Page 35 of Song of the Abyss

Darting forward, he looped through the currents and circled the tuna. They were large beasts and fought back harder than most. But it took little for a creature like him to cut one down. With a flick of his tail, he sliced through the water. He could change directions faster than they could, and the sharp claws at the end of his hand cut through their flesh too easily.

The tuna he caught up with flashed silver, then red. The ribbons of blood caught his eye. Daios forced himself to remain in the present, though. He felt the current that suddenly caressed down his sides, toying with his fluke as he caught the dead creature up in his arms. He was not alone, not right now. The sea was with him as he felt around for the nearest current.

Like magic, it caught him up in her arms and drew him down into the depths again.

He’d forgotten what this felt like. The sea always made him feel weightless, but this was effortless. With their goddess on his side, drawing him where she wished him to go, he was invincible.

He saw the facility right in front of him again. And he knew there was another within. A woman who waited for him. An achromo who made him feel things that he shouldn’t feel and made him so afraid that he would do something wrong.

Every part of him was made to hurt every part of her. And here the sea was, pushing him to feed her. To care for her. To do whatever it took to keep her alive and tie them together even more than they already were.

He didn’t even know how long he’d been gone. He wasn’t sure if she wanted to see him or even if she would stop doing whatever it was she was doing. The water was suspiciously murky and all the dust had been stirred up around the building. Daios couldn’t even see through the windows the particles were so thick.

He had to imagine that meant she was doing something. What she was doing? He had no idea. And he certainly didn’t trust it.

Swimming into the room where he’d left her, he poked his head up to see that the door to the right was open, the hallway somehow drained. And though perhaps that was a good thing—she did need to spread out, most likely—he also feared what that meant.

Heaving the tuna out of the water, he let it flop onto the smooth floor while dragging himself halfway out of the water. Leaning to the side, he stared down the hall to see what his achromo was doing.

What he saw made all the air wheeze out of his lungs.

Skin. Smooth, unblemished skin. And all he could do was freeze in place as his gaze trailed down the shadow of her spine.

14

Anya

She hadn’t expected him to leave her alone for such a long time. But it gave her plenty of opportunity to look at the research facility he’d brought her to. Though the place was running low on power, it hadn’t been abandoned for that long. There were useful power stores that could be diverted, and oxygen that would keep her alive for a while yet.

Bitsy did the work she was required to do. Ace had sent them a download a long time ago for hacking, hence the ability to hack cameras. Apparently, there was some information in that download as well about manipulating a system such as this.

According to her little droid, the AI functions on the ship were simplistic, outdated, and run down. If that was said with rather sarcastic italicized words, then Anya ignored the sass. She figured Bitsy deserved it after surviving their plunge into the depths of the sea. Such was a traumatic event that the droid would not let her forget.

Together, they worked to get the facility back semi-online while also still not allowing the AI to send off any warning signals back home. If anyone at Alpha figured out that a long dead facility had just gotten back online, they would send someone to check what was going on.

And that was something to avoid.

The emergency supplies had a few things that were helpful. A medkit, which she moved somewhere safe just in case they needed to use it for someone’s injuries. A droid that had died a long time ago, the battery running out with no access to electricity. Three old tins of food, as well. But no clothing. So she was forced to shiver as she tried to keep herself warm in the icy building.

“What do you think?” she muttered, looking over the console panel Bitsy had lit up. “Can we get the tunnel to the left open?”

Bitsy had left the screen on the console table with one leg connected to it. Words scrolled across the glass. “Maybe.”

“Is it functional?”

“Maybe.”

“These are not answers, Bitsy. I need a report that’s useable, not just a maybe.”

Exclamation points jumped all over the screen. Clearly, she’d made her droid angry again, but that was just the way of it. She sat in the wheelie chair, trying not to be overwhelmed by the dust in front of the window. She was used to Alpha, which had miles and miles of clear ocean surrounding it. The pillars had always lit up some of the sand, and of course, the lights from the city itself spread like a beacon. She had watched bubbles move over glass for her entire life.

Here? The bubbles were even murky and filled with dust. Every time she thought maybe she caught movement, there wasn’t anything at all. Just a whole lot of dust that could hide almost anything out there.

For a second, she thought she saw teeth. Just a wide open maw of a mouth, grinning at her through the window because it knew she couldn’t see.

Trapped. Oh, she was so trapped in this place and she wouldn’t even know if something was coming at her until the very last second. She could feel her heart beat kick up as it got a little harder to breathe.

Rubbing a hand over her chest, she stood and paced. “Bitsy, we have to get more room in here. I can’t stay like this for much longer. I’m losing my mind.”

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