by Dima Zales
“Of course, I trust you,” he said softly. He was enamored of her smile. She placed her arm under his shoulder to support him as she guided him through his own house. She took him to the room where the indoor swimming pool was situated. She did not turn on the light, because the room was just barely lit by the moon and starlight.
“The first step in healing is undressing,” she told him solemnly, holding out her hand. “Your garments, please.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Aazuria,” he answered. “I probably can’t swim right now, my leg is really…”
“You said you trusted me,” she argued. He nodded and obediently pulled off his shirt and placed it in her outstretched hand. She stared at his body shamelessly, taking in the contours of his muscles. Her lips curled as she observed his massive chest and broad shoulders. While clothed, his ultra-nice manner made him seem harmless, but seeing the physical manifestation of his strength made her swallow back a lump in her throat. In the excessive darkness of the Arctic afternoon, he seemed rather intimidating.
He followed this by undoing the buttons of his pants, and allowing them to fall before stepping out of them.
“I did not realize it was Tuesday,” she said with a mischievous smile.
He looked down, and his cheeks flushed as he realized that the day of the week was printed on his boxers. He cleared his throat in embarrassment. “So what is this miracle cure you have for me?” he asked with a bashful chuckle.
Aazuria placed his clothes aside, and shrugged out of her dress as well so that she was also in her undergarments.
“Come with me,” she said with a smile before diving perfectly into the deep end of the pool. He admired the graceful curve of her back and the way she hardly made any splash. He could immediately tell that she was experienced with being around and within water. Trevain limped to the edge of the pool and slowly crouched down to a seated position. He dipped his legs in the water first, up to his calves.
Aazuria’s emerged from the surface with her hair soaked and matted against her head. She picked up a tendril of her hair and looked at it, and was pleased to see that it was still dark. Not that she was really visible at all in this scarce lighting. She looked back to her patient. “This would probably be better if it were salt water, but nonetheless…”
“Do you think that simply having contact with water will make my legs stop hurting?” he asked skeptically.
“No. You need to come in with me,” she said, beckoning him with her hand. “Fully immerse your body!”
He smiled at her enthusiasm and complied. Once he was submerged, he realized that it had been a very long time since he had actually used his swimming pool. It had been one of those things he had been very excited about getting before it had actually been installed. Once it had been neatly added to the house, he had mostly been too busy to enjoy it, or too preoccupied. Trevain gazed at Aazuria’s dark cloudy form through the water, and lifted his head above the surface to see her more clearly.
“Race me,” she challenged with a laugh, beginning to swim to the far side of the pool. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and he could do nothing except forget his sore leg and follow her. They experimented with swimming using different types of strokes, and Aazuria was surprised to see that Trevain almost always matched her speed.
“You are a very strong swimmer,” she remarked when they stopped for a break.
“Well, I am a seaman,” he explained.
“Yes. Yes, you are…” she answered, sending him a cryptic look.
“I made it to the state finals in high school,” he said with nostalgia in his tone. “I couldn’t finish competing because I had to work.”
“You would have won,” she said. “The state finals and more. The Olympics even. You’re a natural!”
“Nonsense. If I’m so great how are you beating me every time?”
“I am one of the fastest swimmers in the world,” Aazuria said matter-of-factly. “Yet I think that if you spent more time in the water you would be far better than I am. Can you not tell? It is rooted deep in your bones; the water calls out to you until it causes you physical pain unless you come to it.”
“You’re just trying to make an old man feel better about his ailing body,” Trevain said humbly—but the truth was he did feel a bit of an ego boost from her words. He had always prided himself on his skill as a swimmer. He realized suddenly that the pain in his leg had eased almost completely with the swimming, and he marveled at this curiosity.
“Good grief, Trevain. If you call yourself old one more time, I will make a valiant attempt at drowning myself,” she declared.
He laughed. “Unfortunately, Zuri, there’s no getting around that fact. I’m way past my heyday.”
Aazuria pressed the back of her palm to her forehead and mimicked a fainting damsel in distress. “Alas,” she said dramatically, “my feeble heart.”
She allowed herself to sink to the bottom of the deep end of the pool.
He smiled at her little display. “I shouldn’t have shown you those old movies with all of those vulnerable and needy women!” he joked, knowing that she could not hear him underwater. He waited for a moment, and was surprised when she did not reemerge for quite some time.
“Aazuria?” he asked. He imagined that she must be trying to impress him with how long she could hold her breath. He had often played that game as a child. After some time, he began to glance at the clock in worry. She was really good at this game. He dipped his own head below the surface, and began to dive in search of her. The waters were dark, but he could make out her shape in the corner of the pool. She was in a seated position, and she was looking up at him patiently.
He swam down to her, positioning himself directly before her. He had always been quite skilled at holding his breath as well. She smiled at him under the water, and he could barely make out the curve of her lips in the darkness. His eyes roamed over her body, clad only in her green bra and panties. He returned his eyes to her face, battling the sensations that her state of undress aroused in him.
