Page 12 of Call of the Fathoms

Alexia had learned to listen to her own intuition. Even when she was doing all of her basic training as a kid, she knew when someone else was going to hit her. She’d learned to read other people’s bodies, knew that when her gut said something was going to happen, that she had to listen to it or something terrible would happen to her. Right now was one of those moments. She knew, without a doubt, that the undine wasn’t below her anymore. He was somewhere in this water with her.

So she turned the suit and stopped. Clicking on the light at her shoulder, she peered through the darkness that was only pierced by tiny filaments of white dust. The small jets on the bottom of her boots kept her in place, making sure she didn’t move when she wanted to remain still. She needed to listen. To look through the water when she knew he was hunting her now.

But there was nothing to even see in the water like this. Just the darkness that surrounded her. Breathing slowly, she connected with that part of herself that could sense when someone was looking at her.

Unfortunately, she was too late.

He barreled out of nowhere, just barely catching in the light attached to the suit before she felt the first slice of his claw. He dragged the long tip of it down her arm, and blood bloomed in the water as he disappeared. She had no idea where he had gone, but he wasn’t with her any longer.

Then again, he came, suddenly, and out of nowhere. Alexia reacted better this time. She reached for the knife at her side and lashed out at him. She swore she caught onto something, but he didn’t react like he’d been struck. Instead, that massive bulk slid along her side and a knife punctured through her torso.

Letting out a low groan, she turned with him. But that only made things worse. Not a knife after all. They were serrated spines and part of him, she realized. He had spines all down the backs of his arms, down his back and his tail. All of those spineswere the sharpness that had scraped along her, tearing open her side and ripping through her flesh with so much ease.

She’d never fought against something like this. Never in her life.

Alexia should have been better at fighting him. She should have been more prepared after all of her training, but right now, she realized she was very much the weakest one in this battle. She was in his domain, and she should have respected that.

But she would not give up. Not when there was still a chance that she could win her honor back.

Hitting buttons on the suit, she turned on the rest of the few meager lights she had and then called out, “I know you can understand me! You’re the first of your kind that I’ve seen with a translation device.”

The waters seemed to still. No, not still. He was circling her. Like a shark. Twisting and winding around her, but slowly now as he stalked her.

“Give me the reborn,” she said, knowing her voice was carrying through the water to his ears. “And I will let you go.”

A long, low chuckle echoed in the water. She had no idea what direction it was coming from. Instead, the sound seemed to surround her. Wrapping her body up in that deep, achingly powerful voice. Since when had she ever thought a voice was interesting like that? But she wanted to listen to him talk about anything.

As if that wasn’t an insane thought when she was currently bleeding out in the water.

Then he spoke, not just a chuckle, but words. “You will die here, achromo.”

“I’m not going to die unless I take you with me,” she replied.

There was a long pause. She had to imagine she had surprised him. After all, he clearly thought that he was gettingaway with whatever he wanted, considering her people weren’t supposed to know that his could even speak.

“Allow me to trade you information. I can understand you,” she said. “Tau deciphered your language a long time ago, the first year we all moved down here. The Originals knew you existed and that your people would meddle if humans were to bring an entire city down here. It was one of the first things they did. Learn your language, so just in case, they would know what was being said if your kind continued to hunt ours down.”

And she’d known he had spoken to her when he’d taken the reborn. But she also knew that his people were bloodthirsty and battle hardened. She knew how to deal with people like him, because she was the same way. She wanted to fight, to prove herself, and more than that, to reach some kind of glory in her life.

All she had to do was bait him. Just get him a little closer and then she might level the playing field.

That low voice rumbled again. “I knew you could understand me. That is not something I expected from your people.”

“No, I’m sure you didn’t.” She turned, trying to figure out where he was in the water. “Why don’t you show yourself, undine? Fighting from the shadows doesn’t seem very honorable, and your people do so love their honor.”

“You know nothing about my people.”

“Not really. I can’t imagine it would be difficult to discover, though. Fish are easy to understand when you just watch them. I imagine it is the same for undines.”

A quick movement from the shadows, a slight flash of yellow light. “Fish? I shouldn’t be surprised that’s all you think of my people.”

With a quick movement, she reached for the gun that was always attached to the suits and whipped it up. A single laser, just enough to figure out where he really was, blasted towardwhere she had seen the movement. And there he was. It illuminated just to the right of him, and the pale figure of the reborn still clutched limp in his grasp.

She kept firing. Over and over again, lasers that would have seared him if she hit him, but she chose not to. Not once. Instead, she kept the scatter shots all around him, over and over until the gun was so hot in her hands she nearly dropped it.

Only then did she give them both a breather, where he clearly understood she could find him even in the darkness. “Give me the reborn,” she said again. “Give her to me and you can leave. No one needs to know that you failed.”

“I didn’t fail,” he replied. Something in his tones made all the hairs on her arms stand on end. “But if you want your... reborn back, then you can take her.”

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