Creature Discomforts (Descendants) Read Online Free

Shipwreck Cay. The desolation made it the perfect spot for Kendra’s free-dives to the merpeople. On this chilly spring evening, the three women had Breaker Cove all to themselves. The entrance to the caves was somewhere in the deeper waters away from the southern point of the cove, though Rachel didn’t know exactly where—only Kendra knew that.
    The girl in question zipped her wetsuit up her back and gathered her hair into a short pony that stuck straight up from the crown of her head. Behind the goggles, Rachel noticed she’d swiped mascara onto her lashes. “You coming in?”
    Rachel plucked at her own wetsuit pulled half down around her waist. The deep water of Breaker Cove was still cold with winter, and the wind off the open ocean was sharp. “I’m right behind you. You’ve got your watch set so you’re not under too long?”
    Kendra jiggled her wrist and took big, awkward steps to the back of the boat. The flippers attached to her feet slapped with each footfall.
    “Does your dad know you’re coming?” Daphne Chase had already suited up. Her goggles were pushed into her hair, and Rachel tried not to laugh at the way her mom’s thick bangs stuck up over the goggles and gave her head a peacock fan.
    The grin that spread across Kendra’s face in answer rivaled the brightness of the sun. She always got like this before a dive—giggly and jiggly and nearly jumping out of her skin with anticipation. How Rachel had never figured out the girl was half-mermaid in the years they’d been best friends was beyond her.
    “Okay,” Rachel said, wriggling her wetsuit up over her torso. “We’ll just snorkel at the surface and watch out for any other divers. Have fu…” Rachel trailed off. Kendra had already dived overboard and disappeared under the red-orange water with one powerful kick.
    Rachel chewed on her cheek for a moment until the bubbles where Kendra had splashed in drifted across the water’s surface. She turned back to her mom with a sigh.
    Daphne perched at the edge of a seat and pulled on her flippers. Her fingers shook, the only clue that she was jittery at the prospect of finally meeting one of the merpeople. She’d been the only Descendant living along the entire East Coast for twenty years, but the merpeople were an untrusting people. “So,” she said, her voice light. “Have you seen Jake lately?” She snapped on the second flipper with a little grunt and peered up at her daughter.
    “Uh, not lately,” Rachel answered, her own voice just as carefully casual. She didn’t know how much her mom knew about her and Jake’s weird quasi-relationship. “I got coffee with him when I was home for Christmas, but we haven’t really talked since.” They hadn’t talked. Though they had , unfortunately, moved on to other activities that Rachel vowed afterward she wouldn’t repeat.
    “He’s a good kid,” Daphne said.
    “Yeah,” Rachel agreed. “We’re just very different.” She chewed at her cheek again, her forehead drawn as she thought of her ex-boyfriend. He hadn’t left Shipley, but he was actually doing pretty well working for his uncle’s tourist fishing outfit. Rachel pushed away the memories of her time with Jake. “He was a good first boyfriend,” she said with some finality. It was true. He had been a good first boyfriend, not a current boyfriend.
    “And Sid,” Daphne asked. “Where’s he this weekend?”
    Rachel’s nostrils flared in annoyance, and she ducked her head at the sharp look from her mom.
    Daphne flip-flopped closer and squeezed Rachel’s shoulder. “With Beth Ann, I take it. Are you okay with him dating that girl?”
    Rachel pulled away from her mom’s warm hand and soft eyes and quiet, searching voice. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Why would I care?”
    Daphne reached for Rachel again, but Rachel sidestepped her mom and inched closer to the diving platform off the back of the boat. “If you ever want to talk about it…”
    “Oh, God! You