Page 18 of Never Nix Up (The Arun Nixes #2)

18

Finn

I t’s not often that you get to set off with your not-so-obvious girlfriend, to a dangerous river in the middle of the night, to find a corpse that’s been lost for five years.

It’s not quite the middle of the night, because my eyesight’s not as good as Hazel’s, but the rest of the previous statement stands. We’re off to find a body. In a river full of nixes that might want to kill me.

Hazel doesn’t even want to tell Vi and Chlo this time. “They’ll fuss,” she says. “The Goddess is looking out from us, and Kit is just up the bank, in the pub, if anything goes dangerously wrong.”

That’s a vote of confidence if ever I heard one.

I’ve never been swimming in the River Arun, mainly because it’s river in England. They’re known for being bitterly cold and I like all of my extremities where they are, thank you very much. So I’m not sure what exactly to expect.

I’m wearing a wetsuit that Hazel magicked up—pun unintended—from somewhere, and she’s just wearing a swimming costume, which seems mad to me. It’s hard to keep my eyes off her though, moulded as it is to her figure. Her arse looks magnificent, and if Kit weren’t relying on us quite so much, I’d be all for abandoning the corpse hunting in favour of other exertions.

The river at night is beautiful. The banks are covered in local flora and as we walk across down to the river’s edge, it feels almost misty.

Hazel puts one foot into the river—her feet are bare, unlike mine—and it’s as if she’s stuck her finger into a plug socket. Her hair starts lifting in a wild manner, and she just laughs and rolls herself in one swift movement, into the river.

She disappears at first, sliding under, but bobs back up almost immediately and she’s glowing. Or rather, the scales on her skin are. They’re a blue that match her eyes, and I find myself searching out different patches of them. There are a cluster on her throat, further back, and more on her arms and her left wrist. There’s a particularly tantalising group on her right thigh, that disappear under what she’s wearing.

I want to disappear with them.

My turn to step into the water, and it’s cold, so cold. But then Hazel swims over and does something that heats the water around my feet, and when I go to submerge myself, it’s not as shockingly bitter as I’d feared.

We don’t make it very far though, before a woman swims over to the two of us, but Hazel greets her quite happily, and they chat a bit and splash at each other in a playful manner that I assume is just politeness for river meetings.

“And this must be your…?”

“Girlfriend,” says Hazel decisively, even though we haven’t had the conversation. I feel her squeeze my hand and I squeeze back. I guess I’ve got myself a girlfriend. I can’t help but beam.

“I’m Finn, I’m the baker over in the Riverside Shops.”

The nix shakes my hand, “Yes, of course. I believe you’re registered with us.”

I school my face into a polite question, and she laughs. “I’m the local vet. Your tortoise is registered with us?”

“Ah yes, Lucifer. I live in fear of the day that he finally breaks free and rampages through my fridge. Knowing my luck, he’d go straight for the avocados.”

She winces. “Yeah, that’s always the way.” Turning back to Hazel, she adds, “I think your parents might be out tonight Hazel. Just a heads up. Perhaps keep close to the shore?”

When she swims away, Hazel looks anxiously back at me. “Maybe she’s right. Running into my parents would be stressful at best and disastrous at worst.”

There’s certainly a part of me that wants to get the hell out of this river before anyone tries to murder me, but I know that Hazel is in it for the long haul. “I’m not going anywhere baby. I’ll be fine.”

She swims over and kisses me and I could lose myself in her, in the river. She’s thrumming with energy and even I—mortal that I am—can sense it. I can see how easy it would be to drown someone, if they were feeling like this.

“Where are we going?”

She nods towards the bridge and I swim after her. It’s dark under the bridge, all shadows, and I don’t know how comfortable I’m going to be swimming into the depths of the river with her. These types of bridges, they dug down quite a way, when building them. So that they stand the test of time. This one has stood for a very long time, and I don’t like to think about how far down it goes.

“You’re not swimming down there with me, sweetheart.” It’s the first time she’s ever used that endearment for me, and warmth floods me as quickly as her spell did the river. “You’re going to stay here, and wait.”

“I can tread water for a certain amount of time,” I say, “but not forever.”

Don’t be foolish. You’re in my river; I can surely make you a seat.

“Thank you,” I say out loud, and Hazel hides a grin.

“She whispering in your ear. That’s a great honour, you know.”

“And it is an honour that surely I am unworthy of. Please. Please deem me unworthy of it.”

She laughs again, and waits for me to be seated on this chair of water-smoothed stones, before she dives down deep. Leaving me alone in the dark.