Page 27 of Song of the Abyss

The creaking, gritty vibration sent chills down her spine. Or maybe that was the feeling of her air running out.

Still, she turned to the right and followed the sensation into the dark, even as her lungs screamed. Even as the darkness settled around her, cloying and sticky. Everything suddenly pulled at her mind. Whispering that she’d made a mistake, that she was going to die down here and no one would know.

She’d trusted a dream. An undine that likely hadn’t even existed and here she was, too far away from her own pool to make it back. She was going to drown. What a terrible way to die when she could have chosen to stay where she had been. Safe as a songbird in a cage.

Everything in front of her turned red. At first, she thought it was the security system. Her father must have already gotten the news that she’d plunged into the pipe system and that could only mean he was about to turn all the water off. It wouldn’t save her, but it would kill her very quickly, and maybe that was his game.

Then she realized it wasn’t a light above her head. It was many lights, all glowing from a body that reached for her.

A sharp shriek erupted from her mouth, expelling the last bit of her air. She had hoped he would be here, and still, all her mind saw was a clawed hand and sharp teeth flashing in a rhythm of red lights that spelled her doom. Even if she was going to drown, she still was terrified of the monster that suddenly took up the entire pipe with the massive length of his body.

He didn’t react to her scream. Instead, he pressed something against her face. It was cold and hard, and for a moment she wondered if he was trying to kill her. But he’d never tried to kill her before and?—

He hit a button on the side and suddenly all the water around her mouth disappeared and she could breathe.

Sucking in as much air as she could, Anya’s heart nearly beat out of her chest as he affixed the apparatus around her head. So gently. His claws never once caught in her hair as he strapped it behind her ears and then made sure it was fitted to her mouth correctly. He waited until she was breathing slightly normally before he started to... back out of the pipe system.

He planted that webbed hand against the smooth metal and shoved himself backward. It looked awkward and uncomfortable. He didn’t even look up at her, just kept moving as she followed him.

There were more crabs. Everywhere she looked. Crabs with carved waves on their back, a symbol she could only take to mean the ocean itself. He had sent her a message with crabs.

And she’d been right. He was coming for her.

Adventure and hope burning in her chest, she moved after him. Once he realized she could move faster, he did too. She wasn’t sure how he was slithering so quickly with only one arm, but she couldn’t think about that too much right now. They only had so much time before...

He froze. The undine looked at her, then down the pipe to the right of them. He leaned forward and shoved her hard, back into the pipe that she’d just crawled through. Then, with a surprisingly quick movement, he turned his body around. Wriggling and writhing so hard that blood plumed from a wound across his back and then suddenly his tail was right in front of her. He hit the bottom of the pipe a few times with it.

She wasn’t sure what he wanted.

Then he hit it again, not moving.

Did he want her to... grab his tail? For what reason?

Anya didn’t want to argue with the undine who was saving her, but she did think this was mad. Grabbing onto a spine just above the fluke, she adjusted her hold just as he launched forward.

They were flying through the pipe now. And she realized that he had been moving very, very slowly for her. Because now they were moving so quickly that she didn’t even have time to see the bubbles coming out of the mask he’d attached to her face. The mask she hardly had time to question before she heard the rumbling he must have heard before.

Her father was making good on his promise. He was draining the pipes.

Suddenly, pressure pushed behind them. Air flooding through the system and shoved everything inside the pipes. If the water didn’t push them free, then soon enough they would be trapped. They weren’t going to make it out because how were they going to get out of the opening into the sea? She didn’t even know if they were close to it.

Just as suddenly as the pressure struck her ears, the ringing of her tinnitus turning into a sharp ache, they were suddenly free. She almost heard the sharp pop as they tumbled out into the vast beyond.

She only had a moment to listen to the absolute silence of the sea. Even the ringing in her ears ceased as she looked into the utter nothingness that surrounded them.

And then her eyes found the undine who stretched out to his full height. She had continued to tumble away from him, rolling across the sand until she finally stopped moving. Lying on her back on the ground, she looked up all those strong, flexing muscles. The rolling peaks of his abs, the flat planes of his pecs, the absolutely stunning arm that was splayed wide at his side to stop his movement. And all those brilliant lights, glowing red and evil as he loomed above her. The spines on his back were raised high, she could see it almost like a dorsal fin at his back, they were so large.

The red light cast shadows from underneath his face, turning him into a villain of a story that she might have dreamed up. But then he reached for her and she didn’t scream. Didn’t even have the feeling that she needed to. She should have been terrified. Instead, she took the villain’s hand and clutched Bitsy’s box close to her chest as he gathered her tenderly in his arm.

That thick arm bracketed her back, and his strong forearm flexed against her side. He planted his hand flat against her belly and suddenly they were moving again. Rushing through the pillars that kept her city safe.

With her chin on his shoulder, she watched Alpha disappear behind them. Her home was gone.

But her heart was free.

11

Daios

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