Chapter 15

Fifteen

Mira

He almost seemed impressed at her words, but Mira didn’t want to impress him. She didn’t care what this asshole thought of her, even if she had tilted her hips a little, so he was more comfortably resting between her legs.

Their position was horribly intimate. And yes, maybe her nipples were sharp little points, but that was just because he was icy to the touch everywhere other than his hands and gills. She didn’t care what he thought of her, or what he wanted to do right now. All she cared about was getting herself out of this damned cave.

Arges bared his teeth, the sharp points very similar to that of the sharks she’d seen swimming in the depths. But that would not scare her.

She hadn’t been kidding. She was an engineer, and she was made of tougher stuff than he thought. If she had to prove that to him, then so be it. She would.

His hips flexed against hers, or were they even hips? She could feel there was boning in them, maybe a pelvic bone like hers. But then there were individual spines that continued down the back of his tail. What she wouldn’t give to see one of their skeletons just to know what the fuck she was feeling against her.

Did he even have a dick? She knew some fish just... sprayed sperm. Maybe that’s what he did. Maybe his species laid eggs and he would just soak her when he was done, leaving her unsatisfied and grossed out.

There, that did it.

Baring her own teeth in a mockery of his grimace, she growled, “Do you need me to roll you back into the water? You sure seem like you’re going to need some air soon.”

His rib gills fluttered.

“Don’t you dare.”

Again, they fluttered, and she swore she saw him start to choke.

“If you spit all that water out of your gills onto me, I will stick my welder up them and burn you from the inside out. Get off me.”

He made an odd, grating sound, and she realized that might be the sound of his laughter. But at the very least, he finally released her hands and then scooted himself off her. Although, it didn’t escape her notice that he dragged himself down her entire body. The feeling of that muscular chest would take a while to get over. Good god, he was built.

And once he was in the water, glaring at her like he always did, she had a hard time getting the feeling of him off. Like she could still conjure up the image of him. All those muscles bunched as he braced himself above her.

There was no way he had any idea what that position reminded her of. They probably had sex in the water, upright, fertilizing eggs in a completely emotionless transaction.

Right, get a hold of yourself,she thought.

Sitting up, she wrapped her arms around her knees to hold all the puzzle pieces of herself together. “You need to talk so the robot can translate your language for me.”

He stubbornly remained silent. The only sound in the cave was the slight dripping of water that tumbled out of his... not hair. What did he call it on top of his head?

“I really wish I could understand you,” she muttered. “It would make all this easier.”

And still, he just stared.

“Right. Well, the other thing I thought I would ask you about is fresh water. I can’t drink salt water.” She pointed to what he was in, as if he wouldn’t understand her. “Humans need water with no salt. Do you understand that? I’ve been boiling salt water and collecting the condensation, but it isn’t enough. Not really. I’m going to get sick, or worse, and⁠—”

He sank underneath the surface. Just like that. Like he was done listening to her, and didn’t care at all what the little human had to say. He wasn’t even going to speak, so the robot could record his language.

Her father’s voice echoed in her mind as she launched into movement. “Mira, girl. You think with your gut, not with your head. You’ve never been all that good at thinking a plan through before you’ve already started doing it.”

Lifting her hands over her head, body arcing, she dove into the water with an embarrassingly loud splash as she tried to swim after him. But she didn’t have her flippers. She didn’t have her rebreather. And he was so damned fast. All she saw was the tip of his dark tail before he disappeared into the darkness.

Brightly colored glowing plants brushed against her sides, trailing along her skin as she struggled to reach the mouth of the cave. Once there, she held onto the side of the wall and stared out into the abyss.

There was nothing out there. She knew it was because her eyes hadn’t adjusted, and the bright light behind her made it even more difficult to see into the distance. But it looked like she stared out into a black wall of nothing. There could be anything out there. A hundred sharks. Killer whales. Monsters from the depths that she couldn’t imagine or even dream up.

Her heart thundered in her chest, racing faster and faster until she was forced to turn around. She kicked her feet a little faster, moved her arms quicker, because her very soul screamed that something was following her up from the depths.

Breaking the surface, she gasped and slapped at the surface before dragging herself out of the water. Scuttling back, she slammed her back against the stone wall and watched the rioting waves.

Her mind conjured up all manner of sea creatures. A giant squid that had followed her up, hungry and desiring only to devour. Its long tentacles would hit the stones any minute before it pulled its gelatinous body up to consume her.

“Mira?” Byte asked, the tinny voice cutting through her fear.

She struggled to even speak. But eventually, she licked her lips and said, “Yes?”

