Page 89 of Whispers of the Deep

“But what if this is a way for our people to live together?” She cupped his hand in hers, holding it against her neck. “What if this means that you can return to your people with a better option? I know you’ve been saying your mission has always been to kill me, Arges. But what if you were sent to me for a bigger reason? What if we were thrown together to prove that our kinds can actually be together? For good?”

That couldn’t be the reasoning. The ancients would have shown him that future, but it was just him and her. It was just their life, their future, their child growing in her belly. There hadn’t been anyone else in that vision.

And in this moment, he knew what he had to do.

The future the ancients had shown him was a future with him and Mira alone. There was no room for either of their people in it, so he had to do the right thing here. If he wanted to keep her, and the future that had given him new breath in his lungs, he had to tell his people that he would leave them. He had to give it all up. For her.

He had never made an easier decision in his life.

Leaning forward, he pressed his lips to hers, lingering for a few moments before he wrenched the tendril free from her neck. Mira hissed out a long breath, wheezing through the pain even as the strange substance his tendrils had emitted closed the wound for her. There was no blood, no mess. She didn’t even have a hole in her neck where her own air leaked out.

But there was a strange new dot there. Almost as though his body had permanently changed hers.

“I have to go,” he said against her lips. “I have to tell my people that I am leaving. With you. We are going to make a life together, away from all of this.”

“Arges, wait?—”

He couldn’t stay to listen to her attempt to change his mind. Instead, he plunged into the water and speared through it. Leaving her back in the dome where he knew she could not follow him, even as he sank into the depths that would have stolen all the light from her eyes. His entire body lit up, brighter than it had ever been, as he made his way toward his future. His people would be fine without him. They had Daios, who hopefully would get his head on straight after his arm fully healed and his brother had lost him. Maybe all the People of Water would turn their attentions toward themselves.

He mourned that he couldn’t be there with them to celebrate those successes. He wished he hadn’t been put in this place where he had made a choice between his future and his past. But right now, there was no choice to be made.

He wanted to be with her. The future he had seen was the one thing he’d always wanted, and he would not give it up for anything.

But in the hours that it took for him to swim to his home, his mind second guessed itself. He saw the people lingering outside their homes, waiting for him. He saw the mistrust in their eyes, and perhaps the fear that he would judge them. And he knew.

He knew.

Something had happened.

Swimming slower, he reached up for one of the coral arches and pulled himself through what had once been his home. The glowing coral illuminated the grip of his hands as he swam past homes filled with far more people than he had expected to see here. There were usually so few of them, and yet, right now, there appeared to be everyone in the town.

Waiting for him.

Frowning, he swam through the crowds to the center where the council already gathered. He had never seen them all look so worried. All of their eyes were on Mitéra, who only had eyes for him.

Every light in his body flared even brighter with anger. They thought they could stop him. Mitéra had already guessed what he planned on doing, and she would argue.

He refused to believe for even a second that they truly thought they could stop him. He would be with Mira for the rest of his life. The ancients had given him that vision for a reason, and if he had seen it, then so had Mitéra. She wanted to steal all of this from him.

She wanted to take his future and mold it into the one she desired. But she didn’t get to do that.

Swimming toward her, he paused in the center where the swirling colors stilled. Arges met her gaze and waited for her to speak. Even the sand seemed to settle faster from his movement to hear her words.

“Arges,” she said, her voice booming through the clearing. “Your brother has told me of the poison the achromo has injected into your veins. She has pierced through the shield of your soul and sickened your heart.”

“No one has harmed me in any way.” His tail flicked the sand, drawing up a dust that swirled around him before settling. “I went to the ancients, as you told me to do. They showed me two futures, and I chose her. I will choose her in every instance. I know this means I must leave this place, my home, my family. I do not make this decision lightly.”

“Your people need you to lead the pod that keeps them safe.”

“There are others.” He turned his attention to the crowd. Each one of them watched him, and he knew them all. Beloved faces, people he had protected for years now. But no longer. There was only one person he wanted to protect. “It saddens my heart greatly to leave you. I have never once wanted to lose you all. But this is a choice I must make for myself.”

He didn’t tell them that his body had changed for her. That he had found a way to live with his kairos and combine their worlds.

Sure, it would be difficult. It would be hard to sleep separately from her, or to have to wait days until her fragile skin could get wet again. But maybe his body would change even more. Maybe hers would as well. The more time they spent together and the more his body adapted to hers. The People of Water were a hardy bunch.

He couldn’t wait to see what their future would bring. Even if that meant he had to lose his own people as well.

“We cannot lose you, Arges.” Mitéra almost seemed... sad as she said it. “I have spoken with the ancients. We all agree the future you have chosen for yourself affects the rest of us too much. You have left us no choice.”

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