Page 54 of Lover from the Waves

Kathryn couldn’t help but shake her head and chuckle at herself. “Sorry. I just…I’m not used to all this, and it spooked me how relevant your offer was to what I was thinking.”

“Coincidence, I assure you,” Kane said pleasantly. “For the record, the only one to have the coveted privilege of Kane on the brain is Theodora.”

Poor Theo.

Kathryn couldn’t imagine having someone in her head all the time, especially during thoseprivatemoments.

“What about when she is…intimate?” Kat asked.

“She tells my…progenitor to piss off. And please forgive my vulgarity, but thatisthe watered-down version of how she might say it. She has full control when she desires privacy, but she and I—the other I—are quite close.”

Kat took a few moments to consider the situation. While the thought of having an independently thinking voice in her head was initially unsettling, there was the potential for a degree of comfort in the idea. Having something—someone—like Kane meant never truly being alone. She didn’t know much about Theodora or the woman’s past, but the way Theo and Kane had talked to each other while they worked on Kathryn’s house had implied a very deep, meaningful friendship—one of the strongest bonds two people could make.

That path of thought led her to reflect upon something she might not otherwise have noted—the hint of sadness that had been in Kane’s voice.

“You miss her, don’t you?” Kat asked.

“Me? Missher?” Kane scoffed, but it was clearly bluster. “I’m glad to have some time to myself. Why, there were times when she’d just talk and talk on and on, and she’d insult me and I’d insult her, and then she’d get in a really good one and we’d both laugh and… Damn it, you’re right, Kathryn. I do miss her.”

Her heart broke for him. “I’ll be returning to The Watch soon. Maybe…I can bring this suit to her?”

“I would like that, Kathryn. Thank you.”

She continued swimming, only taking her eyes off Ector to look at her surroundings. Every minute the world around her darkened further.

“I’ll have some light now, Kane,” she said.

“My pleasure, Kathryn,” Kane replied.

A light flashed on from somewhere along the upper edge of the mask, intensely bright but somehow not blinding despite its closeness to her eyes. It projected a strong cone of illumination ahead of her that followed wherever she turned her face and cast that little slice of the ocean in stunning clarity—including Ector.

He flared out his tentacles, slowing himself to a stop, and let them go limp as he spun to face her. The light cast hard shadows on his body, accenting his musculature, and his eyes gleamed with twin reflections—like each held a tiny, silvery moon. He shook his head.

Kathryn knitted her brows and gestured questioningly toward the light.

Ector nodded and proceeded through a quick series of hand and tentacle gestures.

“No light,” Kane said. “Almost there.”

Kat frowned. “No light? But it’s almost full dark.”

“Would you like me to comply with him?”

The thought of floating through endless, impenetrable darkness was a terrifying one, but Kathryn didn’t waste time considering it. “Yes. He knows what he’s doing.”

The light vanished as abruptly as it had appeared. For a few moments, her vision was blanketed by solid black that was broken only by an indistinct silhouette—an afterimage of Ector that quickly faded. Even when her eyes had adjusted, the water seemed significantly darker than it had a few moments before. Ector was a dark blue shape, discernable only because of that persistent yellow outline from Kane, as he moved closer to her. He closed a hand around hers, covering it completely, and led her forward.

Only the barest hint of light remained on the surface—the final glow of a sun that had already been devoured by this dark, hungry sea. Were it not for Ector, whose features were almost entirely masked by the gloom, Kat would’ve have felt utterly, desperately alone, like she’d been tossed into a starless night sky to drift aimlessly.

But as they swam—their pace slower now—she realized that it wasn’t all darkness. There were faint lights scattered around the seafloor and its rocky outcroppings. Some of them were even recognizable in shape—plants she’d seen while the sunlight was stronger, fish that had been swimming around her during this journey. Each source gave off its own gentle blue glow, all of which were surrounded by black. To Kathryn, those little sources of light were beacons, sparse but unmistakable stars against the backdrop of infinite space.

She’d seen glowing plants many times in the nighttime jungle. She’d found them fascinating as a girl, had found them magical. That wonder translated well to seeing them in the sea; they were even more ethereal down here, surrounded by their own bluish auras in the otherwise consuming shadows.

Ector slowed as they neared something huge looming in the water ahead. The object nearly filled her entire field of view, blending in with the blackness that had come to dominate her vision to the left, right, and below. The only contrast was from the surface, which still possessed a hint of its own now gray light.

“What is that?” Kathryn asked.

“Stone,” Kane replied. “A rather large formation rising from the sea floor. It extends quite a way to either side.”

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