“No,” Edythe answered just as he responded, “Of course.”
“Linc.”
“No, Edie. It’s too dangerous.”
I have to go back, if only to tie up loose ends. No one knows I'm the one they're searching for. Let me quit my job, tell my aunt I'm on an extended assignment. I can wrap it up in an hour. Easy peasy, lemon squeezey.
No, he answered again. You don’t understand the pain you'll feel when we are separated by distance. It is agony, Edythe. I won’t let it happen to you.
It's just an hour, Linc.
“Perhaps I spoke hastily, Linc. Now that you can look human again, you could go with her.”
“Yes.” He should have thought about that.
“Linc?” she looked at him. “What if something happens to you? What if they discover who you are?”
“They won’t, Edie. They will never know I am Aegean.”
Someday, you will explain to me how all this is possible, she demanded.
Is it really so difficult to believe we evolved like humans? Why wouldn’t we adjust to life below the ocean, as well as above it? It’s a little… He tried to think of the word… presumptuous, don’t you think? You’re not the only advanced creatures on Earth.
She blushed, and he had to laugh aloud. He’d been teasing her, but he admitted he enjoyed seeing a pink flush across her tan skin. She caught onto his joke and leaned against his shoulder. Meanie.
I love you, Edie.
She sighed, lifting her lips to his. He kissed her, forgetting all about his father, who watched them silently.
“I love you, too,” she said aloud. “Okay.” She looked at his father. “It’s agreed. Linc and I will return to the surface. Once we get back, I expect to hear all about your history, evolution, science, and anything else I might have questions about.”
His father turned wide eyes onto Linc, who merely shrugged. “As you wish.”
“I do.” She made a move to stand but stopped herself. “I also wish for something to wear. I may have ripped my clothes while becoming all scaly and fishy.”
Fishy? His father sounded insulted.
I had scales and gills. If that’s not fishy, I don’t know what is.
Linc laughed loudly. “Is there anything else, Father?”
“Not right now,” his father answered before saying only to him, I will return when you do. We have much to discuss, and I have much to make amends for.
Linc hesitated, and then agreed.
His father nodded once to Edythe before turning and diving back into the water.
“Okay,” she said as he disappeared from sight. “Let’s get going.”
Chapter Ten
When Edythe was younger, she’d dreamed about breathing underwater, but her fantasies never came close to what it was actually like. Her work in Woods Hole meant she saw a lot of the ocean, but most of it was remotely transmitted. She saw shipwrecks and coral reefs, but she’d never been close enough to touch them.
Linc held tightly to her hand, still wearing his scales, while she was fully dressed. He swam away from the marshes, against the current. He knew where people would be searching for her, so he decided the best place was far away from there.
The current is traveling to the east, he told her as he guided her through the water. We’ll surface five or so miles to the west.
It all sounded fine to her. Perhaps her colleagues at work would miss her, and she admitted to feeling a tiny twinge of disappointment about leaving her job and her research, but it was countered by the knowledge that she’d be closer to her subjects than she’d ever been before. Maybe she could still work, only visiting land every few months to publish a paper or use the lab.
Linc heard her musings and squeezed her hand. Whatever you want to do, I will make sure you can do it.
She squeezed his hand in return. She was so happy; she could hardly believe it.
The landscape below the water was just as varied as Maine above water. There were sharp valleys and peaks. The floor was gravely, and lobsters scurried away from them, kicking up dust and sediment. A sea anemone attached to a boulder rising up off the floor, and Edythe tugged Linc’s hand so he would swim over with her.
Soon moonlight filtered through the water, and the bottom became sandier. She knew they were getting closer and closer to land. She wanted to stay beneath the water longer, but the sooner they got on land, the sooner they could return.
The water was so shallow now that she could lift her hand and her fingertips would emerge.
Stay here, Linc told her. I want to make sure no one is around when you come out.
She nodded. Be careful! she commanded as she released his hand and watched him swim toward shore.
He turned around, kicking powerfully, and gripped her arms before kissing her hard. She raked her fingers through his hair, holding his head to hers. Their tongues dueled, and then slowly, reluctantly, he pulled away. I’ll see you in a moment. If I don’t return in thirty seconds, don’t surface. He held her face in his hands. Understand?