Echoes of the Tide (Deep Waters #3)

Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

E verything hurt, and she feared she was dying. Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but her body didn’t feel right as she woke. Ace felt like she’d been hit by all the weight of a falling building, or maybe just struck hard by the body of an undine.

First, she noticed the pounding in her skull. The aching thud right between her temples, radiating up from her jaw and into the back of her head. Every heartbeat echoed in her ears until she swore she was hearing things. Even her eyes hurt, although she had a feeling there were little shards of sand grinding underneath her lids. And then there were her shoulders.

They ached beyond any pain she’d ever felt, like she’d lifted her entire bodyweight too many times. All she could feel was the overwhelming stiffness of her entire spine. It wasn’t just her shoulders. It stretched down between her shoulder blades, all the way down to her hips.

A little groan escaped from her lips, making her feel foolish. Even in all this pain, she knew that staying quiet was important. She wasn’t cold. Which meant she wasn’t underwater and the last thing she remembered was... was...

Her eyes flew open. The burning pain of dry eyes got even worse, and they watered until she couldn’t see anything. But Ace was so lost in her memories, she didn’t care.

She’d been underwater. The last thing she remembered was a massive undine darting toward the windows and shattering them. She hadn’t even known they could do that. They couldn’t. That was always the benefit of being in one of the cities. Humans knew the undine couldn’t crash through the windows like that.

She remembered the rush of icy water that had slammed her against the wall. That was why her entire body hurt. She had been struck with all the force of the sea. She’d been pinned there, unable to move because of the rushing water that was impossible to fight against. Ace remembered the terror. She’d been forced to struggle to even keep the air in her lungs because the sea had tried to crush her.

And then hands. Clawed hands that had grasped at her and a sharp sting at the side of her neck that had hurt so much she’d been shocked into... passing out? No, that had been the ocean itself. Because there’d been that ache in her throat and then she’d been dragged out into the open ocean without her suit.

She sat straight up, ignoring the way the entire world shifted to the side as she did so. The dizziness wouldn’t stop no matter what she did, so she endured it. Instead, she stared down at her hands until there stopped being four of them.

Her hands returned to normal and then, only then, did she feel like she was marginally okay. The open sea, a deep voice reassuring her...

“Fuck,” she muttered, closing her shaking hands into fists.

She was alive.

That’s all that mattered.

She didn’t have time to sit here and think about how dangerous that had been or how she had even breathed. She didn’t have to touch her neck, even though it made every part of her scream to not do so. Nothing had actually happened if she just sat here and didn’t move.

Something shifted in her pocket, rolling around until she opened the pocket so Tera could tumble out. Her droid rolled across the rocks that surrounded them, drawing her attention to where they were. Because now that her panic was in full force, all she could see was that they weren’t, in fact, somewhere safe at all.

Rocks dug into the back of her thighs. A faint dripping sound echoed with wet plops in a rhythmic quality that already grated on her nerves. Even the smell wasn’t like the cities she’d been in. She was used to smog and the scent of bodies, or at the very least, metal. The air here was… crisp. And then, as she lifted her head and waited for the slanting world to stop spinning, she realized there were stalactites surrounding her as well.

She was in a cave. Nothing here appeared to be even remotely human. The cave wasn’t even that large. It was maybe the size of her living quarters in Gamma, enough to walk around and maybe take fifteen paces in one direction before she’d hit a wall. In the dead center of the room was a pool of water. Glowing with a gentle green light, there was floating algae that seemed to shimmer in the dim light. It was enough light for her to see, but that was all.

She was all alone with the soft sound of lapping water and her droid.

“How did we get here?” she whispered, the words sounding too loud in the echoing space.

Tera was quick to clack against itself and then suddenly her droid zipped toward the water. She didn’t even have the energy to chase after it, hoping that her droid wouldn’t launch itself past the stones and sink to wherever the bottom was.

But it didn’t. Tera found itself a small patch of sand and started... writing? Was her droid writing out words? She had no idea it even knew how to do that. Ace sat there in stunned silence as her droid methodically took the time to write out words in the sand.

Undine .

So, Maketes had brought them here. With the thought came anxiety that swelled and crashed over her head. Where was he? He had brought them here, but he wasn’t still here with her. Had something happened to him? Had the tower crumpled to the sea and injured him?

