Rising from the Depths

by Tiffany Roberts

  Kronus couldn’t locate the speakers, but he probably didn’t know them anyway. He put his arms around Eva and drew her closer, as though he could hide her from the crowd within his embrace. His eyes shifted to meet Ector’s; he could not read the elder kraken’s expression well enough to guess at the thoughts behind it.

  Walter raised his hands in placation. “Now look, a lot of us overhead what was going on, and considering the, uh…the unfortunate incidents that have led up to this point, I don’t think it’s the place of any of us to judge.”

  “He tried to kill me, Walter,” Blake said, turning his angry gaze to the councilman.

  “If I meant to kill you, you would already be dead,” Kronus responded.

  Another ripple of whispers spread through the crowd, this time with a slightly more alarmed tone.

  “If I may,” Ector said, raising his voice to be heard clearly over the crowd as he moved forward. “I know that all the people here, human and kraken alike, socialize with one another frequently. Information has a way of moving through our community with great speed. Most of us know what happened to Eva and her friends, and we were all deeply saddened by it. Most of us also that her mate abandoned her afterward—”

  “That is none of your damn business!” Blake shouted.

  “It isn’t,” Walter said, nodding, “but it is public knowledge, Blake. You know that… Well, that sort of thing is news around here, for better or worse, and…”

  “And it has been known for some weeks now,” said Ector. “Kronus has taken Eva into his den — his home — to shelter her and protect her.”

  Blake looked at Eva, aghast. “You’re living with that thing?”

  Eva glared at him.

  “She shares my den, and she is my mate,” Kronus declared.

  Let them all know it. I will face any challenger to my claim.

  “Amongst our kind,” Ector continued, “it is considered the primary, defining purpose of a male to protect his mate for so long as she chooses to keep him. Though the nature and…tenure of those relationships have changed thanks to our friendship with humans, that tradition of protectiveness has not altered. If this woman is Kronus’s mate, and she was threatened, he was simply fulfilling his duty to protect her.”

  “That’s not the way we do things here!” a human called.

  “Please. Please!” Walter raised his voice, for the first time seeming exasperated. “It’s not ideal, no, but…but the fight is over now, and how many of us can say that we’d behave much differently if we were in that position? A lot of us have gotten into a scuffle or two. It’s part of life. But we pick ourselves up and carry on. Now, unless we all want to spend the time to organize a…a public hearing over this, I don’t think we need to worry on it much further. These folks’ll keep away from each other if they can’t get along because they’re all decent people.

  “Now come on. We’ve got lots of food left, and Jon and the rest of the band probably have two or three more songs they know how to play, at least…I mean, depending on whether they’ve played one or two by now.” He cleared his throat, his cheeks burning bright red. “Guess I ought to leave the humor to our more charming citizens. Come on, everyone! Back to it!”

  The crowd moved slowly, drifting back toward the other side of the town center, where they’d been gathered before. There was a buzz of conversation in the air, and Kronus didn’t miss the occasional over-the-shoulder glances cast his way. He searched for Blake, but the human had either lost himself in the crowd or fled.

  Eva gently withdrew from Kronus’s hold and met his gaze. “Let’s go home.”

  He nodded; his insides churned with unexpressed anger, and fire blazed through his veins. He understood that Eva and Blake had been mates before; though he couldn’t help his jealousy over it, their prior relationship was nothing to brood over. But this, this blatant disrespect of both Kronus and Eva, this public disrespect…

  Even if the immediate situation had passed, Kronus could not release the feelings it had sparked within him.

  Before he could lead Eva away, he noticed Ector approaching. Kronus’s muscles tensed; he’d always held the elder in high esteem, but Kronus’s actions over the past couple years had not necessarily conveyed that. He knew his skin was still red, but he couldn’t find the will to revert it to normal.

  “That was unfortunate,” Ector said, shaking his head. His lips were downturned in a small frown.

  “I was not—” Kronus began, but Ector waved a hand dismissively, silencing him.

