Page 86 of Heart of the Deep

He couldn’t allow himself to acknowledge his rage.

Not yet.

* * *

Alone kraken waited outside the Facility’s entry door, tentacles moving only to maintain his position, when Dracchus and the others arrived. Dracchus frowned when he realized it was Ector, the elder. One of the hunters who’d taught him all he knew as a youngling, many years past.

Ector’s wrinkled face was grave as he surveyed the returning party. Dracchus and his companions had caught up to Brexes and Kronus during the journey, and the speed with which they’d moved would have taxed any of them even before they were injured.

Kronus’s skin was pale. He had one hand wrapped around the harpoon protruding from his gut, arm trembling.

Opening the door, Ector ushered them inside. Dracchus wasn’t sure how they all fit — five kraken, a human, and a prixxir — but the room drained quickly.

“Where is Neo?” Dracchus growled as soon as his head was out of the water.

“I have not seen him,” Ector replied. “But you have something more pressing to attend.”

“My injury can wait.”

“That is not what I mean, Dracchus. We must go to the infirmary at once.”

There was a gentle hiss as Randall removed his mask. “What’s going on?”

Ector’s eyes shifted to look beyond Dracchus. “It is best you see for yourselves before rash judgments are made.”

Something in the elder’s tone gave Dracchus pause — an uncharacteristic hesitance, an unfamiliar weariness. He glanced over his shoulder, following Ector’s gaze.

Brexes and Vasil supported Kronus, one on each side, and blood still seeped around the shaft of the harpoon impaling him. Behind them stood a pale-faced Randall with Ikaros at his feet. The expressions in the room were difficult to read — shock, distress, fear, anger; all were represented.

“Kronus needs aid,” Brexes said. “Someone should seek out the human healer and have her meet us.”

“She is already there,” Ector replied.

A chill swept through Dracchus’s blood, strengthened by the contrasting heat of his rage.

The instant the light turned green, he opened the door and rushed through, pulling ahead of the others despite his injury. If Ector insisted they go to the infirmary, and Aymee was already there, it couldn’t mean anything good. He didn’t allow himself to consider the possibilities. He couldn’t bring himself to face them.

He entered the infirmary without slowing. A sharp, sour odor struck his nose. Several of the beds were occupied, but his attention moved to the one directly to his left.

Dracchus froze. His hearts stopped.

Macy sat next to the bed, elbow on her knee and face propped on her hand. Her hair hung in front of her face. Her other arm was draped over the side of the bed. Jax, bearing a sickly pallor, stood behind her with his body bent to rest his head on the bed beside its tiny occupant.

Sarina.

She was utterly still apart from the shallow rise and fall of her chest.

Macy turned her face toward him, her eyes tired and filled with worry. Then she looked past Dracchus. A fierceness like he’d never seen lit within her eyes. She leapt up from her chair and ran toward him, face contorted in fury.

“You monster!” she screamed, shoving past Dracchus. He turned in time to see her slam a fist into Kronus’s face. “You evil fucking monster! How could you do this? You hate us so much that you’d kill innocent babies?” She struck him again, and then grabbed the shaft of the harpoon and yanked upward on it.

Kronus cried out in pain, sagging against Brexes and Vasil.

Jax was there an instant later. He pried Macy’s hand off the harpoon and wrapped his arms around her, dragging her back. Despite Jax’s superior size and strength, she nearly broke his hold several times, shouting at Kronus throughout.

“Macy!” Jax called. “Macy, look at me!”

She turned her face toward Jax, and her anger dissipated in an instant. “He could have killed them, Jax! All of them. All of us.” She threw her arms around him and buried her face against his neck as tears flowed down her cheeks.

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