“You’re going to get sick.”

Right. Her suit. She’d gotten it wet and there was water inside it, considering she’d recklessly dove in without even putting her hood on. The cold speared through her, and she realized how icy her toes and hands were. Even her face felt a little numb, making it difficult to speak.

Was her hair crunchy with ice? No, thank goodness. But as she wrenched the wet strands away from her face and tried to wring out the water, she chastised herself for the dangers of what she’d done.

“Stupid,” she muttered. “So fucking stupid.”

Peeling off the wetsuit exhausted her. She hadn’t eaten well lately, nor had she been sleeping regularly. Not to mention the dehydration and if she kept going down this thought spiral, then she would hit that wall of depression again.

“Damn it,” she said, her voice a little watery as she kicked the wetsuit away. “Damn it, this was so... so...”

Mira didn’t finish the sentence. No one was listening to her whining, anyway. Wrapping herself in the one blanket that had somehow survived the mold and algae, she turned back to the water to find dark eyes watching her.

He’d come back.

Quickly, this time. Even though she knew he didn’t like to come back at all.

“Oh,” she said, standing there in the middle of the room like an idiot. “I... uh... How much of that did you see?”

A long, drawn out song was her response. He didn’t stop talking for a while, and she had no idea what he was saying. Not an ounce of it.

Glancing over at Byte, she asked, “How much of his language do you think you have a hold of?”

“Two point seven percent,” the robot replied, and then sealed itself shut again.

Apparently, it would not help her get the undine to speak. So it was up to her to figure out how the hell she was going to get out of this mess. Sighing, she started back toward the water.

“The wetsuit I wear is only for going in the water. Being wet is actually a little dangerous for humans.” Seating herself at the edge of the water, she rested her chin on her bent knees and tucked the blanket in tight around herself. “That must seem a little silly to you. Considering... Well.”

Gesturing up and down his body, she struggled to make herself seem like nothing was wrong. She wasn’t stuck in a cave far below the ocean with an undine who likely thought she was a pet. Because those thoughts led to much darker thoughts, and she refused to wallow right now.

Maybe he knew she was struggling. Maybe he was just being a good pet owner. He tossed a dead fish at her, already gutted and ready for cooking. Then pulled out what looked like a purse. Kind of. It was green and covered in a thick layer of goo, but it was definitely the shape of a large bag.

He handed it to her, watching her with eyes that saw far too much.

“Thanks,” she muttered, turning it a bit in her hands. It was definitely full of something. “What’s in it?”

Please don’t be something gross, she thought. The last thing she needed was some weird mating ritual where he’d filled this with the entrails of her enemies or something else equally traumatizing.

He mimed lifting the bag and opened his mouth. Like he was pouring something.

Turning it a bit more, she could see there was a spout at the top. Kind of like the lemonade pitcher her mother had been so proud of having.

“Well,” she muttered, lifting the strange green plant. “Here goes nothing.”

But when she poured the substance over her tongue, she realized it was... water. Fresh, clean water. No taste of salt at all. And even though she knew she should test it a bit, make sure it didn’t run right through her and turn every hole of hers into a fountain of liquid, she drank until she coughed. And even then, she only paused for a little while and then drank even more. Until her belly swelled with the liquid and her mind screamed, she was going to puke.

There was even more water left over. Enough for a full day, maybe two, if she was careful with it.

“Water,” she whispered, sitting with the bag in her lap. “You brought me fresh water.”

He inclined his head, nodding at her like some prince in a fairytale story. But that didn’t match up. He wasn’t the good guy. He’d kidnapped her. Stolen her from her home. Tried to kill her multiple times. And now he was... taking care of her?

“Why am I here?” she asked. “What do you want from me?”

That set him off. He talked for a very long time, even bringing up his hands and gesturing with them wildly. Every now and then, water splashed up from his movements and spilled over her toes. She had no idea what he was saying, but only that he was talking a lot. This was good. This meant that Byte could get even more of his language than before.

And listening to him was strangely beautiful. She’d lay in bed for years, listening to the haunting calls of whales. Haunted by the sound of their melancholy from miles away, and now she got to listen to it up close and personal. Although, his deep voice didn’t quite sound like a whale. It sounded more like he was... singing.

Finally, he stopped and looked at her expectantly.

“I don’t know what you’re saying at all,” she said with a wry smile. “But I assume you have plans for me.”

He nodded.

“Right. Well, until I can understand what you’re saying, those plans are probably not going to happen.” She stood and placed the bag of water on the cot where she knew it wouldn’t get knocked over, before joining him back at the edge of the water.

