Echoes of the Tide (Deep Waters #3)

Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37

S omehow, that perfect, beautiful woman had stolen his soul. He knew perhaps it was a silly thing to say, but he’d felt that way after leaving her in that warm cavern, heated by the mess of their pleasure. He had to find his brothers. They would meet somewhere. He could only assume that was the plan, and he wanted Ace to be with them when they finally unlocked what that keycard hid.

But first he wanted to get her warm. Fed. Pampered as she deserved.

The heated feeling in his chest had only exploded after what she had done. What they had done.

And even more than that, she’d said she loved him. Him. The male who no one wanted because he couldn’t give them children. He couldn’t give her children either, although he didn’t know if his people and hers were even compatible in that way. All he knew was that she didn’t care.

Some part of her had looked into his soul, seen all the things he despised, and she did not care. He loved her beyond reason, but he’d never dared to hope that she would ever feel the same way. Now that he knew she did? He felt as though he could lift the entire world on his shoulders.

Before he could make it back to their pod, a dark shape approached him. He thought for a moment it was Fortis, but quickly realized it was Fortis’s son instead. The boy rushed toward him, tail flicking and powering him through the water.

“What is it?” Maketes asked, his voice lowering into a growl. “Has something happened?”

“No. They are preparing to use the key.” The young male paused before him, fins flaring wide to keep him still. “They did not want to do so without you and your female.”

“They sent you to find me?”

“They did. I was the one who sought out her sister as well. My father requested that the task be transferred to me after the original depthstrider found your achromo’s blood.”

His stomach twisted, and he felt like he may vomit. “What news?”

“We moved her. They were already tracking her through the city, and your achromo’s criminals grew tired of waiting for her to return. I took her before they could kill her in her sleep, but it has made Beta mad at us again.” Fortis’s son shuddered. “It is a shame. That city was once safer to be around, but now it is dangerous again.”

“Because of you?”

With a slightly arched brow and an arrogant flick of his tail, the male started away from him. “No, because of you and your achromo. I placed her sister in the village near our pod, but the others are waiting for you in the abandoned research facility at the edge of the abyss. It is the closest one to depthstrider territory. My father wished to be there to see what this key holds secret.”

Of course he did. The depthstrider would stop at nothing to know every detail that anyone else knew. Fortis had to have his fins coiled around everything.

But if they were opening the keycard soon, then they wouldn’t have time for him to pamper Ace. He’d wanted to shower her with gifts this morning, more than just the gift of his cocks.

Fuck, already he was getting hard again just thinking about her saying that. He needed to get himself under control.

Turning, he swam through the sea and caught a current back to her side. They had no equipment, nothing to keep her warm in the depths where they were going.

So he would have to be fast. Faster than he’d ever swam before.

What a welcome challenge it would be. No one was faster than him, after all. Now, he got the opportunity to prove that.

She was waiting for him when he swam back up into the cave. Sitting on the edge of the water, with her arms wrapped around her legs as she usually did. A soft smile appeared when she saw him, and he didn’t have to say anything at all.

“They’re opening it now?” she guessed.

“They are.”

“So we need to go.”

“We do.” He reached for her even as disappointment tinged his words with slight sadness. But this was no place for them to linger, anyway. No matter how magical the sparkling glow worms made her skin.

Gathering her up, he spoke as she affixed the breathing tube to her neck. “We are going somewhere very, very cold. I will try to get you into the facility fast enough, but tuck your feet into my gills for now. I will keep you as warm as I can, kefi, but I don’t think it’s going to be very comfortable for you.”

“That’s all right.” She snuggled in tighter. “You’re always warm enough for me.”

His hearts glowed ever brighter at her words. It was blazing hope that they would be fine no matter what happened. As he sank with her into the depths of the sea, holding her tightly so the currents didn’t rip her away from him, he swore he could feel the sea itself helping. The goddess that he worshipped pushed him forward, moving him ever faster until even he felt like just a blur. No one could keep up with him if they tried, and soon enough, the facility bloomed out of the darkness before him.

