Page 16 of Rising from the Depths

“Thiswas her breaking,” Kronus continued.

“You’re right, but hurting Blake isn’t going to help Eva get better.”

“It will be a start.”

Aymee raised her hands and waved her palms toward the floor in a placating manner. “No. You need to leave him alone. Trust me in that, okay? If you really want to help, if you really want to make a difference…she’sthe one who needs attention.”

Kronus tightened his hold on the railing; the metal groaned within his grip. “I am ill-suited to mending broken humans. But Icanbreak her male. That is what I know.”

“I can’t let you do that, Kronus. However much of a coward he might be, he’s not in his right mind at the moment, and you beating the tar out of him is only going to get people riled up. Especially the ones that don’t want your kind here. She just…needs time. And more than that, she needssomeone.Everyoneneeds someone.”

A strange light entered Aymee’s eyes as she stared at him; it was deep with meaning, weighty and dire, and he felt her gaze upon him like it was a physical touch.

He shook his head. “I am not that someone, Aymee.”

But Iwantto be…

She tilted her head slightly. The tiny change of angle only made her stare heavier.

Kronus looked back to Eva and released a long, soft sigh. His forearm stung where her nails had raked his flesh, but he could not deny the wrongness of this. Her peace had come only as the result of a drug. She deserved better. Even if he didn’t knowher, he understood that much.

As he turned away, his gaze met Aymee’s briefly. He didn’t respond to the disappointment creasing her brow, didn’t acknowledge the pleading frown into which her lips had fallen. He left the room without looking back.

What did it matter if Aymee wanted him to help? Eva clearly wanted nothing to do with Kronus, and the decision, as always, fell to the female.

Chapter 6

Aymee seemed surprised when Kronus approached her the morning after his visit to the clinic and inquired about Eva’s condition.

“She’s…not good,” Aymee said. “She’s despondent, barely eating, and isn’t talking much. I think she said all of four words after you left yesterday.”

He didn’t know whatdespondentmeant, but Aymee’s tone would’ve been enough by itself to make her point clear.

They parted ways. For Aymee, it was one of the rare days during which she wasn’t working in the clinic, helping in the fields, or baking with her mother — she would be spending her time with her mate, Arkon, and their youngling, Jace. Kronus had volunteered to help keep watch on the bay while plans were made to organize hunting parties and clear razorbacks out of the coastal waters; it was not thrilling work, but it was important, and it would give him a task upon which to focus.

He gruffly asked Aymee about Eva again the following evening. The only thing to have changed was Aymee’s concern, which had clearly increased.

Kronus’s sleep was restless that night. He tried to explain it away by reminding himself that he’d suffered many nights of broken slumber over the last two years, especially since he’d come to The Watch, but he knew there was more to it this time. Eva lingered in his head, dominated his thoughts, and kept his mind racing. Any attempts to steer his thoughts away from her eventually circled back around to Eva.

By the time the first light of dawn touched the sky on the third day since his visit with Eva, Kronus was ready to get out of bed. Lack of sleep had only made him think of her more. He needed a distraction, needed a new focus.

He ate some smoked fish — one of the human cooking techniques he’d come to appreciate — and selected a fresh chunk of wood from the basket he kept in the corner. After opening the land-facing window to allow in both the gray dawn light and the relatively cool morning air, he positioned himself at the window sill and set to work with his knife. Wood shavings piled on the sill as the sun slowly rose over the jungle. Kronus’s hands scarcely slowed their movement, but it became increasingly clear that he had no direction. Wade often muttered about discovering the shape waiting in the wood; this piece refused to reveal its secrets.

No, that wasn’t right. The problem was Kronus’s own inability to see it.

The sun was a bright disk hanging just above the trees when Kronus gave up and set the wood down amidst the shavings. He cleaned his knife, returned it to its sheath, and closed the window.

It was nearly time to meet the others, regardless. There was no sense in lingering in his den and falling victim to his own thoughts.

After strapping the sheathed knife to his wrist, he headed outside. The air was already warm, but the hint of ocean mist on the breeze granted a whisper of coolness. Kronus drew himself along the path that had been worn into the grass that grew all over the ridgeline. His den —house, to the humans — was the last in a line of dwellings constructed on the cliff, overlooking a stretch of beach below.

Younglings were playing outside — Sarina and Eros, the half-human, half-kraken offspring of Macy and Jax, giggled as Rhea’s daughter, Melaina, chased them through the taller grass. Jace, Aymee and Arkon’s son, stalked behind Melaina as though ready to pounce on her; that she was twice his size seemed to matter little to the youngling. He was a natural hunter despite his youth. Several human children had joined in the games, seeming to make no differentiation between themselves and the kraken.

The children laughed and darted around Kronus as he passed. He slowed his pace to avoid a collision and shook his head. Once, this situation would have annoyed him, and he’d have given their mothers a reproachful glare. But this was not the Facility, and many of the old ways were gone; this was where these younglings denned with their families, and — even if he wouldn’t admit it aloud — it lifted his hearts to see them happy at play.

They were the future of his people. They were the ones who would eventually inherit Halora. If they were safe and content, there was hope.

Macy was outside with Rhea; the females, one human and one kraken, greeted Kronus as he neared. Both their friendship with each other and their forgiveness of Kronus were unlikely, and yet here they all were.

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