Page 60 of Echoes of the Tide

“I already drank some from the wells here.” She pointed behind her. “That’s good enough.”

“It’s not,” he hissed. “You have to take care of yourself, Ace, or you cannot take care of anyone else.”

His words seemed to sink in. Her face turned a little ashen, and it was almost as though she’d heard those words before. Because, almost too stiffly, she nodded and then gathered the fish in her arms. “Not here, then. This building is going to collapse at any moment.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know where is safe here.”

He did. Or at least, he knew where there was enough safety that they could be alone for a few moments. Enough for her to eat. To rest without someone breathing down the back of her neck.

It was a small outpost that was part of the tower, but it had been closed off to the others for a very long time now. He suspected it was a control tower once. There were more in the other cities that floated off at a distance from the main building. He remembered that there were achromos in them, sometimes. Not often, but enough that he had seen them moving around like a small school of fish.

This one had twin bridges that connected it to the other towers, but they’d been broken long ago. So it was just a single pod, floating out in the ocean with flickering lights that sometimes turned on, and then turned off for long periods.

He swam up into it with her in his arms, breaking open what looked like an emergency hatch and then following her up into the cool room.

Maketes hadn’t expected it to be quite so cold. But apparently his little kefi had. She reached for Tera, water drops splattering out of her pocket as the droid hit the ground and rolled toward the controls.

“The heat’s always the first thing to go,” Ace muttered, her breath fogging in front of her face. “It’s all right. It’ll warm up soon enough.”

“We can eat in the meantime.” He gestured to the fish that she still clutched in her arms. “That should be enough to sustain you, should it not?”

There were about fifteen fish in her arms, which she looked over before her jaw dropped open. “I can eat maybe two.”

“Two?” he frowned. “That’s not nearly enough. I have to insist that you eat more than that.”

“I quite literally can’t.”

“You will eat more.”

“Maketes, if I eat more than two, I’m just going to throw it back up.” She selected her two fish and then shoved the rest toward him. “Here. These are yours.”

He took them, but he wasn’t happy about it. If she wanted him to feast with her, he would. But it felt like a rejection of everything he had done. Everything he was offering.

He’d already stolen her. That much was complete. But now he was giving her food, and she didn’t want all of it. He’d never known that to be something that happened. What did it mean? What was he meant to do when a female accepted some of his offering, but not all of it?

A little off kilter, he picked up one of the fish and swallowed it whole. Though eating them was lackluster now that they were no longer wriggling.

And then he realized she was staring at him. Her jaw had hinged open, and he was certain that was surprise, not that she was still hungry and wanted more fish to put into her mouth.

“What?” he asked.

“You just... swallowed it.”

He wiped his face, making sure there weren’t any scales left on his mouth, but that wasn’t why she was looking at him. Frowning, he watched her a little more closely. He hadn’t surveyed her while she was eating what he’d brought her before. Mostly because he considered it rude and because they hadn’t eaten in front of each other regularly.

“How do you eat it?” he asked.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a capped scalpel. The same little blade had cut through her enemies. But this time, Ace used it to slice into the fish. She gutted it, wasting all the good parts by washing them into the open water, and then slowly... flayed the skin off as well.

He bared his teeth in horror as he watched her then slice flesh from the naked body and then put that raw piece into her mouth.

“You’re ruining all the best parts,” he muttered. “That’s how you eat them?”

“I’m shocked you’re swallowing bone.”

They stared at each other in disgust for a few more moments before they both started to chuckle. He waved up and down her body with a laugh. “I forget so easily that you’re...”

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