Page 70 of Whispers of the Deep

Instead of talking, like she’d expected, he didn’t say a word. Arges held out his hand for her, gesturing for her to come to the edge of the water.

She couldn’t imagine why.

Stiff, her bones aching, she walked over to the edge and heard her knees creak as she sat down at the edge with her feet in the water. A cold rush of ice trailed up the back of her calves, almost painful, but she kept her limbs in the water, regardless.

He swam closer, his gaze somehow darker than ever before. Then he placed his hands on her knees and she felt the webs even through her wetsuit.

He just... looked at her. Watched every twitch and movement of her features as she looked down at him. Mira didn’t know what to do with this. She didn’t know why there were emotions bubbling up in her chest and how those feelings pressed against the back of her throat, urging her to say something, do something, cup his jaw with her hand or maybe dig her fingers into those gills as he’d liked before.

She wanted to touch him. She wanted to let those bubbling emotions take over her body and tell her what to do.

He moved his fingers along her wetsuit, gliding them up and down her leg before he finally said, “I have thought a long time about what I would like you to hear me say first. A part of me wishes there were kinder words I could say. That I could tell you how rapturous it is to see you swim through my world and to see you love it as much as I do. Or perhaps I would remark on the way your hair looks like blood underneath the water and that stirs some feral part of me. But what I settled on, the first most important words you must hear from me, are that I am deeply sorry.”

Breath caught in her throat, Mira bit at her lips. He wanted to apologize to her? Why? He was... was...

She reached down and cupped his face, finally giving into the urge to touch him. Drawing him a little closer, feeling his rib gills press against her inner thighs, she breathed out a small sigh of relief as she watched those big, black eyes. “You are not a monster,” she whispered. “You are not what they told me you were. I accepted your apology long ago, Arges, even before you were able to speak it out loud. You have done what you had to do. For your people. Because of our history. And I will not, ever, hold that against you.”

“I am the reason that you are sick,” he replied. His hands lifted, and those webs skated along her wrists, delicately pressing against the heartbeat that sluggishly beat there. “You could die because of me, and I will not have that.”

“Wasn’t that the point? Our people have always fought against each other. Always tried to kill each other. I don’t think there is another way for us to move forward. One of us has to die.”

“I will not allow it.” His features hardened into an expression that almost made her believe him. “We will both live. This future that we seek together will come to life. I will not accept any other way.”

She supposed that was one way to look at the future. She admired his belief that he could manipulate the very fabric of time.

“The future will happen no matter what we do. Our lives and the will of the gods have been carved into our very being from the moment we first took breath.” She smiled, even if the expression felt a little sad. “Unless you see another way out of this, then I suspect our fates have already been decided.”

He shook his head and then shifted his grip from her wrist to her hips. “Gather your Byte, achromo. We are leaving this place.”

“Another cave?” she sighed. “I suppose it is time, after all. We’ve been here for a bit. I really don’t think any of your people are looking for me, though.”

“My brother has yet to return to our home. I do not know where he is, or why he has disappeared. He could easily plan to hunt you down.”

“I think you’re worried over nothing.”

“I did not suspect our first conversation together would be you scolding me,” he teased as she stood to go get Byte. “But I suppose knowing that you understand me does not dull your teeth.”

“It’s rather easy to talk like this, isn’t it?” She returned with Byte in her arms, biting her lips with nerves. “I wasn’t certain you would be this happy, or this easy to talk to.”

“Mira.” Her name rolled off his tongue so easily. Said in the same song-like voice she’d gotten used to, but this time she knew even more that it really was her name. And it still affected her just as much. “We’ve been talking to each other for quite some time now. Just not in so many words.”

She supposed they had. It was easy to be around him now. Easy to float through the water and trust that he wasn’t bringing her to the mouth of some massive creature to sacrifice her to whatever water gods they had. She hadn’t even thought he was going to kill her for a while, so that had to mean something.

Still, it was rather reassuring to be able to return to him and ask as she got into the water, “You aren’t going to kill me this time though... Are you?”

He grinned, those sharp teeth flashing. “No, Mira. I’m going to keep you.”

She wasn’t all that certain his answer was much better.

But she fixed her rebreather on, tightened her goggles, and sank into his arms with the same amount of trust as always. He gathered her up to his chest, even moving his hands to shift her feet into his gills as they slowly swam away from the darkness. She didn’t know where they were going, nor did she need to.

It startled her how much she trusted an individual who had tried to kill her. Multiple times. He could have drowned her at any point, and the rebreather was the only thing keeping her safe now. Even that was a little clunky now that she’d used it so much. But if it stopped working, she had faith that he would breathe air into her lungs until he got her to the surface.

That amount of trust in someone like him? It was... unprecedented.

Stupid, maybe.

But then she remembered how his fingers tucked her toes a little tighter into the warm gills at his hips, and how he regularly checked her fingers in the gills at his neck to make sure they weren’t icy and she forgot she was supposed to be afraid of him.

---