Tidal Whispers (11 page)

Chapter 2

Wearing a broad smile, Nixie waded in the shallows under the midday sun, the same as she’d done every day for two full cycles of the moon. Wyatt called the warm season ‘summer’, and they’d enjoyed every moment of it. Only seven more sunrises until Wyatt had to return to school, and their visits would return to darkness.

More of the pink ones had come to the beach in the hot weather, so Nixie had led Wyatt to a deserted inlet farther down the bay. It took longer for him to arrive each day, but his company was always worth the wait.

The sound of quick footsteps beyond the trees met Nixie’s ears. She stopped and tilted her head to listen, holding a hopeful breath. One foot fell harder than the other, and a familiar squeak from his shoe joined it. His blond head with hair sticking every direction appeared in the shadows a moment before he rushed into the sunlight.

“Hi, Nixie!” He bounded to the edge of the water holding a flat, white item in his hand. “I think I know what you are.” His smile beamed brighter than the day itself.

“What is that?”
She crawled along the sand with tentative movements. Could the flat object speak? She couldn’t sense a mind, but maybe it could hide itself.

Wyatt glanced at the floppy thing in his fingers. “I went to the library this morning. The old lady there printed this paper out for me on water sprites.” He came to his knees in the sand as Nixie edged closer.

Although she had no idea what ‘library’ meant, she peered at a black image of a skinny female creature with webbed fingers and toes like hers, though its hair was short and dark.
“Water sprite?”

His finger pointed at the creature’s face. “Yeah, this is from a book of old legends that some guy drew. He must have seen somebody just like you. This one’s eyes are smaller than yours, and yours are shaped more like a cat’s, but the rest looks like you.”

Nixie’s lips parted, and her eyes grew wide. She’d never seen herself before.
“Is that really what I look like?”

Wyatt snorted. “You don’t have any mirrors down there in the ocean?”

Curiosity swirled in her mind. She wondered how Wyatt saw her. An idea flashed to life, and she gasped. “
Look at my face, Wyatt.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Why?”

“Quiet
.” She slipped her hand around his wrist and allowed his thoughts to replace hers. After a few dizzying seconds, her own features came into focus through his eyes. She passed fingertips over her full lips. They held the color of the sea, sparkling as the sun touched them. Her night-black irises peered out from behind long silver lashes.

Nixie released Wyatt with a smile.
“Thank you.”

His chest rose and fell in a hurry. “Whoa. Can all water sprites do that?”

Her amusement disappeared, and a pang of emptiness filled up her belly.
“I’ve never seen another like me.”

“Really?” A large wave rushed in and toppled Wyatt over. He took a sharp inhale, while his arms splashed, wetting and ruining the floppy white image he’d brought with him.

She twittered a laugh at his flailing limbs.

“Never?” He tried to right himself. “I was thinking last night … you probably shouldn’t let anyone else see you. I watched a movie once where the government took a person with special powers to a building and experimented on them.”

“Gov … ern … what is a movie?”

He laughed. “Just don’t let anyone else see you, okay?”

Although she didn’t understand why, she agreed, to make Wyatt happy.
“Okay.”
Nixie scooped up water in her webbed fingers and doused his hair. “
Race you to the drop-off, seaweed head.”

Snickering, Wyatt waded a little farther into the water, his gaze darting to the open sea. “Only if you give me a head start so it’s fair.”

“Deal.”

After stripping off the clothing from his upper body, he dove in head first, legs kicking up a spray that cast an arch of colors through the air. Nixie waited a few breaths before jumping in after him.

The pair spent the afternoon playing in the water. Nixie dove down deep and returned with more sea creatures and items she thought her friend might like to see and could tell her about. A sand dollar, which she learned was somehow related to the starfish, and a sea cucumber, the wormlike objects she’d seen a few times on the seabed. A tiny red squid that could shoot black ink and a sea horse that had what appeared to be leaves sticking out all over it.

Afterwards, they built structures out of sand on the beach, though her clumsy fingers destroyed more than they created. She had to return to the water once in a while when her skin itched.

