Twelve

I turned to Eben, my eyes wide with excitement. I think I even skipped in place, digging my toes in the sand. I was that excited.

"Really? We"re going to the bottom of the sea?" I demanded, and Eben gave me a smile I could only call indulgent.

"Yes, we are. Though I"m afraid you won"t be able to touch anything just yet. I"m still trying to figure out a way to make that happen."

"Are you kidding? Just being able to see the bottom would be amazing!" I shot him a wide grin. "You know humans can"t generally do that, right?"

"Yes, I"ve gathered," he answered wryly, then gave me a serious look. "From everything I"ve read, it seems the water pressure is the most harmful aspect, which is why I"ll create a large bubble around you so the pressure falls on it instead of you."

"That makes sense. And I can"t touch anything because if you made an opening, the water would fill the bubble and kill me."

Eben stumbled a step before nodding. "Ah, yes. That"s about right."

I winced. I probably shouldn"t talk about my death so casually, especially when I knew he"d lost "me" before.

"Sorry," I mumbled, but he merely shook his head, then smiled widely at me.

"Are you ready?" he asked as our feet dipped into the water, and I nodded quickly.

Eben pulled away from me, took a few steps back, then closed his eyes. I felt the air stir around me, but I couldn"t see anything different, at least not until Eben reached out a tentacle that stopped halfway to me, as if there was an invisible wall between us.

"All right, here we go."

Eben wrapped two tentacles around my bubble and pulled me into the water after him. In the water, he could control the bubble just with his mind, but on land he had to move it physically. Why? I had no idea. Magic had weird rules.

Once underwater, I glanced around us, smiling at the sight of water. Considering someone threw me into the sea to die, I probably should be a little scared of it, but I wasn"t. Maybe because, if it weren"t for being thrown into the sea, I never would"ve met Eben. The sea wasn"t going to kill me, but it had saved my life. How could I be afraid of it?

"Wait," I said as Eben started to swim deeper, and he paused, glancing back at me.

"Everything okay?"

I bit my lip, suddenly feeling foolish for stopping him. It was just that I"d suddenly realized I wouldn"t be able to touch him either. I wanted to explore the bottom of the ocean, but not with a wall between us.

"Um..." I hedged, not wanting to sound too needy or clingy. Eben had been so good about accommodating me in every possible way. I didn"t want to take advantage of his kindness, his sweetness.

Eben drew closer until he bounced off the bubble, then scowled at it as if he wasn"t the one who"d made it. The sight made me smile despite myself, and I reached out, pressing my palm on the bubble"s wall.

"I just... I think I"d rather not do it if it means there will be this wall between us," I said honestly, and Eben"s eyes widened before his cheeks turned pink. I found it absolutely adorable that someone as old and experienced as him could still get flustered. By me!

"Oh," Eben murmured, his voice soft. He swam a little way back, making my brows furrow. But then he closed his eyes, and the water pushed away from him. Oh, he was making himself a bubble. When it grew bigger, the bubble"s wall pressed against mine, and suddenly, two bubbles were one, and Eben"s tentacles were around me.

"Is this better?" He gazed down at me, and I smiled widely, hugging him tight. Oh fuck, this kraken was going to be the death of me.

"It"s perfect." I spoke the words into his soft sweater—that he"d of course dried the moment he came into the bubble—because I was too embarrassed to look at him. I"d been brave enough to ask, though, and he hadn"t thought I was needy. He"d just...listened. Sometimes, I wondered if I"d just died in the sea and this was heaven, but then I had another nightmare, and that disabused me of such notions.

I could sense us moving, sort of how you felt when in an elevator, and I pulled away from him—but only far enough to see, leaving his tentacles firmly wrapped around my waist—to take in our surroundings.

The water was darker than it"d been above, but still beautiful. There were more fish here, schools of them, which made me think we must"ve moved further away from the shore too.

"How can I see so well down here?" I already had an idea, but I wanted to make sure anyway.

"Magic." Such a simple answer, and yet it was responsible for so much of my current happiness. I"d never believed in magic before, but now I had no choice but to believe.

"Are there sharks here?"

"Yes, but they"re friends. They won"t harm us."

"Really? Can you talk to them?"

Eben tilted his head to the side. "I suppose so. I"ve lived with them for a long time, so I can communicate with them well enough. Krakens generally don"t have much magic. Shifting into a human form is something I can only do because of my fae heritage. So, in a sense, I"m half-sea creature and half-supernatural being," he explained, and my brows furrowed.

"You mean there are other krakens in the world who don"t have a human form?" I asked, and he nodded. "How has no one found them, then? I thought they were all like you and just hid well."