The two hovered in silence, looking at each other.
Trevain became very conscious of the fact that they were all alone, in a dark corner of the bottom of his swimming pool. He remembered the way that she had kissed him before she left, before her family. She had done so proudly. He realized that he no longer wished to restrain himself; he no longer wished to try so hard to be a gentleman. Here, immersed in the water so close to her, his body hummed with vitality and spirit. He felt just as young as ever.
Aazuria had seen the power in him which he had long forgotten, and she had forced him to see it too. He did not know how he could possibly thank her. All he knew was that he wanted to give every last drop of himself to her. He wanted to love her with every facet of his being.
He reached forward and circled his hands around her small waist, pulling her body against his. He pressed his mouth against hers hungrily. Her small hands immediately wrapped around his neck, and she deepened the kiss without reservation. She found herself wrapping her legs around him to try and get closer to him. The pleasure she felt from this underwater embrace ignited flames of craving within her which she had never felt.
To be a free human being; she wanted to cry.
The flames mounted to a firestorm. She felt his lips trailing down her neck and chest. She had not even realized that Trevain had ripped her bra from her body until his lips found her breast in the dark water and pulled her nipple between them. She felt his teeth graze her skin with his gentle sucking, as quivers of pleasure pulsed through her body.
His hands were everywhere on her at once, and she could not concentrate. She was utterly swept away and lost in his ardor. When his hand explored between her thighs, she gasped at the sensation, taking in a deep breath of water. Trevain felt her chest expand against his body. He looked at her in confusion, not sure if she had really taken a breath or if he was just imagining it. He realized that they had both been holding their breath for f
ar too long, and that he should take her to the surface for her comfort. He wrapped his arms around her and swam to the surface. She exhaled the water from her lungs as they ascended.
When they broke forth into the air, he took a breath. She did as well, mainly to maintain the appearance of needing one. She laughed, clinging to him, and immediately moved to reconnect their mouths in another kiss. He responded, before abruptly pulling away.
He took a few deep breaths and gathered his composure. “Aazuria—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to jump your bones as soon as you returned. I am being way too aggressive with you. I just couldn’t restrain myself.” He wiped the water out of his eyes. “We need to talk.”
His words returned her to reality. She watched him breathing deeply of the air and wondered with horror whether he really could breathe underwater. She pressed a hand against her chest, feeling her racing heartbeat. She had gotten carried away. Testing something like this by trial and error was not exactly safe.
There was no evidence that he did have the ability, other than his legs being perfectly designed for swimming. It was not certain that he shared Callder’s trait. In fact, if Callder had been unknowingly fathered by a different person than Trevain, there could be no chance at all of him having the trait. Aazuria closed her eyes in anger at herself for jumping to conclusions. Trevain’s limp, and the structure of his legs, could have nothing to do with sea-dweller ancestry. She had heard the stories; throughout history, hundreds of human men had been accidentally or intentionally killed trying to be with their undersea lovers in this fashion.
She had been a breath away from becoming one of those reckless seductive sirens who killed sailors. “I am truly sorry,” she whispered. “I meant you no harm. I did not mean to do this but I missed you so dreadfully.”
“You haven’t harmed me,” he said with a laugh. He kissed her again. Although their heads were above water, he traced his hand over the curve of her waist beneath the surface. She seemed to be able to tread water effortlessly, without much movement. He could not seem to stop touching her body, and he willed himself to remove his hands. “Listen; I can’t deal with being away from you anymore, Aazuria. These past few weeks I’ve gotten so attached to you that I felt lost when you were gone. I need to be close to you from now on, always.”
She ran her fingers through his wet hair happily. “I feel the same.”
“But I need to tell you something. I want you to know that I know, and I don’t want you to feel you have to hide things from me anymore.”
She looked at him in puzzlement. “What are you speaking of?”
“I spoke with Elandria when you were gone, and she told me some things about your past…”
Aazuria smiled. “You must have really improved in your sign language without me here to translate!”
“No, Aazuria. She told me.”
Aazuria felt dread mushrooming in her chest. She held her breath, knowing intuitively that something bad was about to happen. “She spoke to you… with her voice,” Aazuria said softly, knowing that it had to have been something extremely serious. She could not remember the last time she had heard her sister speak. “Good Sedna. I’m afraid to know what she said.”
“She told me your big secret.”
She swallowed. “What big secret?”
“How many do you have?” he asked gently. “She told me the biggest one.”
“So she told you… that I am about to be made queen of a small sovereign kingdom and that we live in a mostly underwater ice palace carved into a glacier?”
He threw his head back and laughed as he often did when she spoke the truth. When his laughter died down, he reached out and hugged her around the waist, pulling her against him. “I’m trying to be serious here. I just want to clear the air between us.”
So, I suppose that was not the secret, Aazuria mused to herself. “Really, Trevain. I am at a complete loss. I do not know what she could have told you.”
“She told me about your father.”
