Page 91 of Heart of the Deep

“You accuse us of being honorless when you sought to poison our mates? Our younglings?” Jax snarled, moving forward. “I will accept that lack of honor if it means I can tear your guts out and force you to experience every moment of a slow death!”

Dracchus extended an arm to the side, blocking Jax’s path. Despite Jax’s bristling fury, he stopped. He held his glare on Neo for several heartbeats before returning to his mate’s side.

“This prejudice has gone too far,” Ector said calmly, looking at Neo.

“There is no proof I did anything to them,” Neo said. “Wild accusations should not hold so much weight.”

“I am proof.” All eyes went to Aja as she spoke. “I, too, have allowed my anger to mislead me. To distrust the humans who have lived among us.” She looked at Neo then swept her gaze over the crowd. “I was there when Neo spoke of his plans to kill the humans and their offspring. He said that if Dracchus, Jax, and Arkon did not join them on the hunt, then they deserved to die alongside their humans.”

She bowed her head and closed her eyes. “I did not think he would do it. It is to my own shame and regret that I did not speak of this to anyone while I might have stopped it. I never thought he would truly harm a youngling or any of our kind.”

“Traitor!” Leda yelled, baring her teeth and flashing crimson.

“It is no proof!” Neo lunged toward Aja.

Kronus blocked him, meeting Neo’s gaze. “You would attack a female?” he asked in a low voice.

“They spoke of using needler venom to taint the food,” Aja said, glaring at Neo.

“This is proof of nothing,” Neo repeated, face ablaze with fury as he stared at Kronus. “Two more traitors, too fearful of action to be of any benefit to our people.”

“The only traitors I see are you,” Kronus replied, lifting his chin to indicate Neo and the kraken gathered behind him. “You have harmed our own kind. This is not worth our blood.”

“The scanner detected the unique toxin of the blue needler in all the afflicted,” Arkon said. He was met with several confused looks. “The computer confirmed they were poisoned by needler venom.”

“Now we are to take the word of some human-built machine?” Neo demanded.

“Wewere built by humans,” Dracchus said. “We live in a place built by humans, on a world settled by humans. Were it not for humans, we would not exist.”

Neo turned to face Dracchus. The cords stood out on his neck, and his eyes were wild. “They have served their role, and now they are only a threat to our kind. Butweare the superior creatures.Weneed never suffer at their hands again!”

“Nothing you say will change his mind,” Larkin said. She tilted her head back to meet Dracchus’s gaze when he turned his head toward her. “I think he broke on that ship. Words aren’t going to fix that.”

Dracchus clenched his fists. His body was in the same state it assumed while in wait during a hunt; senses heightened, muscles thrumming, blood hot. But what would be accomplished by a fight here? Violence had only worsened this situation. It wouldn’t change any minds now.

“Our accusations have been made.” Dracchus faced Neo and the group of kraken that supported him — nearly twenty able bodies, nearly twenty of their species, lost to this madness. “Our people should not have their lives threatened by our own. We have always worked together for survival. This action is far beyond what can be tolerated. It cannot be forgiven.”

Neo narrowed his eyes. “What are you saying?”

Ector moved forward, placing himself between Neo and Dracchus. “It is clear that your prejudice against the humans has changed you all. You have become a threat to human and kraken alike.” He turned toward the rest of the gathering. “The time has come for action. We must make this decision together. You have heard the accusations, heard the evidence provided, and you know those who have acted.

“If you support Neo, do so now. If you believe that killing the humans, at any cost, is the correct path, swim it with him. It does not befit us to hide our true allegiances like cowards.”

In the tense silence that followed, three of the kraken in the group behind Neo broke away and went to the edge of the larger crowd, looks of disgust and shame on their faces. No one else moved; Leda, Garon, and Orphus maintained their positions behind their new leader.

Ector nodded, a sad look in his eyes. “I leave it to you, my people. An act like this cannot go unpunished. By the old ways Neo and his followers claim to preserve, such harm to females and younglings would mean death.”

“No!” Neo shouted, triggering a great commotion. Skin flashed crimson on all sides, kraken lunged forward, and a desperate fight nearly erupted.

“Enough!” Dracchus roared over the cacophony. Silence fell over the gathering as he approached Neo.

“I challenge you,” Neo growled. “I challenge you for leadership, for dominance, for our lives!”

“No,” Dracchus replied evenly. “Your right to challenge me has long since passed. You are not worth the effort I would expend to kill you.”

Neo and his followers railed, raising claws and bearing teeth. To either side of Dracchus, other kraken formed a line — Jax and Arkon, Brexes and Vasil, Rhea, dozens of others. Randall and Larkin joined the line, shoulder-to-shoulder with the kraken around them.

“Had your plot succeeded, I would have slaughtered each of you with my own hands,” Dracchus said. “But our numbers are already diminished. Our people have suffered enough, and those willing to live in peace, those willing to adapt and work together, will suffer no more by your doings. You are banished.”

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