Chapter 17

Seventeen

Mira

Mira had no idea the undines could swim this quickly. He moved like he was made of water, or like he could part it so that nothing hindered his path. Swimming had always felt like she was pushing against something, trying to move through the water rather than with it.

But the undine? Oh, he was part of it. He was the water, and the water was him.

With her toes tucked into his hip fins like he wore a saddle, she could almost imagine that she was born to this. And though she didn’t look like herself at all—the wetsuit wasn’t going to last forever—at the very least, she could pretend.

They soared on their journey, slicing through currents and speeding past all manner of creatures. It was almost impossible to watch all of it happen as they zipped on by. He moved so fast; it was like she had attached herself to a darting drone.

And she suspected this was slower than he’d liked to go. Though he had started with one arm around her waist, now he had the other arm underneath her bottom. Perhaps he didn’t realize that he cupped one of her ass cheeks rather possessively as they swam, or maybe he didn’t have any idea how intimate his touch was, but it certainly made her squirm.

His fingers were just a little too close for her to focus on anything else but where his touch heated. If he moved his thumb even the slightest, he’d brush against her core and she’d really wiggle then. He was handsome. She was interested in a strange way, and all of this was hard to think about.

Mira was a human.

Arges was an undine.

They didn’t fit together in any way that would work. She knew his people hated her. Hell, he had been hunting her people as far as she could tell. He knew more about her than she’d expected, even if he was curious enough to touch her legs. That was just natural curiosity, not that he hadn’t realized her legs were... legs.

Still, it was impossible for her to not look at him while he swam. All those muscles flexed against her stomach and torso, shifting them just slightly so they flew through the water. Every now and then, his gills would flare, and his eyes would look in a direction. Every time she peered where he was looking, only to find nothing that her eyes could see in the distance.

But he could see something. A few times he changed their course, his hands tightening on her just barely before he let her situate herself a little more comfortably. Mira wished she didn’t have to crane her neck to see where they were going, and eventually, she gave up. She propped her chin on his very muscular shoulder and watched the darkness behind them.

She thought perhaps they were going up. The water was lighter here, at least. She still couldn’t see her hand in front of her face, and there was absolutely no color at all, but it was definitely more gray than black. Still, it was a bit like living in a black and white world. Unnerving, and it made her heart race until they had gone up far enough for her to see more.

And then, suddenly, the ground came up to meet them. Or perhaps they had swum over a drop off that she hadn’t seen before, but now they were surrounded with life.

She felt like one moment she was clinging to him, terrified that she would blink and see massive eyes staring back at her from the depths, and the next, she could see everything.

Schools of fish glimmered as they swam around them, catching the faintest hint of light and turning it into a sparkle of gemstones. Giant kelp fronds toyed with her legs, binding to Arges’s tail as he moved through them. Giant seed pods floated around their heads, some of them eerily similar to the bag of fresh water he’d given her.

Once they were far away from the drop off, he released his grip on her ass and then removed his hand from her back too.

Still, she clung to him. What did he want her to do now? They were still in the water. Still in danger and yet...

Pulling away from him, one arm still wrapped around his neck, she looked around. There was a small space here in the kelp forest. Fronds didn’t grow here as easily because there were countless bell shaped plants that were larger than she was tall.

They were all a faint blue, although everything was a faint blue down here. And she could see shadows moving halfway up the bells.

Fish she couldn’t name swarmed in a hundred different colors. Sea turtles lazily moved along the bottom, poking at rocks and then moving along when they found nothing to eat. One in particular had scars all over its shell, and it looked back at her with a slow, lazy grin on its face. They all moved like she was in a dream. Slow and easy, taking their time to drift through the calm current.

It was beautiful. She clenched her hand on his shoulder as she filled her gaze with the sights.

“Wow,” she whispered. “There are no words for a place like this.”

She didn’t think he could hear her, but apparently he had a lot better hearing than she did. Arges touched a hand to her waist, turning her in the water so she faced slightly down and across from them.

He pointed over her shoulder, and she followed the line of his pointed claw to see an octopus moving out of its underwater home. It was bright purple, with dark speckles all up and down its sides. And though she’d been terrified by the idea of a giant squid, this was a creature she had always dreamt of meeting.

A bright sound of delight bursting out of her mouth, she kicked off of him and propelled herself down to the octopus. Cold water be damned. She wanted to see this creature in the wilds again.

Arges joined her very quickly, a worried expression on his face as he tried to put himself between her and the unsuspecting sea creature.

“I don’t want to hurt it,” she assured him, trying to talk as loud as the rebreather would let her. “I’ve seen them before in picture books! Everyone in Beta always talked about how intelligent they are and how it’s such a rare species to see. We never saw them that deep in the ocean, but I always hoped someday I would meet one. My father met one before, back in the days when he worked off site.”

Kicking her feet to force herself upright in the water, she mimed trying to yank something off her mask. “He told me it grabbed onto his face and gave him a little shake, like it was reminding him that he wasn’t supposed to be in the water. It didn’t hurt him, just gave him a good rattle before it floated off. It didn’t ink or even seem all that angry apparently, it just... wanted to remind him that he wasn’t supposed to be looking at an octopus and he was supposed to be working.”

Throughout her story, the concern had softened on Arges’s face. Instead, it started to look a little something like amusement before he tilted his head back and let out one of those musical sounds.

And...

“Wow,” she whispered, losing all sense of reason.

In her fear, she hadn’t realized how the sound of his voice was so much better under the water. So much more than it had been before when she’d tried to speak to him in that cave. The depth of it wasn’t so painfully loud. Instead, he sounded deeper, more smooth, infinitely better in a way that sent heat zinging throughout her entire body.