As the sun dipped below the trees, they rolled around in the shallows to wash the grit away.

“I won’t see you tomorrow.” Wyatt’s lips tugged down at the corners. “We’re going to visit my grandma in Doverton, and we won’t be back until late. I hate it there. It smells like old lady.”

Nixie’s heart plummeted.
“But we only have a few days left before school.”

He put his arm around her shoulders. “Don’t be sad, Nixie. I’ll be back.” He jumped up and bounded along the sand. His hand waved back and forth as he spoke over his shoulder. “I’ll bring my snorkel and mask next time.”

She stared after her friend for a long time, a warm sensation cuddling around her from his embrace. If he promised to come back, she would wait forever.

To pass the time, Nixie spent the next day exploring the ocean floor. She gathered oysters and fish skeletons, and other objects, which she stashed between some rocks to show Wyatt when he came back. Once satisfied with her collection, she couldn’t bear to return to her lonely cavern, so she remained at their cove, leaving only to catch a fish for her supper.

• • •

When Wyatt hadn’t returned by sundown the following day, Nixie convinced herself she’d heard him wrong. Two more suns rose and fell, and still no sign of her friend. On the third day, she sat in the shallows, her belly clenched into a painful knot.
He’s forgotten me. He’s never coming back.
Although her face was well above the water, something wet her cheeks. A swipe with her fingers revealed silver droplets. They reminded her of the ones leaking from Wyatt’s eyes the first time she’d seen him. She thought he’d called them tears.

Footsteps crashed through the trees.

Nixie perked up and listened for the mind she’d missed. The moment his thoughts met hers, she clutched her chest and scrambled onto the beach.

Wyatt appeared from the shadows, panting, his eyes swollen and red.

They stared at one another for a moment before Wyatt blurted out wobbly words. “My step-dad kicked us out. We have to move to Grandma’s.” Little balls of wetness trailed out of the corner of his eyes.

Uncertain what that meant or how to comfort her friend, Nixie reached out for him. He threw his arms around her, strange sounds coming from his throat as he shook. She stood frozen for a moment before pulling him closer.
“I don’t understand. Where have you been?”

Wyatt took a few deep gulps of air and pulled away. “We’ve been moving our stuff, and Mom wouldn’t let me come here.” He scrubbed fists over his eyes and kicked a spray of sand into the air. “I snuck away and ran. I don’t want to go, Nixie. If I go, I’ll never see you again.”

A great sadness squeezed her heart.
“Are you saying we can’t play anymore? That you won’t come anymore?”

“Wyatt!”

He snapped his head toward the high voice. “That’s my sister.” His hand slipped against Nixie’s, and he tugged her into the water, his words shaking. “She’s going to take me back. Hide me, Nixie!”

Her gaze darted around.
“Where?”

Lips parted, he stared at her. “Take me to the Undergarden. You must know where it is. I can live with Dad. We can go together.”

“No, Wyatt. The only way is through death. I want you to stay with me!”

“You’re my best friend, Nixie!” His eyes grew to giant moons. “I don’t want to go! Please don’t make me go with her. Things got better when I met you, and I don’t want to be alone again. You can come down there with me. Please!”

A pink one ran onto the beach, her long red hair tied behind her head. Remembering her promise to Wyatt, to never let anyone see her, Nixie dropped into the water as the pink one’s narrowed eyes scanned the shore.

“Wyatt! Get over here before I kick your head in,” she screeched. “We have to go. Mom’s waiting in the car.”

Nixie remained inches beneath the shifting surface as he crossed his arms. Her thoughts tuned to his.

“I’m not going,” he said.

Footsteps pounded into the waves.

Water surged through Nixie’s mouth and out her gills as she fled to a safer distance. She wanted to help Wyatt, but she didn’t know how to without breaking her promise.

Wyatt let out a scream that sliced through Nixie’s mind. She popped only her eyes above the waterline, heart drumming against her ribs. The pink one yanked Wyatt by the arm toward the trees. He dug his heels into the sand, head twisted to look back. “Nixie! I swear I’ll come back. I promise!”

