Page 30 of Treasure of the Abyss

Her denial didn’t make Jax’s words lesstrue.

Think of Camrin. Of Aymee. Of mom and dad, and how they must feel. First Sarina, and nowme…

But mom has always blamed me for Sarina’sdeath.

“Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry.” She squeezed the vines, hands aching, and looked up. “Almostthere.”

Bracing her feet against the rock, she stretched one arm, reaching high above her head to resume her climb. She’d made it another meter when dead vegetation crumbled beneath her foot; she slipped and clutched the vines desperately. The sweat on her palms made her handsslick.

Macy dropped, stomach lurching, and clawed for a handhold. A scream caught in her throat, frozen byfear.

She came to a jolting halt when she caught a thick, tangled mass of vegetation, and her arm felt as though it would be torn off. She wound the vines around her hands and wrists and closed her eyes, trying to calm her pounding heart and slow her franticbreaths.

It was a close call, but she had to press on, had to fight through her fear. Time was runningout.

She moved her feet carefully, securing one before seeking a spot to brace the other. She needed to relieve some of the strain on herarms.

The vines loosened. She slipped a fewcentimeters.

Her heartstopped.

Jax was uneasy,leaving Macy alone; there was a sinking feeling in his gut, and his throat was tight. He couldn’t shake the sense of blind, nervous anticipation. Something was going tohappen.

He kept his hunt short, gathering a few of the hard-shelled bottom-dwellers scuttling amidst the rocks and vegetation below the tunnel opening. He slid a claw between the armor segments behind their eyes to kill them; their underbellies were unprotected, the meat sweet and easy to access. Hopefully, humans could eat them without gettingsick.

Though collecting his prey was a simple task, his hearts were racing by the time he finished. He hurried to the tunnel and dragged himself through rapidly. Perhaps she’d talk to him again, as the food cooked, and he’d be granted another glimpse of the female behind the sorrow andanger.

I am the reason she is sad, the reason she isangry.

The truth was unavoidable. He was keeping Macy against her will. It was just as damaging as her need to give everything to the other humans without leaving anything for herself, if not moreso.

Arkon had a word that seemed fitting now; Jax was ahypocrite.

Though he railed against being contained, though he resisted the commands of others and sought his own path, he’d stolen Macy’s freedom without a second thought. What did it matter that she was a human, or that their peoples shared a violent history? She was a thinking being, an emotional being, and seemed to possess many of the same yearnings as Jaxhimself.

He emerged from the tunnel, lifted his head over the surface, and swam to the island. As he laid the hard-shells on the ground, he glanced at her shelter. Even through her anger, she’d cast appreciative glances at him each time he’d returned with fresh food; he longed to see that expressionnow.

She wasn’tthere.

Jax pulled himself onto the island and moved to its center. She wasn’t looking through the containers, and he didn’t see her in the water. It was only when his hearts resumed their pounding that he heard a rustling ofleaves.

He turned to the waterfall just as a small rock fell from the cliffside. It clacked noisily on the ledge and rolled into thewater.

Jax tilted his head back. The breath fled his lungs when he saw Macy clutching the vines, halfway up the cliffface.

Surging forward, he plunged into the pool and called her name as soon as he had air enough to make the sound. Though he spent little time outside the water, he knew things worked differently in the air. Thingsfelldifferently.

Macy gasped and looked down at him. Just as their eyes met, the plants she held tore free. She screamed and fell backward. The vine caught with a jolt and Macy slammed into the cliffside before the plants snapped. Shedropped.

He heard nothing but her scream and his thundering hearts as he leapt onto the ledge. Cold fear flowed through him, but his chest burned. He couldn’t tell if his lungs were too full or tooempty.

She hit him in the chest. He wrapped his arms around her as the impact knocked them into the water, reaching out with his front tentacles for some purchase on the rocks. Macy thrashed, kicking wildly and swinging her arms. They were under for three heartbeats before Jax gained a strong enough hold to pull back onto the ground. He kept her in hisarms.

Macy coughed, spitting up water. Her soaked hair hung around her face, and her fingers clutched his arms tightly enough for her blunt fingernails to feel like claws. She sagged against him and breathedraggedly.

She was frightened, but he didn’t think she washurt.

If he’d returned even a few momentslater…

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