He felt Aazuria’s body instantly stiffen under his hands. “She told you…” Aazuria wanted to ask specifically what Elandria had told him, but she saw the answer written on his face. Her stomach sank. She drew in a sharp breath, placing a hand over her mouth. Her hand muffled an involuntary sob. She fiercely ripped herself away from him, and swam to the edge of the pool.
“Zuri! Don’t go…”
“What you must think of me!” she whispered as she climbed out of the pool hurriedly. She realized that her bra was still in the pool, and she covered herself with her arm as she fumbled in the darkness for her dress.
“Wait, Aazuria—we should talk about this!”
She had already run from the room.
22
Aazuria considered leaving the house.
Her hand was on the doorknob, and she had to decide quickly. She could run out of the house, leap into the sea, and swim home to Adlivun. She would not have to encounter Trevain ever again and hear how negatively he thought of her. She would not have to face Elandria again, at least not immediately.
She had a mental picture of lashing out at the poor girl in anger, and she did not want this to happen. She loved Elandria, even if she had turned Trevain against her. Her fingers tightened around the cold metal doorknob. Why would she have done it? Was Elandria jealous? Did she want Trevain for herself? Had she been hoping to sully Aazuria’s character?
She knew this was not the case. Her sister was fiercely devoted and would never intentionally harm her. So what was the reason? She knew that she was far too upset to simply ask. The vicious way her voice would leave her body would scare the stuffing out of her sister. She turned the doorknob and pulled the door open. She had no other choice but to leave.
Trevain was suddenly behind her and his hand was on hers, closing the door which she had just opened. She immediately began sobbing again at the feeling of his skin against her hand. How could he bear to touch her, now that he knew?
“Aazuria, please don’t leave me again,” he said softly into her ear, slipping his arm around her stomach. “I need you to talk to me.”
She felt all the energy drain from her body as she leaned against him. She knew then that she did not have the strength to make the swim back to Adlivun tonight, and her hand fell away from the doorknob helplessly.
“I shouldn’t have brought it up right away,” he said, kissing her temple, her ear, and her neck. “I just… I’m an idiot sometimes. I want you to know that I don’t think any less of you…”
She twisted out of his grasp and moved away from him. She could not believe his words! It was not true. An altruistic, compassionate person like Trevain could never understand murder. “I am… exhausted from my trip,” she said, struggling to speak calmly and evenly through her tears. “I need to rest.”
“Aazuria—”
She bolted up the stairs, clutching the railing tightly as her weakened legs threatened to buckle under her. Congenital bone disorder, indeed! She ran directly to her room. Crawling into her bed, she buried herself beneath the covers as she quietly sobbed. She knew that he would never want her now. She deserved it. This was the price she paid for being herself. She felt betrayed by her sister for the first time in her life.
Why would Elandria tell him such a thing? It did not make sense.
She shut her eyes tightly to fight back her tears. She was not crying out of remorse for what she had done, or sadness for the loss of her father. No, she had come to terms with that and even wished she had been capable of doing it sooner. She knew that long-term repercussions of her father’s cruelty would haunt her people for many years to come. She should have seen this and acted sooner, but her judgment had been clouded by filial love and loyalty.
Droplets of water slid from her wet hair down into her mouth. She tasted the chlorine from the pool. It tasted so unlike the comforting ocean saltwater, or even the fresh glacial drinking water which filled her massive bedchamber at home. She missed the taste of saltwater.
>
Chlorine just tasted like defeat.
She lay there in moist despair until she felt two strong arms encircle her. She was too weak to protest or to pull away. It was then she discovered how comforting a human touch could be. It was altogether different from when her sisters hugged her—it was more than just affectionate. His warm embrace spoke volumes of reassurance which her body instinctively understood. It was a secret sign language exchanged between souls.
“I asked Elandria for permission to ask you to marry me,” Trevain explained, holding her close. “That’s why she told me. She wanted me to truly know the woman I was hoping to join my life with; providing she’d have me of course.”
Her body had known his intentions before her mind could register his words. She looked over her shoulder to see the honesty and love on his face. “Trevain,” she whispered in astonishment.
“If you want to know the truth, Zuri, it has only made me more in awe of you. To go through what you have experienced must have taken incredible strength.”
She examined each wrinkle and pore for the hint of a lie, but his expression was pure. She saw only truth there. She could not believe that he was so accepting and sympathetic. “You are amazing,” she said softly, out loud this time.
He smiled. “I was planning to find some fancy, impressive way to ask you… but since you already know I’m going to, it kind of spoils the surprise. I guess I should just do it now.” He wrapped his arms around her even more tightly and kissed her cheek. “Aazuria, please say you’ll be my wife.”
His words created several tiny explosions of emotion within her. She was inundated with euphoria and knew without a doubt that she wanted to accept his offer. Then, she forced herself to ignore the feelings and think. Her thoughts raced as she tried to imagine the possibility. She knew that she would have to return to Adlivun, and she was uncertain whether he could breathe underwater. Even if he could, he would think it was crazy. He would never even consider coming to her home; he laughed at the mention of its existence like it was some great joke!