“It’s…nice,” Marina finished. She cast a look around the rocky interior and inwardly shuddered at the lack of natural light.
This was a bad idea. Had been a bad idea. Would forever remain as the stupidest thing that she had ever let herself be talked into until the end of—what was he doing?
Alaric calmly stripped off his hoodie and T-shirt in practiced, fluid motions. He was staring at the large, faintly glowing pool of water, dominating the floor of the natural cavern. “You wore your suit, right?” He asked, wadding up the hoodie around the T-shirt. “Come on, if we don’t hurry, you’ll miss the shuttle.”
“Shuttle?” Marina swallowed. He’d brought her to a vacant cave with weird purple rocks and bright teal water sloshing about the edges. Now he was stripping. “Look—maybe we should-“
Alaric stepped off the edge of the rock and dropped into the water. His soggy swim trunks floated up beside him a moment later. He shifted closer to the edge of the pool, flicking the trunks up onto the rocky edge. “Marina? Come on, we don’t have all day to-”
A tiny squeak escaped her lips, wide blue eyes focused solely on the shimmering, jade-scaled tail that curled up out of the water. “Alaric-?” She hated the way her voice shook. She was right. This was the absolute worst.
Of all the times she’d had to be right—why today? He’d danced around the truth every single time she’d asked and now—ugh. She wanted to shake him.
Whatever happened to easing someone into something?
“Marina?” There was a flicker of worry in his matching jade eyes. Of course his eyes would match his tail.
Of course.
She shimmed out of her summer dress, revealing a simple, one-piece suit of blue and gold stripes. He could pay for the shock later—when she finally told him she was a Siren.