Whispers of the Deep (Deep Waters, #1)

by Emma Hamm

“She is a current,” Mitéra said, her voice low and quiet. Her hair swallowed them up, like they were the only two people in the ocean. “You will follow that current. Use her to the best of your ability, my son, my child, soul of my soul. You will take her from her safe home. You will make her trust you. And in doing so, you will learn the secrets of the achromos.”

“Go collect your strange new friend, Arges. With her at our side, we will finally destroy them all.”

“Damn it,” she hissed through her teeth. “I owe you, you big blue bastard.”

She might not know it yet, but that achromo was his. And he intended to take her.

She’d never be anything other than a useful tool to the heads of Beta, and she knew that. She’d grown up with those punches, and shouldn’t have expected that to change just because she’d made a device that allowed her to breathe underwater without a tank of air. Still. It took a while every time for the stinging ache of rejection to leave her body.

He was favored. So why had the sea taken this achromo out of his arms?

He coiled his tail around one of the larger glowing flowers, hidden underneath its massive petals as he waited for his achromo to join the land of the living again. Perhaps he even dozed himself for a time. Just floating there, comfortable and at peace, even though he shouldn’t have been able to relax. Not around her. Though, in this quiet space between reality and dreams, he could admit that she set his mind at ease. This strange achromo had seen him at his worst and she hadn’t even flinched. There was not an ounce of fear in this creature, and he supposed that was something honorable.

“You think you are such a warrior?” he asked, the spines in his fins raising. “Such a shame, achromo. If you step foot in this water, I will rip you apart. The waters will turn red with your blood, and I will watch it plume from your wounds⁠—” A small pebble hit him in the center of his forehead. Freezing where he was, he touched a hand to the now stinging part of his skull. Had she just thrown a rock at him? Apparently so. This fearless little creature had no problem at all rising to the occasion of his threat. She stood there with her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

She lingered, the salt water scooping up her hair in a billowing cloud of red around her features. And oh, he hated that he had the momentary thought that she might even be lovely.

Edible vegetation in the ocean was hard to come by, but he would discover it for her.

She was every temptation he’d ever had, all wrapped up in a body he should hate and a mind that was far too devious. Mira was dangerous, he knew that. And yet, some part of him still wanted to keep her as his own.

He would make them fit together, if that’s what it took. Because he had seen the heat in her eyes, and he had seen the way her soft lips parted when she looked at him writhing in her grip. She’d wanted him, just as much as he’d wanted her.

A startled shriek echoed through the cave, and he had to dodge a launched rock that would have bludgeoned him. Though the projectile should have angered him, all he could muster was a relieved sigh. His feisty achromo was still alive, then. No one else would dare throw a rock at his head.

“I will carry you,” he murmured, wrapping one of his arms around her back and drawing her closer to him. “Let me keep you warm, Mira.”

“I’m absolutely fine. No one hurt me.” “Good,” he said quietly, knowing that she couldn’t understand him. “Because I would have turned the waters black with their blood. I don’t care that he’s my brother, or that the others have been in my pod for years. They do not understand the value or the worth of your life, kairos, and I will not stand for their mistreatment of you.”

He’d come to care for this little creature, and that was the most dangerous choice he’d made in his entire life.

“I wish it were better. You deserve somewhere comfortable to sleep. But I will find a better place for you tomorrow night. My brother will not be able to find you here, at the very least.”

“I have no interest in being healed, female. The ocean will heal me just fine.” “I’m sure you’re saying how big and strong you are and that healing has no purpose when you could just walk it off and rub some dirt in it.” Mira rolled her eyes. But when he got close enough, she cupped his jaw and gently ran her fingers across the gills on his neck. “Everyone needs to be taken care of sometimes, you know?” He didn’t. But looking up into those strange eyes, even if they were surrounded by white, he wondered if it wouldn’t be too bad to be taken care of by her.

He couldn’t trust himself to speak. He’d say something foolish, like beg her to give him permission to discover more about her body. To see beyond the silver suit that covered her from head to toe. He wanted to know what that little hollow on her belly was, or what was between the split of her twin tails. There was so much about her that he didn’t know. So much that he wanted to discover.

“When I first saw you, I was certain you were monstrous. Your people are so different from my own kind. With your two tails and your strange, white eyes, there was nothing I thought I could find tempting about you. But then, every day that you have been with me, I have found something new to admire.”

“The graceful sway of your hips. The way your eyelids widen and then droop halfway closed when I do something you like. I wish to touch all of you. To find every part of your body that makes you gasp or hiss. I want to know the sounds that come out of your mouth when I pleasure you. When you realize that the ocean itself would guide me into you, and set a pace that neither of us could deny. My people believe that lovemaking is the purpose of the sea.”

