin fingers gripped his shoulders as he adjusted the goggle strap and settled the lenses over her eyes. She blinked at him, looking like the adorable little owl that Takajo the hawk-master kept in one corner of his aviary, back on Kiken Island.
Rake stroked back a strand of her wet hair. “Try a small breath at first.”
She nodded, and they submerged together. This time Mai opened her eyes, looking at him through the tinted goggles. He nodded encouragingly and said, “You can do this.”
She started, her eyes going wider at the sound of his underwater voice.
“I know, I sound different Below,” he said. “There will be time later to study that effect. First, I need you to breathe for me.”
He watched her thin chest, saw it rise slightly as she inhaled through the device. Relief pooled in her eyes, and she nodded.
“Good. Breathing down here is the first step. Take a few moments to practice.”
He could have waited there forever, lazily sweeping his tail and one arm to keep them both afloat, one hand cupping Mai’s slender waist. She still held onto his shoulder, but after a while she nodded again, signaling she was ready to swim.
She had obviously studied the movements of mermaids. She had a working knowledge of how her arms, tail, and torso needed to synchronize for underwater motion. But knowing and doing were two wildly different things, and she struggled at first.
Rake had never had to think about swimming. It was as natural as the flex of his gills. To help Mai, he had to dissect his own movements and help her learn them.
She had to resurface sometimes, since the breathing device wouldn’t allow for the deep breaths she occasionally needed. Baz and Corklan were swimming too, but they seemed to be getting bored, or perhaps a little miffed that Rake had all Mai’s attention.
“You taught me about books,” he told her under the water. “It is only fair that I should be your teacher in this.”
She patted his shoulder in response and then wriggled away on her own, her torso and tail undulating in near-perfect form. Rake sped after her, gliding ahead, doing spins and flips under the water.
In the oral histories of his people, limited though they were, there was mention of an underwater mating dance that males used to perform. The females of his race had long since dispensed with such practices, preferring to mate quickly and achieve their pleasure as fast as possible. They did not care to be romanced.
Rake wondered what those dances were like, and if the emotions behind them had been anything like what he felt for Mai as they swam together, deep in the lagoon.
He had not yet told her the true reason why he’d come so far across the ocean alone—the news of the mermaid city. Flay and Kestra feared it would distract Mai from the task at hand—winning the contest. Yet a vague guilt gnawed at Rake’s heart. Was it kind to keep the news from her?
Lower they sank, and lower, as Mai pushed her limits, pressing downward. Without a word from her, Rake knew she was being driven by that insatiable curiosity of hers, that itch to wander, to know the edges and limits of things and to push past them. It was the same urge he’d felt when he used to venture past the approved borders of the mermaids’ territory. It was the urge that had led him to the Horror, a monster who ate memories.
The lagoon was far deeper than Rake had expected. Schools of plump fish slid lazily through the murky blue, and a few eels squiggled past as well.
Rake and Mai still had not reached the bottom when a cloud of tiny gleaming motes swirled around them. The minuscule bioluminescent creatures had lived in patches throughout the Realm Below near Kiken Island. Too small to be sustenance, they’d been namedglimmerdustby the mermaids and treated as pests. But Rake had always liked them.
Mai cupped her hand around some of the golden specks. He could barely see her face because of the goggles and breathing mask, but he could imagine how excited she must be.
“Glimmerdust,” he said aloud, his voice rippling through the water. “They’re beautiful.” And then, in a rush of boldness, “Like you.”
Mai forgot to swish her tail, and she began sinking. Rake laughed and pulled her up to his level. Her body drifted against his, bumping lightly, and her sinuous green tail curled around his own. She started to pull back, clearly embarrassed.
“It’s all right,” Rake said. “It happens sometimes. It’s a natural reaction.” Usually a reaction to physical arousal, but he wasn’t about to say that.
Mai stopped struggling, and she let her tail tighten around his, bringing their bodies together. The place where her hips would have been in human form pressed to the same area of him, and he felt as if glimmerdust had infused his lower regions. It was a strange, sparkling sensation, absent of the pain and shame that had always accompanied his arousal in the Queen’s presence. In those dark years, to make himself erect, he’d pictured human women either partly or entirely nude, thanks to the memories the Horror sometimes shared with him. It was the only way he could give the Queens what they wanted—the sperm to create more of their rabid spawn.
Those terrible, shameful memories were still present, but with Mai pressed against him, he could push them aside. This feeling was new and clean. He deserved it, this trickle of pleasure, this vibrant rush of arousal flooding his body.
