Chapter 10

Ten

Arges

He had an achromo in a cave, and he had no idea what to do with her.

Arges had tried going back to his people. Mitéra had made it very clear that she had no intention of allowing him back unless he had figured out new, useful information about the achromos. Unfortunately, he had not. It was almost impossible to communicate with the creature in the cave.

He’d gone back once, but she’d been curled up on a disgusting wooden crate in the back. He’d not been certain what she was doing, but she didn’t stir when he popped his head up to look at her. Arges could only assume that meant she was asleep.

His people slept little, but he had observed the achromos resting often. They would sleep for hours on end, sometimes even longer than the moon was in the sky. He’d watched them for what felt like forever before realizing that they would remain in that helpless state far longer than was safe.

This one was apparently the same. He usually slept floating next to his siblings, but only a few hours at a time. His people watched out for each other while they rested, although sometimes his body could even swim while he was asleep.

the achromos, however, clearly needed more rest.

He’d frowned at her and then sank beneath the waves again. What was he supposed to do while she was catatonic? His Mitéra wouldn’t let him return to his people without information. He couldn’t talk to this achromo, even though she clearly tried to communicate with him.

Arges realized that his patience was drawing a little too thin, and he needed to get control over himself. He’d be too rough with her, and that wouldn’t help either of their situations. Unfortunately, it also meant that he had to sit and wait for her to wake.

So he did. He coiled his tail around one of the larger glowing flowers, hidden underneath its massive petals as he waited for his achromo to join the land of the living again. Perhaps he even dozed himself for a time. Just floating there, comfortable and at peace, even though he shouldn’t have been able to relax. Not around her.

Though, in this quiet space between reality and dreams, he could admit that she set his mind at ease. This strange achromo had seen him at his worst and she hadn’t even flinched. There was not an ounce of fear in this creature, and he supposed that was something honorable.

Disgusting, yes. But honorable, just the same.

Finally, he saw her shadow moving above him. He wasn’t quite certain what she was doing, and he took a moment to uncoil himself and watch as she moved back and forth along the opening into the water. Her strange flippers took her from one section to the other, and he could see the faint outline of her arms moving.

Was she talking to herself? Strange beast. No one was here to listen to her.

Unless she knew he was here.

In which case, she should know he couldn’t hear her. The water dampened most sound and made it impossible for him to hear anything other than the faintest burble.

Flipping his tail over, he glided through the water and soundlessly breached the surface. He watched her with narrowed eyes while she paced. Back and forth. Moving through the air as smoothly as he did the water.

She was muttering. He had no idea what she was saying, but the cadence and fervor of it seemed to be repeated. Over and over again. As though she was repeating the same thing.

He’d never understand this strange creature.

Pinching his pointer finger and thumb, he flicked water at her. A few droplets sailed through the air and splashed against her bare fins, suddenly reminding him that he’d intended to go back and get those additional flippers she’d used to speed her movement. At least that would be helpful for her.

She let out a frustrated noise and glared at him.

Oh, how he adored that expression. She wanted to fight him. He could see that. She wanted to reach into the water, rip him out of it, and gut him just like he’d gutted the fish for her. Thankfully, it would take a lot more than her meager claws to do that to him.

Still, he couldn’t help but goad her.

“You think you are such a warrior?” he asked, the spines in his fins raising. “Such a shame, achromo. If you step foot in this water, I will rip you apart. The waters will turn red with your blood, and I will watch it plume from your wounds⁠—”

A small pebble hit him in the center of his forehead. Freezing where he was, he touched a hand to the now stinging part of his skull. Had she just thrown a rock at him?

Apparently so. This fearless little creature had no problem at all rising to the occasion of his threat. She stood there with her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

And then she started talking. He didn’t need to understand her to know what she was saying, because she was surprisingly succinct with her gestures.

She wanted to kill him. And if he came close to her at all, she would throw another rock at him and then... Well, she drew a finger across her throat, so he could only assume that was even more of a threat.

Sighing, he wondered if she realized that his people never backed down from an offer to fight. He was a warrior, a true warrior, not just some little pale scraggly thing with weak fins and tiny flippers. He could so easily destroy her.

And yet, here she was. Acting more confident than she had any right to. Foolish achromo. He almost admired her bravery.

But for now, he needed to prove a point.

Lunging forward, he flicked his tail hard and catapulted himself out of the water. She let out a harsh, shrieking noise that grated on his ears, but that attack did not stop him. It only took the slightest movement to grab onto her arm, and even less effort to throw her across the cave and into the water.

She hadn’t been far enough away from him. In truth, he’d thought that she was likely a little farther than he could reach, but she wasn’t. His tail was still in the water partially after he’d thrown her, just enough to drag himself back into the depths and sink beneath them.

He wanted to see the frustration on her face. He wanted to feel some perverse sense of glee at her turmoil and fear. But instead of scenting fear in the water, as he’d expected, he only scented her rage.

She stayed underneath the surface longer than he’d expected, as well. She lingered, the salt water scooping up her hair in a billowing cloud of red around her features. And oh, he hated that he had the momentary thought that she might even be lovely.

That silver skin she swore looked very similar to many fish in the sea. It glimmered with every one of her movements, even the tiniest twitches that she used to turn herself toward him. And he much preferred her like this. With her face bared for him to see, and her eyes slightly squinted in the saltwater.

She was... lovely. Damn it. He hadn’t wanted to think about it, but she really was. The kelp tangled around her legs and the golden light made her turn into a hue that his people so rarely saw. She was a rare and delicate creature, if a little ugly, and he had captured her.