  “I lay no blame upon you, Kronus. What good would it do for me to say I expect better of you when dealing with humans? I do not know a kraken who would not have hurried to defend his mate in that situation.” Ector’s frown shifted into a gentle smile as he turned his attention to Eva. “I am Ector, one of the kraken elders. We are…something like your councilmen. I have heard much about you, Eva, although I would rather our first meeting have been under more pleasant circumstances.”

  Eva offered a tight, forced smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Ector.”

  The elder nodded and looked at Kronus again. “She’s helped you find balance, it seems. The Kronus I once knew would not have been quite so restrained as you were.”

  Embarrassment temporarily heated Kronus’s skin, but his lingering fury proved too great to allow his color to alter.

  “Our lives with the humans are peaceful, calm,” Ector continued. “Quite unlike what we’ve known before. But we must always remember that, despite our many similarities, we are different. We were shaped for a different world, and it shaped us in return. Sometimes…our ways are not the best ways. In this world, our instincts may sometimes mislead us. But you seem to have an excellent guide.” Ector glanced at Eva again, briefly, before nodding to Kronus. “I will not keep you longer. We each have our lessons to learn, and you, Kronus, have already learned more than most.”

  The elder reached out and placed a hand on Kronus’s shoulder; it was firm, and stronger than his years belied, but gave no hint of confrontation or aggression. The gesture confused Kronus. Male kraken rarely touched save for when they were fighting one another. Strange how Ector’s touch was unsettling for its unfamiliarity while Eva’s, from the very beginning, had been soothing, familiar, and thrilling all at once.

  Lowering his hand, Ector turned and moved away, joining Walter and a few other humans.

  Kronus turned his head toward Eva. His rage would have remained a towering fire if not for Ector’s gesture throwing him just off-balance enough to disturb the flames. Anger was a simple emotion, easily understood. Everything else…

  If it weren’t for her, Kronus would have no idea where to begin.

  He extended his arm, holding his hand to her palm-up. Eva took it without hesitation.

  “I will not let anyone stop us this time,” he promised.

  Chapter 16

  Eva’s limp was more pronounced as they entered their home. The long trek to and from the clinic had left her legs sore, and the tremors coursing through her after the confrontation with Blake refused to subside. She’d known she would run into him eventually; they lived in the same town, and there were only so many places to go. But she hadn’t expected…that. The last time she’d seen Blake, he’d looked happy, carefree, had already been moving on with his life.

  She’d seen a different Blake today; he looked like he’d gone to hell and back.

  Aymee had told her everyone experienced and expressed grief in their own way. Had Eva given up on him too soon?

  No.

  Eva shoved aside that twinge of guilt as quickly as it had come. Whether or not she had Kronus, it didn’t change the fact that Blake had left her, spurned her, had chosen himself and his own desires over her without a backward glance. He’d placed the blame at her feet — foot — looking at her injury with open disgust. That wasn’t how a person was supposed to treat their loved ones. Regardless of what he’d said in the town center today, his actions immediately after the attack spoke
loudly about how he really felt about her.

  She’d been right to say they hadn’t loved each other.

  Eva made her way across the room and sat in the chair near the window, coming down more heavily than normal. Her hair, left loose, fell around her face as she massaged her thigh.

  Kronus sank down in front of her and placed his hand on her leg to mimic her massaging, his fingers strong and confident.

  “What may I do to aid your comfort, Eva?” He kept his voice low; there was still a slight red tinge to his skin, and he’d been stiff and brooding throughout their return trip.

  “Could you take it off?” she asked. Though she’d accepted the loss of her leg, she preferred having the prosthesis on, if only to maintain the illusion of normalcy. No matter how many times she and Kronus made love, no matter how many times he’d seen the rounded end of her stump, she was still self-conscious of it.

  Nodding, he drew back slightly. He raised her skirt over her knees and cupped the back of her prosthesis with one hand, straightening her leg as he lifted it. With his other hand, he pressed the release; the pin disconnected with a soft click.

