Page 76

“Hm?” Ryder twirled his wrists.

“I lost track of what I was doing.” I let out a yawn. He caught it. “One minute we were on the road, the next we were here. Like I was on autopilot.”

A sleepy smile raised his cheekbones, rosy from the sun. “It’s normal to zone out when you’re driving, especially longer distances. Relaxing, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I admitted, surprising myself. Tucking my shoulders behind me, I drew my arms back, a buttery satisfaction exuding from the stretch. “Ready to switch?”

“Turn off the car.”

Objection bubbled in my throat. I’d thought about doing that one too many times on the ride here. When I met his eyes with a challenging stare, those golden-green specks blazed bright with excitement.

“Don’t give me that damning look.” He smirked. “I want to show you something.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now,” he repeated, exiting the vehicle. “Come on.”

Weapon grabs were one thing, but biding our time like two seniors ditching math class when my destiny and potentially my safety were at stake?

I glared at him through the windshield, his fitted black t-shirt creeping up his lower abs while he waited outside and extended his long, athletic arms overhead. The tat with the flowing rapids of water snuck out from his sleeve again, while the light gleamed off the V lines carved into his hips. I blinked and he had already converted to his innate stillness, thumbs tucked into his belt loop, close to the knife at the waistband.

I wished there was a simple explanation as to why my feet hit the corroded asphalt and I strutted towards the guy with the emerald fire in his eyes. Why when he flashed a true smile, the kind that displayed his dimples, like right now, it made my insides melt and freeze at the same time. Why with a single gesture he made me feel like the ugliest parts of me were not only worth saving, but worth exploring.

This could get so damn messy. But I was ready to get my hands dirty.

Ignoring every red flag, I reached his side, and we trekked the crushed golden-granite path towards the ocean. We journeyed through the bushy headland, passing a pond layered in algae and surrounded by cattails, the mossy surface only broken by foraging herons. And then we descended crumbling steps framed by poison oak coils, until we finally reached an expansive beach spotted with blanched driftwood.

Shoes plunging into the dunes, we strode to the northernmost bluff jutting out to the sea. A fissure in the rock, invisible from across the sand due to its crags and jagged arches, revealed itself when we reached its base. The music of the ocean roared against walls smoothed by the tide. Only when the water shrunk far back enough in between sets were we able to cross through the tunnel to the other side.

And now we stood in a cove and waited.

“What exactly are we waiting for?” I shot Ryder a look, but his eyes didn’t stray from the water.

And waited.

I tilted my hip, shifting my weight onto it, about to ask again. He shushed me with a light, teasing finger on my lips.

With a playful swat I knocked it away as we continued to stand, and wait, in this pristine crescent-shaped clearing, its naturally formed ramparts ancient and sacred—a mural of shells and fossils unearthed in the fresh copper soil from the small earth slides from the cliffs.

Tucked away here, we watched the water creep towards the soles of our shoes, rainbows reflecting in the tips of the waves that crashed on the diamond-flecked sand. The cove thrummed with a power that encased my skin like the salty brine on the tepid breeze, and then…a massive, opalescent blob jumped out of the ocean, and splashed back in.

I blinked, unsure of what I had seen. Before I could ask, I covered my mouth in shock, as a group of similar creatures followed suit—breaching, spinning, diving, much like a pod of dolphins, their lustrous coats of blubber shimmering with a pink and turquoise ombré sheen.

Elephant seals—the otherworldly kind. Or maybe they were the same mammalian species I’d grown to know and love, but I’d never given myself the chance to look past the surface and truly see them for what they were.

Regardless, they weren’t ghastly; they were beautiful. Only a miserable fool would say otherwise. Tears pricked my eyes as they rotated through the air, nimble as torpedoes.

Right then and there, I knew that when I got to show Javi this world, this’d be the place I’d do it. If he ever forgave me.

A whisper tickled my ear. “What do you think?”

“They’re the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.” I turned to my companion to find him fixed on me—not on the ethereal creatures springing out of the water, but me. I dipped my chin and let out a low, laughy breath, an attempt to downplay my tear-flecked eyes, the wonder written all over my face.

“I agree,” he responded, guttural and absolutely yielding, his breath taken by the sight of me, just as mine had been taken by seeing the magic in the waves.

“Well…Leif was right about one thing,” I said, filling the space with mindless words to cover the sound of my pounding heart. “This is way too wholesome for you.”

“Well…” He took a step forward, the minty burn of his words coating my lips as a finger traced my jawline, then cupped my chin. “I know how we can make this experience a little less wholesome.” The suggestion came in the form of a low, silken growl, stemming from the deepest part of his throat.