Chapter 1

One

The sea breeze tangled in her hair, toying with the blonde ends and sweeping them into her face. Waves crashed against the sides of her submarine, one of the first designed by her father, and even though some of the salty water slid inside the vessel, she wasn't worried. Alys Fairweather had never been afraid of the sea.

Her father had sent her out on this mission on her own. As this was the first time she'd ever piloted a sub without his careful gaze upon her, she knew this was an important mission to do well. If she was lucky, then she'd be the person to scout out the next area for their cities to be built.

Shielding her eyes from the sun, she glanced back at the mountain that had already spewed lava from its top. The volcanos were angry today, and soon the sky would be swallowed by dark ash. It was best if she got back underneath the water.

And yet...

She watched the billowing cloud extend toward her through the air. The madness of excitement coursed through her veins and she stood there, staring down death itself for a few more moments before disappearing into the sub. The top clanged shut behind her, and a small giggle of elation escaped her lips.

She shouldn't toy with nature like that. Her father would be horrified to know she was taking so many risks when he had taught her to be careful in every way possible. Especially under the sea.

Sliding into her seat, she buckled herself in as the world went dark. Volcanic ash blocked the sun completely, which meant soon the water temperatures around her would rise.

The sharp click of her seatbelt echoed in the small sub. It was little more than a bubble. Just a circle that was filled with endless equipment and tools. There were hundreds of buttons on the walls, gauges and meters for every possible element she could control.

The front of the sub was made out of very thick glass. And the entirety of the ocean was laid out before her, like there was nothing standing in her way. She was in a pristine submarine that was made to survive almost any circumstance. Other than a small chip on the top right of the circular dome, but that had been a mistake when she'd been first learning how to drive this.

She was better now. And certainly didn't run into that many rocks.

Grabbing the two control sticks in front of her, one for speed and one for direction, she plunged into the darkness of the sea. The lights on the front of her submarine helped guide her sometimes, but most of the time, it was just pure darkness down here.

Those were her favorite spots. Her father always scolded her about it, saying that she was a reckless young woman who would find herself sunk at the bottom of the sea if she wasn't careful. But she lived for moments when all the world fell away and it was just her and the ocean.

Sometimes she got lucky, and there were deep-sea creatures that appeared in her lights. Giant squid. Whales. Strange fish with lights attached to their heads or bioluminescent bodies that glowed the moment they realized there could be a predator in their midst.

But today was not one of those days. She couldn't go into the depths of the ocean just to see how deep the structural integrity of her ship could take. She had to zip through the waters, farther and farther away from what she knew to be her home.

Leaning forward, she flicked a red switch that opened up the communication channel with her favorite droid friend. "Hello there, Beta Epsilon Iota."

"Good morning, Alys."

"Is it morning still?" She twisted one of the controllers, curving the sub around a pillar of stone, perhaps a little too quickly. A few panels in front of her flashed red, then calmed back down once she righted the sub.

"Your father has always said you are reckless in steering," the droid grumbled. "I am certain anyone else would also agree with him."

"I'm not reckless," she said with a laugh, tilting the sub at another dangerous angle that flashed more red throughout the inner pod. "I'm just faster than other people. I know the limits of the machine."

"And how much whale oil is left?"

Alys wasn't sure about that. There were solar panels on the top of the sub that she usually relied on if she ran out of fuel. Of course... There was no sun today.

"Damn it," she muttered. "How much farther do I have?"

"Approximately three miles."

"And how far are we from Alpha?"

The droid paused for dramatics. "Sixteen."

She dropped her hands from the controllers and let the sub slow to a halt. "Fuck."

"That is not a lady-like word."

"Beta..." She squeezed her eyes shut and reminded herself that the droid was here to help her. "Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"It's your mission. I am not to interfere."

She was going to open the panel the droid was stored in and rip it out. Just so she could maybe toss it into the ocean for a little while, so it would have to get home on its own.

