Page 64 of Ocean of Silver

“Tezya,” I panicked as my eyes widened on the green creature. Why weren’t the humans scared of this? Why weren’t others screaming? Why wasn’t anyone running? Tezya followed my gaze and laughed.Laughed.

“Rumor, you need to calm down,” he said softly, but he was still smiling. “It’s an alligator. They’re really common in this area.” Tezya leaned in closer to whisper in my ear, “And a human doesn’t normally scream at the top of their lungs when they see one.”

I looked around and saw that all the mortals had paused to stare at us, to stare at me. Right.

Tezya laughed again as he steered me away from the alligator, but he squeezed my hand in reassurance.

“So that thing was harmless?” I asked once we were out of earshot from all the humans that heard me scream. “It doesn’t ever kill anyone?”

“No, they kill sometimes, just not often.”

I looked around in disbelief at the humans, at how they lived with so many deadly things. Luckily, we didn’t see another alligator for the rest of the night.

My feet ached, and my jaw hurt from smiling by the time we finally made it back to Tezya’s place.

He didn’t drop my hand until we were back in his condo. A cold lingered where his fiery touch had been all night. I flexed my fingers, forcing myself not to think about it as he made his way toward the only bedroom… and started undressing without shutting the door. I didn’t know if I should be flattered that he felt comfortable with me or annoyed that he didn’t think it was a big deal. Or maybe in Lux, in the mortal territory too, it wasn’t a big deal. Maybe only Tennebris made a fuss over the naked body.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I nervously twirled my hair around my finger. My voice had an undertone of a squeak that I hated myself for.

“I’m going to shower.” He said it so matter of factly as he continued to strip down, and Pylemo damn me, but I couldn’t look away. I gawked from the kitchen, a clear view into the bedroom, as he shrugged his shirt over his head. Scars were scattered across his formed stomach. There were thick and jagged ones, raised just like the one on his face, but others were smaller, some only thin, white lines against his tanned skin. Did he get them all during battles? How many had he fought in? I swallowed.

His pants came off next, and his undergarments were tight against his massive thighs. The muscles bulging as he took a step closer to the still open door. A noticeableprotrusionwas—

“Like what you see?” he grinned with that half smirk, raising his scar.

Well, that got me to look away. I forced myself to go sit on the sofa—that was positioned away from the still open bedroom and to the bathing room that had no door—while I waited for him to wash. I couldn’t stop focusing on the water. It was calling to me, begging me to manipulate it, to become one with it. I could sense every droplet, feel it slide against his skin as it traveled down and off his body.

“Rumor,” Tezya called through the wall. The shower was still pouring water, muffling his voice.

My chest tightened in anticipation. “Yes?” I asked breathlessly.

He chuckled. “You’re making the water in here go haywire.”

And thank the Goddess that he couldn’t see my face because I felt like it turned the brightest shade of red. I flung myself toward the nearest object next to me, attempting to occupy my mind with anything so that I stopped thinking about him naked and in said water.

I was surprised that I picked up a book. A mortal book, by the looks of it. I didn’t pin Tezya as a reader, but I guessed there was a lot I didn’t know about him still. I flipped through the flimsy pages of the novel. It was soft and the spine was broken in, indicating that it’d been read and loved many times. I couldn’t remember the last time I read for pure enjoyment. Since LakeWood maybe? Once I was in the Tennebrisian castle, I forced myself to use the Royal Library for research, only selecting books they had on Lux. I opened to page one and lost myself in the words, thankful that Advenians had adopted the mortal language so that I understood the text. Some words were foreign still and didn’t make sense, but I could understand the gist of what was being told.

The more I flipped through the pages, the more envious I became of the free world that was described on them. The characters could love anyone they wanted. They could do anything. Be anyone.

I was so engulfed in reading that I didn’t hear Tezya come out of the bedroom until he opened a cabinet to fill a glass with water. He was dripping wet with only a towel wrapped around his waist. His black flame markings were now on full display, covering and hiding his scars beneath. I did my best not to look at the way his muscles moved while he walked or how dangerously low his towel sat. The fact that he had a small line of dark hair just above said towel… I whipped my head up to his face, knowing my own was reddening. With his hair wet, it was pushed back off his face for once.

“Tezya, can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” he said as he padded over with the glass of water. He took a sip as he slumped into the cream sofa, water instantly soaking through the spot he took up.

I squealed. “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to dry off first?”

His grin was devilish. “I thought you could do me the honors.”

I swallowed and stared at him in disbelief. But before I could say anything treacherous, he added, “You can practice your ability and shift the water back into the shower.”

Oh—OH. I’d never been so happy in my life that I hadn’t responded right away because that wasnotwhat I thought he meant by that.

I shifted next to him, trying to focus on the water only and not his half-naked body. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the droplets off him, shaping it into a tight ball in the air in front of us, and guided it back toward the bathing room. I couldn’t see the shower and had to trust my instincts on where to direct it.

“Good,” he smiled when I released the ball, and we both heard the splash. He took another long sip of the water. “What did you want to ask me?”

“Oh, um… I wanted to ask why you came here. What business did you have to do earlier?”

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