Page 74 of Whispers of the Deep

“I am an engineer, Arges. I have all the time in the world to create whatever I want now.” She held out her arms, clearly expecting him to pull her into the water with him. “Now, where are we going this time?”

For a moment, the vision of their future played in front of him. It was the same expression she wore. The same device on her face. The same laughter that bubbled out of her very being and floated through the air. And though they were not underwater, nor was she pregnant, he couldn’t help but think of it.

Yes, this was very much the right choice. He didn’t want a future without her in it, even though there were countless things he had yet to discover. He looked forward to learning more about her, and her kind, but mostly he just wanted to see her smile like this.

She wiggled her fingers in the air, still waiting for him with her arms outstretched. “Well, undine? Do I have to get in the water myself, or are you going to be a gentleman?”

“What is a gentleman?” he asked, sliding his hands around her waist and not even attempting to stop his gills from fluttering this time. He drew her into the water, leaning back so she was forced to rest against his chest. They floated there for a few moments, together, staring at each other with obvious surprise in both of their gazes.

Finally, she cleared her throat, but he didn’t miss the way she smoothed her hands along his chest. “A good man, I suppose? Someone who helps others, and goes out of his way to make them comfortable. I don’t really know, to be honest. It’s just a word we’ve always used for men who are kind to women.”

“You humans and your names for everything.” He snorted, lowering them into the water and keeping his arms around her so she was close to him at all times. “The People of Water call that being a good person. That is all. There is no name for someone who is kind, that is the expectation.”

“So what do you call someone who isn’t kind?”

The water closed around her head, her blood red hair floating around her, and he caught her gaze. She squinted her eyes a few times, blinking in the saltwater before he watched her gaze clear and she could see everything he could see. Without the goggles. Without needing the help.

Oh, he had never known she could be more captivating, and here she was. Starting to acclimate to his world without needing her devices and he... He was undone.

“Arges?” she repeated. “What do you call someone who isn’t kind?”

“Dead,” he replied without thinking. “We call them dead.”

With the shadow of his aggressive brother trailing them, he drew her away from the dome and toward the open sea.

Twenty-Nine

Mira

Mira wasn’t certain what she was expecting from him or the adventure that they were on, but it certainly wasn’t this. She had thought he would bring her back into the depths, into the dark, where she could see very little that he did not light up himself.

Instead, he kept her on the same level they were on. He coasted along the sandy belts. Rolling until she was on the bottom and she could feel the sand tangling in her hair. Her giggles apparently sparked something in him that she had never expected.

Arges rolled again, his hands just underneath her ribs as he lifted her high away from his body. And with her arms out in front of her, it felt like she was flying. Soaring through the water that was so crystal clear and blue, surely it wasn’t real. She’d never seen the ocean like this, not when it was endless and speedily passing by her.

He stayed that way with her for quite some time. Lifting her up and bouncing her sometimes over the sand dunes far beneath the sea. He never took her close to the edge. Not once. Like he wanted her to be able to see another version of his home.

Maybe she should have been looking at the ocean itself. She should have been enjoying the dim spears of sunlight that were drifting away as the clouds grew over their heads. Or perhaps she should have been enjoying the sensation of the water through her hair and the warmth of the waves that weren’t too cold for her to stay in them for once.

Instead, all she could do was stare down at him.

His gills were fully out on display, like petals of a flower decorating his neck. All his hair shifted away from his face as they swam, revealing the angular planes that were just so lovely. He was delicate and broad, a mixture of both masculine and feminine that tempted her gaze every time she looked away. Mira had never noticed the tentacles in his hair that glowed bright blue and yellow as well, but they were so intriguing. She wanted to run her fingers through the strands of his hair and see if he reacted the same way he had when she had touched his gills.

Until he turned her again, pointing ahead of them. “Look, kairos.”

She followed his finger to see that the ocean floor dropped off just ahead of them. Above that drop off was a school of stingrays. They were massive beasts. Just their flippers were larger than she was tall, and they swam through the sea with infinite grace. Their long tails stretched out behind them. Speckled gray and white, they were so stunning.

“A whole school of them?”

He shook his head, and Arges reached forward to tap her forehead with a clawed finger. “You should know a school is only for fish. A group of stingrays is a fever, my darling. Remember that.”

“Are the words so important?”

“They are to us.” He swam with her down into the depths and suddenly they were swimming beside the rays. She could see their mouths underneath the giant wings of their bodies. And their bellies were white, she realized. From above, they blended into the sea floor, but from below they glistened like pearls.

“They are so beautiful,” she murmured, her fingers itching to touch them. “A fever of them?”

“That is right.” He reached out his hand and trailed his fingers along the belly of one. “Would you like to touch them, Mira?”

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