Chapter 5

Why hadn't he grabbed her? She was right in front of him. She'd touched him.

He could have grabbed onto her at any point, yanked her close to him, and then dragged her into the pipes. It would have been easy. Too easy, the more he thought about it. She was so weak compared to him.

But her fingers feathering over his had made him feel... something. Daios wasn't sure what that meant. His hearts had slowed down for a bit. All that rioting chaos calmed. He'd held his breath while she touched his fingers and he swore there was something going on with his gills that had never happened before.

There was no chance that he'd fluttered for her. He'd seen Arges doing it for Mira. It was always embarrassing to watch his brother so affected by the woman's mere presence. It made him uncomfortable.

No female had ever wanted to pick him. He was too large for their offspring to be easy births, and too aggressive to battle in the mating dance. He had already resigned himself that fluttering was foolish for anyone.

Daios had fluttered only for two other women. One of them, Melete, had saved Mira after she'd been taken by Beta. The other was a female who had left their pod a long time ago for another, much smaller and more manageable male. She had proven to him that he was unwanted and could not change the physical state he was in.

And that state had only gotten worse in the recent months.

Scraping the stump of his arm perhaps a little too hard against the piping, he paused at the opening to the sea. Something in him screamed that he had to go back. Some primal part of his brain shouted and raged against the cage he had tried to put it in. He had to return. He had to make sure that she was safe because no one could keep her safe better than him.

But that primal part of his brain had been the one to lead him to trouble before. That was the same part of his mind that had said he should protect his people. The achromos were easy targets. He could take down their city if he just attacked it the way he had planned.

So he did not trust that primal part of his mind, even if it screamed and clawed and tore at his insides while he darted through the pillars of pain. It didn't matter in the long run. He couldn't trust himself.

Still, her pretty sea-blue eyes haunted him until he paused at the rendezvous place where he and Maketes were staking out the city. He could still see her eyes. His fingers could still feel her, trailing her fingers along his webbing like she wasn't tapping her way through his carefully laid defenses.

Silly thoughts, and he had to remind himself that they were. Even if every fin on his body stood out and shuddered. Even if his tail had already turned him to look back at that glass dome that kept her imprisoned.

Where did she live? Somewhere pretty, like her. She was too delicate and too quiet for her to live in hardship. If she was the General's daughter—and he had no reason to think otherwise—then she was likely one of the richest people in that city. She'd have plenty of food and water to drink. Plenty of options for someone to look out for her.

Still, his mind roared that he would bring her better meat. There were more nutritious options in the sea, and her people clearly were not feeding her enough. She was too thin. Too delicate.

Easily crushed by anyone who might want to hurt her.

Frowning, another thought flashed in his mind. Was she mated? Did she have someone who already fluttered for her and made her smile?

A white hot rage flowed through every inch of his body. He was glowing, bursting into a bright red while every bioluminescent dot on his form flared with rage. He could see the light reflecting on the sand around him, the waves of color rotating on the ground.

"So I'm going to guess you found something?" Maketes's annoyingly amused voice broke through the anger. "You look upset."

"I found her."

"You found an entrance to the city? That's fantastic."

"No, I found her."

"How many of us can fit through, do you think?" Then Maketes blinked a few times. What Daios had said twice now must have finally gotten through his skull. "What do you mean, you found her?"

"I assume most of us could fit through," he murmured, his eyes never leaving the city. "The pipe system is tight for me, but smaller males would have no issue. Perhaps a band of us could fit through together, but the city is massive. Even larger on the inside than it looks from here. It wouldn't be safe to send more of our people through."

"I think that's the most you've ever said to me in one sitting," Maketes muttered, before he swam in front of Daios.

It didn't escape his notice that Maketes left a decent amount of space between them. He wouldn't have advised anyone to get close to him right now, either. The colors rioting up and down his body were a way for his form to tell others that he was in a dangerous mood. The kind of mood that would have him reaching out for someone's neck and snapping it just so he could feel something.

Maketes cleared his throat, gills vibrating with the sound. "You found her?"

"I did."

"Why didn't you grab her? Were there a lot of people around her? Probably. The General won't give us an opportunity to grab her that easily, damn it. We're going to have to send in more than just you if that's the situation. We can't just let her stay there, and Mira is adamant that taking his daughter is the only way to get the General to listen to us."

Daios was already tired of his prattle. "She was alone."

Maketes stared at him for a few moments, his mouth open and blissfully silent for a few heartbeats. "What do you mean, she was alone?"

He grunted in response, already done with these questions.

"She was alone?" Maketes shifted closer, freezing at the growl that rumbled through Daios's chest. "Then why didn't you grab her?"

"Just didn't."

"But why?" Tossing his arms up in the air, Maketes spun in a dramatic circle before facing him again. "And don't give me some lie about how it was too dangerous. You were in the pipes. We know how to give them a way to breathe underwater. You could have snagged her and you didn't!"

Slowly, he turned his head to focus on Maketes. Perhaps something in his dark eyes was enough to threaten the yellow-finned brother who was too talkative for his own livelihood. "Wasn't the right time."

"It wasn't the right time," Maketes repeated, although his words were mocking. "We're back to that, are we? When is the right time going to be?"

"Don't know."

"Ugh!" Maketes kicked his tail up and floated down onto the sand. With his arms crossed over his chest, he stared up into the darkness above them while muttering, "This is why I didn't want to take this job. I knew without a doubt that he was going to be a problem. I told Arges, I'm not the person for this job. If they wanted Daios to be controlled, they should have sent someone bigger. And who was right? Me. I was right. No one's going to give me credit for being right, so I'm giving the credit to myself."

