“You have only had human experiences in the water. It must be wretched to be as limited as you are.” He released me and took me by the hand, turning back to the ocean. “Come, I wish to show you but a taste of what it is like to be me.”

As he drew me to the edge, I felt I wasn’t afraid. With Riley, I was comfortable. Safe.

I took a sharp breath when the first wave washed over my foot. It wasn’t as cold as I expected, but the tingling of the foam that brushed my ankles made my flesh crawl. I went rigid.

“Riley,” I gasped. “I can’t!” My breath started to come more rapidly. Another wave washed past my legs. I swore I felt something skitter across my toes. I yelped and turned to try to run back up the beach, but Riley held my wrist in a firm grip and I couldn’t move more than a few steps. I whimpered as my knees began to shake.

He laughed and stepped toward me. For a moment I thought he was going to follow me back onto the dry sand, but then he swept me off my feet and into his arms. He held me cradled against his chest, just like he had when he’d carried me out of the dark alley on Friday, except this time there was no material of his shirt between us. I knew trying to squirm out of his extraordinary grip would be useless, but moreover, when he held me that way, I suddenly felt I didn’t want to be anywhere else. He began to wade out further, carrying me over the place where the waves broke, and I stared in fixed dread as the water level rose closer and closer.

He paused a few yards out, just before the water was high enough to touch me, and I exhaled in relief. Around us, the almost placid glassy surface reflected the starry sky as if the cosmos were below as well as above us, and when I looked out past the rocks, I couldn’t tell where the horizon fell. If not for the rocks, I could have imagined we were floating in the very center of space.

Riley turned his face down to me so that his lips brushed my ear. I was too distracted by the sparkling sensation that shot across my skin from his touch to fully take in the implication of the words he whispered until it was too late:

“Take a deep breath.”

I did, and not a moment too soon as he plunged into the water, bringing me with him. We must have been on the edge of a drop-off, because it felt like he dove down fathoms in mere seconds, propelling us deeply with strong strokes that I couldn’t understand considering that his arms remained wrapped firmly around me. It didn’t even feel like he was kicking.