She crawled on her hands and knees toward the droid. A wave of nausea threatened acidic vomit at the back of her throat, but she didn’t care. She wouldn’t puke here, not when there were so many questions that needed to be answered.

“How?” she asked, then shook her head. “Too many words. How did I breathe?”

Wiping away the sand, she gave Tera a blank canvas to write. And her droid did. It zipped around, the letters perfectly straight and neat as it worked to write out another single word.

Neck .

“My neck?” The pain. Tera must be referencing the pain.

She lifted her hand, only to freeze as the droid clacked loudly against its pieces. It raced to write another word, then another.

Don’t touch .

“Don’t touch it?” Of course she was going to touch it now. She pressed her fingers to the skin, feeling the tiniest hole there that was covered with a sticky liquid.

All the blood drained out of her head. She was suddenly so dizzy, while tiny speckles dancing in front of her eyes. What had he done to her? Was that the pain? He’d done something to her neck, and she had no idea what he had done, but she wasn’t dead, so he’d done something so she could breathe underwater or some other madness.

Where was he?

Swallowing hard, she put her hand back onto the sand to balance herself. “I’m going to puke.”

Another word etched into the sand. Don’t .

She let out a little puff of laughter. “I don’t have a lot of choice, Tera. Please move.”

Her droid bolted so far away from her she thought she could hear it on the rocks only moments before she threw up. There wasn’t much in her stomach, but apparently there was quite a bit of salt water, which was a horrid taste on her tongue. Stomach acid and salt. She’d never be able to eat another salty thing in her life.

Expelling all that water helped settle her stomach. She could think a little more clearly and manage the terror a bit better. She was in a cave, but she wasn’t a fainting damsel in distress. She would make this work for herself because she had no other choice.

“Okay,” she muttered, pushing herself back until she was kneeling in the sands rather than on all fours. “Okay, you can figure this out. You’re not dead yet.”

But what was there to figure out? She spent the better part of what must have been an hour just staring into the water in front of her. Because she was stuck here. Swimming wasn’t an option. Even though it was far warmer here than it had been in Gamma at night, she didn’t want to get wet. What if it got a little colder? What if she was wet and shivering and then slowly just succumbed to hypothermia?

All the ways that she could die played in her head. And then all she could think about was that if she died, so did her sister. She was the only one who knew that the fucking key was in Doctor Faust’s home, and she was the only one who knew where his home was. If she died, then no one would get the key and her sister would die too. Jacob would do it. He liked killing people.

But also if she got in that water and tried to figure out where she was, then she would definitely die. Because that was the open ocean. If a shark didn’t get her, then an undine would. The depthstriders had surrounded Gamma, all she could imagine was that they would rip her apart like she’d seen happen before. Besides, it wasn’t like she could swim to Gamma on a single breath of air. She was stuck.

With all of those thoughts came the fear that she was alone. Maketes should be here with her. He was ridiculously good at being where she didn’t want him to be, and yet, the one moment she needed him, he wasn’t here. It made something in her break.

Tears welled in her eyes. Not from the grit and the sand, but because she was terrified something had happened to him. What if the suction from the sea had injured him? What if one of those people in Gamma had fired off one last parting shot? There were so many holes in her memory, she wouldn’t have the faintest idea if something had happened to him.

And then the water rippled again. It moved like there was something coming to the surface and she froze. Just kneeling there with her knees aching and her heart in her throat. What if it was a depthstrider? What if it was another undine who wanted her dead?

Then she saw that dark head of hair and the bright splash of yellow that was at the surface. A deep sigh erupted from her mouth, more of a sudden thrust of relief. It was him. It wasn’t someone coming to kill her.

“Maketes,” she said, before launching herself at him.

His arms came up for her as though he knew what she wanted. Those strong arms caught her with ease, only sinking back into the water a little and only with the slightest “oof” as she kneed him in the gills. But she couldn’t get close enough. She couldn’t hold on to him tight enough to feel like she was finally safe.

His clawed hands came around her, clasping her tighter and pressing her underneath his chin, where she was nestled against the cold chill of his gills. He exhaled through them, water spilling down over her body, but she didn’t care. She only knew that in this moment, she wasn’t alone anymore.

