Page 91 of Song of the Abyss

Nodding frantically, she licked her lips before replying, “I know. I know that.”

“Do you?”

She hoped that she did. Because she was going to need him, and she was so afraid that she loved him far more than was acceptable.

33

Anya

Anya was terrified. It was a risk to go back into Alpha. A risk to even think her father would let her walk around the city without immediately throwing her into a prison. Daios hadn’t argued with her too much. And yet, he swam with her crushed so tightly to his chest that it wasn’t hard to guess what his innermost thoughts were.

He didn’t want her to do this any more than she wanted to. They both knew this might be the last time they ever see each other. And they’d just found each other.

Some part of her wanted to turn right around. She wanted to tell him to bring her back to his home and then they could leave all this behind. There were other abandoned facilities out there. Maybe they could even investigate to see if the land above was more habitable now that there had been centuries between when humans lived above and not. She didn’t know.

All of these thoughts were fantasies, though. Because she knew they couldn’t live with themselves if they left their people behind.

His arms tightened around her, his feelings likely turning in the same direction as her own as they neared Alpha.

She still wasn’t used to the sensation of the metal arm around her back. It wasn’t quite an unnatural feeling. She couldn’t tell that it was any different from his other arm with her borrowed wetsuit on. But she was so used to knowing that he only had half an arm on that side. It felt... different.

On top of the arm, Mira had given them both more than enough gear to complete their mission. Byte and Bitsy had gone through the systems that once would have stumped Anya’s droid. But Byte had been upgraded too, and because he was a research drone, he had a lot more access than Bitsy did. Together, and with some help from Ace, they’d given enough information for Mira to create something she called a jammer.

It was big and bulky, a square box that was unwieldy at best. She currently carried it so Daios could carry her. The giant block had turned to ice the moment they’d hit the water, and it had been burning her hands since.

“Are you ready?” he asked, his voice deep and guttural. The words flickered in front of her face as Bitsy reacted to the cold as well.

She’d noticed the droid slowing down. It took longer for her to translate the words, and she wasn’t sure if she should be worried about that or not. Considering there was a lot more for her to worry about, she had to focus on the moment and not on what might happen afterward.

Still, she found it hard to lie to him. “No,” she replied with a soft laugh. “I’m not ready at all. But we’re here and I have to do this.”

“We can leave.”

She looked up at him and that strong jaw that had already sharpened with frustration. “You know we can’t. I have to do this for everyone in that city and for your people. There is no other choice, Daios.”

The muscles of his jaw jumped even more until he looked down at her. Then everything in him seemed to freeze. Pausing as his eyes danced over her features.

“If we do not see each other again, my kalon, I wish for you to know that I have never been more honored than to have a woman like you at my side.” He swallowed hard again, his eyes still flicking over hers. “I do not know how your people say this.”

Oh, this sweet, wonderful man who had no idea how much he had wriggled his way into her heart. She reached up and framed his face with both of her hands, staring into those black eyes that showed so much more than he knew how to say. “We say I love you.”

“I have heard this from Mira before.”

“From Mira?” she repeated with a laugh.

He shook his head. “She has said it to Arges. Tell me what this word means.”

“It’s not about the word itself. It’s about the feeling in here.” She moved one of her hands to his chest. “It means that living without you feels wrong. That to be parted from your side makes me miss you more than I miss breathing fresh air. And that I will always think of you, no matter how far I am from you.”

“This feels right,” he said. His hand scooped underneath her hair and drew her close to him, breathing in the scent of her. “Know as you dive into danger that I love you, my kalon. I will hold you in my heart until you return to my side.”

She kissed him fiercely, because there were no words she could say to tell him how much she loved him. How much she admired his strength and his valor. And how, even now, he was letting her do what was right, even though it could take everything away from them both.

Daios was a warrior himself. He was the one who fixed things when they went wrong and he was the one who went into danger for others. He allowed her to do this with no argument, no fighting, just a tension radiating in his body and his claws clutching at her sides as though he would have to force himself to let her go.

“I will find my way back to you,” she whispered against his lips, almost desperately. “I will come home, Daios.”

“Home,” he replied, that deep voice radiating through her entire body. “That is what you have given me, kalon. Wherever you are, I am home.”

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