Page 72 of Whispers of the Deep
Arges swam a little closer and tapped his knuckles on Byte’s exterior. The little robot opened the top hatch, glaring as much as a robot could.
The undine snarled at her droid before repeating, “She will not die here?”
“This will suffice.”
“Good.” He swam a little farther away from her, looking like he wanted to stay. “I have a few things to do, our trail to cover up, and I need to find where my brother is. Stay alive, human.”
“I—”
But he was gone before she could thank him.
Twenty-Eight
Arges
It took him far too long to figure everything out. He returned to his home, still hoping that Daios might have been there. But his brother was suspiciously absent, as were more of the members of his pod.
A bitter ache churned in Arges’s belly the longer he was with his people. He knew that there was some undercurrent of disrespect, but he didn’t know how to deal with it. His people had never not trusted him. They’d always looked to him to lead.
Now, after he had taken the job that their own Mitéra had given him, he was suddenly an outsider. People didn’t want to be around him. They tugged their children away from him when he moved through the coral city. They even glared when they thought he wasn’t looking. Did they forget how he had just saved them? Did they think he had forgotten how they used to treat him?
But perhaps it was her scent. Even he could smell her, no matter where he went. She clung to his scales as a constant reminder of what he had done and what he planned to do.
Still, it took many days for him to ease Mitéra’s mind and to make sure that his brother wasn’t returning. He hated that he had to leave his kairos alone to do so. It made his stomach churn and his hearts beat in his chest a little too hard. He wanted to go right back to her. To stand guard outside of that dome, and maybe that was how the original owner had felt.
He’d lied to Mira. There were no rumors about anyone living there, nor had he been aware of its existence. He’d asked the sea to guide him to where she would be safe, and it had brought him there.
Outside of the home, he’d found two skeletons. One that was clearly of her people, the bones of her legs had been eerily interesting. And laid out next to her were the bones of one of his own kind. A massive male, with a tail nearly twice as long as Arges’s, speaking of his age and power. They had been curled up next to each other, almost as though the sea didn’t even dare move their skeletons. Together, even in death.
But when he had looked into the dome, he had seen there was much of their life still there. So much that his kairos could live on, and perhaps even thrive on. So he had decided to move their bodies. Even if it was against every part of him, he moved them so his Mira would be safe.
Perhaps his people could smell the death on his hands as well.
Troubled, he started the long journey to where he had hidden Mira. It took even longer for him to get there, namely because he doubled back multiple times, trying to shake anyone who might follow him. He hated to bring anyone to this place, considering the awe in her eyes when she had seen everything inside the glass dome.
He’d felt like he had done something right for the first time in a very long time. Her eyes had been so wide, so pleased with what he’d found. And he’d felt his gills raise and his chest puff out in pride.
He had taken care of her. Provided for her in more than just the way that his people had stolen mates in the past. She was safe for the first time since they had come here, and that was... rare. For her, for her kind, for even his people. It was hard to ever be safe in the sea.
His thoughts were so scattered, he hardly realized what he was doing until he made it all the way back to her dome. Swimming above it, feeling the warmth of dim sunlight on his back, he hovered above her small bubble of air in the ocean.
She’d cleaned, he noticed. Perhaps she’d come out here with her rebreather on and rags in hand. But a majority of the algae had been scrubbed off the glass, giving him a perfect view into the dome.
Arges had thought she would notice him, but she didn’t. Not at all.
Instead, his little captive kairos puttered about the dome. Completely and utterly ignorant that he was above her.
Her arms were laden with green fronds, and she was clearly talking to Byte. Wandering about with those fronds, she gathered more and more, stacking them on top of each other as she chattered. But what she wore captivated him far more than the movement of her lips. Instead of her usual wetsuit, she wore a bright blue dress. He’d seen humans wear them before, the fabric cupping underneath her breasts and lifting them in such a tantalizing way. The flare of fabric around her waist moved like waves around her body as she shifted, swinging this way and that with such lovely movement.
She was so stunning. Even though his people might never understand his infatuation with her, he understood now why there had been one of his people laid out with one of hers. There was an undeniable connection between the two of them. One he was done fighting against.
He laid himself out on top of the glass, watching his shadow spread across the room she stood in. She jumped, everything in her arms tumbling to the ground before she looked up to see him laying there.
Twitching his tail, he grinned through the glass at her. And he watched the most lovely smile split across her face in return. She waved for him to come underneath the dome, to join her in this home he had found. He almost wanted to tease her more. To stay laid out where he knew his tail was most impressive and his muscles were very obvious.
He just wanted her to look at him. That’s what it all came down to. He wanted her to look at him and see temptation just as he did with her.
Still, maybe this wasn’t the right moment. He still had no idea how she felt about his kind now that she’d been here for such a long time. She was in this new home where he had brought her without asking if she even wanted to be here.
