Page 21 of Whispers of the Deep

What did she see?

A place to exploit? A cavern to turn into dust because there might be a rock she wanted or a plant her people would tear up by the roots? He should never have brought her here.

Every bit of color in his body flared as she swam to one of the rarest plants in this area of the ocean. The giant yellow flower puffed out seeds at her approach, nearly as large as her fist. They cascaded around her in a glittering wave of golden light.

Instead of flinching away or batting at them, she reached out her tiny hands and caught one in between her palms. Carefully—he could see how careful she was being—she lifted it up to her gaze, watched it for a few moments, and then let it go.

Why did that make his heart twist so much in his chest?

He flicked his tail, brushing against her hip and down one of her tails to get her attention. His achromo turned to him and he pointed up.

He had the distinct pleasure of watching her realize that there was air above them. She shot toward the surface, wiggling those horrible appendages as hard as she could until she broke the surface.

Arges followed her, already knowing what she would find. Some achromos had been here before, but his people had killed them years ago. Now, it was a relic of her own people. He’d never gotten out of the water here, nor did he ever intend to. But if she could make something of it, then he supposed he could leave her here.

After all, without him, where would she go?

The female had already dragged herself out of the water. And he watched with horror as she ripped the strange things off her face, showing that they had left deep red marks on her flesh. Then she pulled at the second skin around her face, slowly peeling it off her head and revealing all that red hair, like she was birthing herself. It was monstrous to watch.

Stomach queasy, he shook his head when she chattered at him. He much preferred listening to her when they were underwater and she had both the weight of the ocean and that contraption muffling her horrid voice.

“Stay here,” he intoned, watching her cover the sides of her head again. Sighing, he said much quieter, “I will bring you food. But you are trapped here until I can figure out how to communicate with you.”

She was already waving those hands around, trying to convey some message to him, but he had no idea what she was trying to say.

“You have water and light.” He pointed into the water. “Now I will bring you food.”

And then he sank beneath the surface because he couldn’t stand to listen to her for much longer. His head hurt.

Nine

Mira

“Fuck!” Mira screamed, kicking a sizable rock toward the water. It made a very large, satisfying splash, but that didn’t change her situation.

The fucking undine had kidnapped her. He’d followed her through that volcanic field, fished her out like she was nothing but a nuisance, and then left her here.

To die.

She was so deep underwater, there was no way she could sneak home. She didn’t have her flippers, so swimming would be far too slow. Her feet would freeze off, and it was only a small miracle that the undine put off an insane amount of heat around those waist fins of his. Otherwise, she’d have lost her toes on the journey here.

But now what? He’d left her in a cave, with nothing but the natural light that emitted from the strange pool. She had to sit here and wait for him? She’d die.

He’d left her to die.

Her heart thundered in her chest and the words played over and over again through her mind.

He’d left her to die. She was going to die here. This cave would be her tomb and no one would know what had happened to her. No one would really care, either. Engineers went missing all the time when they took on an out-of-Beta job.

She could have hit a strange current. She could have hit her head and then floated off the cliff. Maybe a couple of people would be disappointed that they’d have to take up her work, but no one would outright miss her. Mira didn’t even have a friend who would ask what had happened to her.

They all just did what they could. No one in Beta liked to make attachments because what if something happened to them? Just like what had happened to her.

She set her rebreather down on a nearby stone and then slumped down beside it. She couldn’t take her eyes off the contraption that had worked so well.

The others would think her design was flawed. That something in her rebreather had gone wrong, and that’s why she hadn’t come back up. No one would even give her the credit for creating something that worked. Her design was perfect, and it had not only given her air during the assignment, but under a lot of pressure beneath the ocean as well.

“You were perfect,” she whispered, her voice echoing a bit in the cavern. Ghosting her fingers over the device, she stared into the glowing yellow water.

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