Page 13

The whistle blows again, pulling my attention away from Lysander.

It’s our turn. The other two in our group are a massive faun with long, white fur and curling horns, and our cook, Larch, who grins at me briefly.

I nod back. Like me, he’s wearing a lifejacket, though I can’t imagine it doing much for him if he goes over.

For a gargoyle, ‘stoneskin’ isn’t just a metaphor.

I put my board in the water and clamber on, getting a feel for it. True to her word, Belle gets in the water and disappears, with only her hands visible above the water as she holds onto the board from below. She must be able to breathe underwater.

Plato hands me my paddle with a rueful grin. “Good luck.”

“She’s definitely not allowed to drown me, right?” I mutter.

He winks and moves on to Larch. Time to focus on standing upright, I guess. It’s not as tough as I thought it would be once I get the hang of it. This is definitely the most ridiculous thing I’ve done since I left prison, though.

I white-knuckle the paddle and brace myself for Plato’s whistle.

“Go!” Preeeeeet!

Then I paddle like hell.

It’s surprisingly hard to concentrate when there are three monsters around you who’ve also never set foot on a paddle board, and whose center of gravity and overall physique definitely haven’t been accounted for by paddle board makers.

I do my best to ignore the splashes and yelps.

Belle shoots ahead, easily beating all of us, and climbs back on the board to finish standing.

Then she leaps back into the water and does a victory lap.

Her dark form shoots past me underwater and pops up on the far side of the pool, startling the big faun into falling off.

Larch is neck and neck with me, hunched low to his board, but his position makes it hard to use the long paddle and his weight sinks the board just under the surface, making it drag. I’m not doing too badly, all in all.

Distracted, I don’t notice the hands grabbing my board until it’s yanked out from under me and I’m toppling into the water.

I shout. The paddle goes flying. Something latches onto my ankle, and I flail and kick until my foot hits flesh and the hand releases me. Heart pounding, I flip the board and clamber back on, gasping.

The riiga shoots away underwater as I grab my paddle and straighten.

Shouts ring from the bleachers. Lysander definitely saw that.

I don’t dare look — instead I check the water for Belle’s presence, but she’s nowhere to be seen.

I dig the paddle into the water and push toward the finish line.

When my board hits the edge of the pool, the other lifeguard, Mara, hauls me in with her four hands.

Antoinette flutters around us. “Are you alright? Did you swallow any pool water? Do you need poison control?”

“I’m fine.” I unbuckle the lifejacket with hands that are not-so-steady. I guess I needed the damn thing after all. Strong swimmer or no, it’s tough to swim away when someone’s dragging you down.

“Belle!” Antoinette says sharply, turning to the riiga who’s trying to slink off to the showers.

Belle flinches. “It’s just instinct!”

“No way they’re gonna let her do the boat race after that,” Larch mutters to me, taking off his own lifejacket.

I follow him to the board rack. “What’s Antoinette so worried about?”

Sure, Belle is stronger than she looks, but I don’t get the feeling she’d actually drown me.

Right?

Larch jerks his chin upward. Above the bleachers there’s a viewing room I hadn’t noticed before. Silhouetted against the window is a dark, faceless figure in a hood.

Dramatic much?

“Watcher from the Monster Protection Agency. Nosy bastards. You don’t want to cross them — they have some nasty magic.”

I don’t get it, but Larch is already lumbering off to join the rest. I take one last look at the dark figure, frowning at the strange shiver of apprehension that goes through me.

Showered and dressed, I head back to the main hall of the rec center.

It’s jarring to suddenly see a bunch of humans milling around, and it takes me a moment to realize they’re wearing their amulets again.

The big windows face the outside, so it makes sense, but I feel naked without mine.

Everyone is gathered around Plato and I hang at the back, not sure I want to hear my results.

“Are you alright?”

Lysander’s breathy voice at my elbow makes my heart somersault. I turn with a grin ready, but it fades when I see the worried twist on his brow.

“Course I am,” I assure him. “I can swim just fine and I was wearing a lifejacket. I’m hardly going to fall over because I got some chlorine up my nose. Us humans are pretty sturdy.”

His big, blue eyes search mine. “You’re sure?”

I give in to the urge to sling an arm over his shoulders, and he tenses just like before. Freeze — then melt. “Promise,” I tell him, squeezing his shoulders.

Sure enough, he fucking melts.

Right into me.

Jesus. My ears must be full of pool water, because suddenly I can’t hear a thing except his voice.

“I don’t know what Syril was thinking,” he huffs.

“The way I hear it, he was thinking it’d be a good idea to show everyone how harmless I am. If that’s true he’s definitely succeeded.”

Lysander scowls. He’s so close I can make out the wrinkle between his eyebrows. “Plato shouldn’t have put you in the same group as her. Everyone knows what riiga are like.”

“It’s done now.” I pat his shoulder, noting how he shifts almost microscopically closer.

Reluctantly, when Antoinette clears her throat, I let him go. A tiny frown tugs at his mouth, but he doesn’t say anything, and I wonder if he even notices his own reactions.

I’d be the worst kind of guy if I took advantage of it to get him to relax without him even catching on.

Antoinette rattles off everyone’s score tallies while Plato records them on the whiteboard behind her. When she gets to Belle, she frowns at the clipboard.

“One minute, thirty two seconds. Plus five minutes for time spent in the water. Final score: six minutes, thirty two seconds.” She pauses. “Disqualified for foul play.”

The riiga hiss, but several other monsters stomp their feet and hooves until they’re drowned out.

Belle shrugs. “I represented my sisters well.”

She joins them in the crowd, and they hug her and pat her head. I’m weirdly tickled by their obvious affection for their sister, even if she did knock me off the board. Hers remains the best time on the board, even with the penalties. She would’ve won if she hadn’t got back in the water.

I hear my name and I grimace.

“Ezra the human. Five minutes, eighteen seconds. Plus one minute ten for time spent in the water. Final score: Six minutes, twenty eight seconds.”

A surprising round of cheers follows her announcement. That puts me at the third highest spot, behind Belle and a slender harpy who’d managed to avoid tipping their board at all.

“You shouldn’t be penalized for the attack,” Lysander mutters.

I shake my head. “It’s not a big deal.”

The last thing I want is to make a scene about it. I’m well within the top ten with only three scores left to announce, which means one way or another, I’ll be joining the fun.

Lysander’s wings flare and he flicks a strand of hair off his face curtly. To my despair, I find his annoyance adorable.

“She tried to drown you,” he tries again.

“She didn’t succeed, though,” I tell him placatingly. “Think of my ego. If I don’t take the penalty like everyone else, I’ll be that weak human forever.”

Lysander looks poised to argue, but Antoinette is already wrapping up. If he were human, at this point I’d be pretty confident in asking him to dinner — even taking into account that I haven’t really dated for pretty much all my adult life.

If he was human, I wouldn’t hesitate to lean in at the end of dinner and kiss him.

But that’s where my imagination ends. Lysander isn’t human — he’s not even a monster like Orion, who’s pretty easygoing and used to the human world.

He’s someone who blushes at compliments and says achingly honest things like ‘ I want to be worthy’ .

I don’t just want to date him, I want to wrap him up like he’s precious and make him melt like spun sugar.

But I’m a guy who’s done some fucked up stuff and is paying the price, and I can’t drag someone like Lysander into the dumpster fire that is my life.