Don’t react, she told herself. Don’t react and reveal that you know exactly what he just said to you.

So that was the real reason why he’d taken her. Spinning around, she gave him her back as she peeled herself out of the wetsuit. They’d returned to the original cavern days ago, which meant there was a tiny blanket in the corner with mold worn holes, but enough to dry off. It was important for her to do so, and even then, it allowed her to hide for a few moments.

He hadn’t taken her because he was interested in who she was, or that she had captivated him in some way. Of course he hadn’t. She’d fooled herself into thinking this monster had feelings when he didn’t in the slightest.

She was just a job. Duty, honor, a creature he had to put up with while he was forced to understand her language.

Oh, he must have been laughing every time he returned to his home. The little achromo, locked away in the cave while she wasted away into nothing. This was some complicated form of torture and she’d readily walked right into it in the hopes that she might make a friend with someone who was so different from herself.

“Stupid,” she muttered, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders and bending to peel off the rest of her wetsuit.

When she’d gotten herself together, she finally turned to him and met his angry gaze. She had to talk to him. Had to make it seem like she wasn’t affected by any of what had just happened, or that she wasn’t getting whiplash from his rapidly changing emotions.

“I don’t know or care what you have to say,” she settled on saying. “Your words mean nothing to me, and I don’t think they would, even if I could understand you. Clearly, something has changed your mind about me and that is fine. I don’t need you to like me, Arges. I just need you to keep me alive.”

He wouldn’t do that after this argument. She’d already been difficult for him to put up with. If he only had her here because he wanted to know more about her people, then he would be sorely disappointed.

“If I could leave you, kairos, I would.” He lifted his chin, looking all the more like the untouchable undine who had attacked her people. “But I will learn how I can attack your kind. I will use all your words to my advantage and I will take down your city once and for all.”

She ground her teeth together, clutching the blanket so tightly in her hands that her nails bit into her palms. “I don’t know why you kidnapped me, but I have a good guess. Considering how much energy you’ve put into trying to speak with me, you think I hold some secrets. You think I know something about my people that would help you. Is that it? Byte already said it in not so many words.”

Mira had to hear it from him. She wanted him to admit it. She needed proof that she never should have trusted him.

He said nothing, but nodded.

It was enough. She bit out an ugly laugh that only made her feel even worse. This wasn’t the life she wanted to live. This wasn’t the hope she had for all the time they had spent together.

She’d fooled herself into thinking this was an adventure when it was just an elaborate prison.

“Sorry to disappoint,” she replied, her tone perhaps a little sullen. “But you picked someone who knows the least about anything. I’m not some high up leader who makes the decisions and knows every secret about Beta. I grew up in the base of the city, with barely enough food and water to survive. And then even less when I was orphaned and sent to live with all the other kids without families. Trust me. If you wanted secrets about Beta? You should have picked someone else. I’m a nobody, Arges. I know nothing useful.”

Perhaps her words shocked him. He stared at her with wide eyes, like she’d told him that the humans were planning on setting the entire ocean on fire. But it was the truth. She had no secrets to tell him, nothing that would help him in the slightest. She was just... Mira. An engineer with a big mouth and a superiority complex that often got her shuttled from boss to boss.

She wasn’t the person to pick if he wanted secret entrances into the city or codes that would allow them to open blast doors. She wasn’t even certain Beta had that.

The building was impossible to get into from the outside. She’d seen so many divers die trying to do just that, and he really believed she could help an undine do it?

No one wanted the undines in Beta, and they had taken every single measure necessary to be sure it didn’t happen.

She lifted her arms up and down in defeat. “We both just have to live with each other, Arges. It’s not like I can help you murder my people, and even if I could, why would I do that? All you’ve done is stick me in a cave and threaten to kill me. I’d rather be dead than have hundreds of lives gone because of my selfish decision.”

She’d rather not be dead at all, of course. But she didn’t think she could be the person to make this call. Her people deserved to live. Just as much as his did.

Still, he said nothing, glaring at her while his body practically vibrated. Until she couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t take the judgment in those eyes or the bullshit response of just hatred because she was a human.

“Fucking hell!” she shouted, yanking the blanket even tighter around her shoulders as she backed toward the console table. “I just told you I’m useless, Arges! So fuck off. Clearly, there is nothing I can do for you, and there’s nothing you can do for me, so just leave me to rot here! I’ll make it a couple of days, but that was the whole point of taking me, wasn’t it? I was never getting out of this alive. So stop toying with your food and let me fucking die.”

She hated it. She didn’t want to die, but she wanted him to look at her even less. He didn’t get to... stare. He didn’t. Every fiber of her being wanted to hit him, fight him, grab that stupid welder he’d given her, and melt off a couple of those damn scales.

Maybe she was just mad because her feelings were less real than they had been only moments before. He’d stolen that rare, wondrous feeling he’d caused in the hot springs. Now, she just felt used.

And she was so damned tired of it.

“There’s nothing we can do for each other, Arges,” she added, her breath ragged and her voice catching in her throat. “So just end it.”

Before she could take another breath, the undine before her was surging out of the water with his claws outstretched for her throat.

OceanofPDF.com

Twenty-Four

Arges

He should break her.

Shatter her.

Let her blood drip into the water and bring the animals that would devour her body so he could forget this had ever happened. Mitéra would understand. She would know the truth when he said it was an impossible task, that he had failed and he would take the punishment that came after.

The achromos were destructive in everything that they touched. They were impossible to tame, and as such, there was no way for him to get information out of her. It was the achromo’s fault that he had failed his people. But soon enough, the People of Water would forget. He would get his pod back from his brother, and he would lead them to attack her people with even more fervor.

All it would take was one slash of his claws, and she would be dead. The life dimming from her eyes as he dragged his nails along that long, beautiful neck.

But his gaze lingered on that neck instead. Arges couldn’t stop staring at it even as he tackled her to the ground, forcing her to submit beneath him. He wanted to scare her. He wanted her to realize that tempting one of his kind would only lead to madness and ruin. And yet...

Ah, and yet she was so lovely. So pretty. An otherworldly creature who had somehow captivated his mind, body, and soul. He couldn’t harm a hair on her head, and it killed him that he’d already done so. She deserved so much better than this. Than him.