Daios watched him and felt the lights of his body flickering. Amusement replaced the anger that was so hard for him to think through. "You were right."

"Of course I was right! I'm always right, and no one ever listens to me before the start of anything. You know—" Maketes paused, then looked up at him with his mouth again wide open. "Did you just admit I was right?"

Daios nodded.

"Well... That's awfully remarkable, coming from you."

With a shrug, Daios slapped his brother with his tail and then used his much larger blade of a fluke to shove Maketes upright. "Go tell the others that I've found her."

"What about you? You're supposed to be the one making the report. You haven't told me anything about your interaction with her or how to find the girl. There's no report for me to give other than you grunted at me and said it was done." But Maketes was already moving away, already moving even while he argued that he shouldn't be.

"Just tell them I have it handled."

"So you're not coming back with me?"

Daios had thought he was going to. Everything in him shouted that he should. He was rebuilding his relationship with Arges, and every moment that he did something like this was another moment when he was failing his clutch brother. But... something in him also said that he couldn't leave right now. He had more to do.

"I'm busy," he replied, his gaze back to the city. "Tell them I'll return with her when I'm ready."

That stopped Maketes. The currents played through his brother's long hair, coiling through his gills and filling him with purpose. Daios missed that. He missed the moments when the sea had given him its approval. This moment felt like one of those times when the sea approved of his choice, though. It wasn't giving him too much attention, likely because it hadn't entirely forgiven him for all the death yet. But he was taking the right steps to getting back into its good graces.

Sighing, he waved a hand at Maketes when his brother didn't respond. "Go on."

"You're not going to hurt her, are you?" Maketes asked, his voice very low and very quiet. "We need her alive, Daios."

"I'm not going to hurt her." The growl that came after those words startled even him. He pressed a hand to his hearts, trying to still the anger that writhed inside of him at the mere thought. It was wrong. It was disgusting to even react to an achromo like this.

"Then what are you planning to do?"

"I don't know." He wished he had an answer to that himself. All he knew was that right now, he had.... feelings that he couldn't explain. A sensation in his chest that wouldn't go away and a strange need inside himself that had him stuck in this spot.

Maketes moved a little closer, flicking his tail and keeping himself lower than Daios's vision, so he didn't seem like a threat. "Are you making decisions based on instinct right now?"

"You could say that."

"This is going to get real complicated real quick," Maketes muttered before blowing out a mouthful of bubbles. "All right. Just don't get caught and die, would you?"

"I don't intend to."

As his brother disappeared into the darkness, he told himself this was good. He worked better on his own, when there was no one else to risk. But turning back toward the city, he already knew that there was a long way for him to go. He didn't know where she would be again. Surely there were plenty of other pools, but which ones would she be at, and how could he guess when she would be there?

What had the other achromo said? He tried to remember what the other female shouted while she tried to scold the golden one. Something about her father and other people to speak with.

A gathering then. The achromos were not so different from his own people in that way.

He'd have to go back into the city. She obviously didn't live in that strange pool room, and likely only visited it when her father wanted to show her off. The General's golden daughter, a precious gem to show all of his friends. But considering how she did not go to see her father, he could only assume that meant she wasn't anywhere near as close to the man as others thought.

This was good. He could get her away from the city faster if she didn't fight.

What would he do with her after he'd gotten her away? He had no idea. But like Daios had told Maketes, he was running with his instincts. He didn't have a choice for another way.

So Daios launched himself toward the city again. It took him the better part of a week, perhaps even longer to map out the city. He'd gone through every pipe, every tunnel, every pool. And when his mind was near full to bursting with information, he would return through the pillars. His body was decorated with healing scab wounds by the time he got back to his map that he'd made out of stones on the sands.

He could map this city out by himself. Even if that meant he was lacking some of his fin, because he kept getting sucked into sharp vents with spinning metal pieces that sliced through his fluke. One had even gotten his elbow when it had turned on and surprised him.

But blood was something he could lose. He wasn't afraid of pain or what would happen to him if he was caught. He had to keep going because there was a little female in this city that was without him. And when he was finished, he would find her again. He would map out this city until he knew as much about it as he could, and then he would make his attack.

The day that he finished, he could almost taste blood in the water. His gills flared wide, the fins around his face fluttering with the realization that he'd done it. He knew all the places where they traveled. He knew every pool and every pathway in this city. At least, all the ones that he could reach.

Daios had stayed in the water. He hadn't been caught by anyone or anything as far as he knew, although he was certain the achromos had noted the amount of time those pillars had gone off these days. He could only hope that they were so foolish that they thought it was a migration of some fish passing by their home.

Regardless, it was time. He could find her now. And he already knew where she was.

Every gill and fin on his body fluttered, flaring wide around his body until he knew he must look even more monstrous than ever before. But he was ready to see her. To impress her. To take her away from her home and fight off anyone who tried to keep her from him.

He told himself he was ready. He would bring her somewhere safe. Somewhere much better than Alpha. Then he would feed her. He would prove that he was a good hunter who could provide for her.

Beyond that, Daios didn't allow himself to even think what might happen. The thoughts made him a little uncomfortable, and it felt like he was a little unpredictable even to himself.

That little achromo was his, though.

And now he was going to take her.