Page 16 of Lover from the Waves

And then their lips curled into smiles, and they both laughed. Their laughter only intensified when Breckett yelled Kathryn’s name again.

“If we don’t get out of this bay quick, I might give him a heart attack,” Kathryn said as her laughter eased into chuckling.

“And this whole time I thoughtwewere supposed to be the ones in danger,” Ector replied.

Kathryn felt a stab of guilt for worrying her old friend. Perhaps she was alittlerusty, but she was sure it would all come back to her.

Ector kept a hand on the boom, adjusting it to hold the wind as Kathryn steered the boat past the end of the dock, where Breckett stood glaring at Kat with his mouth—undoubtedly turned down in an immense frown—hidden in his thick beard. Grinning, she waved at him again.

He only shook his head.

Kathryn turned the boat, angling it to clear the bay and follow the coastline, and Breckett gradually became a featureless figure in the distance, solid and unmoving.

“I would ask where we are going,” Ector said, “but I know nothing of the lands beyond The Watch.”

She filled her lungs with sweet sea air. “This is all new to me, as well. I just planned to follow the coastline and see where it takes us.”

“That sounds perfect to me.”

The boat finally broke past the long shadows cast by the seaside cliffs and entered the golden sunlight, which bathed Kathryn in warmth. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back to let the light fall on her skin. The wind blew from over her left shoulder, toying with her ponytail and the fabric of her shirt. Though The Watch would still be in view if she looked toward land, she already felt as though it were far behind. She already felt…free.

That feeling came with another pang of guilt. She loved her family, and she would miss them during this trip…but how could she explain this sense of freedom to her daughters and grandchildren without making it sound like she saw them as some kind of burden? How could she talk about any of this without sounding selfish?

She lowered her head and opened her eyes, fixing them on Ector. He was twisted to look ahead, likely watching the rocks jutting from the water near the shoreline, and his normally drab green skin was vibrant in the morning sunlight. Her fingers twitched with the memory of how that velvety skin had felt beneath them.

It’s okay to be selfish sometimes. Sometimes it’s necessary.

And she knew, somehow, that Ector would understand even if no one else could.

She let those thoughts brew until the boat was out of the bay and the only part of town still visible was the towering lighthouse atop the promontory.

Kathryn’s attention soon strayed from the lighthouse to return to Ector. She studied his profile. He had a strong jaw and brow, and though his nose was flatter and less prominent than a human’s, she didn’t find him wanting. In fact, the more she looked at him, the more handsome he became. Though there was room enough in the boat for two more adult passengers, Ector’s presence seemed to fill up the leftover space. His tentacles were spread out across the floor, shifting and moving slowly, constantly; she was sure to touch them if she stretched out her leg.

She trailed her gaze back up his body—his tempting, muscular body—and licked her suddenly dry lips. “Ector? You’re…an elder to your people, aren’t you? A leader, like the members of our town council?”

He turned to face her fully, and she didn’t miss the way his eyes dipped and rose as though he were taking Kathryn in just like she had him. He nodded. “Our lives were always quite dangerous, before. Few lived to my age, so elders were respected. We were always more guides than leaders, I suppose, though we were called upon to resolve disputes when a consensus could not otherwise be reached.”

“I can’t help but notice you said all that in the past tense.”

He smiled softly, perhaps even a bit wistfully, and turned the palm of his free hand skyward. “Much has changed for us recently, as you know. There have always been strong kraken who have assumed leadership of our people as was necessary, but we kraken were not always willing to be led. Dracchus has changed that. Strong as he is, it is his innate wisdom and humbleness that make him perhaps the best leader we could ever have had. His generation has come into their own. My guidance…well, they do not have much use for it, these days.”

Kathryn smiled softly. “There’s nothing quite as amazing and heartwarming as watching your children grow. And there’s nothing quite as bittersweet as realizing that they’ve reached a point when they can get along just fine without you. But I think they’ll still look to you for guidance.”

“All true. I suppose what defines that moment is not the realization itself, but how you react to it.”

Kathryn chuckled. “Like taking a boat and sailing out into the wilderness?”

Ector laughed, rekindling the fire in his eyes. “Yes, like taking a boat and sailing into the wilderness.”

She swept her gaze over her surroundings. The shore was still in view—she didn’t intend to let it out of sight at any point during this trip—but there was enough water between the boat and the land for her to feel like she was properly at sea. Perhaps the start of the journey had been a littlebumpy, but now that they were sailing, it all felt right. Everything Colin had taught her long ago was already coming back to her.

She dipped her eyes to the preventer line—a rope that ran from the boom to the bow and then back along the port side of the boat to an anchor point near Kathryn’s seat. She shook her head and used her free hand to pull the slack on the line before tying it off on the metal cleat beside her. “Should’ve remembered this sooner.”

“I must confess that as many times as I have seen this done by Breckett and the others, I have never partaken in the process,” Ector said, eyes intent upon her. “What is that rope for?”

“It’s a preventer line. It’s meant to stop the boom from swinging across the boat and damaging the mast—or any people who happen to be in the way.”

Ector’s brows lifted, and his smile took on a mischievous tilt. “That might have been helpful earlier, yes.”

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