Page 11 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)

Eleven

Alexia

T ime passed strangely in the abyss. She would never have known how long she was down here without the computer informing her it had been eight days. Eight days of her rationing food, drugs, and time spent staring into the darkness that seemed to look back at her.

Alexia was stuck here. She knew that. The ship’s AI would not let her override it and manually drive the ship home. She’d argued she could get them closer to Tau before the whole ship shut down. But the AI only said she didn’t have high enough clearance to force it to do what she wanted.

Slumped against some crates where there was still meager amounts of food, Alexia told herself not to look into the sea. The lights above her head still blinked on and off. They were driving her crazy. Sometimes she asked the computer to turn them off entirely and just sat in the pitch black. She understood the reasoning for the warning lights. Many systems didn’t have enough battery power to continue for much longer. The ship only reminded her that they were in dire circumstances.

Life support would last the longest. But some of the filtrations were already blowing. She only had a few more days under here without those batteries, and that meant she had to get her shit together.

Not to mention her food supply was dropping. She looked down at the tablet in her hand where she had been keeping count of everything. The food she’d been sent was enough to last a week. She’d spaced it out enough that she knew it would last double that. But even then, two weeks with that little food was going to weaken her.

And then what was she going to do?

Her eyes found the box of medicine that she’d left in the pilot’s chair. The drugs were stronger than her usual dose, thanks to Doctor Barker realizing she needed a lot more than normal. But because she’d been rationing all of that as well, she’d been using the same amount of medicine as she always did.

She had too much time to think. Her mind wanted to wander back to memories that she knew were dangerous to linger on. Memories of how Harlow had never really appreciated her or how Harlow had gone through more guards than any other Original, and that’s why Alexia had more generations than the others.

Her mind always rounded about to what Harlow had said when she’d seen Alexia hurt. She would not let Alexia die until she said she could. What did that mean?

Would she be forced to live an unnaturally long life just because Harlow wanted her around? She didn’t want to do that. She wanted to die early, if she had a choice. This life wasn’t the one she wanted to endure forever.

The swishing movement of a tail beyond the front windows of her ship caught her attention, and she was ashamed to admit it made her heart lurch. A week of silence with nothing but the sea to keep her company was making her mind do strange things.

With the right amount of medicine, she wouldn’t have been having these thoughts at all. Back in training, they’d put her in isolation for months on end. They’d made sure that no one could ever torture information out of her, and even staying alone wouldn’t make her think differently.

But now, she wanted someone to talk to. Even if it was the undine who thought nothing of tormenting her for hours on end. At least that was still a conversation, as fucked up as it was.

He appeared on the other side of the glass, lighting up bit by bit. He always did it in the same way, and she wondered if that was on purpose. First the lights on his massive fluke, and then they trailed up his entire body. Every time it was shocking how big he was, no matter how far he was from the glass. His arms would glow. Then finally, the fins around his face would glimmer with a strange purple that filled the darkness of the water.

He was like a god, illuminating out of nothing. But those were stupid thoughts she never would have had if he hadn’t stuck her in this predicament.

He floated a little closer, that grin on his face already angering her. “Are you ready to give up yet?”

Of course, that’s what he asked. He knew she had been in the darkness, enduring the abyss on her own for a week. This had been part of his plan. “Not yet, undine. I’ll let you know when you’ve bested me.”

He seemed frustrated by her response. His brow wrinkled, and the muscles on either side of his jaw jumped. “I’ll make you a deal, virago.”

She hated that he had a pet name for her, and something in her snapped. “Alexia,” she hissed. “My name is Alexia.”

All of his fins flared out around his face. In shock? She thought that’s what it was. She’d been watching him just as much as he watched her. It was easier to read him now.

He hadn’t expected her to tell him her name. And now he was wondering what to do.

She stood, taking the three steps to the pilot’s chair and sitting down in it. “I told you my name, soldier. Usually this is when you’d tell me yours.”

“I’m not telling you my name.”

“Then we are not bargaining if you are unwilling to even make yourself seem like a real person. I could continue calling you fish man, but I don’t think you like it when I call you that.”

Again, those flared fins. She wasn’t sure if he enjoyed it when she talked back to him, or at least, that’s how she was taking that reaction. Alexia wanted to scream at him all the time, though, and at least barbs thrown like this wouldn’t get her killed.

At any point, they both knew he could flip this ship right over the edge of the cliff she was wedged on. Alexia was well aware her situation was precarious.

He floated a little closer, his tail flicking with what she was certain was annoyance. “I am called Fortis.”

“You’re not like the other undine I’ve seen before. I mean, I’ve seen some that look like you, but not a lot. Why is that?”

If he had eyebrows, that expression would have arched one. “This is not a chance for you to ask me about my people. I have you trapped. You are the one who will answer my questions.”

“I suppose that’s fair. What if I answer a question and you answer one of mine?”

“No.”

She blew out a frustrated breath and slumped back against the chair. “You are the worst person to bargain with. Are you sure you don’t want to just give me an ultimatum and get this over with?”

“I don’t understand your words.”

“You could just tell me you’re going to kill me unless I do what you want. Get it over with, considering we both know that I’m going to die a slow death in here, regardless.” She waved her hands at the air around her. The hollow chamber wouldn’t last much longer.

“I’m not going to do that.” All of his lights flared a little hotter at her suggestion that he threaten to kill her.

Interesting. Clearly he didn’t want her dead, which went against everything that she assumed. Here she had been believing this was all in retribution for taking the reborn back. But as she watched that discomfort rolling through him, she realized that this situation was entirely different.

She leaned closer to the glass again. “You want something from me.”

He sighed as if she was exhausting. “You only figured that out now? I could have killed you long before this. Why else would I keep you alive?”

“What do you want?”

