Chapter 29

Twenty-Nine

Mira

Mira wasn’t certain what she was expecting from him or the adventure that they were on, but it certainly wasn’t this. She had thought he would bring her back into the depths, into the dark, where she could see very little that he did not light up himself.

Instead, he kept her on the same level they were on. He coasted along the sandy belts. Rolling until she was on the bottom and she could feel the sand tangling in her hair. Her giggles apparently sparked something in him that she had never expected.

Arges rolled again, his hands just underneath her ribs as he lifted her high away from his body. And with her arms out in front of her, it felt like she was flying. Soaring through the water that was so crystal clear and blue, surely it wasn’t real. She’d never seen the ocean like this, not when it was endless and speedily passing by her.

He stayed that way with her for quite some time. Lifting her up and bouncing her sometimes over the sand dunes far beneath the sea. He never took her close to the edge. Not once. Like he wanted her to be able to see another version of his home.

Maybe she should have been looking at the ocean itself. She should have been enjoying the dim spears of sunlight that were drifting away as the clouds grew over their heads. Or perhaps she should have been enjoying the sensation of the water through her hair and the warmth of the waves that weren’t too cold for her to stay in them for once.

Instead, all she could do was stare down at him.

His gills were fully out on display, like petals of a flower decorating his neck. All his hair shifted away from his face as they swam, revealing the angular planes that were just so lovely. He was delicate and broad, a mixture of both masculine and feminine that tempted her gaze every time she looked away. Mira had never noticed the tentacles in his hair that glowed bright blue and yellow as well, but they were so intriguing. She wanted to run her fingers through the strands of his hair and see if he reacted the same way he had when she had touched his gills.

Until he turned her again, pointing ahead of them. “Look, kairos.”

She followed his finger to see that the ocean floor dropped off just ahead of them. Above that drop off was a school of stingrays. They were massive beasts. Just their flippers were larger than she was tall, and they swam through the sea with infinite grace. Their long tails stretched out behind them. Speckled gray and white, they were so stunning.

“A whole school of them?”

He shook his head, and Arges reached forward to tap her forehead with a clawed finger. “You should know a school is only for fish. A group of stingrays is a fever, my darling. Remember that.”

“Are the words so important?”

“They are to us.” He swam with her down into the depths and suddenly they were swimming beside the rays. She could see their mouths underneath the giant wings of their bodies. And their bellies were white, she realized. From above, they blended into the sea floor, but from below they glistened like pearls.

“They are so beautiful,” she murmured, her fingers itching to touch them. “A fever of them?”

“That is right.” He reached out his hand and trailed his fingers along the belly of one. “Would you like to touch them, Mira?”

“More than anything.”

He lifted her then, and she reached for the belly of the stingray above her. She swore it smiled when she touched the soft skin and slight pudge there before it changed its direction and another took its place.

Giggles erupted from her mouth. She couldn’t stop the sounds of happiness that burst out of her skin and bubbled out of her mouth. They were so adorable! Gliding this way and that, they coasted throughout the ocean without a whim. Perhaps they were going to some feeding or mating grounds or birthing areas. But where they were going didn’t matter.

The fact that they didn’t mind her being here, among them, made her feel more accepted than her own kind had in years.

At some point, Arges turned them away from the fever of rays. He tucked her into his arms again, safe and sound from anything that might find them. They moved slower, and she had the time to look up and see angry gray clouds overhead.

“So it does still storm,” she mused. “The tales I have always heard are that the land became uninhabitable. There were so many storms and volcanoes and treacherous waves. People had to run from the very weather, and we couldn’t get off this planet, so we had to figure out a new way to live.”

“There are still many storms. The gods above are always angry,” he replied. “I have only been to the surface a few times. Curiosity in a young mind can be a dangerous thing. There is much up there that I suspect your people no longer know. But the storms are still deadly. The sea tries to take back the land, and the land fights in return.”

She supposed that was a rather simplistic way of looking at the very complicated weather patterns that had almost destroyed this planet. “We call them hurricanes. And tsunamis.”

“So your people know of the sea’s desire to take back the rest of your planet?”

“We know the land is uninhabitable because of these storms, and that flooding had taken a lot of what we would consider liveable land. There will always be mountains to live on top of, but from what they said in my school, apparently the storms were so strong that the higher people went, the harder it was to live.”

It was a shame. Someday, she would love to know what it felt like to stand on land and have infinite air. To experience an unending amount of air and dirt that stretched as far as the eye could see.

“I will take you someday,” he said quietly, his voice pitched so low she almost didn’t hear him. “Everyone deserves to see where they come from. At least once.”

Mira couldn’t stop herself. She hugged him around the waist, twining her arms around his thick form in the hopes that he understood how much his offer meant to her. “You’ve already shown me so much, Arges. You’ve gifted me the sea in ways I never even dreamt of. How could I ask you to show me the land as well?”

He didn’t reply, but she wondered if he wanted to say he would give her anything.

Because that was exactly how she was feeling right now.

Together, they meandered through the currents until she saw the dome ahead. Mira was shocked at the sadness that blasted through her body. Partly because she knew she had to get out of the water, and partly because he would leave her. He always left, and every time it became harder and harder to say goodbye to him.

Maybe he felt the same way. Because he took a very long time bringing her underneath the moon pool and even more time letting go of her once they were back inside the dome.

His hands lingered on her hips even as he placed her on the edge of the metal rim. Her dress clung to her skin, but she suddenly wanted to rip it off in the hopes that maybe he would stay.

