Page 12 of Rising from the Depths

How could anything like that be so soon forgotten? Every instant of the battle in the Facility was emblazoned in his memory with chilling detail, and he somehow knew those memories would linger with him until he died, and the sea reclaimed him.

“Is that a…humancondition?”

Aymee tilted her head. “It’s asurvivalthing. My dad and I read up on it last night in the files from the Facility. When someone — human or kraken — experiences something traumatic, the brain shifts into survival mode and focuseseverythingon making it out of the situation alive. That doesn’t leave much to make memories, and the memories it does keep usually get locked away as another means of protection. The mind can only take so much before it breaks.”

Did that mean Eva didn’t remember Kronus, either?

It does not matter whether she does or not.

But that didn’t prevent a sense of disappointment from spreading through him.

“So she is broken, then?” he asked.

“No, she’s not, but…” She looked away from him with a frown.

“But you fear she will be?”

“She has no support, no one to help her through this.”

“She has a mate, does she not?” he asked, recalling the male human who’d fled the water ahead of the other humans and had turned away from Eva when Kronus brought her ashore.

Aymee lifted a hand and ran her fingers through her curly hair. “Blake is struggling with issues of his own. I don’t think he’s in any state to help her heal right now…if he ever really was to begin with. He’s visited the clinic twice, and when he came yesterday, he left her in tears, and she wouldn’t tell me why.”

Kronus clenched his jaw and dropped his gaze to the floor. He could not understand a male acting that way toward a female. Kraken males did everything they could to protect and provide for their females, even knowing the female could cast them aside at any moment. But this human had fled. He was unworthy of having a mate. Unworthy of Eva.

The ends of Kronus’s tentacles swept back and forth across the floor; he stilled them, annoyed at both himself and the way thisBlakehad behaved.

Aymee sighed heavily. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to dump this on you. I just wanted to let you know she’s awake. Physically, her recovery is proceeding astonishingly well, but the rest…” She tilted her head and regarded him. “How is your back? You haven’t been back to clinic to have it checked.”

“It no longer bothers me,” he replied. Once the danger had passed and the excitement had died out, the gashes on his back had been quite painful, but kraken healed much faster than humans.

Aymee nodded. “Good.” She moved back toward the door. “Thanks for letting me in.”

He drew in a breath, about to snap at her, but whatever harsh words he might’ve spoken died on his tongue. She’d done nothing to warrant cruelty. He met her gaze and offered her a nod instead.

She hesitated as she stepped out, glancing at him over her shoulder. “If…if youwantedto, you’re welcome to visit her at the clinic. She might not remember what happened, but you were the one who saved her life, and knowing that might help her a little.”

Aymee delayed for a moment longer, as though awaiting a response from Kronus. When he offered none, she slipped out and closed the door gently behind her.

Kronus turned away from the door and moved to the table, bracing his hands at two of the corners and dipping his head. He had no reason to visit Eva; it wasn’t his place, she wasn’t his problem. He’d done his part. If she didn’t remember him…it was all the better. He didn’t want her gratitude, didn’t want her attention, didn’t want—

His eyes fell on the carving with the broken leg, its featureless face staring up at him. Its expression could have conveyed anything — sorrow, fear, judgment, pain, loneliness, anger. His mind dredged up memories of that strange time after he’d been banished from his home, utterly alone in the deep. Doomed to death if he entered the Facility, doomed to death if he was found by the kraken who’d once supported him in his efforts to expel the humans.

There’d been no one for him then. No support, no camaraderie.

He could guess at how Eva felt.

Kronus bared his clenched teeth, squeezing the edges of the table.

It wasnothis place. It was not natural for him to yearn for another glimpse of her clear, bright eyes, or to wonder at the feel of her long, shimmering hair or her smooth, tanned skin. She had a male, and if that male was inadequate, it was up to her to cast him aside and find another. She’d made her choice, and if it had been a poor one…

And how many poor choices have I made? How many bad decisions trail behind me, and yet I remain? If I was afforded another chance, if I have been offered forgiveness, why should she deserve to suffer alone?

PerhapsIcould be her male. Perhaps I could show her what it truly means to have a mate.

Kronus had never seen the appeal of humans. They were strange looking, small, and weak, ill-suited to thriving on a world like Halora. But Eva had caught his eye. There was a beauty to her, an appeal, that he could neither understand nor define. Something about her drew him. He’d glimpsed a strength in her — not of body, but of spirit. In her most terrified moments she’d tried only to help her companions. Even as she’d weakened from loss of blood, she’d tried to fight his hold, to go back for the people she cared about.

That was a selflessness to be admired regardless of her species.

---