Page 61 of Whispers of the Deep

This wasn’t the man who had kept her alive. This wasn’t the magical creature who had shown her so many wonders under the waves. She was a fool to have forgotten that he had taken her against her will, trapped her in a network of caves, and that he refused to let her go home.

She pulled herself away from him, narrowing her eyes on the sudden tension in his shoulders and how the colors along his body rioted with emotion. His hands flexed below the water, just barely illuminated by the tiny dots of blue that lit up and then died as he stared at her.

“What?” she snarled. “Are you mad at me for wanting to go into warmer waters? Is that it? Are you angry because I insisted that I be comfortable for once?”

He stayed absolutely silent.

The glare was starting to get to her, though. He watched her like there was something wrong with her, like she was the problem.

She wasn’t the problem here. She wasn’t the one who... who...

Lifting a dripping hand, she pointed at him. “Don’t look at me like that. You have no right to be angry with me. None at all. You’re the one who took me from my home, trapped me in caves all around the ocean, forced me to be wet and cold and shivering. You’re the one who did all of those things to me. So really, what the fuck could make you angry at me, Arges?”

She had to remind herself that he didn’t think she could understand him. That he only said the next words because he didn’t realize that she understood every single word, and the hatred in each and every one of them.

“Because your people have destroyed this ocean. Because you came here, so confident that this place belonged to you. You filled our waters with metal and rust. When we tried to fight against you, you shot at us with flames and weapons that were so beyond our understanding that we had no way to fight back.” He moved a little closer to her, his tail flicking underneath the surface. “You, who are so tempting and so new, forget that you have destroyed so much.”

Had her people destroyed the ocean? Hardly, although she knew they had destroyed a lot around the city. But she wasn’t the one making decisions. She was the worker who shut up and did what she was told or she’d be tossed out a pressurized tube.

Perhaps this was the time to tell him that she understood what he was saying. But something in her screamed to not let him know. She had lied. She had tricked him. Telling him now would only make this moment worse and she couldn’t afford for this to get any worse than it already was.

So instead, she gritted her teeth and muttered, “I have no idea what you’re trying to say to me. But clearly, you are being rude and I have nothing more to say to you.”

Planting her hands on the rocks, she yanked herself out of the water. The heat from their visit to the vents had already disappeared. Yet again, she was uncomfortable. Wet and sodden, tired and so fucking exhausted that she wanted to collapse into a ball on the rocks.

“I can’t stay here for much longer,” she hissed. “This ocean is killing me.”

His dark voice rumbled through the cavern. “Perhaps this is what the ocean wants. Your death would be reparation for all the deeds you and your people have wrought.”

That’s it. She refused to listen to him berate her like she was the one making all the decisions. And no, he had no idea she could understand what he was saying, but for fuck’s sake! His tone was pretty damn obvious.

Whirling around, already trying to yank one of her arms out of the damn wetsuit, she yelled, “I don’t care what you’re saying, Arges! You are still the person who kidnapped an innocent woman and brought her to her death! My people call that a murderer. I have no idea what your people call it. Probably a Friday night, but that doesn’t make it okay. Humans value life.”

“Humans value nothing,” he hissed. “I should be asking you about where your tunnels go. I should be forcing you to the ground with a knife to your throat so you will spill all the secrets about your castles under the sea so we can infiltrate your kind and destroy them. All of these things are what I was sent for, and I have done none of them. Why? Because you make me weak, kairos, and I should have killed you long ago to prevent that weakness from spreading.”

Don’t react, she told herself. Don’t react and reveal that you know exactly what he just said to you.

So that was the real reason why he’d taken her. Spinning around, she gave him her back as she peeled herself out of the wetsuit. They’d returned to the original cavern days ago, which meant there was a tiny blanket in the corner with mold worn holes, but enough to dry off. It was important for her to do so, and even then, it allowed her to hide for a few moments.

He hadn’t taken her because he was interested in who she was, or that she had captivated him in some way. Of course he hadn’t. She’d fooled herself into thinking this monster had feelings when he didn’t in the slightest.

She was just a job. Duty, honor, a creature he had to put up with while he was forced to understand her language.

Oh, he must have been laughing every time he returned to his home. The little achromo, locked away in the cave while she wasted away into nothing. This was some complicated form of torture and she’d readily walked right into it in the hopes that she might make a friend with someone who was so different from herself.

“Stupid,” she muttered, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders and bending to peel off the rest of her wetsuit.

When she’d gotten herself together, she finally turned to him and met his angry gaze. She had to talk to him. Had to make it seem like she wasn’t affected by any of what had just happened, or that she wasn’t getting whiplash from his rapidly changing emotions.

“I don’t know or care what you have to say,” she settled on saying. “Your words mean nothing to me, and I don’t think they would, even if I could understand you. Clearly, something has changed your mind about me and that is fine. I don’t need you to like me, Arges. I just need you to keep me alive.”

He wouldn’t do that after this argument. She’d already been difficult for him to put up with. If he only had her here because he wanted to know more about her people, then he would be sorely disappointed.

“If I could leave you, kairos, I would.” He lifted his chin, looking all the more like the untouchable undine who had attacked her people. “But I will learn how I can attack your kind. I will use all your words to my advantage and I will take down your city once and for all.”

She ground her teeth together, clutching the blanket so tightly in her hands that her nails bit into her palms. “I don’t know why you kidnapped me, but I have a good guess. Considering how much energy you’ve put into trying to speak with me, you think I hold some secrets. You think I know something about my people that would help you. Is that it? Byte already said it in not so many words.”

Mira had to hear it from him. She wanted him to admit it. She needed proof that she never should have trusted him.

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