“Morning, Beka,” Marcus’s father said gruffly. “Joining us again, I see.” Despite his pallor and the dark shadows under his eyes, he was clearly still the captain of the ship. He pretended to be annoyed, but it was just a game they played. Chico winked at her as she walked by; her presence on the ship always seemed to put the old man in a better mood, and that made life easier on everyone.
Everyone except Marcus, who’d only mellowed a little where his father was concerned, although to be fair, his father hadn’t mellowed back any either. They were at least being civil to each other, which was more than could be said for when she first started going out with them, but it was as if neither one wanted to be the first to bend and show affection to the other.
Beka sighed a little but refused to let the old wounds between the two men ruin her lovely mood. Despite Kesh’s unexpected arrival, she and Marcus had enjoyed a wonderful evening, far beyond anything she’d imagined when she’d agreed to go to the barbeque with him. She still thought Chewie was out of his mythical mind, suggesting that she’d fallen in love, but she had to admit, the kiss she and Marcus had shared on the beach had been . . . remarkable.
Legends had been written about less.
He’d kissed her again when he’d brought her home around midnight, but that time had been gentler, quieter. Maybe he’d begun to regret the passion he’d revealed in that first one. Or maybe it was just the inhibiting presence of Chewie, standing by the door of the bus waiting for her like a giant furry chaperone, his dark mass barely visible against the backdrop of the summer night.
Either way, there had been a glimmer of something like hope in his voice when he’d asked her casually, “So, are you coming out with us in the morning?”
She hadn’t actually intended to; the odd weakness and fatigue she’d been feeling were starting to make diving difficult, and she’d meant it when she’d told him earlier that she didn’t think there was anything to be gained by gathering more samples. But the thought of not spending the day in his company was almost painful, so she decided that maybe one more day of easy exploration near the surface wouldn’t hurt anything. She could always start her research when she got home in the late afternoon.
Marcus came down from the prow to give her a totally unnecessary hand with her equipment and a brief, secret smile that caused butterflies to flutter around inside her already unsettled stomach.
“We’re going out to the same spot as yesterday,” he said as the boat pulled away from the dock. “My father was really happy with the mackerel haul we brought in, so he’s going to see if they’re still around.”
The huge catch had made Beka happy, too, mostly because it meant that Kesh had done what she’d asked and stopped chasing the fish away from the Humans’ boats. She hoped he was feeling as benign after she’d made him leave last night. Still, she thought she’d made her point, and he was a reasonable man. It wasn’t as though he was actually interested in her; he and Marcus just had one of those competitive testosterone things going on.
She wasn’t sure if Marcus was actually interested either, but she was working hard at convincing herself that she didn’t care. Much.
As usual, she and Marcus put on their diving gear and lowered the dinghy into the water. The Wily Serpent moved off slowly, nets lowered to glide through the nearby seas in search of fish. Rather than try and make awkward conversation, she slid into the water right away, a few sample bags tucked into her belt pouch. Marcus gave her the thumbs-up and she dove down, although not nearly as far as she had been going.
So far, there was still no sign of an issue this close to the surface, other than the usual bits and pieces of flotsam that floated out from the shore or were dumped by careless boaters. That was good news for fishermen like Marcus, but it meant that the problem was almost certainly limited to the Selkie and Mer home trench, far below.
This baffled her, since the mystical creatures were normally excellent custodians of their watery realm; it was literally their entire world, and there was no other for them to go to. Not that this stopped Humans from destroying their own environment, but sea beings had a close connection to the ocean they lived in, and generally treated it with respect and care.
Beka swam lazily back up toward the dinghy, wondering if it was possible that one of the court wizards could have done some sort of magical working that had gone wrong, and then been afraid to confess it to his or her ruler. She wasn’t looking forward to broaching the question with either the King of the Selkies or the Queen of the Merpeople, but it was worth looking into.