Page 23 of Rising from the Depths

But it was. She knew him, had known him intimately for months.

Struggling for breath, Eva gripped the armrests. “Take me back. The other way…the way we came. Take me back now.”

She realized that Kronus had already stopped the chair. They remained there, in the center of the street, for many seconds, and the only sound Kronus produced was the soft squeak of his hands squeezing the chair’s handles.

“Please,” she rasped, tears blurring her vision.

With a frustrated growl, he turned the chair around. Neither of them spoke as he retraced their earlier path. Eva didn’t notice the buildings around them, the people, the sunlight or the sky. The wheels rolled steadily beneath her, trembling when they hit the occasional rough patch, and she didn’t care. As long as she was away from there. Away from Blake.

Soon, they were back at the clinic. Kronus wheeled the chair to her bed and moved to her front. She didn’t resist as he scooped her up and held her against his chest. For a fleeting instant, she had the urge to clutch him, to bury her face against his velvety skin and sob until everything went black, but she resisted. His muscles were rock-solid beneath that soft skin and bristling with tension, but he was nothing but gentle as he laid her atop the bed.

Eva turned her face away from him and closed her eyes. He hesitated for a moment before withdrawing his arms, palms brushing over her gown to spread heat across the skin beneath. He draped the blanket over her and lingered beside the bed.

She longed for him to say something, to sayanything, to give her words she could cling onto. Anything so she didn’t feel so…dead inside, so utterly alone.

“I will return tomorrow,” he finally said. The soft slithering of his tentacles over the floor announced his exit.

When the door clicked closed behind him, nothing remained to hold back her tears. She let them flow freely, silently, until exhaustion finally claimed her.

Chapter 8

True to his word, Kronus returned to the clinic the next morning. Aymee was in the front room when he arrived. She greeted him with a smile that quickly faded as she explained that Eva seemedworsesince yesterday.

He frowned and looked down the hall toward Eva’s room. He knew little of human ways; though they spoke the same language, they often seemed to use the words differently, and their manner of thinking was often beyond his understanding. But he knew why she’d fallen in spirits. It was for the same reason he’d gone to sleep angry and had woken even angrier.

Blake.

Though Aymee’s counsel against harming Blake was wise, it had taken all Kronus’s willpower to prevent him from attacking the human the day before. His fury had only intensified as time passed — especially during the night, when his sleep had been fitful and often broken and he’d been left with nothing to do in the dark but listen to the ocean and think.

He entered Eva’s room to find her laying in the same place, in the same position, as he’d left her the day before.

“Time to go,” he announced.

She didn’t respond. Nor did she react when he picked her up and moved her into the wheelchair; no cursing, no fighting, no anything. She remained as limp as a fresh corpse, barely holding herself upright after he strapped her in.

Aymee’s brow creased as Kronus wheeled Eva toward the exit. She opened the door for him, and her gaze was troubled as it briefly met his. He had an odd sense that, despite her skill in treating ailments, Aymee was just as uncertain of how to help Eva through this as he was.

Eva was silent as he pushed her around town, ignoring his few clumsy attempts at starting conversation. He was careful to avoid the street on which they’d seen Blake the day before. If she noticed that, she made no indication of it. Though the sky was clear and blue, and the sunshine was pleasantly warm, she kept her gaze downcast throughout.

Kronus gritted his teeth hard enough to make his jaw ache. This was worse than her outburst the first time he’d gone to see her. He would’ve welcomed punching, kicking, and clawing if it ended thisnothingness. Why was she an empty shell now when just yesterday she’d seemed on the verge of reclaiming a little bit of herself? Did Blake truly hold such power over her?

Reminder of Blake twisted Kronus’s insides into knots and poured fire into his gut. Kraken males saw it as a privilege to be selected by females, no matter how fleeting those pairings often were. But from the little Kronus knew about human relationships — learned mainly through human-kraken couplings like Aymee and Arkon or Macy and Jax — humans committed to their mates with the intention of spending their lives together.

Why would anyone throw that away? Such stability, such security, had never been commonplace amongst Kronus’s people. The Facility had provided them shelter since the uprising centuries ago, but nothing had been guaranteed. Why give up a lifetime with a mate when so many male kraken wanted nothing more than to be chosen by a female for even a day?

Frustrated, concerned, and uncertain, he brought Eva back to the clinic. If Aymee or her father were still there, neither made their presence known as Kronus took Eva to her room and moved her onto the bed.

It was only then that she finally moved of her own accord, rolling onto her side to face away from him.

Kronus’s hands fell to the bedrail, and his tentacles writhed over the floor. Nostrils flaring, he covered her with the blanket. What had happened to the progress she’d made? What had happened to the inner strength she’d displayed when he pulled her out of the water? This didn’t look like recovery; it looked like slow death from the inside out.

She was broken.

Reaching across the bed, he took Eva by the shoulder, rolled her onto her back, and took her chin in his other hand to force her face toward his. Eva’s eyes widened as he leaned over her, stopping his face less than a hand’s span from hers.

“I will return tomorrow,” he growled, “and you will beherewith me. Do you understand, human?Thiswill continue no longer.”

She held his gaze for a few moments before turning her eyes away. Kronus clenched his jaw. His attention dipped to her lips; would she react if hekissedher, like he’d seen so many humans do? Her pink lips looked soft and warm, and he’d wondered about how kissing felt. The kraken who were mated to humans all seemed to enjoy it.

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