“I want to know everything about your city. About Tau. I want to know what the Originals are planning to do and how they control the other cities. I want you to betray your people in retribution for all the damage they have caused in this sea.”

The speech was noble. But it was foolhardy. “No one can rise against the Originals. If I were to betray them, I would be signing my own death warrant.”

He swam close enough to touch the glass. Those webbed fingers spread wide, claws scraping in front of her face so hard they left tiny marks. “You are already dead, are you not? You are at the bottom of the sea where no one will find your body.”

“My beacon is still on,” she replied. “They will find me, undine.”

But it was a lie.

The beacon was one of the first things the AI had turned off. Apparently, it was protocol, but she knew that part of it was simply that the Originals hadn’t wanted to know if she wasn’t coming back. They liked to believe their soldiers got what needed to be done, done. And in reality, a single undine wasn’t a threat they considered worthwhile to pursue.

They’d sent her out here on a suicide mission all for their own pride. And they didn’t care if she came back.

He just smiled at her, that grin never shifting from his face.

“What?” she hissed. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because I removed your beacon four days ago. It wasn’t lighting up anymore, and I thought perhaps you did not need it.”

Fuck.

Fuck, of course he had. She’d never gotten the better of this creature. Why did she think she could today? Baring her teeth in a grimace, she leaned forward and asked, “How do you know so much about human ships?”

They were nearly nose to nose now. Her breath fogged the glass in front of her, but she could still see him so clearly. Every freckle that dotted his face and the strange lines that marked down his cheeks like tracks of tears.

“You are not the first achromo I’ve spoken with,” he replied. “But you are not as brave as them if you are unwilling to betray those who harm so many.”

Thoughts flickered in her mind. All the people she’d killed. All the reborn bodies that floated down into the nothingness of the sea because an Original had a fucking rash that needed to be fixed. So much death and destruction.

But these were not normal thoughts. Because if they were true... No. She wouldn’t even entertain it.

“If they are evil,” she muttered, “Then I am just as evil as they are. Why are you expecting me to be better than them?”

“They ordered you to do everything you have done. They drugged you to keep you quiet. You are a product of what they wanted you to be. Nothing more, nothing less. A weapon is not to blame for a death, it is the person who wields the weapon.” His eyes swirled with all those pretty colors. “Let me wield you, Alexia.”

A shiver trailed down her spine. Heat flushed from her stomach, to her chest, to her cheeks and burned with sudden desire. She thought, if there was a man out there who could wield her, it was this creature who had come from the depths.

These were unnatural thoughts. Unnatural desires and yet, she wanted to encourage them. She wanted to get a little closer to this monster. She wanted to know what it would be like to touch skin so smooth. Or perhaps to see if his lights were warm.

Wrenching herself away from the window, she turned the pilot’s chair to the shadows in the back of her ship. “What is your deal, then?”

There was more quiet from beyond the glass. She thought perhaps he had left.

But then he spoke in that deep, rumbling voice that was far too tempting. “Let me into your ship, virago. That is all my deal is. Let me into your ship and I will answer your questions about my kind.”

“That’s not enough.”

“Then I will deliver you food.”

She hissed out a long breath. “Why would you do that? You have no reason to care for me. You should let me die.”

“I do not wish to see you die. Not like this. You are the same as me, are you not? A warrior who has fought their entire life, trained for decades. You deserve to die fighting. Not in a cage where someone else put you.”

Why did that hurt so much to hear? Why was it that a monster understood her better than all the people she’d lived with for years?

Damn it. She could choose to just sit here and die. That wasn’t all that difficult to do. All she had to do was refuse his deal, and then eat the rest of her meager food stores. There wasn’t much left, but a couple of days were still a couple more days without giving into him.

Or.

She could choose to keep fighting another day.

Opening the hatch was so little. She didn’t know why he wanted her to open it, but she could.

So she stood, against her better judgement, and hit the button. The small door on the floor slid open. It was maybe large enough for him to wedge himself into, but unlikely that he’d fit into the space. Still, if he wanted to, he could kill her now.

Maybe it was better if he did. He could end this all, and the complicated feelings she was having would be over. So when he appeared in the water just at the edge of her toes, she didn’t react. Not even when she noticed how broad his features were with his hair smoothed back from his face or the droplets of water that ran down his neck to the hollows of his collarbone.

His arms reached up through the hole and then he leveraged himself upright. He was almost eye level with her, staring into her very soul as he just... remained there. Frozen. Looking into her gaze without all those dangerous swirling colors.

She swallowed hard. “Well?

“You are the warrior I thought you were,” he murmured. A single claw stroked down the side of her face to the sharp edge of her jaw. “How interesting it is to see you not in the water. I cannot sense if you are frightened.”

Should she be honest? No. She would not show weakness to this creature. “I am not afraid.”

“Is that you speaking? Or is that the medicine you keep injecting into your arm?”

She didn’t know. Maybe that should have been a warning sign in her mind that something was about to go terribly wrong. Why was he even asking?

But she was so mesmerized by the creature in front of her. All his pale lavender skin, the dark purple at the edges of his face and the tear tracks down his cheeks. She wanted to trace those marks with her fingers. She wanted to disappear for a few moments, and for some strange reason, it felt like he knew how to do that.

She was honest when she replied, “I don’t know.”

“I think perhaps it is time for us to find out.”

He lunged forward before she could even process what that meant. Their chests bumped, and she tripped over one of the stupid crates behind her. As she toppled backward, he grabbed onto the box that contained all of her medication and disappeared into the water.

It all happened so fast. She stayed where she was, dumbfounded and sitting on top of three boxes while another had fallen over behind her and spilled all the clothing and weapon contents on the floor.

“That bastard,” she muttered. “He just took all my drugs.”

What was she going to do now?