Unable to bear the grief in his mind, Nixie ran toward them, but once she hit the sand, her gangly legs tripped her, and she fell onto the ground. When she righted herself, they’d disappeared. She tried to follow, but only managed to make it to the tree line before the sun turned her skin brittle.

Forced to return to the water alone, a sharp pain ripped at her chest. She turned her face up to the sky and uttered a shrill cry, the loudest sound she’d ever produced.

Nixie’s legs propelled her toward the beach where she’d first met Wyatt. Maybe the sister would take him that way and she could still save him.

When Nixie resurfaced, she searched the sand and found it littered with strange pink ones of every size. A sense of loss fell over her like a never-ending night. Nausea swelled in her stomach.
Think, think, think!
She surveyed the population of the beach again.
Maybe they know him?
She no longer cared if someone took her away and experimented on her body; she’d risk it to save her friend.

Adrenaline ignited a new sense of purpose as Nixie dove under again. She sped to where the strangers splashed in the shallows. None of the minds resembled Wyatt’s curiosity and kindness. They dwelled on clothing, something called money, and their bodies—all selfish. She approached a little one even smaller than Wyatt. Its red fur had been gathered into two bunches on the top of its head and secured with shiny white strips of fabric.

Nixie popped her head above the water as she injected her thoughts into the tiny pink one’s mind.
“Where is Wyatt?”

The little one fell back with a splash. A mind-shattering scream pierced the shouts and laughter from the rest.

“Mommy!” the tiny one screeched as another yelled, “Monster!”

Others rushed toward them, eyes fixed on the screeching one. Nixie remained still for a moment, gaze darting around for the monster until she realized everyone’s focus had shifted to her, all of them filled with the same horror. Unwilling to give up, Nixie held her ground, but as the larger ones neared where she swam, she ducked under the water and darted along the bottom until the bed of sea grass swallowed her up.

For weeks, Nixie searched the shoreline, dodging shiny floating objects the pink ones rode upon the water. Each night, she returned with leaking eyes to their inlet in case Wyatt had returned.

At one point, a thought occurred to her—one that stole the oxygen from the air. Had something happened to him? Something terrible? Had his spirit passed into the Undergarden without her?
No. No, no, no!
Maybe she could find a way to it if she searched hard enough. If she could find him there, they could be together always.

• • •

Except during the cold season, which forced Nixie to descend to her cavern, weary and alone, she spent her days searching for the entrance to the Undergarden. She’d explored every tunnel within a day’s swim, every patch of coral, every crevice that she could squeeze through. Desperate, she even tried talking to other sea creatures, though none paid her any mind.

Her disappointment grew into overwhelming pain, as if Wyatt’s absence gripped her ribs and squeezed tighter each time she failed to find him.

She thought back to the last day she’d seen him on the beach and what the pink ones had called her. Did Wyatt think she was a monster, too? Had he realized after leaving that he should be afraid of her? Considering she may never see his bright smile or splash into the water with him again, her soul broke into shards of sadness. Lost and lonely, Nixie curled up in the corner of her cavern and slept most days in a sort of hibernation.

• • •

Many moons passed, enough that Nixie lost count of them. The passage of time did nothing to diminish the ache in her heart. Her legs grew longer as her body filled out, and her chest became heavier and softer. No longer a child, her thoughts turned from play to finding her next meal and avoiding the increasing number of predators that swam the depths where her favorite orange squid lived. Although she tried to avoid thoughts of Wyatt, she often wondered what he would look like. Had he grown like her, married a wife and had pink ones of his own? Would he even remember her if he still lived? The memory of their last time together continued to haunt her thoughts—the way those on the beach had stared at her. Maybe they had warned him not to come back, that a monster lived in the waters. She could think of no other explanation for his abandonment.

Chapter 3

The hot season had returned to the bay when Nixie emerged for the first time in many moons. After catching a few fish to break her long fast, she headed toward the rock she had once visited every sunset.

“Nixie!” The voice that had clung to her thoughts resonated down her spine, though it sounded deeper. “Please come out if you’re here.”

