Page 92 of Song of the Abyss

They stared at each other for a few more moments before she felt his arm reach in between them. He clicked the small button that would turn on the device that Mira had built, and she knew it was time.

Time to let him go. To move forward with this plan. To put her life on the line to save his people and her own. Would it be easy? Absolutely not. Would she do everything possible to get back to him? She sure would.

Together, they raced through the towers that had shot at him the first time he’d done this. But Mira’s jammer seemed to work. The towers didn’t activate close to them, and the ones in the distance didn’t react either. Perhaps whatever signal the box in his arms was giving off had worked. Or maybe her father just didn’t want to show that he knew they were coming.

Either way, they made it to the original tunnel they had escaped from. And there she could see someone had capped it. A massive metal door stood in the way of their plan.

Daios put her down on the ground with the box beside her. He slid her rebreather over her face and detached the cord from her neck, leaving her feeling bereft without his breath.

The current here was unusually strong, so she had to hold on to the side of the building and sink her legs into the muck as she watched him move above her. His tail flicked, and then he was grabbing both sides of that metal cap.

It was welded into the building. She could see how much metal they had poured onto it. The bolts dug deep into the concrete that made up Alpha’s exterior. Muscles bulging, teeth bared, Daios heaved.

His entire body lit up with his efforts. All of his form was bared, those muscles straining with effort, and she could see the cords as his pectorals strained. The metal arm of his was reacting better than his natural one. But even those wires sparked in the water. And then the cap gave. She watched in shock and a bit of horror as he peeled it back enough that air rushed out of it.

The bubbles erupted and they would give up their position easier with that white flag of bubbles. He held out his hand for her to take, and she kicked off the bottom, reaching for him.

The current threatened to whip her away from the building and out into the middle of nowhere. But he grabbed onto her wrist and hauled her right up against him. He held onto Alpha with that metal arm that didn’t seem to budge, even though they were both flung against the side of the building until he yanked them both closer to the opening.

“Come back to me,” he growled, before shoving the rebreather aside with his nose and kissing her once again. It felt like a brand. Like he knew this could be the last time either of them saw each other, and he refused to let this end without her knowing how much he wanted her.

Heart thundering in her chest, she kissed him back with every ounce of hope in her chest. She would get back to him, no matter how hard that was.

Daios shoved her closer to the pressure coming out of the vent. She knew there were only a few moments for her to get through this gap before he had to close it. Anya yanked the rebreather back over her face, focusing on her new obstacle. She could see in his eyes that he was going to seal her inside the city she’d come from, and then it was up to her.

Her. A girl who had been pampered her entire life and liked to pretend hero. They were all hoping that nothing went wrong and that she could figure all this out, with no one else helping her.

Swallowing hard, she grabbed onto the edge of the vent and yanked with him. The two of them shoved her right through the wall of air and into the vent. On her hands and knees in the now empty tunnel, she ripped the rebreather off before whirling around.

The suction from the tunnel threatened to throw her back into the sea. But she wanted to see him. Needed to see the heat in his eyes, the passion that burned there even now. And the hope that flared in his chest as all his muscles bunched again.

She crab walked away from him, watching until the last second. But then the vent closed, and all the lights went out.

She was alone. Cold and freezing in the tunnels underneath Alpha, where she knew so many terrible things had happened.

With a shuddering breath, she reached up to tap Bitsy. “Do you have any lights?”

Her lens flickered to life again, this time with a little more force. “So cold.”

The words floated in pitch black and lanced through her heart. She hated that this was hurting her oldest friend as well, but there were only so many things she could do to help the little droid.

She should hurry. Someone might be wondering what had happened.

But she took the time to remove her droid from her head and to press the little one to her chest. Carefully breathing onto Bitsy, she warmed up the droid until she felt her fidgeting in her grip. Only then did she put her back on her head and read the messages on the lens.

“Ok,” Bitsy put on the lens. “I am ok.”

“Good,” she whispered. “Light?”

A small light appeared out of one of Bitsy’s arms. They’d only had to use it once when the power had gone out in Alpha, and she’d never thought to use it again. The beam of light illuminated the tunnels that clearly no one had been taking care of. They’d just sealed it off and filled it with air. She couldn’t imagine the strain on the filtration systems.

The tunnels were bone dry now. And as she started walking up them, the bodies of dead crabs crunched underneath her feet. So much death, all because her father had been mad at her.

Anya glanced down and saw the little wave pattern carved into their shells. These were the ones who had helped her find Daios, all those weeks ago. And they had died because of her.

Determination settled on her shoulders like a heavy weight. She would not let anyone else die because of her. Not if she could get her hands around the throat of this situation.

“Contact Ace,” she said, bracing herself against the concrete walls.

---