He’d moved closer to her, she realized. His webbed hands were pressed against the edge, and he’d lifted himself a bit. Maybe to see what she was doing in the back of the cave.

“There’s nothing useful back there,” she said, settling back on the floor beside him. “I’ve already looked. The computer is fried. There’s no signal to the surface, and any of the other electronics are so rusted out that even I can’t fix them. You have trapped me, undine.”

The feral grin on his face said he was quite pleased with that.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure that was your plan all along.”

Again he spoke, this time using his hands, so she got the gist of it. He had followed her. He used one of his hands and kicked two of his fingers, kind of like how she swam. The other hand he undulated like the undine did as they swam. It was a remarkably good way to speak and mime what had happened. Apparently, he had been above her the entire time she was swimming, and she’d had no idea. He was very proud of that.

Shaking her head, she had to admit it was almost cute how proud he was of himself. This was clearly a difficult mission for him to take on, and he’d succeeded. Even if it was at her own expense.

“I can’t swim like you. I’m not meant for the ocean.” She poked her feet out from under the blanket and wiggled her toes. “These are obviously not made to help me swim.”

She watched him eye her feet, and then recoil when he realized she could spread her toes wide. Laughing, she let him look at them. Arges even made his way a little closer, clearly wanting to investigate their differences but not sure how to go about it.

Mira reached down and twisted her foot side to side, showing him the limitations of her movement. “We have a bunch of bones in our feet. They help us stay upright when we walk. I’m not sure if you have bones in your tail or⁠—”

He silenced her with a dirty look.

“Or clearly you do have bones in your tail,” she corrected herself. “Probably like a spine. We have long bones in our legs instead of many little ones. You can touch if you want.”

Why had she said that? She didn’t want him to touch her. But then he reached out with those strangely warm palms and delicate webs, and slid his hand along the delicate bones of her foot and up her shin.

She watched with strange fascination. The sight of that gray hand, with the glimmering rainbow webs, touching her? It should have been disgusting and instead it just... was. Like anyone else touching her shin.

He hissed out a long sound the moment he found the prominent bone of her shin. Words poured out of his mouth as he was suddenly much closer, yanking her to him so he could use both hands on the bone.

He was gentle, at least. She thought for a second he was going to try to snap it, but no. He just lifted her leg slightly and then moved it around. Watching her skin move with the pressure of his fingertips as the bone remained stiff and unmoving.

Apparently, this was fascinating to him. He asked her a question, although she had no way of knowing what it was. And instead, he finally mimed her kicking her feet, and then undulated the same hand.

With a laugh, she nodded. “I’m sure there’s a more efficient way for me to swim, yes. But that doesn’t make me any faster. My feet and legs are short and there aren’t muscles in them like you have. That’s why I had the flippers, to help me swim like you do.”

She watched him mouth the word “flippers” before moving down to her feet. He took his time, gently prodding the delicate bones. He looked her over so thoroughly, she wondered at his curiosity, and then his gaze flicked up to hers.

He spoke as he asked his questions, but she could see he was talking about a fish. And then he touched his hands to his ribs, then to her feet.

“You think the bones in my feet are like fish ribs?”

He nodded, then mimed snapping something between his hands.

“Fragile,” she snorted. “I guess they would look easily breakable in comparison to you.”

His gaze turned calculating. Pointing at her, he mimed the breaking motion again.

“I’m not as easily breakable as my feet, no.”

He gestured all around them, at the cave, the water, the rusted metal in the back, then pointed back at her.

Pride made her want to tell him that she was fine. That nothing in this place would break her, and she was made of tougher stuff. But the reality was that she knew she wouldn’t last long in here. It was a wet, damp cave with very little promise that air would even stay where it was. She had no idea how old the pipes were that stretched up to the surface, or if the power would eventually go out.

She could probably fix the generator a couple of times. There were enough spare parts lying around that she could make something work. But that would only last for so long.

So, with her pride smarting, she replied, “This place makes me a little more breakable. Being cold and wet means I could get sick easier. There are no vegetables, only the fish you bring me. So I will eventually not have enough of what I need to eat, and I’ll likely die. If you have something you want from me, Arges, you probably need to ask sooner rather than later.”

His brows furrowed and his expression grew troubled. Without another word, he sank beneath the surface and disappeared.

She sighed, watching him go with a strange mixture of relief and worry.

“Byte?” Mira asked. “How much of that did you get?”

The lid of the box popped open. “We’re now at exactly four point two percent. That was a good conversation, Mira!”

Groaning, she fell onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. “I’m never getting out of here.”