Page 6 of Entranced By the Nakken
“Shit, sorry,” Casey mumbled when he strummed a discordant note. He laughed nervously and rocked back. “I’m better at vocals.”
“Then why are you not singing?” Tsunis all but snapped.
Good question. He wasn’t singing because he had no fucking idea what was happening. He gave another awkwardchuckle and ran a hand through his hair. “All right. Um, I do a pretty good cover of—”
“Absolutely not.” Jeez, did they live in a perpetual state of annoyance or was that something Casey brought out of them? “You’ve scribbled in that notebook for years, and have nothing of your own?”
Casey’s heart tripped over itself, an unfair flash of hurt squeezing his chest. “You’ve been here all along?”
Tsunis’ hardened gaze flashed with a deep sorrow, melting all of Casey’s misguided anger. He reached out and placed a hand on their shoulder. They went preternaturally still, but didn’t pull away.
“Hey.” Casey waited until they met his gaze. “If I’d known you were here, all alone, I would have kept you company. Just sayin’.” He chuckled, ignoring the heat crawling up his neck over the confession he was about to make. “Every time I came here, I hoped to see you. To thank you.”
Tsunis regarded him for a moment, then turned their glare on the brook. Casey released them and reached for his notebook.
“Not the whole time,” Tsunis said, so softly Casey strained to hear over the rustle of pages. “I had a home.”
A crack fissured through Casey’s heart. No wonder they were struggling to enjoy their own music. He stayed silent but scooted closer, fingers itching to run through their hair, lips tingling with the need to kiss their temple. They were every bit as remarkable as he’d dreamed.
The moment passed with Casey miraculously managing to refrain from impulsive behavior. Tsunis’ scowl resurfaced, scorching enough to melt Casey’s underwear. “Sing.”
All right. A trademark of theirs then. Casey smiled and hoarded that knowledge away like a squirrel gathering nuts, ifthe nuts were precious gems about a mesmerizing mer-person from the fucking river.
As Casey performed, the sun slowly sank until its golden rays sparkled off his companion’s scales. It was difficult to focus with Tsunis this close to him, electricity crackling between all the places their bodies didn’t quite touch. His phone buzzed many times, but there was no fucking way he’d give this up.
Casey’s throat was sore by the time Tsunis allowed him to stop playing. They’d stared at the water the whole time, appearing deep in thought, and then glared Casey down like they might drown him whenever he stopped singing for a sip of water.
Casey packed his guitar and awaited judgment.
It never came. Tsunis nodded, scowl trained on the brook. “Tomorrow. Here. Same time.”
With that, they slipped into the stream and underwater.
“Wait!” Casey called, desperate not to watch them swim away again. Two glowing blue eyes peered from the shallow depths. “I’ll meet you here tomorrow, but only if you promise to tell me another thing about yourself.”
The glowing eyes narrowed.
“Please.” Casey gave a goofy grin that wobbled in the corners. “I want to know more about you.”
Victory flooded his veins when Tsunis nodded. They blinked, and then Casey was alone at the water’s edge.
Casey blew out a breath. He almost fucking pinched himself but didn’t want to run the risk that this was, in fact, a dream. Besides, would a dream have three missed messages from Sophie inviting him to come over and chill?
Raw voice and calloused fingers be damned, he eagerly agreed, swung by the party store for some canned cocktails, and headed over.
When he’d awoken that morning, he’d been trapped in an old version of his life. No friends, no prospects, just two lovingparents that physically couldn’t be disappointed in him. By the end of the day, he was laughing and drinking with Sophie and her boyfriend, and he had plans to meet up with the creature he’d dreamed about for years.
In bed that night, Casey dreamed of sinking. He sank and sank, but he wasn’t drowning. He breathed easily, a pastel blue water dragon swirling around him. Occasionally, he’d reach out his hand, silken scales caressing his fingertips like luxury sheets.
Chapter Four
Tsunis
Deep below the babbling brook, Tsunis glared at the goopy mass that swirled and writhed at the back of the sea cave they wasted their days in. To conserve energy between their contracted meetings with the human, Tsunis reverted to their most primitive form. A monstrous, ugly mass.
Tsunis had met many of their own kind living in the human realm during their years of searching the rivers for help. Across the globe, there were similarities between them but starkly different preferences. Tsunis discovered that many of their kind living in this realm considered the muddy form to be their most natural, and shapeshifted into humanoid, dragon, or horse bodies only to hunt.
Things were different back home. Born in the hycean realm of Hydra, Tsunis grew up in the capital city of Glacis, where channels upon channels of sweetwater rivers flowed all the way to the bountiful falls of Aqualis. Unlike their näcken cousins, Tsunis preferred their draconic and merling forms. This form was…uncivilized. It was, quite literally, dirty. Logically, Tsunis knew their brethren from this realm were shunned for reasons other than being made of dirt. Oftentimes, they were feared for good reason.
