gesture and traced the red, stinging cuts. “I thought you were just watching.”
“The fish did not receive the same instructions.”
“Gosh.” Her soul light dipped. “What happened?”
He recounted his experience.
Itime had led the group over the shallow reef. The Luscan patrol had moved out to sea. They were just visible from the coral lattice, and so the younger trainees had raced and frolicked with the reef creatures to cause a distraction. Konomelu, Nuno, and Ciran had slipped away, slinking down a secret chute to an exit deep beneath the island.
In the shadows had lurked a deadly striped fish with razor teeth.
Ciran had paused when he’d seen it, and Konomelu had given a slight sign, but Nuno had been looking the other direction and passed right by.
The fish had suddenly darted out, snapping at Nuno’s fins.
Ciran had jetted forward and attacked. The fish had swerved to bite him, and coral knife had broken off in its jaws. It had him pinned to a rock. He’d worked his fist into the gills to trap it. Nuno had returned and buried his knife in its brain.
“I got it!” Nuno had vibrated and swooped around the fish’s corpse. “I killed it myself! See, Dad? I am ready to join you on the open ocean!”
Konomelu had smiled with tight lips, vibrating subdued congratulations to his son, while he’d yanked the fish off Ciran’s fist.
This was a task for a much younger trainee, and as Konomelu had vibrated to Ciran on the return trip while Nuno surfaced with the kill, “They rarely hide so close. They prefer the other side of the island where we have no chutes to reach them. The previous lieutenant guarding us, Lieutenant Figuara, patrolled different areas on a set schedule. He let our sons train. But Orike does nothing so generous.”
He’d called the other trainees in, and they’d paddled past Ciran to the shore. Out beyond the tangle of dead coral separating the sheltered cove from the open ocean, Lieutenant Orike had watched. Even from the vast distance, it had seemed as though his eyes had narrowed.
Ciran finished his story for Dannika. “I think that lieutenant is reaching the end of his good judgment. I would not want to face him with only a coral blade.”
She squeezed his hand. Her soul light remained dimmed. “Meg said she hated the hunting, but I thought you’d be safe.”
“This is an ordinary wound.”
“If these were on your throat, you could have been killed.”
“It is a risk the mer take when we hunt. But dying is rare, and mer heal quickly.” He scratched the skin around the deep cuts. “These will scab over soon.”
Her breathing hitched, and her soul dipped even darker. “I was so dumb.”
Tears pooled in her eyes.
“Dannika.” He pulled her into his embrace. “Do not injure yourself by dwelling on pasts that have not come true.”
“No, I know.” She sniffled and hugged him, squeezing his torso and palpitating his shoulder blades, spine, and lower back as though to convince herself he was whole. “I had a bit of a cry in the shower and I thought it was moving the emotions through me, but it also brings them closer to the surface.”
“You cried in the shower?”
“Yeah. It was nothing. Just the stress of today.”
He stroked her fluffy black hair. Her soft breasts and hips rubbed against his hard planes, and her soul brightened in his embrace. As it should. He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “Meg did not comfort you?”
“I didn’t want to bother her. We just met, and she’s too lovely a woman to burden with my breakdown.”
“I should not have left you.”
“You didn’t know.” Dannika nuzzled his cheek. “What was that you were saying? Don’t hurt yourself by dwelling on could-haves or should-haves?”
“Yes.” He tucked a lock of windblown hair behind her ear. “Then, please remember you can come to me. I will hold you while you release your stresses. You no longer have to cry alone.”
Her soul shone. Her chin wrinkled, and she rubbed it with one hand while sniffling again. “It was a little bit about Eliot though.”
“I have no competition with the dead.”
“That’s generous of you.”
“He was an honored male. Your chosen one. Because he was worthy for you, he is also worthy for me. And any time you wish to revisit your sadness at his absence, I will hold and comfort you.”
She squeezed her eyes tight and buried her face in his shoulder. “Ah, you will really make me cry again.”
He held her, steady as