Page 50 of Treasure of the Abyss

She’d seen him change color before and assumed it had something to do with his emotions, but she’d never seen his skin like this. If he hadn’t touched her, she would never have noticed him. He was almost perfectlycamouflaged.

And he didn’t lookhappy.

He took her hand and led her deeper into the forest. The color of his skin rippled, reverting to normal. She touched his shoulder just to see if it would changeagain.

Jax glanced at her, brow lifted in question, but he continued forward, keeping close to thebottom.

Macy smiled and squeezed his hand. “Don’t be mad atme.”

He squeezed her hand back, gently, and pointedup.

She tilted her head back, and her breath hitched in her throat. Here, amidst the seaweed, the light was even more intense. The surface broke it into shafts, like the beams of sunlight that sometimes penetrated the clouds after a storm. The backlit, ever-shifting leaves reminded her of the panes of the stained-glass window back in The Watch — the one that had been put together in the lighthouse to commemorate the fallen colonists of years goneby.

The result was an array of dancing color — whites, blues, greens, reds, and purples — unlike anything she’d everseen.

Macy lowered her gaze to watch Jax as they swam. The multicolored shadows on his skin seemed fitting; he could change into any of those colors, she was sure; perhaps even all of them atonce.

They spent hours exploring the seaweed forest and the surrounding area. It wasn’t until Macy felt hollow pangs of hunger that she caught Jax’s attention, rubbing herstomach.

He nodded, and they swam back toward thecave.

Before they reached the underwater cliffside, he gestured to her again — just a bit more forcefully than before — and pointed at the floor. She guessed that he had meant for her to stay put the first time. She smirked and made to moveforward.

He didn’t gesture or point again. Instead, heglaredather.

Macy chuckled and moved back. “Okay, okay. I getit.”

He’d left her on the edge of a shallow drop-off. She watched as he moved to the rocks and grass below. Fish darted away from him, but he didn’t pay attention to any of them. He perched himself atop one of the larger rocks, and his skin changed instantly to match the stone. If she didn’t know any better, she might’ve thought he’d vanished; he looked like part of the rockitself.

She was hungry, but her hunger didn’t outweigh her curiosity as time passed. Jax had brought her a lot of food over the last few days, and she was eager to see how he hunted, eager to see him inaction.

Little by little, the fish returned to the area around Jax. He remained so still that she almost doubted he wasthere.

A school of large, orange fish — gulpers, to the people of The Watch, because their mouths opened wider than their bodies — swam near therock.

The sudden movement was too fast for Macy to fully register. Jax’s tentacles flared out, enveloping the gulpers like a large net. In a blur of frantic motion, dozens of the fish scattered in all directions, regrouping several metersaway.

Jax returned to his normal coloring. For several seconds, he was a mass of writhing tentacles. Then he swam back toward her. The three bright orange fish he’d caught, each wrapped in a tentacle, were easy to spot against his darkskin.

“That was amazing!” Macy grinned at him as heneared.

Smiling, he pointed toward thecave.

She glanced back at the tunnel and bit her lip. The thought of braving the dark, narrow passage on her own sent a chill along herspine.

One problem at atime.

The open ocean had pushed her courage far enough, for now. She turned back to Jax and extended her arms. He embraced Macy without hesitation and swam into the tunnel withher.

When Sam asked if she wanted light, she declined, preferring to bask in Jax’sglow.

They exited the tunnel and broke the surface soonafter.

“Sam, release the mask,” shesaid.

“All right. Field generator deactivated,” Samsaid.

There was a soft hiss as the seal was broken. She yanked off the mask and tugged her hood down as Jax carried her through the water. As they reached the island’s edge, Macy tossed the mask atop the spare clothing. She turned to Jax, threw her arms around him again, and rested her cheek on hisshoulder.

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