Page 17 of Hunter of the Tide

“It does not seem wise to grant your request, Randall,” Dracchus said, folding his arms across his chest. His voice was a deep rumble, the sort that always sounded to Randall like it must have pained the speaker.

“I’ve spent my whole life outside, Dracchus,” Randall said. “These walls are driving me crazy. I’m not asking to go to land, just to get out of this building for a little while.”

“After you threw a knife at Neo—”

“That was two weeks ago! Are they still complaining about it?”

Dracchus frowned; he probably wasn’t interrupted often, and he didn’t seem to appreciate it. “They have used it to rally a few more kraken to their cause. Proof of how dangerous humans are.”

“They would’ve torn me apart without a second thought.”

“I know. But that does little to change minds that were already made up. Letting you outside, even for a short while, will be viewed as allowing you a chance to escape.”

Randall sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It wouldn’t be smart to take out his frustration on Dracchus, even verbally, but it was still a struggle to bite his tongue.

The time he’d spent with Rhea had been wonderful over the last two weeks. The confrontation with Kronus, Neo, and Volk had, unexpectedly, brought Randall and Rhea closer together. He still hadn’t given in fully, but he’d come to accept his desires. Her understanding of what he’d requested seemed to grow a little every day. She’d even confessed to speaking of it with Macy and Aymee to learn the perspective of the female humans.

Melaina was a joy, too, and Ikaros was more energetic and playful than Randall had thought possible. Kronus and his followers had kept their distance since the incident in the mess hall. Everything considered, life was surprisingly joyful.

But these walls were driving Randall insane.

If he couldn’t get fresh air — and holy hell, hewantedsome fresh air, wanted real wind on his face — he at least needed a change of scenery.

“So, letting me out would be taken as you disrespecting their stance?” Randall asked.

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that alone worth it to you?”

Dracchus’s brows fell low over his piercing amber eyes, and he pressed his lips into a tight line. Ikaros stepped past Randall and sat beside the kraken, swatting at a moving tentacle. Dracchus looked down, frown deepening, and pulled the tentacle away. Ikaros pounced.

Sinking into a crouch, Dracchus slipped a hand beneath the prixxir and lifted him off the floor. The kraken and the prixxir stared into one another’s eyes for several seconds. “Your beast is a clumsy hunter.”

“He’s just playing,” Randall replied, just before Dracchus’s words sparked a new thought. “You’re a hunter.”

Dracchus grunted affirmatively.

“I’ve hunted my entire life, but never underwater, and Ikaros was too young to hunt when he was brought here. Take us out there. Teach us. You accepted me as one of your people, so let me contribute.”

The large kraken’s gaze shifted from Randall to Ikaros and back again, skepticism and scrutiny written in the set of his mouth and the crease between his brows. “You are unable to hunt in the manner of my people,” Dracchus said after a long silence, “and your beast is a youngling still.”

Small as Ikaros was, the prixxir had gained at least twenty-five centimeters in three weeks, and his once scrawny frame had filled out. A few more weeks and Ikaros would likely top a meter from his snout to the tip of his tail.

“He should be catching his own small prey by now, and there are plenty of tools in this place that would allow me to get in that water and hunt.”

Dracchus set Ikaros down and rose. “So now you wish for me to arm you and let you out into the water?”

Randall threw his arms to the sides. “What do you want me to do, Dracchus? Either I have a place here, or I don’t. If you don’t give me a chance to earn trust, to prove that I have value, why keep me alive? Give me a chance.”

“At what risk to my people?”

“My people, my hunting party, betrayed me. But I was conscious when you first brought me here. I heard what you said to Kronus. You said that we — me, Aymee, and Macy — are your people now, too. If I’m one of you, how is there a risk? Let me earn my place. Take me out there. Watch me like you’re guarding a prisoner if you must, as long as I can get out of these walls for a while.”

The kraken’s siphons flared open and closed as he stared down at Ikaros. The prixxir sat on the floor with surprising patience, tail swishing slowly over the floor, and stared up at Dracchus.

“What if your beast swims away, Randall?”

The thought produced an unexpected pang of sadness in Randall’s chest. A few weeks wasn’t much time, in the grand scheme, but Ikaros had become such a large part of his life that he couldn’t imagine things without the prixxir around.

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