Chapter 49 Not An Ideal Situation

879words2026-01-19 07:14

Songs of marine life penetrated the air inside the cave. A sensation of homeliness swelled within me, drawing me in. I couldn't explain where the feeling came from, but then I remembered Kayn had said that we felt each other now.

There was a longing in his eyes as he stared through the magical barrier into the deep-sea forest.

"You want to be down here?"

"More than anything," he sighed, glancing my way. "Well, almost anything."

"Almost?" My brows shot up.

He shifted. "It's getting late."

"But I have so many questions."

"No doubt you do," he said. "I'll tell you anything you want to know, but we need to get out of here before daylight comes. We can't afford to get seen."

"You can't leave me hanging like this."

"I said I'll tell you everything," he stared up at me. "But not right now."

I breathed out a sigh. "Okay. So, how exactly do we do this? We're like at the bottom of the ocean, right?"

"We are." He signaled me to turn around, "You're not going to like this."

It twisted to face the other direction. "Please don't tell me I'd have to hold my breath until we reach the surface. There's no way I'd be able to do that."

"You're right. There is no way," he agreed. "You'd be out of air even before halfway up."

"Oookay, so how then?" I asked. "Magic?"

"Uh…" he chuckled. "I'm your air supply."

"I don't follow."

I could feel the heat of his body form against my back, and my cheeks flushed.

"You're going to breathe through me," he explained. "Well, through my mouth."

"There is absolutely no freaking—" I made a mistake to spin around, seeing Kayn standing behind me in all his full, naked glory and grinning.

I sputtered something incoherent, turning away. "You can't be serious."

"Or you could stay down here," he said. "I could come back in a day and see if you still feel the same way."

I gritted my teeth. "All that badass magic, and you can't form some sort of bubble thing around my head, like this barrier you got going here?"

"If it was that easy, I would've."

I had a feeling he was holding something from me. "You know I can tell you're lying, from that nifty new connection thing we've got going."

"I've used the last bit I've had on that barrier and healing you. We're going to be sick for the next day or two, as it is, because of it. Using more is going to make it much, much worse."

"Okay," I breathed, crossing my arms. "I don't get it. Why do you need to be naked?"

"That's really bothering you, huh?" I could feel him move closer. "Look, do you know how painful it is if you morph and you're wearing a pair of swim trunks?"

"I can't relate."

"Imagine taking plastic and melting it to your skin. It's kind of like that."

"Oh."

"I've had that happen once, and I swear I will never repeat that mistake. Do you have any idea what it does down there to your b—"

"Oookay, I got it," I flushed. "Can we do this and get it over with?"

"You asked."

"There is such a thing as too much information."

"I was trying to get my point across," he explained.

"Right."

"So, before we do this…" His hand rested on my shoulder. "You need to understand, you can't say anything to anyone. Especially not your mom."

"I know."

"Carly, this is important. You don't know anything about our kind, understand?"

"Got it."

"When we get to shore, you're going to pretend you got washed out of the water somehow and don't remember a thing."

"Think that's going to be convincing enough?" I hesitated.

"It's the best we can work with," he said. "You got pulled under, and you can't remember anything else. You don't even remember the events on the boat."

"Okay."

"You're taking this way too calmly," Kayn squinted his eyes.

"Don't worry, I'll lose my shit when I'm alone and be able to think." Without getting distracted by a naked Kayn. "This is a lot to process at once, but I can promise you I won't say a word to anyone, other than what you told me to say."

"Good." Kayn moved in next to me, taking my hand inside his. "We have to go in together. So, don't flip out when I morph against you. It's going to feel weird."

"It's not the tail I'm worried about."

Kayn chuckled. "Yeah?"

"This is not funny," I scowled. "You know damn well what I mean."

"Of course I do."

I ignored the taunt in his voice. "So, how do we—"

Kayn pulled my body flush against him, planting his mouth over mine. Panic swallowed me as he threw us through the barrier and into the depths of the dark sea.

I cried into his mouth, my arms flailing by my sides before he pulled me back against him.

"Keep still, or you'll drown yourself," he spoke inside my mind.

My body stiff, I lifted my hands to grip onto his forearms, which had turned scaly to touch.

"Time to take a swim," he echoed inside my head.