Even if it meant that maybe he would linger out of her line of sight, he would still see her.

Water dripping down her nose, she ripped her rebreather off and stared at him. Finally, she couldn’t take it. Because he already had that look in his eyes that meant he was leaving and she... she... “I don’t want you to go.”

He froze in front of her before quietly asking, “What did you say?”

“I don’t want you to go,” she repeated. “I don’t like being here alone. Without you.”

“You have your metal box to speak with.”

“It’s not the same.” She swallowed, realizing that one of them would have to be the brave one. She knew he had feelings for her, and she did as well.

Even though her mind screamed they couldn’t do this. That no undine and human could ever be together, in any way. She felt like it was important to get the words out. Even if they were hard.

Placing her hands over his at her waist, she decided that if one of them had to be brave, it would be her. “I prefer my time with you, Arges. Much more than anyone else I’ve ever met in my life. I want to know everything about you, even if those discoveries come without words.”

Surely, he understood what she was saying. His black eyes searched hers, and then his hands spasmed against her hips. “Kairos, I believe there are perhaps some translation difficulties regarding what you just said.”

“There are no translation issues.” She lifted her hands and placed them on his shoulders, toying with the edges of his gills. “I think you should know that I want you. I find you strangely beautiful, and though that has plagued me for quite some time, I feel that now perhaps it is the right time for me to tell you.”

“Why now?” he rasped, his voice guttural and deep.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I can’t think of any reason why I’ve waited this long, and I can’t think of a reason why I couldn’t wait longer. This moment felt right, and perhaps it wasn’t. But I wish to know more about you, and I have wanted to touch you for a very long time.”

His eyes closed, those gills vibrating next to his throat, and she couldn’t stop herself.

Mira skated her fingers along them, barely touching him but knowing without a doubt that he felt her. A deep rumble started in his chest, echoing through the room with the sound of his pleasure.

His voice was somehow even deeper. “What you are doing is a very intimate touch for my people, Mira.”

“I know.” She leaned a little closer until their lips were barely a breath apart. “My people kiss. We press our mouths together. It feels good. Do your people do that?”

“No.” He never once opened his eyes. So she supposed that was as much of a yes as she was going to get.

Taking the risk, she leaned forward and kissed him. At first, he stayed very still. Even his gills seemed to freeze, completely outstretched and unmoving beneath her fingers.

But then he groaned, long and low in his very chest, before he hauled her closer. She wrapped her legs around his waist, gasping into his mouth as he pried hers open and plunged his tongue between her lips.

Fire sizzled through her veins, and suddenly she couldn’t touch enough of him. She dragged her fingers along his gills, pinching them and stroking them until he bucked his hips against hers. And oh, maybe that was the same between their kinds. Because she swore there was a hardness pressing between her legs, though it was still hidden by scales. A hardness that tempted her to touch, to stroke, to seek out where it was coming from and how she could touch more.

She pressed back against him, arching over his arm so more of her could touch him. She didn’t even care that they were both soaking wet or that her clothes clung to her body. She didn’t care that her nipples were so hard they ached for his touch.

Then, oh, he touched. He lifted that webbed hand and cupped one of her breasts. They both groaned into each other’s mouths, because she’d never felt her body come alive like hers did in this moment. She wanted to touch him back, but she didn’t know where she could touch. The spines on his back made it hard for her to touch him there, and it certainly wasn’t easy for her to grab onto his neck.

He had no problem touching her, though, and it seemed like he was enjoying himself far more than she had expected.

Again, he moaned into her mouth before ripping away from her. “You have no natural defenses, kairos.”

“You mean I don’t have claws and spines?” Her voice sounded so breathless. “I know that. Are you complaining?”

He looked down at his hand on her breast, then she felt him gently squeeze before running his thumb over her hardened nipple. “Not in the slightest, Mira. By all the gods of the sea, I can touch any part of you I wish without fear of poison or pain.”

“Endless touching,” she agreed, arching into his grip so he would touch her more. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

And maybe he wouldn’t have. Maybe she would have found out what was underneath those scales that pressed so deliciously between her thighs if they both hadn’t heard an angry thud from the other side of the dome’s glass. Then another. A pounding that rocked the entire dome and shifted her forward awkwardly in his grip.

She didn’t have a moment to breathe. One second he was in her arms, and the next he’d tossed her away from the pool before shouting, “Close it! Now!”

Then he disappeared. The only thing left was the splashing of his tail and the foam he had left behind.

For a second, she was frozen. Staring into the water with wide eyes and a sudden fear at what had come for them. Surely nothing would attack this dome. There weren’t any dangerous sea creatures that came into shallow water like this. Was there?

But then she saw the vague shadow of a fin pass overhead. Then she saw the black tip of a tail that was all too familiar. She lunged for the lever that closed the moon pool and shoved it so hard, she was afraid she’d snap it off and end up stuck in here.

“Come on,” she hissed as it closed. “Faster, you ancient bitch.”

Eventually, it closed. Sealing her into the dome like a tomb.

Byte’s shuddering voice interrupted her fear. “Mira? What’s going on?”

“I have no idea.”

Snapping out of her panic, she raced for the windows of the dome. Cursing that she couldn’t see through some of the algae that already had grown back, she sprinted for the bed. Not caring that she soaked the mattress and the blankets, she jumped on top of it and peered out the portion of the dome that was still very clear.

All she could see were the dark outlines of undines in the distance. One glowing bright red, another yellow, and one blue that she would recognize anywhere.