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With that, I leave her.
The scent of her remains on my tongue. I can’t breathe without being constantly reminded of her and the way she cried out for me not to stop. I clear my nose with a huff and head towards the exit. The world’s dangers remain at the fringe, and she is safely hidden away from them. No dark elf will find her down here.
My claws come out of their own volition as I dive into the water, my gills letting the ocean in with a great deluge. This is my territory, and as long as Penny stays where she is, there is nothing to fear from it.
Fear.
What a strange notion. It is humans that should fear. Dark elves. Notme.
The waves are shaped by the lashing of my tentacles. And the eddies I leave behind shudder in my wake. Still, a tender little human holds my sanity in the palms of her hands, and it does frighten me. For if I were to lose her…
I don’t think when I shear through an unassuming caesin, its powerful body jerking to the side as its organs spill into the open water. When I catch its strong neck, it tries to coil around my arm, but its bones crack beneath the pressure of my squeeze. The heavy body goes limp, its fins flaring open before settling against the spine.
It will be good bait for bigger creatures that are keen on its soft meat. I let the caesin drift onto its side and drop into the darkness below.
They never see me coming.
I bare my teeth at the vastness of the ocean to wait for my real prey. But I don’t have to wait long when several khamer swim into view, with their dark bodies and weighty tailfins that can send even me reeling if they strike.
They tear the caesin to pieces dumbly, letting the blood disperse in the water.
It would be easy to dispatch them all, but come next season, they would not return to this spot. There is a certain measure of forethought that is required to maintain a territory, and if the prey is too afraid to return, then there is no kill to be had.
And I rather like this spot.
I watch them as they feast, taking measure of the big male. He’s got wicked spines along his fins and could be a real challenge to drag back to the cave. With him is his mate and a juvenile, who hides under its mother’s fin.
They think the darkness protects them.
But that is where I reside. I slip up soundlessly, and while the mother is distracted by eating, I hook my claws beneath the jaw of the juvenile and drag it down, down, down into the inky depths. It lashes and fights, but it’s too late for the adults to save it.
Its blackened mouth opens to bite me, and I grin at its attempt. It might have become a predator in its own right if nature had taken its course. As it is, I deflect its attack and burrow my claws into its largest center eye, finding the spot where the skull yields.
Its body convulses, then surrenders as its brain is severed from the rest of it. For good measure, I tear off its head and carry it back to the cave, leaving a dark trail of blood in my wake.
15
PENNY
Laiken’s absence is sudden and jarring.
I take a tentative breath in the silence. It’s the first time since I’ve woken that he’s not been my shadow, following my every move. I don’t think he was telling me the whole truth when he took his leave. But I don’t have much to go on, either. It’s just a feeling in my gut.
I feel my neck for those invisible frills, just like his.
They scare me and simultaneously amaze me. I might actually be able to breathe underwater with them, and that means…
“I can leave,” I say aloud, letting the cave echo back my sentiment. It’s probably not something he considered when he saved me from drowning, but he thinks me weak.
Even in his thorough handling of me, I felt the way he held back.
I’m not some delicate shell for him to collect, I think, a heated resentment growing inside of me. Sure, he’s stronger and faster than I am by virtue of his very existence, but I have gone through too much to just be some monster’s plaything.
“I have to get out of here,” I finally decide, pacing to the sunken temple’s exit. Still, I maintain a keen ear for any sound of his return. A splash, a scrape. Even when I come to the water’s edge, I hesitate.
The little pool laps happily at the cave floor as I stare into its depths.
I don’t remember ever using these gills, so I can’t recall what it’s like to breathe underwater. The thought of letting the water rush in terrifies me. It constricts my breathing, so that even the humid air of the cave is almost too wet.