He’d been here as a child with Arges. They used to play in these waters, flirting with the idea that they would fight a depthstrider. Not that any of the creatures had risen to their challenges, but he assumed they had been watching. All they would have seen were two young males, flaring their fins wide and bursting with pops of color as though they had any muscles on them yet.

Now, they were two beasts who fought anything in the sea that wished to battle them. He and his brothers were more terrifying than any in the pod, and yet, he wasn’t sure how proud he was of that.

Holding the achromo in his arms that meant more to him than life itself, he had to wonder how wrong he’d been. At that time, he’d wanted nothing more than to hunt her people. Now? He would do anything to keep her happy.

Darting to the moon pool, he practically threw her out of the water and into the room beyond. Mira was waiting. She caught Ace, who stumbled across the slick floor and wrapped her up in a blanket.

“I got you,” Mira said when Ace started to struggle. “I got you. Let’s get you warm, droid builder, yeah? Get some of that ice out of your veins. That’ll help.”

He stayed in the water, watching with concern as his achromo’s teeth began to chatter. How hadn’t he noticed that her lips had turned blue? Or that her skin was even paler than normal?

He’d been so focused on swimming, and swimming fast, that he hadn’t realized she’d gone so still. So quiet. Or maybe he had realized it, but he was so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t... realized.

Mira gave him a curt nod, waving at him with her hand. “It’s too small of a facility. We set up in front of a window so everyone could hear. Your brothers are out there.”

“But she’s?—”

“She’s fine, Maketes. This is what we sign up for when we stay with you.” Mira gave him a small, tight smile and then waved at him again. “We’ll get her warm.”

He hated to leave her, especially when he felt like he’d done something wrong, but he still sank back into the water and headed out to find this window. It didn’t take long. Three large males were clustered around it, each of them jostling to get closer. But he refused to be stuck in the back. Wriggling up between them, he made sure he was the closest to the window.

“It’s about time you got here,” Daios grumbled. “I’m tired of being in these depths. Too close to the sulfur smelling bastards.”

“You like us well enough,” Fortis replied. “We got you where you are today.”

He could feel the tension building in the water. If he wasn’t careful, these two were going to tear each other to pieces. “Stop it. I want to hear what the women are saying.”

It was Arges’s hand on his shoulder that calmed him, though. His brother had always been good at doing that. With just a touch, Arges spread that calm throughout the body of anyone who was near.

“She’s fine, brother,” Arges said, that deep voice sinking through his anxiety. “They are hardier than they look.”

“I remember you told Daios that they are more delicate than we could imagine.”

“Because Daios needed to hear that. They are fragile creatures. Easily broken if one doesn’t watch them carefully. But you watch yours too carefully, little brother. Now I am telling you that they are stronger than we give them credit for.”

He had to take it to heart. He knew how strong Ace was. He’d seen it with his own eyes. Her muscles, her ability to take whatever was thrown at her and continue forward happily. All of it was far beyond what he had thought she could do.

And still. He feared for his mate.

He didn’t settle until Ace wandered into view. She had different clothes on, and a crinkly metallic material covering her shoulders. But her lips were no longer blue, and she clutched a cup in her hand that was steaming.

“What did they give her?” he asked, a low growl rumbling through his chest.

“It’s just hot water. They found it when we got here. Apparently, one of the replicators is still functioning.” Arges squeezed his shoulder. “Calm yourself. No one is hurting her.”

It felt like he was the one hurting her. But then he had to focus, because Mira sat down in front of the window and held the keycard up. “Everyone ready?”

No. He wasn’t. He wouldn’t ever be ready for this.

But he could feel the energy from behind him as all the males gathered themselves, ready for whatever would come from it.

Mira lifted a small device and then picked up Byte. The little droid backed right up to the window and then reached out its metal claw for the keycard. He’d forgotten that Byte was capable of that.

