Maia froze. No. Impossible.
Zander’s body tensed around her, his arms strong and comforting, and feeling way more right than they should. “Over my dead body,” he said back. The words came out as more of a growl than anything.
Orion was behind them only a few feet away, and beyond him Jude slumped against a support beam, catching his breath. Good thing rush hour commuters were already out and filling the boat to capacity or they would have nothing separating them from Orion’s grip.
“If you insist,” he said with a grin that told her he meant every word. “It’d be my pleasure to make that wish come true.”
Oh great. Now they were going to have a testosterone party.
Good thing the commuters on board were engrossed in their cell phone conversations, many with headphones on. The noise caused by Orion and her was lost in the regular hustle and bustle of the daily evening commute. No one even glanced their direction.
“How did you find us?” Maia asked. They’d done everything they could to lose him. How did he still manage to find them?
“You’re not that good at hiding your scent. I could smell you a universe away.”
She scrunched up her nose. “Gross. That makes it sound like I have terrible body odor. Can we leave my scent out of this? It’s creepy.”
Maybe if she could find a way to distract him a little, to make him drop his guard a bit, she could figure out a way to get out of here. If she’d been on her own, she would have been gone already. Into the water and out of sight. But she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t leave Zander behind to fight her battle for her.
Maia gripped Zander’s arm. “Do you trust me?”
A wrinkle of concern creased his forehead. “Yes.”
“Good,” she said, climbing up onto the rail of the boat and extending her hand back toward him. The people around them murmured with concern while still trying to ignore what was going on. “Then let’s go.”
He shook his head. “No way. You can’t jump into the river. The current here is too strong. We’ll be swept away if we’re not crushed by the boat first.”
“No, we won’t. Please, trust me.”
Finally after what seemed like the longest moment, Zander climbed up beside her and swung his legs over the railing. Behind them people shrieked, calling out for them to stop, to come back over the railing and onto the deck of the boat.
Maia stared hard into Zander’s eyes and took his hand.
Please, Gaia, let this work.
She hadn’t ever tried something like this before, but the principal behind it was good. It had to work. It was their only option.
“Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and then jump when I tell you too. Whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand. Got it?”
Zander wore an expression of concern, but nodded his head despite it.
Thank Gaia he wasn’t fighting her on this. She didn’t have time to convince him. Damn it to Hades, she wasn’t sure it would work herself. She was hoping for the best at this point since options were sorely limited.
Behind them Orion roared with anger. He yelled a few universal profanities as he pushed people unceremoniously out of his way. Her blood ran cold with fear as he drew closer. In another few steps, he’d reach them.
She squeezed his hand tightly in hers, relieved to feel the strength in his hand gripping hers back. He would listen. He would do as she asked without question.
“Jump!”
***
Zander felt as if the air in his lungs was going to be sucked away with the undercurrent as his body hit the cold water of the Hudson River. The current moved him along with a little help from kicking his legs. He clung to Maia’s hand, worried she would be swept away.
Then he realized something unusual.
It was almost as if Maia was actually pulling him through the current. She seemed right at home here in the freezing water of the river. The murky water blurred his vision, but he felt her legs kicking beside him.
Oh good. She still has legs. So she isn’t a mermaid.
Of course she isn’t a mermaid. Mermaids don’t exist.
Star people don’t either, but yet Maia was one of the Pleiades stars.
Zander let out a yell, the sound muffled under the water. He snapped his mouth shut, but not before getting a mouthful of fish-flavored river water. If he made it out of this alive, he’d probably need a set of vaccines against whatever parasites he’d just ingested.
How was he still alive? The thought startled him as he realized they’d been swimming under the water non-stop since they’d jumped from the boat. They hadn’t surfaced for air once yet, at least not that he could remember and he was pretty sure he’d remember something like breathing.
His body wanted to scream again and fight against Maia to get his hand free so he could swim to the surface for air. But her grip on him was surprisingly strong.
Weirder yet, his lungs felt perfectly normal and not at all like they struggled for oxygen.
The scientific part of his brain took over. How was this possible? How could either of them swim under water without breathing? There had to be an explanation that would make sense to him—that would satisfy this moment in his mind so that he could rationally deal with what he was experiencing. So what was it?
Maybe he was able to go without breath because of the adrenaline pumping through his body, infusing his every cell and jacking him up on some crazy natural high. Sort of like how people can sometimes display incredible and impossible feats of strength because the moment calls for it. Like lifting a car off a person who’s trapped. Maybe this was his supernatural, yet natural feat of strength—not breathing under water for a really, really long time because he had to.
Nope. He just wanted the hell out of the water.
Maia stopped kicking her legs beside him and instead looked as if she were walking on the bottom of the riverbed. He attempted the same, finding a small measure of comfort in having his feet on semi-solid ground.
If they could touch the bottom, maybe that meant they were reaching the edge of wherever they were. Maybe that meant he’d get to breathe actual air again too.
Just then, they broke through the surface of the water, falling forward on to the suddenly shallow shore of the river. He crouched on his hands and knees, gulping huge breaths. The crisp air filled his lungs, the oxygen going straight to his brain, making his head spin.
Maia was already up and looking around, as if trying to figure out if Orion was behind them. He glanced back himself but all he saw was water and the ferryboat they’d been on, way off in the distance. Way, way off in the distance.
“What the fuck just happened, Maia?”