Afraid to hope, Nixie peered around the rock. She recognized the mind, but not the pink one before her who scanned the waves. His blond hair brushed his broad shoulders. He no longer looked like a young one, but like the big ones with thick arms and strong legs.

Something fluttered in her belly at the sight of him, warm, tingling, spreading out to her webbed fingers and toes. She rubbed her stomach, wondering if the fish she’d eaten for breakfast had been a poor choice.

As Wyatt turned to leave, she spoke directly to his thoughts,
“I thought you’d forgotten me.”

His lips curved up with a smile, changing his face into the one she remembered. The fluttering intensified and bored deep into her. “I could never forget you, Nixie.”

Anger wove into her thoughts and heated her blood further.
“Do you think I’m a monster?”

“What?” His eyes opened wide. “I never thought that. Why would you even say that?”

“Isn’t that why you stayed away? I asked the ones on the beach to help me find you that day, and they called me monster.”
She cocked her head and edged farther around her sunning spot.
“If you weren’t afraid of me, then where have you been? Why didn’t you come back like you promised? I thought you’d gone to the Undergarden.”

He pushed fingers through his hair, leaving it in a tangle around his face in a way that made her itch to smooth it back. “I’m so sorry. We moved to Arizona when Mom married again—to some guy she’d known for a whole week. There was nothing I could do about it. It was just too far. Mom wouldn’t give me any money to take a bus, and she wouldn’t drive me, but I’m going to college here, now.”

The heartache he’d suffered while away radiated from his thoughts, stealing away her anger.
“What is college?”

Wyatt’s familiar laughter, though richer and deeper, danced along her skin and soothed the ache of his absence. “It’s a different kind of school. I can come by every day now.”

“Every day?”
Her heart grew until she thought it might break free of her chest. She swam closer and knelt in shallow water, her long hair dangling around her like a shroud. “
I’m here.”

Wyatt’s gaze met hers. A sigh passed through his lips. “Wow, you look … different. I mean … amazing.” He scratched his head. “I guess I thought you’d still look like a little girl like I remember, but …” Pink circles grew on his cheeks as he averted his eyes.

Confused, Nixie searched his thoughts and found him wondering if she still wore no clothing and that he most certainly should not be looking at her since she’d grown up just like a woman, whatever that was.

“But what?”
She inspected the portion of her body that rose above the surface, at the soft bumps that had grown on her chest and the muscular lines of her midriff. Sadness weighed on her thoughts.
“Do you not like what the ages have done to me? Am I … a monster now?”
Her gaze fell as she considered whether or not he might go away again because of her appearance.

“You’re beautiful, Nixie.” Wyatt waded into the water and crouched before her. “I’ve missed you. You’ll never know how much.” He chuckled. “Or maybe you will, considering you still seem to be able to read my mind.”

She lifted her long lashes and peered at him, trying to unravel the emotions whizzing through his mind.
“Why is your face all red? And your heart … it hasn’t beat this fast since I scared you on the beach the first time. If it isn’t because I’m a monster, then why are you afraid of me now?”

“You could never be a monster.” His fingers brushed a few strands away from her brow and tucked it behind her ear. “I’m not afraid of you, I …” Wyatt shook his head, the pink on his cheeks turning to red blotches. He gathered some weeds in his hand and piled them on top of her hair. “Never mind. Race you to the drop-off, seaweed head.”

• • •

As promised, Wyatt came to the beach every day for months. He told Nixie about how his sister had tried to convince him water sprites weren’t real, about the science he took at college and the work he did in a research lab to earn money, whatever that was.

Nixie told him of her exploration through the coral reef gardens and beyond, in search of treasures to show him, and for the entrance to the Undergarden. She’d searched deeper than the sun could reach, where the fish had no eyes.

Sometimes they sat in contented silence, watching the sunset or the stars. Still, Wyatt wouldn’t look at her, and if he did, his cheeks turned all shades of red.