"They"re not here. Not in this realm, I mean." Eben"s eyes got a faraway look. "They live in the faerie realm. That"s where my parents were from. But that"s a story for another day. Today is all about you."

Did that mean Eben was the only kraken in the human world? And if so, did that mean all the kraken stories I"d read were based on Eben?

I"d have liked to know more about his past, but I could tell it wasn"t something he was ready to talk about just yet. So, I accepted his words with a nod, and turned my eyes to the magnificent sea that surrounded us on all sides.

While Hobie gazed around us with wonder-filled eyes, I watched him. He was so beautiful, with his dirty-blond hair appearing brown so far underwater, his eyes darker still. The smile on his face had been there for a while now, and I wished it"d never leave his face. His plush pink lips looked the best when they were curved up.

"Eben..." Hobie turned the full force of those wonder-filled eyes on me. "Thank you. Thank you for bringing me here. Thank you for giving me the chance to see something so amazing."

Pulling him closer to me, I pressed a kiss on top of his head. "Showing you the wonders of the sea has been a great pleasure for me too, Hobie. There"s nothing for you to thank me for."

Hobie glanced up at me, that smile still on his face, then turned to look behind me with a gasp. "A seahorse!"

Pulling away from me, he pressed against the bubble"s edge, gazing at the seahorse who was watching him inquisitively. I was familiar with most of the sea creatures around these parts and vice versa, but clearly, the seahorse was confused at the presence of a human. He"d probably never seen one before.

Hobie pressed his palm to the bubble wall, and the seahorse drew close in small movements.

"Oh, it"s so cute!" Hobie gasped, and I smiled at the look of sheer delight on his face. I needed to figure out a way that would allow him to touch. I wanted to keep showing Hobie things that would delight and please him, and not just when it was a special occasion.

After a while, the seahorse got bored and swam away, and Hobie returned to me, allowing me to once again wrap my tentacles around him.

"Are you having fun?" I asked, and Hobie grinned up at me.

"So much! I never thought I"d see any of these creatures outside of books and the aquarium." He smiled wryly, running his palm over one of my tentacles. "Then again, I didn"t think I"d ever see a kraken outside of the books either."

"Am I anywhere close to what you pictured?" I was curious how krakens were described in human lore, since I hadn"t even realized humans had stories about me.

"You"re much, much better." There wasn"t an ounce of doubt in his voice, and warmth filled my chest as he smiled up at me.

"I"m glad to hear that."

"Though I wonder. Since you said there are no other krakens in the human world, does that mean all the stories I"ve read were inspired by you?" he asked, then blinked, as if surprised by his own words. "Sorry. You don"t have to answer that."

"You can ask me anything, Hobie. If I don"t want to talk about it, I"ll tell you, okay? But you never need to hold back with me." He gazed at me for a long moment before nodding. "As for your question, yes, it"s possible. I wasn"t always very careful when I was younger, and there may have been a few times I slipped and let a human see me in my kraken form."

My youth—by which I meant the first few centuries of my life—was not a time I was proud of. I"d been alone and unable to trust anyone, and I"d been so very angry at the people of the faerie realm who"d punished my parents simply for falling in love. I"d not always dealt with my anger in a healthy way.

"I think I would"ve liked you even then."

Hobie had a sweet little smile on his face, and I couldn"t resist leaning down to press a kiss on his forehead. I was surprised, however, when he grabbed my forearm and stopped me from pulling back. Instead, he rose up on his tiptoes...and pressed his lips to mine.

I blinked, completely taken off guard by the suddenness of the move. When I got over my shock, I responded to the kiss, my tentacles tightening around Hobie instinctively as his lips curved around mine.

Hobie kept the kiss light, and I didn"t push him, finding the way his sweet lips danced against mine to be more than enough. All I"d wanted for today was to give Hobie a good time, and yet he"d somehow turned it around and given me the greatest gift I"d ever receive, because this wasn"t a simple kiss.

No, it was a sign of trust. Hobie had given me the benefit of the doubt from the moment he woke up, but this moment, when we were deep underwater with only the sea creatures around us, he"d given me his faith.

Hobie pulled back first, his breaths coming in soft pants, his eyes squeezed shut.

"Hobie? Are you okay?" I asked softly, placing my palm on his cheek. He pressed into my touch instantly, like a cat asking for pets, and opened his eyes, gazing up at me with impossibly dark eyes.

"I"m okay. I"m better than okay," he said with a soft smile, and I returned his smile as I leaned forward and rested my forehead against his.

"Thank you, for trusting me," I said quietly into the space between us, because the words whispered were just as precious as the real thing. I"d never yearned for someone"s trust as much as I did for Hobie"s, and receiving such a physical sign of it was something to be treasured.