It was a rude and abrupt question, but he didn’t give a shit anymore. She couldn’t just do stuff like that and not tell him what to expect. He was human. He needed to breathe.
“Sorry. It was the only way to get away from him. He’s a great tracker, but a terrible swimmer.”
“Not that, the no breathing under water thing. We didn’t come up for air once and look how far we swam,” he said, pointing back out toward the ferry. “I don’t understand how I’m still alive enough to breathe again right now.”
“It’s because of me. I told you I was a water nymph. I have a special relationship with water. It doesn’t affect me the same way it does everyone else.”
“I get that’s how you’re able to swim without breathing, but that doesn’t explain why I’m not dead. Last time I checked, I wasn’t a water nymph.”
She rolled her eyes.
Seriously, she’s going to roll her eyes at me at a time like this?
“Of course you’re not a water nymph. Nymphs are only girls and I’ve seen you naked. I know you’re not hiding any girly parts under those wet clothes. Nope, you’re all man.” Her eyes traveled down the length of his body.
“Are you really ogling me at a time like this?”
She blushed. “Water does other things to me too. I can’t help it.”
Really? Intriguing. Maybe that explained how their picnic at the dam that first date had almost turned into a night under the stars making love to the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. What would happen if they did it in the water right here, right now?
Shaking his head, Zander forced those thoughts—very enticing thoughts—to the back of his mind where he could retrieve them later. Oh yes, this new little piece of knowledge opened up a whole new world of possibilities he wanted to explore with her—once they weren’t being tracked by the most menacing person in the universe.
“We should keep moving,” he said, pulling himself up out of the water.
His clothes felt like they weight a hundred pounds now that they were soaked with water. He took a moment to look around and finally get his bearings. Judging by the angle of the city’s skyline and the section of lower Manhattan that he could make out, he guessed they’d washed up on Governor’s Island.
“If we head that way, there’s a row of houses. With a little luck, we’ll find one that’s open and be able to hide long enough to warm up and dry off.”
Maia nodded as she slipped out of the water to join him. She didn’t look at all weighed down by the water in her clothes. Was she protected from that too?
She shivered, wrapping her arms tightly around herself.
Nope. She was susceptible to the cold and wet just as much as he was. Time to find some shelter. And fast. It might be summer, but there was still a chill in the air now that it was approaching evening. And soon enough, the sun would set. Even dry, people still needed a sweater after the sun set at this time of year, and being wet and on the shore of the Hudson would make the night feel even colder.
They trudged across one of the expansive lawns, moving toward the buildings they could see beyond a cluster of trees. As they got closer, music drifted on the air. Somewhere, someone had a party going on and it would be in their best interest not to get too close to it.
As they came up on the first building, they could see just around the corner there was a large party underway complete with food and dancing and lots of lights strung in the trees. Zander guided Maia to the back of the building instead. Aside from a few staff moving, it was relatively deserted.
“This way. Act natural and maybe they won’t notice we’re wet.” Zander held out his arm and Maia twined her arm with his. They walked arm in arm as if they’d just slipped from the party for a private stroll around the grounds. They paused, pretending to look at some flowers as a staff member walked by without giving them a passing glance. As the staff person disappeared back into the first building, they walked off again as quickly as they could while still looking normal.
When Zander thought they were out of immediate danger of anyone taking notice of them, he sprinted ahead, putting a few more buildings between themselves and the party. Maia kept pace with him easily.
Rounding another corner, he spotted the row of houses he’d known were here somewhere. He wouldn’t have minded if they’d been a little further from the party, but he’d take what they could get at this point.
“Which one, Zander?” Maia asked from beside him, eyeing the houses.
“Any of them should be fine. But let’s try the ones furthest away first.”
They crept down the street staying as close to the bushes and trees as they could. He wasn’t sure who might be around this section of the island, if anyone. As far as he knew, these houses weren’t in use anymore as actual residences, but he wasn’t eager to be proven wrong.
They walked up to the last house on the block and tried the front door. Of course it was locked up tight. Around back, they tried another door. It too was locked.
“How are we going to get in?” Maia questioned him, shivering again now that she wasn’t moving.
“I’ll try the windows.”
The house was a large, old colonial dating back to the early 1900s. Back then windows didn’t have the same kinds of locks as newer ones. By the look of these panes of glass, the window structure hadn’t been updated. Probably trying to keep the historical accuracy of the property as much as possible.
He pushed up on the window and felt it give slightly. It was old and creaky and probably didn’t respond any better to the change in temperature going from day to evening than they did. Wiggling it gently, he forced it up and open. As he expected, there was no screen to worry about removing. Now he just needed to say a little prayer that he didn’t set off any kind of silent alarm. There were no alarm boxes on the frame, so hopefully they were in the clear.
“You first,” he motioned for Maia to climb through the window ahead of him. Weaving his fingers together and cupping his hands, he crouched low so Maia could step onto his hands. He boosted her up enough so she could swing her other leg into the open window, then shimmy her body through.
“Give me your hand,” she said, reaching back out the window to help him up.
“It’s okay. I can pull myself up.” He put his hands on the windowsill and jumped, pushing himself up and through the window headfirst. He rolled the rest of the way through, discovering that the floor of the house was further down than he expected. He cursed as he crashed to the floor in a lump of wet clothes.
“I could have helped you,” Maia said with an I-told-you-so tone in her voice.