Page 23 of Echoes of the Tide

All the while, she schooled herself to remember this wasn’t what she thought it was. Sure, they’d talked for a long time. She knew a bit more about his life than the average person, but nowhere near what Anya knew. They’d only exchanged a few messages every day, and that did not mean they’d made any more of a connection than a complicated friendship.

She needed to get out of her own head. This was an undine. A monster. A deep sea creature who likely was going to continue killing people and saw no issues with her having been the cause of an entire human city being destroyed.

It was silly for her to even think he wanted anything more. His careful hands were merely because he thought she was weak. He wasn’t guiding her through the water because he didn’t want her to get hurt anymore than a normal friend would. Their banter back and forth was just because he liked to talk.

Forcing herself to remember what all the other people in Gamma had said about Mira and Anya, she reminded herself of the hatred that others felt for those who sided with undines. Shewasn’t a monster fucker. She wasn’t one of those women who fell to the evil attentions of creatures that were never meant to mate with humans.

She was not an animal. And it was wrong to look at him as anything more than that.

The twisted metal surrounding them soon gave way to an opening. Ace moved closer to the light a little too quickly, because she expected him to grab her when the current did. Unfortunately, he didn’t. With a sudden sharp tug, she was ripped through the metal shards and bits of glass before spilling out into the room beyond with all the water that had created a tiny waterfall.

She tumbled so fast that she cracked her head against the floor. Or rather, her helmet. And with that hard strike, all she could see was the crack that formed all the way across it.

“Shit,” she hissed, sliding to a stop as the water seemed to hit a smaller drain system and disappear. The entire room was wet, though. At least she knew it was unlikely anyone else was in the room. No one wanted to be this close to an area of the pavilion that was literally draining sea water into it.

But damn it. Damn it. She needed that helmet and now it was cracked. She couldn’t go out into the ocean with the helmet, now. Even if it could withstand the pressure, there was still the risk that it would fill with water and that she’d drown. If she wasn’t careful, then she would die even with Maketes holding onto her.

Ripping the helmet off the suit, she tossed the useless thing across the room with a sharp scream of rage before she realized where she was standing.

The center of the medical pavilion. The Heart, as it used to be known. This was where all the rich people would have gone to get their treatments, while everyone else waited downstairs forhours to be seen. This was luxury, and what she had seen before was just plain.

There weren’t hard plastic seats here. Thick, plush couches had sunk into themselves with water damage. But they were still a beautiful beige color. The ceilings weren’t so short, instead, they were cathedral ceilings at least sixteen feet tall with glass skylights that revealed more glowing neon signs above her head. The few flickering lights that still remained showed the floor was once perfectly white, although now it was cracked in multiple places.

Opulence lived on, though. The chandelier was hanging by a thread above her head, but it was so beautiful, with chains of glass hanging and reflecting rainbow light. The lobby all surrounded a massive stone fireplace. Real stone, with irregular circles and gray mortar that lasted to this day. The desk at the front was white stone as well, rising out of the floor like it was all one singular piece.

Standing there amongst all of it, she felt a bit like an alien. This wasn’t her world. It wasn’t the world she’d ever been apart of long before she was sent to Gamma. In reality, she hadn’t even realized this existed. No one should live this comfortably when people in Beta had little coffin-like pods to sleep in.

Taking a step farther into the room, she looked over the crack in the wall. It was right through the heart of what had likely been a beautiful mural. But now, all she could tell was that it had once depicted an under the sea scene. Like they didn’t get enough of that.

Walking away from the section of spraying water that cast a cold chill into the air, she approached the main wall of windows. Placing her hand on it, she found herself bathed in a glowing blue light. The nearest neon sign had an arrow pointing farther down the tower with twin turtles on either side. ARCADE, it said.

But that glowing neon light wasn’t the only one she could see. There were countless others. So many of them that she could hardly guess at their numbers as they disappeared into the distance. The entire sea was lit up before her eyes. Her view of Gamma had always been rather limited to what she could see from her clock tower. But this? This was a sprawling metropolis of a city and she hadn’t even realized it was there. She’d been here for almost two years, and she hadn’t known there was so much more to this place than she’d thought.

Two levels below her, she could see the glass bridge that connected this tower to the next. There were people down there, about the size of her thumb, they were so far away. Soon enough, those people would realize that someone else was in their home. Someone they needed to get out of here. But for now, all she could do was stare at them.

Until she realized that she was staring and that at any point, they could look up. That was all it would take for her to be in the worst position possible.

Gasping, she reeled away from the window and started stripping out of her diving suit. Water sprayed all over the white floor, speckles of dirty sea water and dirty silt tinging the droplets dark. Her boots came off next, and she padded barefoot across the floor to the front desk.

“There has to be a registry,” she muttered, walking around and reaching for the top drawer.

Nothing of use. Just a few remaining pieces of an eraser and what looked like old chewing gum.

She tried the next side drawer, but that had nothing in it either. The other side drawer? That one was locked.

Hissing out a breath between her teeth, she grabbed onto the handle and anchored herself with her foot braced against the desk. She’d use her entire weight to open the damn thing if shehad to. If it was locked, that meant there might be something useful inside.

She didn’t even hear the groaning from the wall she’d entered from. Nor did she think to pause at the grinding sound of metal and the rushing blast of water that seemed stronger by the moment.

CHAPTER 10

“Why are women like this?” he muttered as he ripped yet another piece of metal free from the wall. “They’re always rushing off into danger. I don’t want to save them, but here I am, rushing to save yet another achromo.”

That was his experience, at least. Both Mira and Anya had been gravely injured in the first few months that he’d known them. In his experience, female achromos were crazy. They had no sense of self preservation, nor did they care that they were risking their lives. They sought out dangerous situations. That was all he could surmise. They sought them out, they wanted to be in danger, and that must be because they all were insane.

“Ridiculous achromos,” he said again, tearing at another loose metallic piece. “This is why I haven’t been involved with any of them. Achromos are worse than the People of Water. Stupid, fragile little monsters with absolutely no way to protect themselves.”

Finally, the wall gave. There was enough room for him to ride the waterfall into the area where she was helpless. He’d watched her move. She wasn’t a fighter, that much he was certain of.Those blunt little nails and shortened teeth could do nothing against an attacker. He doubted she even had a weapon on her.

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