  Eva watched him silently for a time, her eyes moving over his bent head, along his muscled arms, and down to his webbed and clawed hands — hands capable of such violence and destruction, hands that could maim or kill with ease, hands capable of such gentleness and care, hands that could soothe and caress.

  “What did Ector mean?” she asked as Kronus removed her prosthesis. “When he said you’ve learned more than most? That I helped you find balance?”

  His hands stilled, and his shoulders rose with a deep inhalation. After a few moments, he carefully slipped off her sock and liner, keeping his eyes on his task. “When Jax first brought Macy to the Facility, Dracchus made him present her to our people. Dracchus and many others were swayed by her, especially when Jax declared she was his mate…but I could not forget the history that had been taught to me since I was a youngling.”

  Eva frowned. “What history?”

  “We were kept as slaves by the humans who once dwelled in the Facility,” he said, folding the sock and liner. “We were not people to them, but tools, ideal for the harvest of halorium, some sort of crystal that made their machines erratic or inoperable. Halorium holds great power, and they were eager to have it. But they were cruel to our ancestors. They…they had created us, had given us life and purpose, but they did not acknowledge the intelligence they had designed within us.

  “My ancestors rose against those humans, generations ago. And they killed every last one of them to claim the Facility as our home, our sanctuary. The lesson we held to afterward was simple — humans could not be trusted. They were our enemy, and they would seek either to control us or destroy us. But, for whatever reason, they never came. So we kept to ourselves, and saw to our own people, all the while struggling to overcome the things they did to keep us under control. They built us to…to die out, without their intervention.”

  “What do you mean?” Eva asked, eyes wide. Die out? Was…was something going to happen to Kronus? To the others?

  “Macy and Arkon have accessed many files in the Computer. There are records detailing the way we were designed by the humans who made us. Our females have great difficulty conceiving young, and when they do, they rarely birth more females. It was a simple means to control our population. They wanted us to reproduce, to maintain their workforce, but they did not want more of us than they could control. It mattered little for them, in the end.”

  After setting her prosthesis and its accessories aside, he finally lifted his gaze to meet hers. “When Macy came, that is what I saw. Our ancestors fought to take our home from her kind, and she had no place there. Even if she was not a physical threat, there was always a chance of her contacting other humans, of her revealing the location of the Facility. Of revealing us. And for all our strength, we knew we could not match human numbers and human cleverness. We had grown up around the things humans had built. We knew their weapons. If enough humans came, our kind would have been doomed.

  “So I raised my voice against her. I denounced her presence and demanded she be cast out into the sea to fend for herself. When more humans were brought to the Facility, I could scarce contain my anger — especially when two of those humans were hunters who had come for the sole purpose of finding our kind and killing us.” He clenched his teeth, causing the muscles of his jaw to bulge. More color rippled through his skin, red and brief, pulsing flares of purple. “There were other kraken who felt the same as I. That humans had no place amongst our kind. That those who had embraced the humans were traitors both to our people and to the legacy of our ancestors.

  “I fought. I challenged Jax and Dracchus on several occasions, and every time, I was forced to submit. No matter my fury, I could never best them. But I took the pain and pushed on. I wanted them gone. Away from our home, from our people, so that we could be safe. Because I believed that we would never be safe so long as there were humans amongst us.”

  He dropped his gaze to his hands, which lay palm up atop his tentacles, and curled his fingers. “Even after Macy gave birth to Sarina and Aymee to Jace, two younglings who were, by most measures, kraken, I fought. Despite those younglings being a glimmer of hope for our kind. Because what did that mean for our females? If humans could bear kraken young, would our females be abandoned? Would they be unimportant? Everything we had held to be true, everything we had been taught, was being threatened, and I could not allow our ways to be destroyed because they were all that I had.