But then she would be alone in the ocean, and she wasn't certain she wanted to deal with that either. Sighing, she thumped her head against the back of the stiff seat. "So, what do you suggest?"

"Charging the batteries with solar energy, while we use the rest of the whale oil to maintain life support."

"Right." That was the logical step. Not to push her luck and see just how far she could go before the air started getting really thin.

Narrowing her eyes, she leaned forward to guide them to a spot that was a little more safe. It wasn't that she was reckless or too young to be doing this. Alys just lived a very quiet life outside of this submarine and every time she got in it she got a little... well. Reckless.

Soon enough, she found soft sand to put the submarine down in. There was a small kelp forest nearby, and they were close enough to the surface for the sun"s rays to reach her ship, and also for her to swim up if life support went down. At the very least, she could breathe ashy air for a while and tread water.

Maybe Beta realized what she was doing. "You can't breathe the air up there, Alys. It will burn your lungs."

"Better a good lung burning than dying without oxygen down here." Unbuckling herself, she leaned the chair back so she could at least relax while she was down here.

Besides, she had the best view on the planet right now.

Small schools of brightly colored fish swam through the kelp. A seal even turned to look at her, those big black eyes seeing so much. She scooted closer to watch all the plants and animals burst to life.

It took a while. Even she wasn't surprised by that. The sub landing had stirred up dust and sand, so it was hard to see them, anyway. But at the arrival of some kind of giant creature in their midst, everything always hid.

Soon, creatures bloomed like a flower. First, it was the schools of fish, those who were used to larger animals in their midst. Then the crustaceans dug out of the sand where they had hid, returning to finding their food in the thin dust and sand. Then a few turtles even swam before the lights of her submarine.

Beta clinked in its panel. "You should turn the lights off, Miss Alys. You're wasting energy."

"You want me to sit in the dark?" she snorted. "I'm not going to miss a second of this."

The ash would eventually settle. She had Beta send a message to her father to let him know she had gotten stuck, but that she'd return once the sub charged up again. It must not have been too much of a surprise for her father, because he didn't reply with anything other than a single word.

"Okay."

No one could say her father didn't trust her, at least.

She must have dozed off for a little while, because the lights were off when she snapped back awake. Alys shook her head, blinking the grit out of her eyes as she tried to figure out why she had woken at all.

Rubbing the headache between her eyes, she sat up and let her boots thud onto the floor. Her pants were wet, somehow. And when she looked up, she could see the hatch was dripping in the dim blue interior lights. Damn it. A leak?

"The last thing I need," she muttered, standing up to press her finger against the leak. Not a bad one, by any means. But it did mean the hull wasn't as sturdy as she'd originally thought.

This was fine. She could fix this. They had a welder in here somewhere, and if she had to seal herself inside the sub until she could get home, then that was fine.

"Beta?" she asked, turning to rummage through one of the storage containers. "Do you know where I put the welder?"

"Miss Alys, I don't think we're alone anymore."

"Very funny. Did Dad send someone to find me, after all?" She yanked out what felt like a welder, but ended up being the broken end of a screwdriver. "Damn it."

"Alys!" Beta's voice was a little harsher this time. "Turn around."

Sighing, she had a whole rant on the tip of her tongue to scold the droid for trying to scare her, but then all the words disappeared the moment the droid turned on the lights outside of the pod.

A man floated outside of her sub.

No, not a man.

Something else entirely.

His long, dark hair hovered around his head, graceful and delicate in comparison to the hard swath of muscles that tapered down from his broad shoulders to a very narrow waist. But that was all that looked human. She could see the delicate webs between his fingers that ended in deadly black claws. The gills that fluttered on the side of his neck and the bright green scales that created a tiger stripe pattern all down his body. It was...

What was he?

"Beta," she whispered. "Have we documented any creatures such as this?"

"No."

So she was the first.

