Page 53 of Whispers of the Deep

There was black blood coming out of him, too. His shoulder looked like it was a mess, all ragged looking meat and sharp edges. She hovered her hand over the injury, not touching in case there was some rule against that or if her suit would make him sicker.

“You’re hurt too.” She looked up at him through her stupid goggles and tried to convey her worry.

But he said nothing in response. He just looked back at her, and she felt something inside her click into place. She cared that this strange creature was injured. Even if they couldn’t understand each other, she now considered him a... friend.

Twenty

Arges

His safe place for her, the one area in the entire ocean where he thought she wouldn’t be found, had proven to be flawed. Any of his people could smell her from a mile away. She had a scent that wasn’t found otherwise in the ocean, and clearly they all knew where she was.

It was time to move her again.

But first, he had to make sure that she was safe. That his insane brother hadn’t injured her. When Daios had struck her, Arges thought he’d lose one of his hearts. She’d looked so limp, flying through the water before striking the stone hard enough to make him wince. She must be bleeding. Or perhaps one of her brittle bones had snapped.

He had no idea how to heal her kind. He didn’t even think they could be healed. The People of Water were a hardy bunch. He’d broken countless bones himself. A significant amount of them were still broken in his tail and they would never be fixed. But they didn’t hurt.

He could still use his body without having to stop and heal himself, but he knew it was very different for her people.

Running his hands down the delicate bones of her spine, he counted each of her ribs before grunting in frustration. He didn’t know how many ribs she was supposed to have, so this wasn’t getting him anywhere. He couldn’t even ask if she was all right, because they couldn’t converse with each other.

Mira grabbed his hand on the next pass down her body, holding the web pinched between her fingers so he had to look at her. “I’m fine,” she said, squeezing his webs a little too hard. “I’m absolutely fine. No one hurt me.”

“Good,” he said quietly, knowing that she couldn’t understand him. “Because I would have turned the waters black with their blood. I don’t care that he’s my brother, or that the others have been in my pod for years. They do not understand the value or the worth of your life, kairos, and I will not stand for their mistreatment of you.” Brushing his fingers gently through her hair, he added, “You are dear to me now, Mira. I fear I have brought you into a world where you can only meet your end.”

She tilted her face into the palm of his hand and he felt the entire ocean shift. A current pressed against his back, drawing him even closer to her. So close he could feel her chest rise and fall against him, and he noticed there was the slightest catch in her throat at his nearness.

He drew their hands down. Together. The back of his hand brushed down her chest, and he was delighted to see a shudder run through her. So she was sensitive there. It was something he would remember. Her fingers flexed in his.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice a little ragged.

He didn’t know. He was only certain that he was pleased to see her alive. And he wished he could speak with her. To tell her how relieved he was, how terrified he’d been when he had realized his brother was coming straight for her. How he needed her to know that he had never intended to risk her life when he brought her here.

Again, a current pushed him closer to her. Not for the first time in his life, he listened to the ocean. He drew her into his arms and rested his hand on top of her head. Red, like a plume of delicate coral, coiled around them. He ran his fingers through her hair, letting it float across his shoulder and tangle around his neck. Just as he wished to feel her.

Tangled up in him. Just as tangled as he was in her.

Wrapping an arm around her waist, he tugged her even closer before letting the current take him onto his back. He allowed her to rest against him, buoying both of them toward the bells where he’d left her. There were other caverns, other caves that existed. And though they would have to move in between all the monstrous hovels her people had made centuries ago, at the very least, he knew she would be safe. He could take care of her. He could do this.

Some voice whispered in his mind that these thoughts went beyond a mission to keep his people safe. Beyond a means to an end.

He’d come to care for this little creature, and that was the most dangerous choice he’d made in his entire life.

Mira pointed at something just over his shoulder, and he tensed for a few moments before she said, “Don’t forget Byte.”

He twisted to the side as they passed by the small box and palmed it. Though it was disgusting for him to touch anything the achromos had made, he could admit this felt more like a rock than a demon of the deep. It didn’t even click or whir like it had the first time he’d picked it up off the bottom of the ocean floor.

Then his mind wandered. He’d found a few caverns like the one he’d brought her in, although none of them had been in such complete states. Most of them were too dangerous with falling rocks and earthquakes that could easily shake more free. But there was one, rather bare bones, with tunnels that disappeared into the earth. He thought perhaps that one would be safe enough.

So he brought her and her box to this new cave system, holding her against his hearts the entire time. He couldn’t quite get himself to release her. Not a single finger wanted to peel out of her hair or from her back, where he could be certain she was inhaling and exhaling. The rhythm calmed him as nothing else ever had.

Finally, they reached the cave. There were no glowing lights in this one. No natural light at all. Just a black hole in a wall where he could see the faintest outlines of gray shapes.

This wasn’t good enough. Even as he crested the surface of the water, poking his head up and flaring his nostrils to see if he could breathe in here, he knew it wasn’t good enough.

“I’m sorry, kairos,” he muttered. “This will have to do until I can find another.”

To her credit, Mira didn’t seem to be nervous at all. Though she didn’t look around, her weak eyes could see nothing in the darkness. She still smiled up at him. “Is this where I’m staying the night?”

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