Arthur leaned against the slick edge of the training pool, his arms resting on the cold stone, head tilted back as water streamed from his soaked hair and slid down his neck. The transformation faded slowly, scales shrinking, tail splitting, breath turning sharper, dryer. His lungs burned, but not painfully. Just enough to remind him he was alive.
His chest rose and fell in shallow pulls, still not recovered from the depth.
But his eyes stayed clear.
They fixed on Aleks, who hauled himself from the pool with deliberate, exhausted movements. Muscles trembled beneath his skin, the gleam of his hybrid form still lingering like an echo. Water rolled off him in sheets, leaving streaks along the carved runes of the stone floor.
"Did you know it would happen so smoothly?" Arthur asked, voice low, a tattered edge of awe in it. "Or was that just a very dangerous guess?"
Aleks braced his hands on the rim of the pool, pausing as the cold seeped into his knuckles. His shoulders sagged.