And then he gave her a strangely knowing look before he pointed at one of the bells.

Nodding, she gave the octopus one last lingering glance before swimming toward the nearest bell. It seemed to be even larger up close, perhaps two of her own height. And there were things swimming in it. A tiny school of fish the same color as the bell, as far as she could tell, at least. They swirled in the middle of the bell, a tiny whirlwind of fish that scattered from underneath and raced to other plants at their approach.

It was so magical. Every bit of this made her hold her breath as she watched something new and wondrous happen. Then she looked over at Arges and saw him watching her. The soft expression on his face was eerily close to pride.

She was glad there were masks over her face and the water was cold. Because Mira was quite certain she turned a rather embarrassing shade of red. Kicking her feet, she watched him as he watched her. Their eyes locked. Her breath fogged the inside of the rebreather only to clear every time she inhaled.

She must look so monstrous to him compared to the beauty of his own kind. She’d only seen a few undines in her day, but they were all like him. Born to be in the water. Their gills and fins delicately waving with each movement, floating there like they didn’t have to fight to stay upright. They just were in the ocean.

And oh, she was so envious of them.

His gills flickered, slowly lifting around his neck as he looked her up and down before he pointed at the bell shaped plant.

“I don’t know what you want me to do,” she said.

He scooped his hand, motioning for her to go inside the plant.

“That’s not happening,” she muttered, pinwheeling her hands to shove herself farther away from the plant. “Here I was thinking you were just moving me somewhere safer, but I see now that I am just supposed to be food for one of your other pets. I’m good, Arges. I’ll just go to the surface or back to my own home rather than be turned into goo for a plant. Deal?”

He let out another one of those melodious chuckles before gesturing for her to go inside the bell again. Under no circumstances was she going to do that. She wasn’t going to be plant food at the end of her life. She’d rather try her luck with a deep sea squid than that.

A mere flick of his tail, a twitch really, and he was at her side again. He placed a hand against her back and shoved. No matter how hard she tried to swim away from him, and no matter how long she struggled, he somehow just kept bumping her closer and closer to the damn plant.

“If we were on land, this would be a totally different dynamic,” she wheezed through heavy breathing. “I’d be pushing you around. Rolling you on the ground like a giant seal.”

Again, he made that gorgeous sounding laugh, and it was hard to not get distracted. Besides, there was no way she could fight him.

And would he be laughing if he intended to kill her? Maybe. Probably, actually considering the history between their people but... Well, she chose to trust him. Because what else was she supposed to do?

It wasn’t like she had a choice in any of this.

He guided her through the water and shoved her underneath the bell. Squeezing her eyes shut, she waited for the sickly feeling of the plant closing over her body. Perhaps dragging slime in its wake as it mashed her or dissolved her with acid.

But that didn’t happen. Instead, all she felt were warm, webbed hands that slid up her sides until they rested against her ribs. Waiting, she supposed, for her to open her eyes.

Peeling first one open, then the other, she was startled to see only his face. Arges hovered so close to her that it would only take a slight tilt of her head and she’d bonk him with her forehead. And those eyes of his were narrowed with amusement.

“What?” she asked. “Clearly you were feeding me to the giant plant.”

In a startlingly human gesture, he rolled his eyes and then pointed above her head.

And there was... air. Above them.

“Can I...” It sounded stupid to even voice the words, but she muttered, “Can I breathe in here?”

He quirked a brow as if to say, I don’t know, can you? And then shoved her up a little higher.

She had her rebreather. The worst-case scenario was that she couldn’t breathe that air, and she had to put the breather back on. And that was a hell of a lot easier to do in maybe not breathable air, but still not water.

Kicking her feet, she made it up to the surface and pulled the rebreather off. There was plenty of room above her head, and even a few tendrils hanging down from the inside. Perhaps stamens, she thought, like plants that needed to be pollinated.

Arges joined her, looking very pleased that she could breathe.

He spoke, his hands moving quickly along with each word, and she got the general idea of what he was saying. The plants made a kind of oxygen, and it was breathable for her kind. Then he reached up and grabbed one of the tendrils, gently looping it around her waist and then making a motion like he was sleeping.

So he wanted her to sleep in here? Why?

“I don’t understand,” she said slowly. “Why do you want me to sleep in here? I could drown in my sleep. Wasn’t the cave better than this?”

He spoke, his words like a song, as he gestured so quickly that she couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. Did he want her to stay here? She wouldn’t survive alone in the water for that long. Surely he knew that.

“Food?” she asked. “Fresh water?”

He pointed to the tiny fish, reaching his hands out slowly and cupping one between his fingers. It was easy to catch them, apparently. Maybe because they didn’t have natural hunters. Then he spoke, that voice going on and on before he dragged her down into the water for a few moments so she could see the floating seed pods were actually similar to the ones he’d brought her. There was water in them, apparently, that she could drink.

She shook her head when he brought her back up into the glowing blue light of the bell. “No. It’s too cold.”

The damned undine faked shivering, then pointed to her. Clearly, she wasn’t shivering anymore, and the water was warmer here. Despite the rip in the back of her suit, she wasn’t as cold as she might expect.

But that didn’t mean this was a good idea. “What about sharks? Squid? All the other creatures in the ocean that would love an easy meal?”

He said something that sounded familiar, then gestured around them like this place was safe.

“And what if I run out of air to breathe?”

He gently lifted the rebreather still attached to her neck and then pointed to the other bell plants. Like it was obvious. She had options for air, it just wasn’t the best option she might have.

And then, to her absolute horror, he sank out of the bell and swam away before she could catch him.