Free Sea Dweller (Birthstone Series) by Melanie Atkinson Page B

the ocean floor. Closing my fist around
the stone, I tried to mentally distance myself from the water and the power I
felt from the stone. Several moments passed and the stone seemed to resist, but
finally, the second skin melted from my body. I wasn’t prepared to feel so
naked and air deprived. I thrust myself above the water’s surface with a gasp
and stood, my legs shockingly wobbly. Several minutes passed before my
trembling limbs could gather the energy to walk forward against the swirl of
the sea around me. By then, Sai had already spotted me and was running in my
direction.
    “Go away,” I said to him,
knowing he wouldn’t actually obey my request.
    “Where have you been? I
thought you’d killed yourself!” Sai splashed through the water, reaching for
me.
    “Why in the name of Vairda
would I kill myself?” I pushed at him as he tried to grab my hand. When I
stumbled, Sai put his arm around my waist to steady me.
    “You never came up for air. I
tried going in after you a couple of times, but I didn’t think I could find you
in the dark. What were you doing?” Sai pulled me onto the beach and I collapsed
there, exhausted. Without the gem’s power, I felt miserably human. Miserably
myself.
    “Not that it’s any of your
business, but I needed a swim and found a place to be by myself for a while.”
    Sai’s eyes scanned the ocean.
“Where?” His voice was skeptical.
    I thought for a minute,
feigning gasps to stall for time. It would be a long shot but nearly three
hundred fifty paces down the beach was a small rock formation meeting the
water. There were several nooks I might have squeezed into for privacy. I
decided it was my only possibility.
    “Over there,” I said,
pointing toward the rocks. I tried to sound exasperated, as though I couldn’t
believe he hadn’t figured it out for himself.
    Sai’s eyebrows lifted. “You
swam that far and then came back again?”
    I sat up and avoided his
stare. “I needed the exercise. Time to think without you around.”
    “I never saw you surface,
Aylen.”
    “It’s a big ocean, Sai. It’s
possible to miss things in the dark.” I forced myself to my feet and Sai
reluctantly followed.
    “Aylen, this isn’t like you.
First you ignore me and take off for a swim in the middle of the night. No
offense, but you’ve never been a great swimmer. Then you disappear and I don’t
see you come up for air once. Then, out of nowhere, some strange creature starts
jumping out of the water . . .”
    “You saw that?” I asked,
cutting him off.
    “How could anyone miss it?”
    “Strange, wasn’t it? Maybe it
was a deformed dolphin or something. Maybe one of the sea monsters in your
Vairdan legends.” I offered a weak laugh and began to stroll down the beach
toward my home, my hands still gripping the stone tightly. I silently prayed
its light wouldn’t seep through my fingers.
    “I can’t believe after seeing
something like that you were willing to dive back in the water and swim all the
way to the other end of the beach. You’re always so scared of that kind of
thing.”
    “Maybe you don’t know me as
well as you think you do.” I shrugged and kept walking.
    “Everything about tonight has
been pretty out of character for you. Showing up at the festival was nothing
compared to what I just witnessed. Seriously Aylen, what’s going on with you?
What are you hiding?”
     Sai grabbed my arm, pulling
me to a stop. He looked down at me, his eyes lit with intensity. Normally, Sai
could have wrangled anything from me by looking at me that way. This time was
different.
    “I don’t think,” I said,
meeting his eyes, “I’m the only one hiding something. In fact, you’ve been
hiding things from me for a long time.”
    Sai’s shoulders slumped and
his grip on my arm relaxed. “Aylen, you haven’t given me a chance to explain.”
    “Oh, haven’t I?” I
challenged. “How long have we been friends, Sai? How long have I trusted you
and believed you cared