I tilt my head and observe the two silent Mayima.

“I may need some assistance…” I tentatively…say? That’s not quite right since I don’t speak, but it feels as good a term as any.

There is a pregnant silence and I wonder if they heard me.

“Can’t you just rip the fabric?” Ari asks.

“Don’t you think I tried that before asking?” I huff, a bit of my frustration leaking out. Frustration with this situation, this tiny barely there outfit, and my own weakness.

I don’t have Mayima strength. I barely have regular human strength.

Ari’s fists clench, and he exhales deeply. He spins around, gracefully making his way over to me in a fluid combination of swimming and something closer to walking. His towering form looms over mine and I’m careful to avoid his gaze.

Turning my back to his muscled chest, I pull my hair over one shoulder, trying to brace myself against his touch once again.

He wastes no time in bringing his fingertips to the nape of my neck, his calloused skin contrasting with the silky fabric. Then he cleanly rips the fabric in two, exposing me all the way down.

I can’t help the shiver that overtakes me, one that has nothing to do with the cooler temperature of the waters down here.

Ari freezes. Though he hasn’t moved closer, the heat suddenly emanating from his skin warms me from the inside out. Does he feel it, too? This thrumming between us, this magnetic pull that has me wanting to lean into his touch.

“Well,” Kane drags out the word, startling me from my wandering thoughts. “As much as I’m enjoying being privy to Kala’s thoughts and whatever the hell else is going on here, I think I’ll go find Napo, and warn him to stay far, far away. Kindly alert me when her shields are back up.”

Ari backs away abruptly enough that I question if he was half as caught up in the moment as I was. I slam my mental walls up, as he follows his cousin out of the cave.

Apparently, he also doesn’t want to be accosted by my thoughts.

I slide out of my nightgown. While I get dressed, I practice shielding my mind, bringing the walls up, then down.

It takes all of my bravery to glance down my body when I’m finished. As I suspected, the clothes do more to adorn my body than hide it. The fabric is surprisingly secure, though, easy to tie into place and more supportive than I’m expecting.

At least I won’t be exposing even more of myself, small comfort that is.

I call to my kidnappers that I am more or less dressed, and they reappear at the mouth of the cave, some kind of strange purple seaweed undulating in their wake.

A flush rises in me as Ari’s scrutinizing gaze roams over my body. His massive arms are folded, the sharp lines of his tattoo thrown into contrast by the flickering lights of the sea life around us.

Self-consciously, I tug at the seaweed and netting, wondering if I’ve put everything on correctly.

“No, it’s right,” Ari says. “It looks…fine.”

“Yes,” Kane says with a trace of exasperation. “You look fine. Ari looks fine. I look more than fine. Can we be off now?”

“I—” I hesitate.

Floating here in the cave was one thing, but I haven’t had to move much in the water.

Ari blinks in surprise. “You can’t swim.”

It bothers me more than it should, an echo of my mother’s constant refrain.

She can’t speak.

I am mute on land. I am weak and incapable here.

Defective everywhere I go.

“The court is going to eat her alive,” Kane mutters, running a hand over his face.