As they lay on the beach after a long night’s swim, Nixie rolled onto her side and stared at Wyatt. Little flutters rippled through her stomach as she thought of being closer to him, some primal need in her body urged her to touch and be touched.

She took his hand and placed it on her waist.

He jerked his hand back, though he chuckled. “Uh … I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Her fingers drew circles in the sand.
“I’m not a jellyfish. I will not sting you.”

Wyatt jumped to his feet and walked away. “It’s just not … right.”

“Why not? Do I frighten you? I catch you looking sometimes, and your thoughts are … confused, like you want to touch and look, but are afraid of something.”

He returned with his fingers shoved into his hair. “You’ve been my best friend for as long as I can remember, and now … I keep thinking things I shouldn’t be thinking about you.” He threw up a hand which fell limp at his side. “I’m not a little boy anymore, and you’re not a little girl. I’m afraid that if I look at you, all shimmery in the moonlight, at your bare skin, that I’m going to do something I shouldn’t.”

“Something like what?”
Nixie climbed to her feet and went to him.
“When you’re near, I get all warm, and I imagine your arms around me. Do you not wish for the same?”

His head twisted until their gazes locked. Reaching fingers out and stroking her cheek, he stepped closer. “Every second I’m with you.”

Nixie’s finger traced the curve of his lip, stroked over his brow and along his temple.
“Will you hold me?”

Wyatt leaned in until his breath warmed her face, indecision passing over his features. His lips brushed hers while his arms looped behind her back and pressed her against him.

Lightning bolts zinged through her core at the contact she’d craved since seeing him again. Their moans mingled as his mouth and tongue explored her lips, the curve of her jaw, her throat and shoulder. His fingertips feathered up and down her back while hers walked along the hard muscle in his arms.

Panting, Wyatt pulled away with his eyes closed. “I should go.”

“No, please.”
The need in her body filled the words with emotion as her heart drummed a speedy tune.
“Stay with me?”
Her palms cupped his face, forcing him to meet her gaze.

Darkness filled his eyes as his own need grew in his mind, overpowering whatever hidden thoughts held him back. “I love you, Nixie.”

Such power in his emotions. She’d heard other pink ones say those words to one another but never with such depth of feeling.

Wyatt lowered her to the sand amongst the incoming tide. He removed his clothes, leaving him bare for the first time.

She’d never before seen a male pink one without clothing. Moonlight shimmered along broad shoulders damp with perspiration and sea air. With wide eyes, she drank in his perfection, his masculine lines and rugged grace. The way the muscles shifted beneath his skin when he hovered over her. The extended muscle at his middle left no doubt about his desire for her. Although he differed from her in many ways, she somehow knew they would fit together as mates were meant to.

For a long while, they touched one another, and as the moon reached its apex, Wyatt brought her a pleasure she’d never dreamed possible.

They lay together, Nixie’s head lying along his chest, his arms wrapped around her back, water washing over their legs. Adrift in contentment, she could have stayed like that forever.

A stretch of her thoughts into Wyatt’s found his dark and confused. She sat up—a hot wave of panic in her middle.
“Have I not made you happy, Wyatt?”

He stood, scooped his bottoms from the sand and pulled them on. Facing the trees, he sighed. “You do make me happy, for the first time since I was nine years old … and that’s the problem.” He shook his head and walked away.

Stunned into silence, tears strolled down Nixie’s cheeks as she watched him go. Hadn’t their mating been part of the ceremony Wyatt had talked about so many years before, making her Wyatt’s wife? Didn’t he want to mate for life? Did he regret choosing a water sprite? Perhaps he wanted pink children and would think of theirs as monsters? After the bliss they’d experienced together, how could he believe that?

Terrified she’d driven him away, Nixie remained in their secluded bay until the following evening. The excited shouting of children from beyond the trees disturbed the quiet but did nothing to distract her from her thoughts. When Wyatt didn’t return at his usual time, her darkest fears sprang to life. Maybe she hadn’t made him happy, and he’d told an untruth to spare her heart, though it hurt anyway. Holding her face in her hands, she curled into a ball on her sunning rock and wept.

