Page 27 of A Sea of Secrets
He watched me carefully as I tried not to moan at how good it felt running down my throat. Sweet, wet, goodness.
Fuck. My thoughts were starting to sound like the merman.
“How do you feel?” Noah asked.
“Fine.” I shrugged, the movement sloppy, but that didn’t mean anything. I was tired.
Noah scrunched his brow and said something, but he made no sound. Why the fuck was he mouthing shit to me? Was something wrong? Was he trying not to be overheard?
I glanced around, the movement sluggish as I looked for whatever or whomever he was worried about, only to have him grab my face and force me to look at him. His palms were pressed to my cheeks, holding me still as he continued to speak without sound.
“What?”
Why was he touching me? I tried to raise my arm to slap his hand, and his audacity, away, but I couldn’t lift it.
“Ace?” Noah said, his words finally finding the volume button. He gripped my face harder, panic in his eyes.
What the fuck was going on? I could feel my heart picking up speed like a racehorse on cup day with a determined jockey to get the prize. My vision blurred and the last thing I heard was Noah calling my name.
Whywasitthatsand always had a knack for knowing exactly how to get where you didn’t want it? In your jocks, your butt crack, between your toes, your gills… I was partial to an exfoliating foot rub, but right now, I was in for a sand scrub in places where I was not keen on getting one.
The tiny granules had evil little minds of their own. I could just imagine them getting together and plotting the downfall of the human race, one sneaky speck of sand at a time.
At least I was nice and warm—maybe a little weighed down, but who doesn’t like a crushing hug now and again? It was righteous for the soul.
Hmmm. Wait…
I popped one eye open like a sailor looking through a telescope, then another to confirm what my first eye was seeing. Yep, it wasn’t making shit up.
The last thing I remembered was rolling around in the gloriously cool water, feeling the slick moisture over my gills and between my parched lips, not caring about the other Potentials with me. The weather room had gobbled me up like a whale and spat me out of its blowhole, and I had been ready to accept my fate as a dried-out sea cucumber. Then the water had come, and it had been a glorious relief. An oasis in the desert.
Then my head had gotten as foggy as a pre-dawn fishing trip, and I’d once again passed out. The Overseer just loved knocking us out. I was starting to think it was a kink of hers or something.
Anywho, I’d just woken up to no water and was currently buried up to my chest in sand.
And I wasn’t the only one.
We were in a cloakroom, yet whoever had owned it had died so long ago that all their clothes and accessories had become dusty… I wrinkled my nose. Dustyandmusty. The floor was covered in sand and Potentials were half-buried beneath the small dunes. It was like we’d all fallen asleep at the beach and been buried by our siblings as some joke. Under any other circumstance, I would have found such a gnarly prank hilarious. Just ask my sister, Zara. She loved this number so much she practically fell asleep at the beach every day hoping I’d bury her.
Alas now was not the time for such shenanigans.
Noah and Ace were asleep across from me with Ace’s head resting on Noah’s shoulder, snoring softly. The fact that I didn’t have a way to take a picture was totally bogus. Unfortunately, I’d just have to settle for storing the cute-as-fish-pie image in my noggin. I turned to Kayden, who was asleep beside me, purring like a little kitty cat. Why were these three dudes so adorable?
“Kayden,” I began regretfully, pulling an arm free from the sand and running a finger right between his flaming brows, smoothing the crinkle there. “Kitty Kayden.”
“Shhh,” Kayden grumbled, swatting my hand away with his big one. His eyes opened to slits, frowning. “My head hurts too much for your dribble right now.”
“No dribble,” I replied, not that I did that anyway. “Just a whole beach-load of sand.”
“Huh?” he grumbled, cracking his eyes wider. “What are you on about?”
I waved my hand before me, collecting a scoop and letting the granules fall between my fingers. “The sand.”
“When did it get here?”
“I dunno, but it’s totally bogus right?” I frowned. “Is it in your butt crack, too?”
“Will you shut it?” Ace’s voice grumbled before Kayden could answer.