“Kefi?” he asked, his voice pitched low, as though he was afraid something was in the cave with them. “You’re okay, dear one. You’re all right. I’m here.”

She shook her head against his throat. “I don’t know what happened.”

“I’m not leaving again.” He flexed his tail underneath her, swimming them to the edge of the water. Then, with a sudden jerk of his tail, he propelled them out of the water enough so that he was sitting on the sand.

It took such little effort for him to wrap her up in his arms. His tail came along her back, holding her tighter against him. She was surrounded by him. The seawater scent of him was so much better than what the sea actually smelled like. He was both warm and cold, a creature who smelled like salt and the deep cold waters that had always been her home.

Every bit of her tension unraveled. His hand came up to her short hair, carding through the locks. The tiny pricks of his claws eased her tension even more until she was a puddle being held against his twin heartbeats.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered against his chest.

“For what?”

“For... this.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me. Ever.” He held her even tighter, his arms shifting around her back as he got more comfortable. “I was bringing you a fish to eat, but I’ll admit, this is far more pleasant.”

She huffed out a small laugh, her breath fanning across his chest and sending tiny goosebumps dancing across his skin. “Pleasant? It’s nice for me to attack you the moment you show up?”

“This is the kind of attack I enjoy.” Again, that big hand smoothed down her spine, and suddenly this wasn’t just easing her fear.

It was more. It was so much more.

Heat flushed from the crown of her head to the bottom of her feet. All she could focus on were his hands. How his fingers spanned the entirety of her back, each claw tip just barely touching her skin. He was so warm even though some parts of him were cold. It was like everywhere he touched her, she was a furnace.

But no, it was more than that. Her heart was already beating harder and more heat burned between her legs. She wanted him. She wanted him to move that hand that was on the small of her back even lower so she could feel him grip her ass. That massive hand would have no issue grabbing onto her, rolling her over, moving her against his body as she so desperately wanted.

She wanted to grind down on him. She wanted to rock against him so those scales rubbed against her clit in a way she knew would be life changing. Ace just... wanted.

He’d saved her life more times than she could count. And as she leaned a little farther back from him, her eyes half lidded and heavy with desire, she saw the same need in him as well.

Maketes lifted his hand between them, those thick fingers brushing up her neck and gently cupping the side of her head. There was so much power in that hand. She’d seen him kill people without a thought, and yet he was shaking to remain as gentle with her as he could. “I almost lost you,” he whispered, his words guttural and harsh. “I do not like this feeling, kefi.”

“Yeah, me either,” she replied, seeing his gills flutter against the sides of his head.

Hadn’t he said that was a good thing? Proof that he wanted her?

She could even see it in the way he stared. His eyes widened. He must be able to feel them moving, and he knew as well that she could see them. If he was human, she thought, he might have blushed.

How was she supposed to stop herself? She touched those fluttering gills, feeling them undulate through her fingers. “I can’t remember what you said about these moving,” she whispered, the lie rolling so easily off her tongue. “Can you tell me what it means again?”

His tail shifted between her legs, slithering a bit with the movement and rubbing against her legs. “You know what it means.”

“I want to hear you say it again.”

A low rumble echoed through his chest, something that sounded almost like a groan. “Ace?—”

“They’re just words, Maketes. All you have to do is tell me why these are moving so much.” They moved faster with every word she said, shifting against her fingers until they were nearly a blur.

Again he arched. As though he wanted to press himself against her, but there was still some barrier between them. Words that were left unsaid.

There were so many things between them, though. She had a lot of questions that needed answers, but first, she wanted to prove to herself that Maketes was here for the right reasons. Or maybe, just maybe, she wanted to feel wanted.

Hovering her lips just barely over his, she breathed in his shuddering exhalation against her lips. “Go ahead. Tell me.”

“We’re friends,” he rasped. “Just friends.”

She could be brave. She could be the brave one to say what they were both thinking. Or at least, what she hoped they were both thinking.

So Ace framed his face with her hands, sliding her fingers along the softness of his gills on either side of his cheeks, and felt them somehow go even faster. And then she leaned so close that her lips nearly touched his.

“What if I want to be more?”