Long ago, his people hunted for their brides. They chased and prowled and fought each other for the right to win a woman’s heart, and apparently there was still some part of that inside him. His nature screamed that he had claimed her.

This woman was his.

He’d hunted her.

He’d bested her.

And now, she was his to do with as he wished.

He needed to shake these thoughts. They were unnatural, and certainly not the thoughts he should have while staring at one of her kind. But as she kicked her short fins and rolled her body through the water, toward the surface, he couldn’t stop himself.

Pretty. She moved with so much control over every aspect of her body and he just... He’d forgotten that her kind were capable of that.

Subdued now, and satisfied that he’d bested her, he joined her in swimming to the surface. His fins fluttered at his sides, extended as he would when he was trying to impress a potential mate. She had no way of knowing that, but he still felt embarrassment burn through him.

Arges even tried to smooth the ones around his face down, pushing at them until they flattened again. He was not trying to impress her. And he certainly wasn’t presenting himself to her like a damned idiot.

They weren’t even compatible. Achromos and his kind were so far different from each other, they would never fit.

He didn’t think, at least.

His achromo swam over to the edge of the cave, muttering the whole time while she dragged herself out of the water. Arges leaned against the edge, a little farther away from her this time so she wouldn’t throw a rock at him.

“You were saying, achromo?” he asked, chuckling. “You would kill me if I gave you the chance?”

She ignored him. Instead, she stomped to the back of the cave. And not for the first time, he wished he understood what she was saying. Without her gestures, he could only guess.

Putting all his weight on his arm atop the stone, he tilted his head to the side as he watched her. “The People of Water are more cunning than I thought,” he said for her, his voice low and soothing. “This one kidnapped me and none of my people came to get me. They probably don’t even care that I’m gone.”

Of course, he knew this to be the truth. He’d returned to her home, making certain that the achromos wouldn’t cause any problems for his own people.

And he was frustrated to find they didn’t care that she was gone. Not a single one of them appeared to be gathering a search party, or even attempting to find out what happened to her. They were all just going about their day, doing the same things they did every single day that he’d observed them.

Did they not realize she was gone? He had a hard time believing it.

But then again, the achromos rarely made sense to him. If they didn’t care that she had disappeared, then it wasn’t his problem.

“I should probably try to escape,” he kept going, eyes narrowing as she finally reached the back of the cave. “If he leaves for even a second, I’ll swim out of here to my death, most likely. Because I am an idiot. But it would be better than staying here like a pet for him to stare at.”

And then she did something he had never expected.

She moved the massive length of her wet hair to the side, reached for the back of her silver skin, and pulled it in half. He watched, awed, as she peeled that second skin off and revealed lovely, pale flesh beneath it. He’d never seen an achromo so bare, and certainly never so close.

She was smooth, the long line of her back revealed with twin valleys of muscles rising along the sides. Those muscles flexed as she pulled the skin right off of her arms.

Then she looked back at him and her face turned bright red. He hadn’t known they could do that either. Some of his people could change their color with emotions, but he could only make his skin light up.

Flinching at her glare, he told himself the reaction was only because she changed color so rapidly.

She flicked her fingers at him, indicating that he should turn around. But he didn’t want to. He wanted to see the rest of her body, if only to know how different they really were. Obviously she had mounds on her chest, unlike his people. But what if the achromos hid terrifyingly ugly bodies underneath all the scraps of fabric they wore?

Again, she turned her fingers in a circle and pointed at him. He tilted his head to the side and watched her.

She let out a huff of frustration and then bent down to pick up another rock. It didn’t escape his notice that she held the strange silver skin to her chest, as though shy about him seeing her body.

Hadn’t she already seen all of his? He wore no coverings like the achromos did, although most of his more... private appendages were tucked inside his body.

Frowning, he did as she asked. If she wanted privacy, he could give her that. But if she used this opportunity to attack him, she would be very surprised at how quickly he could move.

Instead, he heard the quiet sound of her breathing as she struggled to get the second skin off her body. A few stomps suggested she’d pulled it off her tails as well, which was as strange to think as it was in practice. Why would she be peeling off that skin? Clearly, it kept her warmer.

Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer. He turned around, half hoping to catch a glimpse of what that silver skin had hidden. But she’d wrapped a large swath of fabric around her body, revealing only those ugly fins and just a few inches of her tails before the rest of it was covered. She even had it over her head as she placed the silver skin out on the ground.

His achromo turned to look at him and grunted when she realized he was staring at her again. She said something, although the words were quiet, and he didn’t think they were a threat. Not this time, at least.

He narrowed his eyes and watched as she picked something up from the small box in the corner and then approached him. Was this some kind of trickery again? He would not be toyed with.

She sat down on the edge of the water and he got the briefest glimpse of more pale, smooth skin as she crossed those fins. He winced at the movement. “Doesn’t that hurt?” he asked, before remembering she couldn’t understand him.

She couldn’t respond, anyway. His achromo had one of the tools he’d brought her in her hands. Flicking it on and off, she moved it back and forth between her hands before holding it out to him.

Arges did not take it. He knew well the dangers of the achromos’ weapons, and he had no interest in them. Apparently, it was not the right response. Again she gestured with it, then pointed at herself. Pointed at the weapon, pointed at herself, then pointed at him.

“Do you want more junk?” he asked, his lip curling in disgust. “You want me to bring you more broken things?”

She clearly had no idea what he was saying, but he understood her request.

“All right, achromo.” His gills flared again before he could stop them. How could she know it was the correct mating ritual for her to request that he bring her treasures? “I will bring you more junk.”

With a flick of his tail, he sank beneath the waves and fled from that golden light. Fled from the thoughts in his mind where he had thought, for a moment, she might understand what she asked.