Page 27 of Echoes of the Tide

“You’re afraid of me now,” he said, that deep voice rumbling through the room and raising every hair on her body.

She rubbed her arms to get rid of the feeling. “No, I’m not.”

“You watched when I told you not to.”

“I did.”

Ace needed her hands to be busy. She wandered through the room, gathering up the supplies she needed. Needle, thread, antiseptic, a bandage that she realized would fall off the moment he got into the water, but it would make her feel better for now.

He watched her every movement, clearly frustrated with this turn of events. “I told you not to.”

“You already said that.”

“Why are you feeling so uncomfortable with me now, then? I told you not to look. You were the one who decided to do so.” Hisstare nearly burned a hole between her shoulder blades. “You knew what I was.”

“I did.” She kept her back to him for a second, taking in a deep, steadying breath. Then she turned around and marched toward him with determination. “I don’t know why I’m feeling this way. I think it was easier when I knew what you were, but I could only send you words through a droid. You weren’t right in front of me, reminding me of what you were every second of the day.”

The fins around his face flared wide, and even that made her uncomfortable. Just the slightest show of surprise and she was so close to bolting it made her ashamed of herself.

With an angry exhale, she stacked everything next to him and tried her best to get control over the feelings. “It’s hard to remember that I know who you are when you’re so... so...”

He reached up between them and grabbed one of her flailing hands. “What about me scares you?”

She swallowed. “Maketes, I don’t want to?—”

“Tell me exactly. Tell me what pieces of me scare you so that I can ease your fears.”

She shouldn’t be doing this. This was stupid, anyway. There were so many parts of him that scared her. It would take them hours for her to list them all and they were on a timeline. She barely had time to stitch him closed, which was the other thing they should both be focused on right now.

Instead, she found her lips moving. “Your claws.”

“My claws?” He lifted their hands up so she had to look at them, seeing her fingers coiled together with his. “These would never cause pain. They were made to protect, not to harm.”

“But they ripped through that man’s stomach so easily.”

“I don’t want you to think of that, kefi. I want you to know that they are gentle with you and that if you need someone to save you, that they are the first weapon you should look for.”

Slowly, ever so slowly, he released her hand and lifted his. She could see it coming toward her face, and she let out a slow, stuttering breath so she remained in place.

The smooth back of his claw touched the highest peak of her cheekbone. Feather light, she almost couldn’t feel it as he swept it along the curve of her cheek and down to the edge of her jaw. Gentle, always gentle. He wasn’t even touching her at some points, but she swore he was.

Ace’s eyes fluttered shut. Something was happening inside of her that she couldn’t explain. Just that single touch eased the fear so quickly, when it shouldn’t have. He was still the problem. He had murdered so many people in front of her. She should only see their dead bodies when her eyes were closed like this.

Instead, what she saw were all the pieces of him that she wished she could ignore.

“Your gills,” she whispered. “They’re very different from what I expected.”

“How so?”

“They’re larger than I thought they would be.”

The faintest hint of a laugh made her imagine him smiling. Behind her closed eyes, everything was so much safer. She could imagine the grin on his face and ignore the thought that there were gills there. Instead, all she saw was the way his face wrinkled with happiness. How his eyes crinkled at the corners and deep smile lines on his cheeks were revealed. That expression was so familiar to her already, and they’d only been around each other for a couple of days.

Then his hand cupped hers, drawing her fingers to his neck. The softest velvet bumped against her fingers, gently fluttered the moment she touched them.

“My gills?” he repeated, his voice deeper than before.

She took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut a little harder, and explored. Just like with the shark, he gaveher an opportunity to face something that made her feel uncomfortable, and she was going to take that opportunity.

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