Page 70 of Call of the Fathoms

Was Fortis using his son as an excuse? Yes, absolutely. He knew that. But as he left Arges floating there with more complicated questions that Fortis didn’t want to answer, he at least was blessed with a few moments of peace with his son.

Aulax grinned as he approached, opening his arms wide and grabbing Fortis the moment he got close. “She’s well enough to see, father!”

“Who?”

Immediately, that grin faded from his son’s face. “Your... your woman. The woman you brought back with you on the brink of death? They said we could speak with her today.”

“Why would I speak with her?”

It was the wrong thing to say. His son’s expression shuttered in disappointment before he pulled himself back together and tried to smile again. This time, the expression was harder to believe. “Because you were the one who brought her here. They thought you would wish to talk with her. While being recorded, of course.”

“I don’t know what they expect me to get out of her.”

“They expect you to get information about Tau. That was why you brought her here. You said she would help us.” Aulax cleared his throat. “And I assumed, since you have never shown any concern for any achromo, that you thought highly of her.”

“You thought wrong.” He was so tired of lying to everyone.

And it appeared his son understood that. Aulax’s grin became very, very real as he looked his father over and said, “Then you won’t mind if I talk with her? Perhaps she would be more interested in one of our people who is interested in their kind. I’d love to have a long chat with her about whatever it is she wishes to speak of.”

Rage burned hot and fierce in his chest. He didn’t want his son to talk to her at all. It was wrong to even think of Aulax flirting with the woman he had... had...

Done nothing with. He’d done nothing with her, and therein lay the issue. He wanted to do so much more, and he had not been able to do so.

Frustrated bubbles blew out of his gills before he turned away from the infirmary and toward the area where they usually met with the achromos within their safe village. “Come, son. We will speak with her together.”

“As I thought.”

He’d fallen right into that trap. Fortis tried to tell himself that he could do this without giving away how he felt. He would meet with her again, see her after she had almost died. He could hold himself together in front of the others who did not think that he would.

The rumors would be over, then. They would all leave him alone, and he could lick his wounds in silence after severing the connection with Alexia.

But then he popped his head up in the meeting room and waited for what felt like forever. She was supposed to come here, wasn’t she? She should be here by now.

What if Aulax had been wrong? What if she was still very injured, and no one wanted to tell him? What if she’d taken a turn for the worse and they were all rushing back to the infirmary now?

He couldn’t breathe until he saw her shadow moving across the floor. No one could mistake that shadow for anyone else.

And then there she was. Strong, confident, far more than any achromo he had ever met. She had been so limp when he’d brought her here. Her face pale, her features drawn. But now she walked with a straight spine and broad shoulders as she had before.

It made pride swell in his chest. He wanted to grab onto her, to hold her against his hearts and feel her own strange single heart pounding against his own. Fortis hadn’t wanted to touch someone else in such a long time. But her?

He wanted to hold her. He wanted just a few moments where he didn’t feel guilty for touching her.

Breathing out, Fortis tried not to show how affected he was by her beauty. But the breathless way he asked, “You are well?” must have given him away.

“Fortis,” she said, and her voice was soft and quiet. “It’s good to see you.”

They stared at each other like no one else existed. And in that moment, no one did. It was just him and her, staring at each other, trying so hard to make sure that the other was okay.

His eyes danced over the pulse at her throat, the breath that filled her ribs and lifted her shoulders, the way her hands flexed into fists. And then he looked into her eyes and felt every part of him freeze in wonder. Life burned in that gaze, so beautifully that it made his entire body feel strange.

The gills at his sides lifted, shaking just slightly at her stare. He wanted her to look at him all the time like that. He wanted her to praise him, to breathe out his name as she had before. None of this was possible, though. Not for them. Not here.

Clearing his throat, he tried to pull them both out of this moment.

“This is Aulax,” he said. “My son.”

Her gaze flicked to the younger version of him, and he watched the softness spread even further over her features. “Aulax. I have heard about you and all the fun you and your father got into when you were young.”

---