• • •

Nixie woke to a high moon and Wyatt standing on the beach, head hung forward, hands stuffed into the pockets of his shorts.

“You came back!”
Nixie wailed into his thoughts as she swam for him.
“I thought … I’m sorry for what I did, whatever it was. Please don’t be mad.”

His head tilted up as she rose to her feet on the sand. “Hey. I’m not mad. Sorry I took off like that. I just … needed some time to think.”

The continued sadness clinging to him made her think he’d come to a decision he didn’t want to make.

“Time to think about what, Wyatt?”
Her pulse sped to a gallop.

He reached for her but let his hand fall. “I … what are we doing, Nixie?” Wyatt tossed up a hand, walked a few steps one way, and came back.

She shook her head.
“I don’t understand. We’re standing and talking, are we not?”

“No … I mean yeah, we are, but … what we did the other night. You and me. We shouldn’t have done that.” Sighing, Wyatt plopped his backside into the sand, drew up his knees and draped his forearms over them. “I took advantage of you like a total bastard because you didn’t know any better, and because I … I needed you that night more than ever. But it was wrong.”

“Wrong?”
Anger tightened her internal voice.
“When our bodies tell us we need air, we breathe. Is that wrong?”
She took a step closer, glaring down at him.
“When we are hungry, we eat. Tired, we sleep. Restless, we move. Are those, too, wrong?”

His brows pushed together, and his mouth bobbed open. “No, Nixie, but—”

“We needed one another in a way we are intended to need one another. Our bodies spoke the truth, and we listened.”
Her chin began to wobble.
“How can you say we were wrong?”

“It’s not … I mean it is.” Wyatt growled and shoved at his hair. “My sister … she thinks I’m obsessed with being here, and I’m beginning to think she’s right. There’s just … so little time. I’m supposed to grow up, get married and have children, Nixie. I’m supposed to live in a house and wake up every morning with my wife in my arms.” He drew in a breath and tilted skyward. “I thought I could come back here and hang out with you like I used to. And be happy. But every time I walk away from here, I can’t stop thinking about you. Dammit, every time I meet a woman, she doesn’t measure up to you.” His arms gestured around in a wild manner. “This beach is the only place you and I can exist together. Geez, Nixie, we’re not even the same species.”

She gasped and turned from him to the water, a hand over the crushing weight on her chest.
“You are like them. I thought you were different.”

“Wait,” he said in a softer tone. “That didn’t come out the way I meant it.”

Nixie straightened and waded into the shallows.
“You do think I’m a monster.”

“No! I … we’re just not the same, that’s all. It was wrong of me to let this go so far. How can we have a life together when there’s nowhere for us to go but this tiny stretch of sand?”

Pain welled up and poured out of her mouth in a terrible sound before she gulped air and steadied herself once more.
“To be with you is enough for me, Wyatt. It would always have been, but I see now that I will never be enough for you.”
Huffing, Nixie whirled and pointed a webbed finger at him.
“Why did you come back? If I’m so terrible, why not stay away instead of bringing me more sadness.”

Grief filled his eyes as he took a step forward, reaching for her. “Wait, no … this is going all wrong. Just list—”

“Leave!”
A kick of her leg doused Wyatt.
“Never come back!”
She dove and let the sea swallow her up, though it didn’t drown out him crying out her name.

Nixie swam for hours, without knowing where, until she could no longer hear his voice carrying upon the current. Exhausted, she collapsed beside an unfamiliar crevice. Her body shook as she curled into a ball and lay there for a time that stretched into a small eternity while schools of striped fish passed overhead.

She wondered if the pain of Wyatt’s rejection would be enough to end her physical life and send her to the Undergarden. The agony that twisted through her made her think it might.

Had she been wrong to care for him? To want him? Who said he should have a wife and a house? Did he answer to someone who demanded it of him? Each time she recalled the memory of their night together, she found only pleasure and contentment in his thoughts. Only until their physical union ended did guilt wash it away. She hadn’t misread that part, no matter what he said, but if he no longer wanted her, then she had to try and forget him before longing destroyed her.