Page 35 of Call of the Fathoms

Fortis waited until she looked at him. That glare stirred something inside of him, and he hated how he responded to just that look. Because he hated her. Every bit of her and no matter what she did to reveal truth after truth, he would always hate her.

Grabbing her by the neck, he let her dangle in the darkness that surrounded them. With a flick of his tail, he brought them farther out into the sea. Soon, the only light that surrounded them came from his body.

She grabbed onto his wrists, but she wasn’t struggling now. Almost as though she knew she had been bested, and easily at that.

“You will help us,” he told her. “You will betray all that you are afraid to betray, and you will be better for it. If you agree to work with us, I will train you myself. No People of Water or achromo could fight you without losing. But to do all of that, you must trust me, virago.”

Her hands squeezed his wrists even tighter. “I will never trust you or your kind.”

He dropped her. It was that easy. He just released his hand on her neck and let the weight of her boots and her body drag her into the depths. It wasn’t a slow decline, even as she tried to swim against the currents, but she wasn’t strong enough for that. She fought hard, with her arms pumping and her legs working, but soon enough, even she grew tired.

She hadn’t eaten. Hadn’t drunk enough water. No one was endlessly powerful. Not even him.

At the last moment, before the currents swept her away, he reached out and grabbed her hand. They remained frozen likethat, her falling into the waters below and him, a glowing beacon reaching out to be her salvation.

She stared up at him with those dark eyes, the same color as the abyss beneath her. How many times had he stared into that darkness? How many times had he sworn there were answers for him in those dark waters?

Swallowing hard, he reminded himself that she was not someone who was from the sea. She was not the person he was giving her credit to be. Even though he almost wanted her to be a gift from the abyss.

“Trust me,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “You have no other choice, Alexia. You will have to trust me or I will let you go.”

He could see the struggle in her. Some part of her wanted this all to be over with. Perhaps it was the easier choice to have him let her sink into the abyss. At some point, the pressure would kill her. It wouldn’t be slow. It would be an instantaneous death that she would not feel, and then the sea would make use of all her parts.

He wouldn’t think less of her, but he would be disappointed. Even the sea seemed to pause around them, the currents halting as they waited to hear what she would choose to do.

She looked up at him and didn’t move for a bit. She just let him hold her there, dangling over what was certain death until finally she gave him a nod.

“I don’t know how to trust you,” she said. “But I can promise I will try to learn how to do so.”

“That’s good enough for me. After all, you told me a secret about your city that will be very useful soon enough.”

He drew her up by the arm until he could grab onto her waist. She was such a large achromo and still, her waist felt tiny as he held onto her and swam back to her ship. It was... odd to noticesuch a thing. He usually didn’t care at all about the bodies of other people.

She was very still in his arms. So still that he worried she might have given up. Perhaps she regretted not choosing death.

He swam with her all the way to the bottom of her ship and then jettisoned her up into the opening. But when he noticed she struggled to even get herself into the ship, he realized the problem.

“Are you cold, virago?” he asked.

Her chattering teeth should have been the first warning sign. He was such a fool. His people didn’t worry about icy waters, but of course, she was freezing. And here he had been, practically swishing her through the coldest part of the ocean.

Planting a hand on her ass, he shoved her into the ship. She rolled on the floor, but he could hear her trying to get onto her hands and knees. It was a start. At least she was still trying to keep herself alive.

But he also knew there was no heat in this room. The ship didn’t have the power to have the heat on any longer, and therefore, she would just freeze to death.

Sighing, he turned to where he had placed the battery packs. One of them wouldn’t hurt. Sure, it was one of his few bargaining chips to convince her that maybe, just maybe, she should help him. But if he could keep her alive longer, perhaps that would also win her trust.

This woman held all the secrets of Tau in her mind. And he’d already decided she was much more useful if he could talk to her about what she knew, rather than just stealing it himself and pretending to understand what he had seen.

He got one of the batteries and attached it to the top of the ship. The achromos should make these more difficult to work with if they didn’t want his people to figure out how to use them.It was literally attached to the top with just a few seals, and then he could see the connection light up.

It felt wrong for some reason to tease her even more now. She’d already struggled long enough in his presence. Soon enough, the computer would turn the heat back on and then, perhaps, he would return.

For now, though, he would let her mourn the loss of everything she knew about herself in peace.

Fifteen

Alexia

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