Page 56 of Call of the Fathoms

“Then you can tell me about the living ones.”

The living ones. He snorted and rolled his eyes. “That I can do, virago.”

Twenty-Three

Alexia

“You what?” Alexia exclaimed with a laugh, trying to keep herself from giggling too hard at the story.

“Aulax was just a boy, and he wouldn’t leave the pufferfish alone.” Fortis shrugged. “If he wanted to find out why I told him not to touch things, then I decided to just let him touch them. He ended up grabbing onto it in the biggest hug he could and punctured himself in twenty different places.”

“Fortis! That’s...”

“Cruel?” He looked over at her with a grin. “He learned not to touch pufferfish, now didn’t he?”

This wasn’t the only story he’d told her that was borderline ridiculous. There were so many. Stories of him and his son meandering through the sea, seeking everything they could that would entertain them. How they fought sharks and rode on the backs of whales. Stories that painted a picture of a single father who loved his son more than anything in the world.

Biting her lip, she shook her head, so she didn’t laugh too hard at the hilarity of the story. “It sounds like you love your son very much.”

“I do. I am very proud of him.”

“Why don’t you talk about him more?” Maybe that was her old aches coming through. “I didn’t even realize you had a family. Much less that you spent time with them.”

“I didn’t trust you. Why would I tell you about my family when you could have chosen to return to Tau, or tried to kill me? What reassurance did I have that you wouldn’t track down my family if I couldn’t convince you to help us?”

It made a lot of sense. Alexia had worked for the people who had hunted undine for ages, and the people in Tau were willing to do anything to get the entire ocean under their thumb.

Blowing out a breath, she reached up for her hair, which was already almost dry. How long had they been talking? Far longer than they should have, most likely. But it was nice to talk to him like he was a person and not just some monster out of the deep.

Taking her tangled hair in her hands, she started to weave it into a braid. “I can’t blame you for that. I wouldn’t have hunted down your family, though. If that helps.”

“I’m sure you would have.”

“There’s no logical reason to do that.”

“Wiping out my people from the sea has always been Tau’s plan. That’s why they do everything they do. What are you doing?” The last sentence was said so suddenly that she froze.

With her fingers in her hair, she stared at his wide eyes. That expression was far too similar to what he’d looked like the first time he’d lost control in the ocean. Usually there was some kind of emotion in his black gaze, but when he stared at her like that? It was like he turned into a shark. There was no emotion, only hunger.

“Braiding my hair,” she breathed.

“Why did you stop?” His gaze never moved from her fingers, he wasn’t even blinking, and she wasn’t sure what that meant.

Inexplicably, heat bloomed deep in her belly. Alexia didn’t know what to do with these feelings, but she knew she wanted him to keep looking at her like that. So she continued weaving the strands together, looping them over and over.

Her hair was long. It took some time to braid her hair. By the end of it where she tied it in a knot that would hopefully stay, the air was thick between them. She was breathing a little harder than before, and so was he. She could see the way his chest moved up and down with some emotion she could not name.

But this feeling awakened another being inside her. A woman who could feel and want and desire, whispered for her to take hold of this moment. It might be the only one she ever got.

Licking her lips, she quietly said, “You believe you’re going to die soon?”

“I know it.”

“If I were going to die, then I would want to fill every moment with life. I would want to do all the things that I have always wanted to do, and not have a single regret as I left this world.”

She realized she was likely prodding him with a stick just to see what he would do, but also, she hadn’t felt like this. Ever. Her body had never experienced this warm, liquidy feeling until him and she wanted to explore that more.

“Virago,” he said, his voice little more than a groan. “My control is hanging by a thread.”

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