Page 22 of Echoes of the Tide

Not that the beast had looked at her and recognized only that Ace existed. But like the shark had looked into her soul and measured the weight of her worth.

The undine still held her with her back against his chest. The power in his body was something to marvel at if she had the time to do so. And maybe she did. Maybe she could take a moment to sink into the reality that while this man should despise her and her people for everything they had stolen from the undine, hehad protected her. He’d given her the gift of releasing her fear, and that was humbling. She’d only ever been able to do that for herself. And here he was, swimming into her life with the intent to just help her.

Maketes’s arm tightened around her waist as they moved closer to the top of the building. “You are sure this is where you need to be?”

“No, I don’t know where we’re supposed to go. I have a name for an office to go into, because that guy was the last one to have the key. But that’s all I know.”

She felt something shifting against her back. Looking over her shoulder at him, she realized that must have been his gills fluttering against her spine.

Then a muttering grumble echoed behind her, “That man had no plan whatsoever.”

“I’m starting to believe the same thing.”

“He wants you to fail.”

Maybe he did. Maybe Jacob had a larger plan than just this, and it was that he wanted to kill her sister. She had no way of knowing. He had always kept her out of the loop, only using her when he thought he absolutely had to, and she knew that wasn’t from the kindness of his own heart.

As Maketes spun in the water, whirling them closer to the opening, she found the words spilling out of her lips. “I don’t think Jacob cares about anyone but himself. He was imprisoned after killing a lot of people. So many people that I don’t think he even knows how many he killed. He walked into a group of women, children, and men, set a bomb, and then left. Right in the middle of a busy shopping center.”

Maketes twitched around her, his entire body flinching and then hardening as though he had turned to stone. “He killed innocents?”

“No one in Gamma is without fault,” she whispered. “Even me. I took from people who didn’t deserve to be taken from." But she hadn’t, not really. Those people were wealthy, capable, and wouldn’t have noticed that she’d taken that much if their financial advisors hadn’t caught her. She’d stolen from people who could lose money and not even notice.

She might have given it back if she hadn’t been caught. The guilt had been eating her alive. Now? Now she just wanted her own revenge against the people who had put her in Gamma. The people who had taken her away from her sister.

“When I first started talking to Anya,” she started, pressing herself back against him for warmth and strength. “All I could think about was punishing the people who had locked me up. I wasn’t like everyone else in Gamma. I wasn’t a hardened criminal, and it was an offense that should have been forgivable. I just stole some things.”

“My people do not throw away our own, not even the ones who have made mistakes.” Then a low growl rumbled through him. “But people like your... Jacob? We cut the poison from our bloodlines quickly.”

“As you should. We do the same, in a way. But I didn’t think I belonged with all the others, so I was very quick to judge. I wanted to tear Alpha down and all the people who had made it seem like I was less than they were for doing what I had to do to survive.” She shook her head, focusing on the looming building in front of them. “And I did it. I took them all down, scattered them to the seven seas, to an unused tower in Gamma, and back to Beta, where they will be forced to work. I succeeded, and I punished them all.”

Some angry part of her was happy about that. She shouldn’t be. She’d ruined more lives, all for the sake of revenge. There were likely innocents caught in the mix and some people had died. Ace should feel bad about it.

But she didn’t.

“A true warrior knows when to let go of the losses and celebrate the victories,” Maketes said as he paused in front of the glass. “You won. You did what you said you would do. This is a good thing. You deserved to have your needs met.”

She was glad he didn’t turn her around. As it was, she could see the image of them in the glass. She looked awful in his arms. A strange bubble of a human being who had no right to be here, with a monster surrounding her as though he were hunting her. But his words went right through her heart and deep into her soul. When had anyone else ever told her she deserved anything?

“Now I don’t know what to do with myself,” she whispered, her gaze locked on the image of them in the glass. “I am floundering on who I want to be now that I have done what I fought to do for so many years. So I’m still here. Still working with Jacob. Still trying to figure out who I am now that everything is over.”

She could see his arm tightening. Felt him draw her closer to his body, and how there was barely restrained power in his touch that suggested he wanted to hold her even harder. “Then we will figure it out together, Ace. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Why did that hurt so much to hear him say? Why did she want him to turn her around and rip this stupid helmet off?

“Friends,” she repeated. “Of course we are.”

Even though that felt so wrong to say. He hadn’t been her friend when he was helping her destroy Alpha. He hadn’t been her friend when they’d stayed in touch, learning more about each other’s cultures while it was still easy for her to pretend he was just another human. She hadn’t wanted to be friends then and admitting it to herself now was hard enough.

She’d never say these words out loud. Because he wanted to be friends. Just like everyone else always wanted to be friendswith her. The think he desired more? That was an impossible dream that neither he nor she could entertain.

Swallowing her emotions down, she pointed to the tear in the building. “Do you think that’s big enough for us to get through?”

“I think I can make it bigger if we have to.”

“No, we can’t. If we make it any bigger, then the pump system might not be able to drain the water. We’ll flood the whole place.”

His hands were so delicate on her as he pushed her toward the tear. The water held her for a few moments before she started to drop like a stone. And even then, he was there to help. He grabbed onto her hips, holding her against the opening so she could yank herself in. And then he was right there with her. Moving her limbs so no metal touched her, making sure her suit was intact even as he swam in the tight space behind her.

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