Restless Waves

Chapter 41

If the chapters seem a little slow, it's because I'm currently solely rewriting You Have Wings? for the eBook manuscript that has to be uploaded on the 8th! :D

- Sian

Water that took Rowan's breath away engulfed the boys. As Kaerius got his tail back, his sharp teeth, gills, and webbed fingers, Rowan was still kicking his human legs and holding his breath. Kaerius swam away from the cliffs and surfaced so Rowan could breathe.

"How do I get a tail?" Rowan asked. "You have to wait in the air to get legs."

"Maybe we just have to be close or something?" Kaerius thought. "You should have asked your dad."

Rowan pushed blonde hair from his eyes and his teeth chattered from the cold. "I'm human, soulmate bonds are not natural for me. Maybe I don't get a tail."

"You're not," Kaerius thought. "Your mother was a Thalassic Mortal. Not to forget that she was the literal princess of the sea. There must be a way." As rowan kicked his legs to stay afloat, Kaerius kept thinking about being soulmates. Rowan was half-human, but the bond they shared always seemed stronger when they were closer. They hadn't completed it yet, but maybe... Kaerius didn't give Rowan time to hold his breath before he pushed down on his shoulders and pulled them both under the waves. As soon as the water touched Rowan's lips, Kaerius kissed him. His arms wrapped around Rowan's waist, pulling their bodies so close together; it was as if it fused them at the hip.

They sank down and down, moving their lips together until the water pressure pushed on Rowan's skull. Though he didn't want to stop for breath. Kaerius had kissed him so confidently, Rowan fell submissive, wanting Kaerius to take charge, kissing him, holding him, pleasuring him.

The silence underwater made it easier to focus on the feel of Kaerius lips against his own. They were cold and soft and tingled his entire body. Rowan was so caught up on how he wished for a more forceful kiss, he didn't notice his legs pulling together, or the saltwater going into his nose and finding a way out without blocking his airways.

Kaerius traced his hands up Rowan's back and to his shoulders. His hands covered a rough patch on the side of Rowan's neck, and he pulled away when his bottom lip stung. Purple Thalassic Mortal blood drifted from Kaerius's lip. Kaerius didn't care. He was more focused on Rowan's sharp teeth. He moved his hand from Rowan's neck and stared at the three slits.

"You have gills," he said in the Thalassic tongue.

Rowan didn't understand him, but he was breathing, underwater. His body went rigid, and he touched the sides of his neck. Slits opened and closed with each breath. He wanted to splutter on the cold water and swim to the surface, but he was too shocked to move. Rowan felt things between his fingers and stared at his webbed hands. His eyes connected with Kaerius and together, they looked down to Rowan's tail.

Rowan's tail.

While they had kissed, Kaerius had wrapped his tail around Rowan. As Rowan had kissed him back, he had wrapped his tail around Kaerius without knowing it.

Kaerius unwrapped his turquoise tail to stare. In all his life under the ocean, and all the Thalassic Mortals he had met all over the world, he had never seen a tail so beautiful. Once, while swimming near Brazil, a woman had dropped a necklace into the ocean with a gem Jaiker called rainbow moonstone. Rowan's tail was as white as the flakes that fell from the sky in winter. His scales were almost transparent with a translucent shimmer of every colour in the rainbow. The shine was subtle but brightened towards the fins at the bottom. The white made Rowan's upper body seem more sun kissed. As Rowan stared in utter disbelief, Kaerius circled him, watching the scales shimmer. He reached out and ran a webbed hand down Rowan's tail, in awe of how it looked like it had been carved from the moonstone crystal itself. When his hand moved back up his scales, he caught Rowan blushing and he snatched his hand back. Caressing a tail was the equivalent of stroking a thigh.