Linda Gayle Read Online Free Page B

look away? His heart bursting with too many emotions to name, he said, “I am Rahiti.”
    She snorted skeptically. “I thought that was the dolphin.”
    “I am…was the dolphin. And that”—he nodded toward his friend, who swam past them—“is Moana.”
    “Him I know. You…” Her wide eyes—green eyes shot through with gold—took him in, gaze trailing over his face, his chest. She bit her lower lip and shook her head. “This is impossible.”
    Moana bumped him, coming to pause beside them. His poor friend—why had he not changed? Taking Lyric’s hand, he placed it on Moana’s side. “Look at him. See him. He is also a man. You’re the one, the one to save us.”
    She snatched her hand away and pushed back from him, paddling as she spoke. “Look, I don’t know what the hell is going on or what you’re doing out here with your pet fish, but I’m going in.”
    Moana flipped and disappeared in a dive, his abrupt movements clearly displaying his despair. “Moana!” No. If she left them, Moana would be trapped in that body forever, and Rahiti might change back if she rejected him. He swam after her, but his limbs refused to obey his commands the way his dolphin tail had. His clumsy splashing got him nowhere, and the water closed over his head. Despite thrashing his disobedient arms and kicking with his weak legs, Rahiti sank. He tried to call for Moana, but he’d lost the connection to the dolphin’s mind when he changed, and the woman would probably be glad to see him drown.
    So, after all this time and so much effort, this was how it would end. Perhaps this was how the god had always intended.
    As he surrendered to the inevitable, Rahiti stopped struggling and let his body sink into the depths. He watched the sunlight dappling his arms and torso. He refused to mourn. At least he’d die a man, a warrior. He would accept his fate. He closed his eyes and thanked Kanaloa for allowing him to enter paradise in his true form. Then he begged the great god to spare Moana. When he thought of his friend, a terrible sadness lanced through him. Moana, who had stayed by his side since the dawn of this curse, who had cheered him through his darkest days, who had convinced him not to lose hope.
    He asked Kanaloa for one last thing—that he and Moana would be together in the next life.
    As for the woman, he begged that she would forget she’d ever seen them.
    Just as his toes touched the cool bottom, someone took hold of one of his hands floating above his head. Lyric! The most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. Her strong hand gripped his, and she began to kick, pulling him up. His body was so weak he could barely aid in her rescue effort, but Rahiti did what he could. Just when he thought his inadequate human lungs would explode, their heads cleared the waves. Now he held on to her with a death grip.
    “It’s not far to shallower water,” she said, gusting through clenched teeth with her efforts. “Whoever you are, I can’t just let you drown. Crazy dolphin-man,” she muttered, then looped her arm around his chest and pulled him along, swimming on her back. Rescuing him. How humiliating. Rahiti’s warrior soul cringed at the idea of a woman saving him, but then again, as much as he was willing to accept his death, he’d be glad to accept life as well.
    He tried to kick to help, but she gasped out between breaths, “Just lie still. It’s easier that way. Let me do the work. What the… Are you…are you naked ?” Her voice rose to a squeak at the end, and Rahiti rolled his eyes.
    “Dolphins usually are,” he replied. If Moana saw him now, he’d never stop laughing. Where had Moana gone? “My friend,” he said. How strange his voice sounded, deeper than he remembered, but at least he knew Lyric’s language. He and Moana had spent much of their time learning human speech and culture by studying tourists, sailors, and fishermen. Their agile minds needed to stay busy, and they’d always hoped it would