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Imber was breathing hard by the time he made it to the kelp grove, but all that breath left his lungs when he saw her sub. It wasn’t settled on the sand as sturdily as normal, either. Little electric waves of nerves burst through his body, lighting up his fins bright green as he noticed that it was almost on its side. Like she’d landed in a hurry.
He frowned, his gaze sweeping to see where she was and if she had been followed. Why else would she have landed like something was wrong? Someone must have tracked her here. Perhaps she was in trouble.
The spines along his back rose, and he could feel his body starting to loosen. Already he could make the slick oil that would cover his skin, giving him even more speed in the water should he need it. Though he was not as large as his sister, he was still a fighter. All of his people were fighters. He could kill anyone who had tracked her to this place, and he would keep her safe.
But her tube of air was out of the shell that she traveled in, so surely she was around here somewhere.
It took a few moments of tracking for him to pick up the air tube and follow her as long as it could go. And there she was. Notsmelling of blood or anything else dangerous. She sat on the very edge of the ledge that disappeared into blackness, staring down into the darkness like she was thinking about swimming down and exploring it.
Unlike the first time he’d found her here, he wasn’t so concerned about startling her. Instead, he curved wide around the ledge, diving into the darkness before she could see him.
Then he let all the lights on his body flicker to life. Bright green and emerald, he floated out of the darkness and drifted toward her. He could see her so clearly. The way her eyes widened in surprise and the delighted smile that spread across her face.
He’d done that. Just by showing up in front of her.
“Imber,” she said, his name a breathy whisper as he approached her.
He’d do anything to hear her say his name a hundred times over. And maybe that was moving too fast. Maybe he was immature because he was so obsessed with her.
A part of him feared that all of his interest was wrapped up in her merely because he’d never seen anything like her before in his life. Every day, he worried that the newness of her would wear off. That he would wake and be less interested than he was the day before.
Maybe that day would come. Or maybe his twin hearts in his chest knew something that he did not.
He reached for her, his hands brushing aside the billowing layers of her skirt and drawing her against his chest. She wrapped herself around him so easily, twining her twin tails around his waist and tucking her face into the hollow of his neck. He breathed her into his gills, letting her scent ease the nerves that had plagued him since he’d had to say goodbye the last time.
Running his hands up and down her body, he soothed his worries by feeling that she was all in one piece. She wasn’t injured, and that was good. He could hold on to that.
But she drew back all too soon. Babbling in that language that he couldn’t quite make out. She spoke in such short, clipped words. Like the dull echo of stones clicking against each other, buried beneath the weight of the sea.
Then she thrust something into his hands. A small box made out of the same hard shell as her ship. Frowning, he lifted it up, trying to see what it could be.
“I have a gift for you as well.” He hoped she liked the necklace he had woven. He hoped it wasn’t too big, in fear she might lose it on her ride home.
She was backing away, though. Before he could reach into his bag. Before he could take anything out, she was already moving away from him. Shaking her head as though she didn’t want to listen to him speak.
He held out his hand, frowning, hoping she would reach forward and slip her fingers into his. “Alys.”
Something sparkled in her eyes, and it made him sad to see the expression before she spun and used the rocks below to yank herself away from him.
The box in his hand hummed. “Gift. Speak.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever be able to learn each other’s language,” he muttered before realizingthe box had talked.
Horrified, he dropped it.
As it careened down toward the darkness, he had two lightning quick thoughts. First, she’d given him some kind of abomination that could speak. And second, that it was the only gift she’d ever given him and he would be an idiot if he lost it.
Darting after the box, he got lucky when it hit a rocky outcropping before it would have plummeted far beyond hisreach. Catching it in his hands, he leaned against the stone wall for a few moments, breathing hard and squeezing his eyes shut.
“I have you,” he said, his voice ragged. “I have you.”
“Gift. Special. Gift. Language.”
He had no idea what it was trying to say.
It was a special gift because she had given it to him, yes. Perhaps she thought they could speak through it, but it clearly knew very little of his language. Lifting it up a little higher, he tried to peer into the faint blue light that emanated from a thin line around the top. “You do not know as much of my language as you think, little friend.”
“Language. Learn.”
