SEAMONSTER: An Aquarathi Novella (The Aquarathi) Read Online Free Page A

been sitting is now deserted. Maybe I’d imagined her being there earlier. Still, I peruse the row of houses, wondering if she’d disappeared into any of them. I think of the drawing in her notebook and shiver. I’d been careless. Too careless. I should have just minded my own business and turned the other way, letting her do whatever she’d gone to Dead Man’s Cliff to do. If Echlios finds out that I’ve revealed myself to a human, I’ll be dead meat. Worse, maybe.
    At the beachside entrance to the Marine Center, m y bag is nearly full, and so are the bags of the other three. We separate the rubbish into recyclable and trash, and go to the locker rooms to get cleaned up. Filing into the foyer, I shoot Sawyer a thoughtful glance. He’d surprised me. We need more people like him—those who care enough to try to make a difference. Otherwise, our new Aquarathi home—just like the dying planet we’d fled from—will be at risk.
    “ Rissa! You and Speio coming with?” Sawyer yells from the entrance to the parking lot. “Black’s. Thirty minutes.”
    “ We’ll meet you there,” she says. “Need to swing back to get our boards. Did you check the surf?”
    “Decent swell.”
    She glances at me, quirking an eyebrow. I’m surprised that she’s actually looking to me for permission. “We should check in with Echlios first,” I say.
    “Text me when you get there,” she says to Sawyer. “If we can come, we’ll meet you. If n ot, see you tomorrow and carve one up for me.”
    “You got it!”
    We meet Soren outside and climb into the Jeep. On the drive home, Nerissa doesn’t say much. My mother exchanges a concerned glance with me, but I shrug my shoulders. I throw it down to the fact that she’s just being Nerissa—uncommunicative and aloof, as usual. But she’s gnawing her bottom lip between her teeth and staring out of the window with a worried expression.
    “What’s wrong?” I ask her once we get home and out of Soren’s earshot.
    “That girl from today,” she says. “Who is she?”
    My stomach winds into immediate knots. “No one.”
    “I followed your glimmer,” she says gently. “I saw what she was drawing. Did she see you in your true form?”
    “No.” I’m not exactly lying, but I’m not exactly telling the truth , either. I keep my face composed even though I can feel my body overheating at the white lie. “I don’t know why she drew what she did.”
    She shoots me a thoughtful look. “Speio, I don’t care what you do, but whatever you have going on with that girl, get it together before Echlios finds out. You know the laws, even if we’re not in Waterfell.” She eyes me and for the first time in a while, I see a little of the old Nerissa in her … the best friend who used to look out for me and vice versa. “Make sure she doesn’t become a problem.”

     
    Connections
     
    I find Anya in the same spot as yesterday. I watch her for a few minutes, figuring out the best way to approach her without being a creeper. Tiny lines bracket the corners of her lips. She doesn’t seem as distressed as the first day I’d seen her, but she doesn’t seem that happy, either. It’s as if the weight of the world is resting on her shoulders. I can’t begin to imagine what could be so emotionally taxing for a teenager. All the sixteen-year-olds I’ve met are entitled without a care in the world. They have money, cars, and beachfront property, and most days the only thing they have to worry about is which restaurant to choose. Then again, none of those people have a death wish, braving a hundred-foot plunge wearing nothing but a nightgown.
    I take a breath and edge closer, noticing that she’s doodling in t he same notebook. I’m instantly relieved that it’s not a picture of me. “Hey,” I say. She doesn’t look up from her drawing, so I clear my throat and say the greeting a little louder along with her name. The pencil stalls and Anya’s eyes lift slowly. Recognition flares in