Breakwater

The anger still burned hot and I turned, breaking down several more walls before the power slipped through my fingers, dissipating with the fury that had gripped me. Loam sloshed forward. “Well, I’ll be buggered rightly. This is a rather good turn of events, isn’t it?”

Peta sniffed from her perch on Loam’s shoulder. “Until the guards see that some of their cells have disintegrated and decide to kill us outright.”

Ash grabbed me and spun me around. “How can you even connect with the earth? There is a block put on the cells, Lark. A block that maybe even your father might not be able to break, but you just walked through it like it was nothing.”

I swallowed hard, and shook my head. “I don’t know, I just did it. Is that not enough?”

Peta let out a low growl. “No, because I cannot shift to my other form. We are at the mercy of the Undines and you just opened us up to them.”

I glared at her. “At least we have a chance now.”

“Except that you can’t touch your power without rage powering it, can you? My first master was like you: anger the only thing she had going for her.” She arched an eyebrow at me. Cats and their know-it-all attitudes.

“That’s why we’re being swarmed with Undines, right now?” I arched an eyebrow right back.

She rolled her eyes and dug into Loam’s shoulder. “Stupid dirt girl.”

“Pussy.”

“Lark,” Ash interrupted. “Ignore the cat. She’s just pissed because she isn’t saving her master, you are.”

I turned my back to Loam and Peta. Swallowing my pride, I took Ash’s hand, lifted it and kissed his wrist. Salt and a taste of something wholly unique to Ash danced along my tongue. Submission did not come easy to me. I’d never even managed with Coal, yet it was the right thing to do. “I am sorry for putting you in here. For believing you were here to kill me.”

He jerked hard, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of my words or the kiss. I lifted my eyes to his. With a shake of his head, he stepped back. “You believed I could kill you.”

“Why else would you be here when my father told you specifically to stay?”

Loam let out a low chuckle. “Ah, this is funny. You haven’t told her?”

I looked between them, a frown deepening as my irritation grew. “Told me what?”

A look of horror flashed over Ash’s face that was quickly doused. “Nothing.”

And there we were once more. Trudging through the waist-deep water, I put my face right into his. So much for submission. “Honesty, Ash, would have kept us from tossing you in here in the first place. Tell me. If you can tell Loam, you can tell me.”

His jaw tightened as if he were trying to crack a nut. “When we get back to the Rim. It isn’t anything that is important to what’s at stake right now. Which is your life, mine, and Belladonna’s.”

Shaking my head, I stepped back. “Fine.”

“What about me?” Loam stepped forward and I stared at him. The water was above his waist. I looked down. It was well above mine. That was not where the water had started.

“Water is rising. This is bad.” As if my words triggered the floodgates, water rushed in around us. Loam floundered. “I can’t swim!” Of course he couldn’t.

Peta leapt from his shoulders to the edge of the cells I hadn’t pulled apart. “I can do nothing, Loam.” She let out a mewling cry that told me all I needed to know. They might not like each other, but she would still try to save her master.

Like me and Bella.

I swam forward and grabbed Loam, dragging him toward the edge of the cells that I hadn’t pulled apart. Pushing him onto my shoulders, I boosted him to the top of the cells. He straddled two of them with ease. “Thank you.” He reached down for me and I wrapped my hands around his.

He gave me a funny look. “It’s a pity. The queen was so looking forward to your trial, but I believe this will be better all the way around.” He let go of me as the floor fell out and the ocean rushed up in a swirling current. The last thing I saw was the look of horror in Peta’s green eyes as she stared down at me.

With the floor gone, the water sucked us into a dimly lit holding cell of some sort. I swam to Ash who just floated there. He reached for me, his hands tangling in my hair as he pulled me close.

I planted my lips on him to give him a breath of air.

He leaned into me, his hands coming up to cup my face . . . and I breathed into his mouth. Honey eyes popped open and stared at me. I couldn’t help the goofy grin that slid over my face. I reached up and touched the earring Niah had given me.

Floating there he seemed to take a second to realize we weren’t done. He undid his belt, and for just a moment, I thought he’d lost his mind. What did he think that touch of our lips meant? A breath of air was all.

Relief, and maybe a little regret flowed through me as he slid a loop of the belt around my wrist, his fingers gentle as they brushed my arm. A way to stay together. That was all. He looped the other end of the belt around his own wrist. I nodded, it would be too easy to get separated. My hair swirled around my face, making it hard to see. I braided it back quickly.

Ash gave a tug of the strap attaching us, then pulled me close so I could breathe into his mouth. . . . though there was perhaps a bit more pressure than we needed. Then again, maybe I was imagining things.

We swam forward, running our hands over the edges of the submerged cell. A thought struck me. The kids in the kitchen, they said the pipe system ran through the entire Deep. If that was true, there should be some sort of pipe leading in and out of the cell to supply the water.