Page 83 of Heart of the Deep

Macy grabbed the scanner and hurried to the cabinet alongside Arkon. Though Larkin couldn’t see its contents, she heard the clattering of what had to be dozens of bottles and vials as they searched.

Another wave of cramps hit her. She raised her hand to her mouth as though it would stop what was coming. She turned away from Jace and Aymee as every muscle inside her contracted, forcing out the contents of her stomach. Acid burned her throat, and the cords of her neck strained.

Everything hurt, but she couldn’t stop, couldn’t hold it in.

Melaina’s cries broke through the haze of pain.

Larkin wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and turned toward the young kraken.

Rhea held Melaina atop a nearby bed, her features tight with worry. Her wide eyes darted from Melaina to Macy and Arkon.

Larkin stepped toward Rhea, legs threatening to buckle beneath her.

Not going to fall, damnit.

Rhea turned her panicked gaze to Larkin. “I cannot lose her,” she said frantically. “I cannot.” She shivered as she drew Melaina closer.

Larkin put her arms around them, offering what little comfort she could. She forced her breathing to slow and clenched her teeth against the poison’s effects on her own body.

“We found it!” Macy exclaimed. There was no response. “Aymee?”

Larkin felt herself fading. Impossible heat suffused her, undiminished by the chilled sweat coating her skin, and the room seemed to be spinning around her. But she held on to Rhea and Melaina. She couldn’t donothing. She couldn’t…

“Aymee!” Arkon roared.

“We’ll be okay,” Larkin whispered. “She’ll be okay.”

Larkin slipped into darkness.

Chapter 20

The season of storms usually meant chaos beneath the waves, even when the skies were clear, but the sea was surprisingly calm today. The sun shone bright, casting thin, faint, dancing shadows over the seafloor, and the currents flowed no stronger nor weaker than normal. Sea creatures carried on with their lives all around while plants and grass swayed lazily with the constant motion of the water.

Dracchus frowned and shifted his gaze to Randall and Ikaros, who swam side-by-side a few body lengths in front of him. The human moved his head in constant search, and the prixxir had its long face tendrils —whiskers, Randall called them — extended in all directions.

Larkin would have loved to be out here, to be doingsomethingto contribute. Dracchus had seen the sparkle of excitement in her eyes when he’d mentioned the hunt. Her excitement had soon faded; he couldn’t be sure whether she’d noticed some hesitance in him, but she’d told him she couldn’t go. Macy and Aymee had planned their indoor picnic for today, and Larkin had promised the younglings she would attend.

It had saved Dracchus the trouble of denying her, much to his relief — though that relief wasn’t without accompanying guilt.

He looked to the kraken swimming in loose formation ahead of Randall and Ikaros. Some, he trusted — Vasil had not been broken by their ordeal on the ship and hadn’t allowed himself to be consumed by hatred, and Brexes, though rarely vocal, had spoken several times with Randall and made no effort to hide that he enjoyed hunting alongside the human.

Neo swam in the leader’s position at the center of the formation, with Kronus to his left. Until Neo had organized the hunt that morning, Dracchus hadn’t seen him or any of his followers in the Facility’s main building since the confrontation over a week prior.

Kronus had been civil, but strained, while the hunting party formed in the Mess. Neo, however, had been in a strange spirit. He’d offered no false friendships and made little effort to mask the hatred in his eyes, but his rage had been replaced by an odd smugness. He’d insisted that Dracchus, Jax, and Arkon participate in this hunt, claiming they had neglected the needs of their own people for too long.

His goading hadn’t worked; Jax and Arkon had remained behind. Despite the diminishment of outward hostility, they would not leave their mates and young unprotected. Larkin would be safe with them.

Neo signaled the group to slow as they neared a wide stretch of sand on the ocean floor, broken only by irregular, jutting stones. While the surrounding rock formations and bits of coral teemed with life, few creatures crossed the open ground. For now, it was braved only by small, solitary fish and a few slow, segmented crawling creatures.

The next signs came rapidly.

Down. We await, in the old way.

The kraken spread out in a half-circle around the open ground, dropping into positions in the rocks, harpoons and spears at the ready. Randall took a spot beside Dracchus, and Ikaros dropped onto his belly beside the human.

Dracchus frowned as he watched the surface shadows flutter over the sand. Neo was aware of the new techniques Arkon had improvised for baiting sandseekers, which had saved kraken hunting parties countless hours of unnecessary waiting over the last year. Was he ignoring that method out of spite? Neo had formed the hunt, and Dracchus would not challenge his leadership unless circumstances became dire, but Dracchus couldn’t ignore his rising suspicions.

At a glance, this decision supported claims from Kronus and Neo that they were working to preserve kraken traditions currently threatened by humans and human thought, but that stance had always been superficial. Neo, Kronus, and their followers had ignored the traditions that hindered their true goal — removing humans from the Facility.

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