Page 81 of Echo and the Homicidal Sea Panda

Echo sat back on his haunches while Mael pulled himself up into the chamber.

The light grew brighter while he was there.

“Mael?”Echo called, climbing up the rocky slope. “What’s going on?”

A hand flashed out and Echo jumped, a yelp coming from his lips.

Mael peeked out, his gaze languid.“Give me your hand…”

Blue light circled in the depths of his black eyes.

He should’ve been terrified, but he wasn’t. Need slammed into him hard. Echo’s hand shook as he reached out for Mael’s. The second their skin touched, Echo could feel the tension within mounting. Mael dragged him up, pulling so hard their bodies collided with one another. Mael fell back to the stone floor, Echo landing on top.

Echo lifted himself on shaking arms, his palms in the middle of Mael’s chest. He straddled his mate’s hips and rolled his own, unable to stop himself.

Mael cupped his cheek, breathing roughly.

“I think… I’m… I’m in…”

“Heat,” Mael whispered.

Echo shook his head. “It’s too early,” he murmured. He glanced around, the need to see where they were stronger than the need.

Forcing himself to his feet, he scanned the chamber, attempting to ignore the rising need. It wasn’t a manmade space like the others but a massive, natural looking cavern. What he first thought were stalagmites were columns of stone supporting the opening. They rose a good thirty feet above.

“This placeshouldn’texist,” Mael murmured. He searched above, waving his flashlight up to the ceiling of the cave. Water dripped here and there around them. “The pressure of the ocean should’ve collapsed it.”

“Or filled it with water,” Echo replied, a bit unsettled by the vastness of it. The cavern defied physics.

But what surprised him most was a large pool taking up most of the center of the cavern. Inside…thatwas where the blue glow emanated.

Echo slowly moved toward the edge, fascinated by the rippling lights under the water.

“Whatisthat?” Echo asked, eyes drawn to the brilliant swirls.

“No idea. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mael replied from behind him.

The pool was deeper than Echo had first guessed. It was at least twenty feet or more, and about double that size in width. He aimed his flashlight toward the back of it, and the light wouldn’t go that far. Sending a few clicks, he waited for them to return.

They didn’t.

His echolocation didn’t work anywhere near as well outside of water, but he could usually get a weak ping back in the air. He got nothing. Either the back was so far that sound couldn’t reach him or his clicks hadn’t worked in the stale air.

Echo’s gaze was pulled to the water. Inside it was crystal clear around the blue mass of light. There seemed no source for the illumination—and the surface remained relatively smooth except for a gentle ripple. Echo leaned in closer to look at the light and noticed there was more mosaic tile around the edge of the pool and stairs that led into the water.

He suddenly felt a sense of the divine. It seemed sacred—as if the pool itself had served as an ancient altar of sorts. For what, he wasn’t sure.

Echo had no proof it had been used for anything. Only a gut feeling.

Focusing on the blue light swirling in the depths, he realized it was tiny particles swimming together. “Could that be some type of bioluminescent plankton?”

“I suppose it’s possible,” Mael replied, his face illuminated by the caerulean glow. “But they usually only light up when disturbed. A touch. A wave. The water’s fairly still. It only stirs becausetheymove.”

“Water’s dripping from the ceiling. It could be causing ripples.”

The flow quickened, the dots spreading rapidly… until they formed the shapes of an orca and a dolphin, spinning like some lopsided yin-yang symbol.

“My gods,”Mael whispered.

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