“Oh, be serious, Beka,” the dragon growled. “It’s not you I don’t trust; it’s that seal in man’s clothing. There’s something just not right about him. What kind of Selkie woos a Baba Yaga and doesn’t come to formally introduce himself to her Chudo-Yudo?”
Beka could feel her face turning as red as the ocean at sunset. “He’s not wooing me, Chewie. We’re just hanging out together. He’s a prince, for one thing.”
“And you’re a Baba Yaga. That trumps even a prince, you silly witch.” Chewie snorted, spewing bits of pottery crumbs over the polished wooden floor. “And he is so wooing you.”
“Well, I’m not interested, even if he is,” Beka said firmly. She wasn’t, was she? Yes, he was incredibly handsome and sweet and thoughtful. A girl would have to be crazy not to be flattered by his attentions. And she had always been more comfortable with magical creatures than with Humans, no matter that she’d been born one. So why wasn’t she interested?
Chewie seemed to see into her heart, the way he so often did. Such was the relationship between a Baba and her Chudo-Yudo. For better or worse.
“You like the sailor,” he said. “Even though he is Human. Even though you think he doesn’t like you.” He gave her a lick with his rough tongue; his version of a huge hug. Only wetter. “Good.”
No, Beka thought bleakly. Not good at all.
*
THE OCEAN WAS blue the next morning when Beka walked down to the waves, a vivid blue-green that made the sky seem pale and shy in comparison. Exuberant whitecaps raced into shore as if beckoning her to play, and there were already two or three surfers out amid the azure curls, racing each other to the crest of the biggest wave.
Beka would have been out sooner herself, but she’d waited a little longer than usual to see if Marcus would show up. He didn’t.
She was feeling a bit out of sorts anyway, tired and achy and a little nauseous, so she wasn’t moving quite as rapidly as she usually did. But being out on the water would make her feel better. It always did. Marcus or no Marcus.
A quick tug pulled the zipper on her wet suit the rest of the way closed, and she tucked her board under one arm as she headed over the damp, gritty sand toward the water’s edge. Time to get wet.
“Hey, wait up!”
Beka swiveled around to see Marcus loping toward her from the road, her spare board held under one muscular arm, and his tight wet suit molded to his tall, broad figure like a second skin. Her pulse sped up as if she were already riding the waves, and she couldn’t help the wide grin that spread across her face.
“I thought you weren’t coming,” she said as he came up to her.
Marcus looked unusually flustered, his wavy hair curling every which way and his breathing rapid, as though he had run to catch up. “Sorry,” he said, “I meant to get to your place earlier, but my da was having one of his bad mornings, and then we got into a fight when I insisted he wait for me to get back before taking the boat out.”
He paused to take a deep breath and gave her a crooked smile. “And I confess, I hadn’t really made up my mind whether or not I was going to come, right up until the last minute.”
Beka was just glad he was there, with a depth of feeling she chose not to look at too closely. “I see you found the board all right.” She’d taken it out in case he showed up, and then just walked away and left it leaning up against the bus when he hadn’t.
His hazel eyes twinkled, green and brown, with a hint of copper. “Your dog said it was okay if I borrowed it.”
Beka stiffened in shock. “Chewie talked to you?” She was going to kill that dragon.
Marcus let out a laugh, one of the first she’d heard from him. He already seemed more relaxed than usual, despite the dustup with his father, so maybe her plan was working.
“Well, he nudged the board with his nose and it fell on me. I took that as permission.” Marcus shook his head. “I wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be out, loose like that. Aren’t you worried about him running away, or someone stealing him?”
Whew. “Uh, no, not really,” she said. Chewie took his duties as guardian for the Water of Life and Death seriously; he rarely strayed far from the bus, even though the magical elixir was well hidden in a secret compartment, and locked behind a powerful spell to boot. He occasionally came for a brief romp in the water he loved so much, but he would never go far, or be away for long. Still, she couldn’t exactly tell Marcus that.