Saina watched Scarlet go with a sigh of relief. The woman made her uneasy, raising the hair at the back of Saina’s neck. The power that seemed to bleed out from her was something she had never felt before and the air was easier to breathe with her gone.

“So, I guess you’ve volunteered to teach me to be a lifeguard,” she said, turning to Bastian. “Can you really do that? Legally, I mean?”

Bastian, still looking like he had a terrific headache, shrugged and gave a lopsided grin. “I'm certified to train lifeguards. I know you can swim, I just have to quiz you on first aid and ocean safety, which I’m also sure you won’t have any trouble with, and there’s a temporary certificate I sign and a form I mail in to the Civil Guard for the permanent certification.”

“Let’s go make me a lifeguard,” Saina said, and she took Bastian’s offered arm and dragged the luggage that had changed her life so drastically behind her.

She dropped the bag at her cottage, wrapped in a garbage bag to keep the ooze from spreading, while Bastian got his lifeguard manuals from his room. They flipped through them together at the pool. “You know CPR?” he asked

“Sure,” Saina said.

Bastian flipped a few more pages. “Name the first three things you do with a drowning victim.”

“On land or in the water?”

“Assume you’ve gotten them back to land.”

“If they aren’t breathing, turn their head to the side so the water drains out, start mouth-to-mouth, and steal their wallet.”

Bastian chuckled. “Close enough. Describe two kinds of drowning behavior.”

“Well, there’s the struggling sort, and the bobbing sort. Plus the being dragged under by tentacles sort, but you hardly ever see that this close to shore.”

“What would you do with a hysterical swimmer in the water?”

“Sing them to calmness before I even attempted to get close.”

Bastian flipped a few more page. “We can skip that part, then. And the bit about how long you can hold your breath and dive.”

“Do we get to practice the mouth-to-mouth?” Saina asked, feeling suddenly mischievous.

She regretted the joke as tasteless as Bastian looked up too quickly and then winced as his head caught up with the motion.

“You need an aspirin,” Saina told him.

“About seven of them,” Bastian agreed. “But let’s get this finished.”

Together, they flipped through the rest of the manual, and Saina convinced him that she knew the material well enough.

She demonstrated basic swimming strokes in the pool and showed him rescue carries with a floating mattress.

“You’re qualified,” Bastian said at last, closing the book and flinching at the sound of it. “I’ll sign for it.”

Saina dried herself off with one of the fluffy pool towels and frowned at him.

“Let’s go get you that aspirin,” she said.

She led him down the path to the staff house, where the sign on the door had been further annotated “House of Hooligans” and “Stud House.” Both were crossed out.

By the time Saina got Bastian up the stairs, he was staggering badly.

“You poor thing,” she said as he fumbled with the lock. “Let’s get you into bed.”

“I like that idea,” he said in a low rumble.

Saina paused in the doorway. “I… I can help you,” she offered. “But only if you want me to.”

“How do you mean?” Bastian asked sensibly.

“I can rub your shoulders,” Saina said hesitantly. Could she really do that without wanting to touch more? “And I can try to sing more of the goldshot from you.”

“I’d like that,” Bastian said gravely.

Saina made him take four aspirin with an entire glass of water, drew him down onto the bed and kissed his forehead, then took his shirt off carefully.

It was hard not to linger over the muscles of his arms, she wanted nothing more than to kiss down his chest, but Saina made herself stay to her goal. She sat chastely behind him on the bed and began kneading the knots from his shoulders and neck.

He groaned in pleasure as Saina found all the tightest places and applied siren-strong fingers to unwinding them. She hummed as she worked, cautiously letting her magic loosen all the tension from his body and leach what she could of the remaining poison from his blood.

When she was done, he turned abruptly and gathered her into his arms.

“You’re supposed to be relaxed now,” Saina protested with a squeak.

“You missed a spot,” Bastian murmured near her ear. “But my headache is gone.”

Saina could not keep her hands from continuing to stroke the tanned lines of his shoulders. “What if… what if you’re wrong?” she asked quietly. “What if this is just enchantment, like I said?” She didn’t want to stop touching him, she wanted his skin against every inch of hers. It didn’t feel like song-fantasy. It was so beautiful and right-feeling, just being with him, held in his strong arms.

Bastian put a hand at her chin and gently tipped her head back so he could look into her eyes. His eyes were all gold now, glimmering like distant treasure. “I will take a moment of enchantment with you over a lifetime without you.”

But it wasn’t her magic looking back at her, it was Bastian. Not Bastian-on-goldshot, not Bastian-entwined-in-her-spell, just Bastian.

Bastian, who loved her without magic.

Bastian, who wanted her as much as she wanted him.

Saina opened her mouth, and it wasn’t to sing.