  “One night, one of my supporters crept into a den shared by a kraken female and her human mate and attempted to kill the human. Rhea was wounded defending her mate, and her youngling, Melaina, was present during the attack. I knew then that things were spiraling out of my control. I was furious over Rhea choosing a human male when there were so many kraken males she might have selected, and I did not want humans in our home…but I could not support harm coming to females and younglings. I said nothing when judgment was passed on Volk, who had carried out the attack. He was banished.

  “More hunters came, and they captured three of our kind. One of those three was a kraken who supported my stance. He was called Neo. Though all three escaped, Neo clung to his experiences aboard the human ship, clung to the pain and suffering they had inflicted upon him, and returned to us filled with hatred for humans.” Kronus raised a hand to his forehead, slowly trailing his palm back over his scalp. “I thought it should have been obvious to all our people after that. Humans were the enemy. They were cruel. We could not accept them.

  “But some of my followers had grown dissatisfied with my leadership even before Neo’s return. They felt I should have done something to protect Volk, that I should have spoken in his defense. They thought my lack of action against the humans was cowardice. But the humans had Dracchus on their side, and Dracchus… He is the largest, the strongest, the most respected of us all. Even the elders looked to him as a leader.”

  Kronus lifted his gaze to meet Eva’s again. His features were strained, and his coloring had taken on an oddly muted tone. “I wondered more and more what I had begun. Was it worth the turmoil amidst our people?”

  Eva reached out and brushed her fingers along his jaw. “What happened?”

  He leaned slightly into her touch, expression softening infinitesimally. “There came a day when Neo called for a hunt. It has always been our way that the male who declares the hunt should lead it. Any who disagree or dispute the leader’s methods may challenge him for that right. He led us far from home, insisting we hunt using traditional means though Arkon had devised new tactics that made our hunts faster. During that hunt, human ships came upon us. Neo insisted we attack. Both myself and Dracchus disagreed.

  “But the hunters knew we were there. A battle ensued, and during the battle, I was struck by a harpoon.” He moved a hand to his abdomen, to one of many scars Eva had caressed on many occasions. “I was run through, and the huma
ns were pulling me toward their boat. Neo fled, saving himself.”

  They shared a meaningful look. Eva knew they were thinking about the same thing — the way Blake had left her to die. All along, Kronus had known what it felt like to be abandoned by someone he’d relied upon in his moment of need.

  “It was Randall, the human who’d originally come to hunt kraken, who saved my life. Randall, whose death would have brought a smile to my face. Despite the danger to himself, he would not leave me behind…because he had accepted the kraken as his people. All kraken, even those of us who did not want him.

  “When we returned to the Facility, we discovered that several of the females and younglings had been poisoned.”

  Eva gasped, covering her mouth with a hand. Kronus inhaled deeply, giving her a fleeting glance before averting his gaze again.

  “Despite all the things I had said, despite the hatred I had spewed toward her, that was the first time Macy attacked me. Because her friends and family had come to harm. Because her child had come to harm…and she blamed me. And as I looked upon those younglings — younglings who were saved largely because of Aymee, another human — I knew it was my fault.

  “I had never called for them to be poisoned. I had known nothing about the plot. But I knew I was responsible, nonetheless. That was the result of all that I had said and done — several younglings nearly killed. Neo had arranged it. He and the others had worked without me to obtain the venom of the blue needler to taint the humans’ food supply, then he called the hunt to ensure that as many of us were away as possible. But Jax and Arkon had refused to go because they were having a… I do not know what it is called when people sit together on a blanket and share a meal.”

  “A picnic,” Eva whispered.

  Kronus’s brow knit, and his lips were downturned in a deep, troubled frown. After nodding, he bowed his head, squeezed both his hands into fists on his lap, and swallowed thickly. “It was decided afterward that all those who’d followed me would be banished. I was given a chance to stay after speaking out against Neo and denouncing what he had done, but… I could not deny my responsibility in all of it. And I did not feel as though I had a place in the Facility any longer. In my desire to protect our people, I had betrayed them. I accepted banishment along with the others.