His eyes followed her movement as she approached the glass. Startlingly, they were entirely black. Not a single hint of white or color at all. Just pitch black, demon eyes. But she couldn't find it in herself to be frightened of this creature on the other side of her submarine. Even though she knew the structural integrity was compromised.

She'd seen nothing like him before, and that made her heart thunder in her chest. She wanted to touch him. To talk to him. To do anything that would make him seem more real.

"My father used to tell me stories about the people who lived in the sea," she whispered, drawing ever closer to the glass. "He said the women were so beautiful it made your eyes hurt to look at them. I didn't realize it would extend to the men as well."

"Creatures?" Beta asked, flicking a few more of the exterior lights on. "What kind of creatures?"

"Undines," she replied. "At least, that's what the myths called them. They were men and women who lived under the water, stealing sailors away from their family to lock them away in underwater cities."

"Please tell me you're not entertaining that thought," Beta grumbled.

She was.

Oh, she absolutely was.

Finally, she was right in front of the glass. Leaning over the console so she was just a thick layer of protection away from him. If he came any closer, she'd been able to count the scales that dotted down his sides and lingered around his ribs. She might even be able to see how many layers of gills fluttered down his neck and connected to his ears.

He floated closer, flicking a massive tail that she realized actually went around her ship. A faint tapping from above had her turning her gaze up to see the faint outline of his tail that draped over the top of her submarine.

"Wow," she whispered. "You're massive, aren't you?"

The diamond shaped tail tapped again, and she reached out her hand to touch the glass underneath it. Though it flinched the moment she reached for it, eventually the tail laid flat. She couldn't touch it, or feel it, but she could see the powerful muscles and the delicate veins that spider-webbed through it.

The undine, as she was calling it, had used this opportunity to come ever closer to her. By the time she turned her attention back to him, she realized he was right there. So close she could have touched him if there wasn't glass between them.

Her lips parted on a gasp as she stared into those black eyes. He didn't seem to want to hurt her. In fact, she would hazard a guess that he was just as interested in her as she was him.

Carefully, slowly, the creature lifted his hand and pressed it against the glass of the submarine. His hand was as large as her head, huge and foreboding, with those giant claws at the end of it. If he wanted to rip into her, he easily could. He could tear her into little pieces and then leave her to bleed out in the ocean.

But she didn't think he would. It was a deep, gut feeling that he didn't want to harm her. He just wanted to know what she was.

Reaching out, she mirrored his movement and laid her hand against his palm. Though the glass was cool, she could almost imagine the texture of his skin and the smoothness of those webs. He was... Everything. Beautiful. Strange. Unusual.

A creature no one in her world had ever seen before.

"Who are you?" she whispered, freezing when his gaze locked on her lips. "Do you speak?"

He opened his mouth and let out a sound like the song of a whale. Long and low, it vibrated through the very glass and settled deep into her stomach. This strange creature was more attractive than any man she'd ever met.

Maybe it was because he was new. Maybe it was because she'd never thought to see a creature appear out of a fairytale. Or maybe it was simply the deep hollows between his abs and the strong shoulders that flexed underneath her gaze. She didn't know.

What Alys did know was that she wanted this creature. More than she'd ever wanted any other man.

Licking her lips, she tried to get control over her emotions by saying, "My name is Alys. What's yours?"

The ship flickered, lights coming back on. Red panels started blinking all over and the ship itself gave a rumble as the power turned back on.

The undine in front of her bared his teeth, a sudden flash of sharp edges and flesh tearing fangs before he darted away from the ship. That massive, powerful tail sent him careening into the kelp forest and disappearing all in the span of one breath.

Her knees wobbled, and suddenly Alys realized she was rather shaky. Every part of her body quivered as she slumped into her seat and blew out a long breath. "Beta?"

"Alys?"

"What's the report?"

"Most of the systems are offline, but if you activate the emergency protocol, it will bring us back to the base while maintaining life support."

"Okay." Her eyes stayed glued to the glass and the spot where the undine had disappeared. "Activate emergency protocol."