Page 39 of Song of the Abyss

He froze, incapable of saying anything else. Had he gone all this time without asking her name? Had he spent all this time not realizing that she even had a name? That he could have called her something other than achromo or kalon?

He was going about this all wrong. Here he was, fluttering for her, and he didn’t even know her name.

Blowing out a long breath, he stilled his gills and then pressed his clawed hand to his heart. “Daios.”

“Is that your name?”

He nodded and watched as she curled in on herself. He couldn’t tell if that was relief or not, at least until she looked up at him through the waterfall of her golden hair and smiled.

“It’s nice to know you have a name, Daios.”

And oh.

Oh.

The sound of his name on her tongue was exquisite. He’d never heard someone say it in those raspy tones, but even more than that, it was the way she lingered over the word. The sound was wrong, like she was trying to put her tongue around the taste of his name and he...

Fuck. He shouldn’t be here. Already those gills around his neck were moving, and he wanted to slide back into the water and kill something for her. He wanted to return with blood all over his claws, dripping from his teeth as he presented her with a kill that would show her just how badly he wanted her. No. Needed her. He needed every ounce of her attention. He was greedy for the feeling of her eyes sliding along his skin. And he would lay his body flat on the sands and pray to his gods for years, if that’s what it took to feel her touch him again.

“Daios,” she repeated. This time she looked at him, and he had to struggle to not roll his eyes back in his skull at the sound of his name on her lips. “I think we should talk.”

He could listen to her talk for hours. But he had a feeling that wasn’t what she was suggesting.

All he could manage was a low grunt, and then a wave of his hand.

She nodded, her eyes flicking back to her fingers. He watched as she moved them in her lap, curling them together and then untwisting them. “I have not been entirely truthful with you. I know you took me for your own reasons, and I have the suspicion that they are similar to my reasons for wanting to leave. You dislike my father. Is that correct?”

He bared his teeth in a low growl. How was he supposed to tell her how he hated her father? That Alpha was at the top of all the cities that were ruining his home, and now that he knew they were helping to control all of it? He wanted to destroy it all from the inside out.

She observed his expression and then nodded. “That’s what I thought. I know you might not believe me, but I feel the same way about him.”

She dropped one foot onto the floor, rocking the chair back and forth. The sharp squeal of it filled the room, before he leaned forward and stopped her movements. The strange look on her face had him shrugging.

“Loud,” he said, pointing to his ears.

She bit her lip, then rasped. “Sorry. Can’t hear it.”

With a small nod, he moved back into the water, pleased that she stayed where she was this time. High-pitched noise no longer distracting him, he again waved his hand for her to continue.

“I think it’s fairly obvious that my father is controlling. But it went beyond that. He was obsessive about my safety, although only because I had use. I was his songbird, his figurehead, the person that convinced everyone how great he was. The better I was doing, the more of a symbol I became.” Her cheeks puffed out before she blurted, “My mother would have been that person if she hadn’t died. Instead, I was the person who had to convince them all how great he was. Even though he wasn’t.”

Something coiled in his chest. It reached through his skin, forcing his hand out of the water. With a gentle touch to the bottom of her foot, he tried his best to show whatever comfort he could. Even if it was strange to touch what felt like bone underneath too thin skin.

At her sharp look, he moved the hand and pressed it against his own heart. “My mother died.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that.”

He nodded, claws curling over his right heart until he could feel the pinpricks digging into his skin. “The pain never goes away.”

Another flash of emotion crossed in front of her eyes before she shrugged. “I never knew her.”

He mirrored her shrug, and with a grunt added, “And yet, the pain still exists.”

Her lips parted in surprise, and he couldn’t stop staring at them. Why were they so pink? He’d never seen that color under the ocean, only when he had gone to the surface a few times. He’d seen similar hues in the sky up there. When the blue above the waves turned to streaks of bright pink and purple before the sun set and the moon rose on the horizon.

“I’ve been working for years with a group of people trying to take Alpha apart from the inside out.”

The words shocked him. He opened his mouth, likely to lecture her on the dangers of such things, but all that came out was, “You?”

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