Page 24 of Song of the Abyss

“Are you going to bring her back to the pod?”

“No.”

“Will you harm her?”

As much as he wanted to kill her and end his own suffering, he wasn’t certain he could bring himself to do it. Something deep inside him rebelled at the thought of her coming to harm, and that was as much a warning sign as anything else.

He sneered before replying, “No.”

Arges slowly nodded, his gaze returning to the city as though he might be able to see her from here. “They are delicate. Keep an eye on what she eats and drinks. Make sure she is not in the water for too long, because it is very cold for them.”

“I have seen you with Mira.”

“You don’t know what it’s like to have one of them as a mate. The constant fear that they will die on your watch. The nervousness that comes with knowing anything could kill them. They have no natural way to protect themselves and they are being forced to give up their world due to our own desires for them. It is not easy.” Arges cleared his throat, his eyes still not on Daios. “I don’t think you’re ready for what it will make you feel.”

Neither did he.

Wait. No, he didn’t want her as a mate. That wasn’t what this was. It couldn’t be. His body was his own to control and tell what to do, and he would not let biology make his choices.

“I am not keeping her,” he growled.

“Really?” Arges replied with a laugh. “I see the way your body is reacting to a single word about her. You’re going to keep her, Daios, and it won’t be easy.”

“I have no interest in achromos.” He spat the words. “You fell to that folly. I will not.”

“So many words to defend a male who has already lost the fight.” Arges pushed his hands on the sand, sending his body careening upright. “Bring her somewhere safe for a time. Do whatever it is that you need to get this out of your system. But I know you, brother. I know you well. You can fight against this all you want, just as I did. But soon enough, you will find yourself completing the mating rituals.”

Curling his fist in the sands, he told himself he wouldn’t. But he already knew that was a lie. Some part of him wanted to keep this little gemstone he’d found in the depths of the ocean. It was a covetous need inside of him, a flexing beast that writhed in his chest and pushed his body to do things he did not understand.

“I do not want her,” he said, looking up at his brother, who floated in the dark above him.

A few flickering blue lights glimmered along Arges’s tail. Then Arges looked farther off, at Mira and Maketes where the two of them were arguing about some form of the achromos language, most likely. Those lights flared brighter for a moment before he got them under control.

“Neither did I,” Arges murmured. “I did not want her, and she did not want me. But the longer I was with her, the more I realized there was a strength in her heart that I admired. A kindness in her soul that I did not have. A wit in her mind that matched my own. She was unexpected and resilient in a way I had never attributed to their kind before.”

“I know your respect for her.” He really did. Daios just didn’t see the achromo the way his brother did.

“Then you will soon find you see something in this human that you did not realize. And by then, it will already be too late for you. Just as it was for me.” Arges slapped his back with the flat of his tail. “Good luck, even if I don’t think you’re cut out for this. Just keep her alive. Yeah?”

“I will,” he grumbled.

“From your mouth to the ancient’s ears. Let them punish you if you fail us all again.”

The words echoed in his mind long after Arges gathered Mira up. He could tell the achromo was staring at him. Her gaze was like a physical touch that lifted the deadly spines along his back. He wished he could send them out into the sea like daggers, just to give him a small moment where he could feel as though he was at peace.

Instead, he laid there in the sands. His gaze never leaving the city of Alpha, but he didn’t see the city. Instead, he saw bodies. He heard the whispers of the dead in his ears.

Even his brother didn’t think he could keep a measly little achromo alive. Even his clutch mate, the one who had shared an egg with him, believed he was too careless to keep someone else alive.

His touch was death.

His body was made to be a weapon or a shield, nothing more. A destructive tsunami that killed any and everything in his wake.

The water stirred beside him, and Maketes paused beside the rise. “I’m returning with them.”

He grunted.

“Arges said it would take you a little longer to get her back? He made excuses for you, although I don’t think Mira believed them. Soon enough, you’ll have to deal with her.”

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