Page 65 of Treasure of the Abyss

Despite his dedication to alertness, he couldn’t prevent his mind from repeatedly returning to the prior day. What they’d shared had proven more fulfilling and meaningful than he could’ve imagined. Even thoughts of prowling razorbacks couldn’t overcome his elation. He didn’t know if Macy considered themjoinedin the manner of her people, but she hadchosenhim.

They weremates.

To kraken, it was an incredibly important — if fleeting — concept, a state that could change as suddenly as the tides during a storm. Because of that, he shouldn’t allow himself such excitement. Shouldn’t allow himself suchattachment.

But Macy had said humans didn’t view such relationships in the same manner. When they chose, they did so forlife.

He halted and flattened himself to the bottom as he approached a potential hunting area. Each moment away from her was a new sort of suffering, a unique agony, but it was his duty to provide for her, and he’d not yet obtained tools to allow her to assist on hunts. Today, she wouldrest.

As he observed the nearby sea creatures, his mind conjured images from yesterday. After their joining, Macy had gone to the waterfall to wash herself; he supposed such behavior was another human oddity, one beyond his understanding. Jax had watched the water caress her bare skin. Had watched droplets roll down her breasts and gather, briefly, on the tips of her nipples before falling. He’d watched rivulets run to the hair between her legs, and lower. It had been no surprise when his willpowerfailed.

Jax had joined her, and soon their closeness led to touching, then kissing, and finally to another joining. They’d eaten afterward, and laid side-by-side as the stars eventually came out. Their quiet conversation had continued until well after the moons passed across the cave’sopening.

When he’d woken at dawn, he was still on land, with Macy enveloped in his arms andtentacles.

Now, he watched spinefish glide by with their long, flat tails, watched armored grayfish sink down into the sand to bury themselves with flapping fins, likely digging nests for their eggs. Silver, reflective fish drifted over the seagrass, using the light bouncing off their scales to attract smaller creatures. Schools of brightly colored fish with oversized, flowing fins swam by with irregular rhythms; their slow, nonchalant pace broken by seemingly random bursts of speed. A few hard-shells — Macy called themlobsters— trundled along the bottom, long feelers sweeping in front ofthem.

Jax crept closer. Most of these creatures did not stray far from the cover of rocks, coral, and seagrass; open water left them vulnerable. They wouldn’t come tohim.

Though he wouldn’t dismiss an opportunity for any significant catch, his attention returned to the spinefish. Most of them were large enough, individually, that one would provide a satisfying meal for Jax and Macy both — especially since she had plants to eat with themeat.

Movement farther out caught his eye; a dark shape approached the area from the relative gloom that always lingered in the distanceunderwater.

No matter how well you can see, the old hunters had said,the sea never revealseverything.

As the dark shape drew nearer, he recognized it for a kraken — its tentacles flared and flattened, flared and flattened. Jax would recognize that uniquely graceful manner of swimming anywhere; Arkon glided along with seemingly little effort, tentacles always extending to straight lines whether they were trailing behind him or splayed in alldirections.

Arkon drifted, turning his head from side to side as he searched the environment. He was clearly alone — when hunting parties traveled, they stayed close together, spreading out only enough not to hinder one another’s movement. They were less likely to be attacked in a group, and that closeness meant no one was completelyundefended.

Why was Arkon this far from the Facility byhimself?

Jax pushed up from the bottom, rising to Arkon’s level, and flashed orange over hisskin.

Arkon spotted him and matched Jax’s brief coloration, but sent a pulse of green through it. He was agitated by something. Slowing, Arkon moved his hands and front tentacles in a series ofgestures.

Need to speak.Surface.

Signaling his understanding, Jax scanned his surroundings for a final time and swam toward the glittering reflections that marked the barrier between water and air. They’d be totally exposed up there; Arkon would not take such a risklightly.

Jax emerged first, and Arkon broke the surface a momentlater.

“We must be quick. There was a razorback hunting these waters two days ago,” Jaxsaid.

“You have been absent eleven days, Jax. I did not expect to find you so close after such a time. In fact, I hoped I would not find you at all.” Arkon’s pupils shrank to slits in the morningsunlight.

Of all the things Jax might’ve expected Arkon to say, he couldn’t have guessed anything close to those words. That was Arkon — he had his habits, hisobsessions, as he’d say, but once he broke from them, he was entirelyunpredictable.

“You hoped for my death,then?”

Arkon shook his head, brow falling. “Your brain must have been addled. Dracchus claimed you have returned at least once to the Facility since you and I last spoke, and that you departed immediately. When I called him a liar, he simply restated in his claim — without taking offense. I feared he was being truthful. I knew if I came looking for you, and couldn’t locate you, Dracchus was speakingfalse.”

“You came out here because of something Dracchus said? You’ve never much cared about what he thought one way or the other,Arkon.”

“And you, Jax, know of his persistence better than anyone. He must have demanded I tell him your whereabouts a dozen times, and insisted that your behavior when he encountered you wassuspicious.”

“I’ve returned twice,Arkon.”

“And departed immediately both times?” Arkon blew air out of hissiphons.

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