Page 95 of Song of the Abyss

He didn’t need their help, though. Nor did he want Arges’s help. He just wanted Anya home.

His hearts hurt in his chest. Rubbing at them, he shook his head and charged Arges. Pain was what he needed right now, and he knew an easy way to get it.

They came together in two massive forces that struck so hard he saw stars. Arges grappled with him as he had expected him to. His brother always fought in the same way, no matter how many times they battled. With a flick of his tail, he tossed Arges over his shoulder and surged toward the city.

But Arges was smaller, and that made him just a little more agile. A blue fin came down over his shoulder, Arges’s tail wrapping around his own and pinning his hip fins to his sides. With a slithering movement, Arges anchored them together and tightened the grip of his tail as he coiled around Daios.

Hissing out an angry breath, Daios reached back with his metal arm and caught one of Arges’s hip fins.

“Remember when I almost ripped this off?” he snarled, bloodlust rushing through him. “This time I’m keeping it so you can’t sew it back on.”

He would have yanked on the fin if Arges hadn’t leaned forward and hit a button on the arm. It went dead. Limp and useless other than as a weight that suddenly dragged him in the opposite direction.

His brother released him with a feral flash of fangs. “Do you think Mira would build you anything that I couldn’t turn off?”

Those two were going to be the death of him. An angry snarl rippled through his body while he yanked the arm off. He let it drop onto the sands below them and blew out an angry breath that cleared his gills of debris.

He stared his brother down across the water. Arges was now once again between him and the city that kept his mate from him.

His mate.

Fuck, that was the first time he’d ever thought of her like that. But it was true. She was so much a part of him that he didn’t know how to be without her. Anya had taken his pain and rage and turned it into something he could use. He was someone else when he had her and now he could... he could lose her.

His lights flickered. Once, twice, then burned again as he forced himself to fight again. He needed to get to her.

But this time, Arges caught onto his arm as he darted forward and held Daios close. His brother looped his tail around him as many times as he could, squeezing hard enough to freeze the breath in his lungs. Daios’s arm was pinned down at his side, and though he could have likely broken this hold, he found something in him was breaking.

All he wanted was to know that she was alive.

Breathing hard, Arges hissed in his ear, “We are doing everything we can to keep her safe. You have to come back with me so you can see for yourself.”

“We are so far,” he wheezed. “If she is in danger, what would you have me do? Stay there and watch her die?”

A ripple spread from his body into Arges’s. He knew the moment his brother understood where Daios’s fear came from. “We will have more warning than that.”

“We won’t, and you know it. Her father is an eel in the depths, waiting to bite. She will not know what is happening until the very last moment, and we will all lose her.” His voice fractured on the last word. And then he stopped talking.

Because talking had never gotten him anywhere. Daios never said the right thing, no matter how hard he tried to do that. The only person who ever understood what he was trying to say was locked away where he could not get her.

Even though Arges knew the fear, Arges could not understand the depth of Daios’s emotions. At least in Beta, there was a chance. Arges had climbed into the city and he had gotten his woman.

Alpha was a city built of air and wide spaces. One of their people would only greet death if they even managed to get within those walls.

Arges slowly released him, his tail dropping until only his arms around Daios’s shoulders remained. That tight squeeze eased, just enough to feel like the embrace it was.

“She is a brave woman,” Arges said, his voice a low murmur that the sea caught and echoed. “She honors you, brother, by going into that city with no fear. Her memory is one that all our people will talk about for years to come. Honor, brother. That is important.”

“Life is important.” Something in him shattered as he added, “Her life is important.”

Arges’s arms squeezed a little tighter. And for a moment, they just floated there together. Watching the city that would soon be nothing more than a ruin. He rolled the plan over in his mind for the hundredth time. Maketes and Anya’s friend were ready to get the survivors somewhere safe. There was a small pod they had given to Maketes to save any of the people who might end up drowning. They wanted the other cities to hear that the People of Water had made an effort to save the achromos.

Anya would be the first one in an escape pod. She knew where they all were. He would be waiting for her when the time came, but they had to make sure that everything was in line first. But none of them knew how long that would take.

It was better if he stayed here. He had to wait for her to give him some kind of signal to prepare himself and he would be ready.

“We have put so much trust in a single person,” he whispered. “Everything rests on her shoulders.”

“And she is strong enough to do it,” Arges replied.

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