Page 56 of Song of the Abyss

It took him a few moments to figure out a way into the flooded room, but then she saw the same thing he did. Structural flaw. There was a huge portion of the metal that had buckled under the pressure. He reached for the warped metal and twisted it.

She didn’t know how much strength that took. She should probably be horrified that he could just bend thick metal without even struggling to do so. Instead, she only felt that fire in her burn all the more hot.

He ducked into the room and then she couldn’t see him for a little while. That oppressive feeling of death was back the moment he was out of her sight. Which was silly.

“You don’t even know him,” she told herself, but her eyes never moved from the spot where he’d disappeared. “You haven’t talked about who he is or where he came from. This is just... Stockholm Syndrome.”

Bitsy flashed a few words. “Are you losing your mind?”

Probably.

She was looking at an undine like he was the next snack she wanted to take a bite out of, so yeah. She was losing her mind. He had saved her life, though. He’d gotten her out of the city and that was all that mattered at the time.

But then he’d brought her food to keep her alive. He’d brushed her hair and touched her in ways that made her burn. She hadn’t thought...

None of this made sense. She shouldn’t feel this way about someone she didn’t know. She’d only recently learned his name. This was insanity. She knew nothing about his people or where he came from.

It was her mind. She was messed up being this deep under the sea and the pressure was getting to her. That was all.

But she couldn’t deny that all the tension in her body eased when she saw him coming out of the room with her wetsuit and mask in his hand.

She held her breath until he came back into the room where she stood. The only air left in the entire facility was in this room and they were only at ten percent life support. Soon enough, that air would run out.

He handed her the mask and then yanked himself out of the water. Awkwardly, he propped himself up on the stump that couldn’t be comfortable to bear all of his weight, and then started pressing the water out of her suit.

Unfortunately, the mask hadn’t survived as well as she’d hoped.

“Bitsy?” she asked. “What’s the damage?”

Her droid looked it over before animated tears appeared all over the lens. “Broken.”

“Fixable?”

“Not here.”

Breathing out a long sigh, she looked over at Daios, who was doing his best to make sure the wetsuit wasn’t a total loss. But he didn’t know that she was staying here. Forever.

And in her mind, she heard a voice telling her that if she was going to die, she should do so with no regrets.

Squaring her shoulders, she marched toward him with single-minded intent. He glanced up at her approach, but then turned his attention back to the wetsuit. “I do not know how these things work. Is the water going to be a problem? There is little time for it to dry.”

Sitting down on top of the wetsuit, she framed his face with her hands and turned him to look at her. He blinked, those dark eyes reflecting the determination on her features.

“Anya?” he asked, his voice low and slow. “What are you doing?”

“Tell me something about you.”

“What?”

“Tell me something about you,” she repeated. “I want to know more than just that you are my kidnapper. I want to know who you are as a person, not just what you are capable of.”

He shook his head. “I don’t understand what you’re asking. What do you want to know?”

She didn’t know. Everything. Nothing. What if what he said disappointed her? What if she heard his thoughts about the world and realized they were so far different that this could never work?

But she supposed it didn’t matter, anyway. She was going to die, and he was going to watch her drown.

Swallowing hard, she forced the thoughts away and tried for a smile. “What’s your favorite color?”

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