Page 19 of Call of the Fathoms

Instead, he swore he could hear her curse before she managed to not hit the stones. Interesting. She was a better pilot than he’d thought she was, but then again, she was good at surprising him.

“All right,” he muttered, “Then let’s try this.”

Off he went to the right. This time curved her towards volcanic vents that opened up and blasted hot water. He wasn’tcertain if her ship could withstand that, but he was surprised to see that it could. The heat was blistering to him, but her ship didn’t slow in the slightest.

Curious. Then he brought her out into the open ocean. The darkness there was easier for him to slip away. Her beams of light could only hold on to him for so long before he just... disappeared.

All he had to do was flick his tail and roll beneath her ship that was rapidly gaining on him. He let her, of course. He wanted her to think that perhaps she could catch him. Surely she had weapons that were all pointed right at him. All she’d have to do was hit a button in this darkness, but he realized she didn’t want to do that.

If she shot him here, then his body would disappear just as easily as he had fled from her now. If she wasn’t careful, she’d lose her prize.

The damned woman wanted her trophy. He only knew this because he would want the same thing if he were her.

Gills opening wide and filtering through as much air as he could stuff into his lungs. He hovered above her ship as she slowed it. The whole thing pivoted, moving in a circle with a single engine still going as though she waslisteningfor him.

“Achromo,” he called out, the word long and low. He knew she could hear his whale song.

The ship turned, but he needed her to get out of her ship. Out of that protection that would only give her a barrier between him and all the memories that he knew he needed to gather from her.

Swimming slightly closer, he sang his taunts louder, knowing she wouldn’t be able to deny him.

“The little achromo arrives in a ship. Terrified of what the massive undine could do to her. You are afraid.”

Again the shipped turned, but he did not hear her speaking within that metal contraption. Not yet.

So he swam even closer to the top of it, knowing she would not look above her until the last second. “If you’re not careful, I will believe your people are even less capable than expected. You don’t want to get into the water because you know I will kill you if you do.”

Then he heard her small scoff. “I have no fear of you, undine.”

“You are deeply afraid. But you don’t want me to smell it on you again.” Then he was close enough to her ship to trail his nails down the glass on top of it. All she had to do was look up.

And then she did.

Those jet-black eyes, as deep and endless as his own, looked up at him. He knew the lights from below illuminated his face. He must look terrifying to her, all flared gills and floating hair. Slowly, he grinned. Spreading his lips so all she could see were the sharp points of his teeth and a mouth that was a little too wide.

Her nostrils flared. He wondered if that was fear or anger, but that was the best part of all this. Perhaps, if he was lucky, he would get her out into the water so he could tell.

They were so disgusting to him. Fortis had never looked at achromos overly much, because they were stomach churning. Except he wanted to look at this one. He wanted to know every single feature of her face that moved and changed when he taunted her, because his hatred ran so deep that he needed to know these details about her.

Her hand slowly stretched forward, fingers steady as a rock, he noted, and then she hit a button.

There it was again. That exoskeleton. Stretching down from somewhere above her in the ship and wrapping around her body like a second skin. She held his gaze the entire time, her body jerking with the movements to get it settled in the right places that should have protected her from him.

But the suit hadn’t the last time, and it wouldn’t this time.

“I have thought long and hard about our last fight,” she snarled. “I know where I went wrong, and I know how to fight you better.”

“Is that so?”

“This time, I won’t hesitate to shoot.” Her fist slammed into a button next to her at the same time, she dragged a face mask over her mouth.

He could so easily rip her air away from her and kill her. Surely she knew that. These threats weren’t scary to him in the slightest.

Maybe she had always wanted to fight him again in the sea. Maybe some prideful part of her believed that she could fix her own honor by winning this time. She wouldn’t, but he could respect the desire to do so.

She landed in the water and he sucked her scent into his lungs. It was fresh and light, but acrid this time.

So she was afraid. Good. She wasn’t an idiot.

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