All it would take was one slash of his claws, and she would be dead. The life dimming from her eyes as he dragged his nails along that long, beautiful neck. But his gaze lingered on that neck instead. Arges couldn’t stop staring at it even as he tackled her to the ground, forcing her to submit beneath him. He wanted to scare her. He wanted her to realize that tempting one of his kind would only lead to madness and ruin. And yet... Ah, and yet she was so lovely. So pretty. An otherworldly creature who had somehow captivated his mind, body, and soul. He couldn’t harm a hair on her head, and it killed him that he’d already done so. She deserved so much better than this. Than him.

“I am sorry, kairos. Perhaps I never should have brought you here, but know I will do what I can to save you. Throughout all of this, you have been brave, and that is something to honor. Even if I have proven myself incapable of honoring much in your time here.”

That amount of trust in someone like him? It was... unprecedented. Stupid, maybe. But then she remembered how his fingers tucked her toes a little tighter into the warm gills at his hips, and how he regularly checked her fingers in the gills at his neck to make sure they weren’t icy and she forgot she was supposed to be afraid of him.

“You are beautiful in a strange way, Mira. I have always found you to be intriguing, no matter what you wear. Although I will admit, the silver suit you wore before does make you feel a little more familiar to me.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

A ragged sob made its way out of her mouth. “Arges. You look awful.” “I feel awful.” But then he rubbed her hand up and down his chest in a soothing motion, and he sighed. “Less awful now.”

“This can’t be comfortable for you. You’re laying on a hard floor.” “You’d be surprised, Mira.” Then she swore he added, “Having you in my arms is the most comfortable I’ve ever been.”

“Kairos,” he murmured, gently dragging his finger down her cheek. She interrupted him. “You’ve called me that for a long time. What does it mean? My translator doesn’t know what to do with that one.” “It is a word with many meanings,” he replied. His throat closed a bit, knowing he was about to reveal maybe too much. “For us, it is a fleeting but crucial moment. An ephemeral rightness of time and place. A moment that brings you to where you were supposed to be.”

“You make my hearts bleed when you worry like that.” “Hearts?” “I have two.” Arges brought her hand to first one, then the other. “One beats for my people, and it will never stop beating for them. But the other beats for you, Mira. I’m sorry it took me such a long time to realize that.”

Fuck, she was in love with an undine.

He had admired her bravery back then, but he had no way of knowing that bravery would turn into an admiration that eased into love. True, blissful love. He felt better when he was with her. Like his mind stilled and his soul eased. Like he had been searching his entire life for someone who could see him. Just him. Not the warrior. Not the man who could save his people and who was good at attacking the achromos. Not the tactician with the brain who could see through what the achromos built. All she saw was Arges. The monster who had kidnapped her and the creature she had forgiven. They’d fought. They’d argued and drawn blood both ways. And still she found it in her heart to forgive him.

“I went to the ancients, as you told me to do. They showed me two futures, and I chose her. I will choose her in every instance. I know this means I must leave this place, my home, my family. I do not make this decision lightly.”

“I love you.” Arges reached out his hand and laid it between her breasts. “You hold my soul, kairos. Keep it safe for me.”

Whirling, she punched her fist to his chest and then ripped the tube out of her neck. “Where have you been?” He grabbed the end of the tendril, sighing, before attaching it to her neck again. “Feral creature. I’ve been here, but there has been much for me to fix.”

“I went back to kill him, Mira. I followed him through the entire city and then I chased him in his escape pod. He tried to flee so he wouldn’t have to pay the price of touching you. But then I ripped his ship apart, and I tore him in half. I left him for the sharks, so that they would all know what happens to anyone who lays a hand on you.”

He inhaled deeply, those gills fluttering against her stomach, where he was suddenly very obviously excited. “Fuck, woman. You shouldn’t react like that when I tell you I murdered someone for you.”

“Well?” she asked, drawing circles on his chest. “What did you think?” He huffed out a breath that made her cough with the force of it. “You stole my mind, Mira. How could I ever go back to the way things were before? I didn’t even know it was possible for me to come with both of my cocks at the same time. That was... Shocking.”

“You are a gift from the sea, Mira. A rare pearl I am so lucky to have found. I do love you, you know. More than anything else in this world. You hold my soul in your chest. Wherever you go, I will never be far from you.”

“No matter how different we are or where we came from. You are mine, Arges. And I am yours.”