Page 63 of Call of the Fathoms

“Three percent,” she wheezed as more bubbles erupted around her face.

At least Fortis had the wherewithal to look down at her words. “What?”

“Three percent oxygen,” she said. Already it felt like the air she was trying to breathe wasn’t coming right. The chemical mixture was off. She was getting a little light-headed, and that was not a good thing.

He stared down at her until his expression smoothed out. The confusion that wrinkled his brows was gone, and instead, was replaced with worry that she didn’t like.

Fortis paused, stopping so suddenly that her hair floated in front of her face. He smoothed it back with a massive, webbed hand.

“Virago, this is something I wish I did not have to do. I do not have time to explain what it is. We need to move fast because you are bleeding out. Those bites were not kind to you.”

She wasn’t sure what he was saying. She was just watching the way his lips moved when he talked. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

She tried to shrug, but her arm hurt so much that she couldn’t. Had they broken the bone? Now that she’d gotten some time away from the squid, it felt like they might have.

The pain swelled over her head again, threatening to drown her. She couldn’t focus on anything, not even the slight prick on the side of her neck that was so little compared to all the other pains in her body.

But she struggled a bit when a clawed hand grabbed the oxygen mask on her face and took it off. “Fortis!” she croaked, reaching for it even as he dropped it down into the abyss.

Was he finally going to kill her? Had he given up on her?

“Shh,” he murmured, his hand stroking through her hair. “Let me breathe for you, virago.”

And then he was swimming again. Darting through the water as everything turned into a blur. Or it would have, if she could see in the darkness. The particles in front of her were like stars moving so fast she could only see the slightest smudge of them as they darted past.

She held her breath for as long as she could, before there was a sudden sensation of airpushinginto her body and then...somehow, she was breathing. She wasn’t sure how she wasn’t drowning.

Even as the pain dragged her into unconsciousness, she marveled that somehow, she wasn’t dead yet. Maybe she would be soon, though.

Twenty-Six

Fortis

Fortis had known letting her go alone was foolish. She was an achromo, soft and easily hunted. Too many creatures under the sea knew an opportunity when they saw one, and she was certainly that. The shoal of squid had seen her weakness. They were hungry. He couldn’t blame them.

Her taste was delicious in the salty brine, and he wasn’t the only one who thought so. They had hunted her, bested her, by any right they deserved to get a bite out of her body. But he couldn’t let her die. Her own foolish choices were what brought her to this moment, but...

He’d seen her floating there, still struggling against the attack and fighting with every ounce of energy left in her form. Alexia never knew when to stop, and he’d found that remarkable about her from day one. Allowing her to leave him had never been an option.

Looking down at her limp form in his grasp, he had to admit that he felt something for Alexia. He didn’t want her to die. That was far more than he could say for a majority of people in his life.

As he darted through the water, holding her tight to his chest, he tried to ignore the scent of blood that coated his gills. She was going to be fine, he told himself. Yes, those wounds were ragged. He could see the vibrant flash of muscle and strangely yellow fat that lined her body in each wound. It was a gruesome sight, but she was stronger than most achromos. She would survive.

But when she said she had no oxygen, he’d nearly lost his nerve. After all that he had done to avoid the achromos, to prove that he did not wish to have them in his life, even as the others took them as their mates... he was now connected to one. He breathed for her, inhaled and exhaled even as she struggled to stay alive. He pushed air into her lungs over and over again, as though his body could tell hers that he would not let her go. No matter how hard she tried to escape him.

Light burst into the ocean as the sun came out. He was close to the surface now, and close to the small village they had built for the other achromos who were working with his people. But now he could see the extent of her injuries and it made him swim ever faster.

Her skin was paler than he’d ever seen it, nearly bone white. Her limbs were limp as he swam, dangling over his arms and fins as though he carried a dead body. She didn’t look at him, didn’t react to a word he said even when he repeated her name.

This wasn’t good, and the realization unsettled him. Fortis didn’t want to imagine what her stillness might mean. No, he needed her to be fixed. And immediately.

A movement in the distance to his right warned him that another was approaching. But he didn’t even need to guess who might hunt him down.

He and his son had not gone weeks without seeing each other since Aulax had been taken to Alpha. His son was always the first to track Fortis down, and always had been. But he rarely was gone this long.

He didn’t slow down, knowing that if anyone could keep up with him, that hunter would be his son.

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