Creature Discomforts (Descendants) Read Online Free Page A

think I have a thing for Sid!” Rachel shook her head in disgust to prove she really, really didn’t. “I barely like him! I mean, yeah, he’s a good hunter. And I guess he’s taught me some good fighting techniques. And okay, I admit he’s not nearly as annoying as when he first showed up and started horning in on my life.” Her mom’s eyebrows shot up, but Rachel kept going. “Seriously, Mom. Seriously . Sid’s just a friend.”
    The smile pulling across Daphne’s lips made Rachel sputter. Why was she smiling like that … like she knew something Rachel didn’t? It made Rachel’s cheeks go hot despite the chill in the air.
    “You know, I don’t go around bugging you about why you never told me I was a Descendant,” Rachel countered. That certainly wiped the smile off her mom’s face.
    In fact, the smile kept falling, and both of Daphne’s hands balled tight together at her waist. She sat down hard at the edge of the boat and spoke to her lap. “I did my best, Rachel.”
    Rachel’s insides twisted at that. She opened her mouth, but wasn’t entirely sure what to say. Daphne’s shoulders heaved in a sigh, and she finally looked up at her daughter.
    “Did you know I had an aunt? I never met her, but she was your grandmother’s older sister.”
    “But then how …” It was the eldest Chase daughters who inherited.
    “Her name was Vivienne, and she was raised to be a Descendant. Every day of her life, she had this burden hanging over her. Can you imagine, knowing the moment you turn eighteen you’ll have this incredible responsibility handed to you?” Daphne shook her head. “No, not responsibility, Vivienne called it her death sentence. And she made it that. She killed herself the day before her birthday, and the inheritance passed down to her younger sister.”
    Rachel ’s heart ached. Water slapped against the boat’s hull, a hollow smack that she felt through her feet. Would she have wanted to know what she’d become her entire life? To know each passing second hauled her closer to some unseen fate? But Sid had lived with that, and he turned out fine. He knew what was coming and was prepared. He hadn’t opened his eyes on his eighteenth birthday and suddenly been able to see monsters.
    “I wanted,” Daphne started, her voice shaking. She pulled in a ragged breath. “I wanted to give you a real childhood, Rachel, like your grandmother gave me before I inherited. No child should be burdened with this.”
    Rachel’s shoulders sagged with guilt. She had to say something, to tell her mom she had given her a good childhood, but somehow the words stuck in Rachel’s throat and refused to come out. She shifted back and forth on her feet. “I, uh … we should get in and watch for Kendra,” she finally whispered, hating herself for the things she couldn’t say.
    Rachel jumped in, and a few minutes later she jostled on the waves as her mom did the same. Daphne swam close, reached through the water, and squeezed Rachel’s hand. It was amazing how a gesture so small could do so much to make Rachel feel better and more ashamed at the same time.
    *
    They’d been floating at the surface for about forty minutes, peering into the inky blue darkness below, when a shadow ascended from the deep. Rachel motioned for her mom and pointed, but Daphne was already staring at the emerging shadow.
    It grew larger each second, first a flash of gold catching the very last fingers of sunlight, then a swishing fish tail. The shadow became a merman jetting straight for them, but Rachel only grinned around her snorkel mouthpiece.
    Kai, Kendra’s dad, gave one more powerful burst of his tail and sliced the water with his bare, thick arms. Rachel bobbed in Kai’s wake as he broke the surface and flipped her body down to tread water. The chill air smacked against her skin above the water, and her teeth chattered after she spit out the mouthpiece, but she grinned again. Kai had led a handful of other merpeople last