“Wait,” Anya said. She pulled Bitsy off her head. “She said she has a protocol that should keep anyone from knowing where we are. I’m not sure if Tau has better technology than Alpha did, but it’s worth a try.”

Bitsy clambered over to Byte, then wrapped herself around the other droid. Even from here, he could see the little hearts floating on the lens that Bitsy held. She really adored Byte, and he was sure it was no task for her to plug herself into him.

Then Ace stepped forward too, pulling Tera from her pocket where she always kept the little bead droid. “There’s a few protocols on Tera that might be helpful as well. They can’t block anything from coming through, but they can scatter any messages. So... can’t hurt.”

Tera joined the other two droids, and then Mira plugged the keycard into a slot in the front of Byte’s belly.

They all held their breath. Waiting to see what happened.

Nothing.

Nothing happened for long heartbeats and Maketes was sure he’d gathered them all for a stupid reason. This wasn’t useful at all. It was a key to nothing. And then a chirp from Byte. A rumble of noise, and a sudden projection up onto the glass.

Words. So many words. Mira reached up and scrolled through some of them, her fingers touching the glass as though it were a screen.

“Schematics,” she said, her voice filled with awe. “All the cities they... they have deeper portions. They weren’t just built on top of the ground, they have roots that stretch deep into the stones. They blasted into the base of the stone that surrounds each city. There are hidden bases in every city.”

Anya stepped up to another portion, her gaze narrowed in concentration as she pulled a separate square over to her side of the glass. “It’s worse than that. Look at this.”

She tapped the glass, and suddenly there were pictures thrown up on the wall. Photographs of his own people, torn apart with their guts hanging out of their bellies and notes all along the sides. Dead People of Water. Murdered in cold blood with far too much knowledge about their species spread out on metal tables.

Fortis hissed and a faint sickly yellow illuminated the images in front of them.

“It wasn’t just my father experimenting on the undine,” Anya said. “These documents are from a much more advanced facility. See the tools? I haven’t seen tools like that ever, and I lived in Alpha.”

But then Ace spoke, and he felt his hearts leap into his throat. Because she had pulled a square over to her side and tapped on it. All the other projections disappeared, and in their wake was the image of two achromos.

A man and a woman. A man with a sharp jaw and a hard expression, with a scar on his cheek that looked like a knife wound. The woman had her dark hair severely pulled back, but even her gaze was cruel. Suddenly, the image of them moved.

“Anyone who is in possession of this keycard needs to be aware of two things,” the man said. “First, you are now in service to the city of Tau. If you deny being in service to us, then we will find you. We will replace whoever owns that keycard and we will dispose of your body. Second, we already know where you are, who you are, and every detail about you. Third, we will give you unimaginable power if you work with us.”

The woman leaned a little closer, her hand coming up and tossing markings out from their projection to hover before them. “These are our coordinates. Don’t think for a second you can attack this city. We have weapons unlike any you have ever seen before. We are the originators. We are those who built this city. Defy us, and we will come down on you with all the knowledge of more than two hundred years of life.”

The projection disappeared, leaving only the strange squares again.

“The originators?” Mira repeated. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Ace clicked the next square that was beside her and pulled up a document. The women read it together, their faces growing paler and paler the longer they took.

“What?” Arges snarled. “What is it?”

“The originators,” Ace finally replied. “They’re the original people who created... all of this.”

“That’s not possible,” Anya argued.

“You’re looking at it, Anya. You’re looking at it!” Ace yelled the last piece, her hands shaking as she set the cup in her hands down. “They cloned themselves. They replaced their broken bits with the fucking remains of those clones. They’ve been here the whole time, because they never let themselves die.”

The words hung before them, and he couldn’t fathom what that meant.

Tapping on the glass, he had all the women look at him. Then he asked, “What does that mean? They didn’t let themselves die?”