Whispers of the Deep (Deep Waters, #1)

by Emma Hamm

Fuck, she shouldn’t be here alone. The undine—what her people called his—rarely came around the cities. And if they did, it was only for a shitty reason. They were known to attack cities like her own and perhaps had been behind the sinking of Gamma.

She knew she was overreacting, and they had every right to laugh at her antics. But for fuck’s sake, she was a grown ass woman, and she just wanted to be alone for a few seconds. But she couldn’t get away from these two for even enough time to pee by herself! Cheeks flaming, heart racing in her chest with anxiety and anger, she bit her lip and tried very hard not to cry. This was hard. That was the thought she eventually landed on. All of this was really hard. She was hungry. Exhausted. Needed something other than fucking fish to eat, because she was so god damned tired of fish and mussels. Her stomach constantly clenched for something fibrous, and that had made even more embarrassing moments between herself, the undine, and the droid that she couldn’t avoid.

Byte muttered something before saying, “Please do not take this the wrong way, Miss Mira. But when was the last time you had your menstrual cycle?” Fucking... No, the droid wasn’t masculine in any nature. It wasn’t feminine either. The droid was merely stating the obvious, rather than insulting her emotional state because she was female.

But the little robot had already ducked back into its box. If she listened very carefully, Mira could hear the projector was still going. This time inside the box, playing memories that Byte wished to watch alone. Setting it down gently on the computer console, she gave the droid a little privacy to mourn someone who had been so dear.

Oh, and yet. Someone had done this before. Someone had fallen in love with an undine just as she had fallen in love with Arges and it wasn't fair that she

She’d arrived here essentially dead. But because she had been hooked up to the undine, it had been like chest compressions. The undine had breathed for her, and so her body had been forced to stay alive. Melete had stayed with her for days with that cord connected to her, breathing for an achromo she should have hated.