They spoke little through the rest of the day and into the next morning. Thick, palpable tension filled the air between them. Macy knew Jax wanted to talk, but he’d kept his distance. He’d meant well in his attempts to comfort her; there’d been truth in his words, but hers held truth, too. Guilt was clear in his eyes when he looked at her, and she hardened herself against it. Even if she knew his reasons, even if she understood them, keeping her here wasn’t right.

Still…he’d saved her. He’d saved a human he knew nothing about when he could easily have let her drown.

Despite the words they’d exchanged, Jax had only left Macy when she said she was hungry. With little to occupy her apart from her own thoughts while he was gone, Macy found her eyes wandering to the vegetation on the cliffside repeatedly.

Camrin is alive.

Her heart had soared at the news. He’d be frantic, heartbroken, desperate, but he was alive, and she could find him.

If Macy owed Camrin anything, it was closure. The truth of her feelings would cause him pain, but she couldn’t allow him to spend the rest of his life believing himself responsible for her death, longing for they might’ve had…

She stared at the cliffside until Jax returned. She needed to try — for herself.

There would only be one chance.

Around midday, she crawled out of the shelter and stood up. Jax was drifting in the shadowed water, barely moving, his eyes fixed on nothing.

“Jax?”

He lifted his head and swung his gaze to her.

A pang of guilt constricted Macy’s chest; the eagerness and anticipation in his expression suggested he’d been waiting for her to speak to him for a long while.

“Would you…” She bit her lip and shifted her weight. “I’m hungry.”

He brightened slightly. She couldn’t be sure if it was because she’d spoken, or because she’d given him an excuse to leave this awkward silence behind.

“I will bring you something to eat.”

“Thank you.”

Jax seemed torn as he left, hesitating and glancing over his shoulder.

Fear gripped Macy’s insides; did he suspect her true motive?

His pupils expanded, his siphons widened, and he disappeared under the surface.

Macy held her breath, counting the seconds to ensure he was gone. He hadn’t been gone for long the last two times he’d hunted for her. There was only a tiny window of opportunity.

She used some scraps of cloth to tie her wrapped knife to her thigh and ran across the island, leaping into the pool. The chill only pushed her to the ledge faster. Hauling herself up beside the waterfall, she tipped her head back.

The cliff was higher than anything she’d ever climbed, a sheer wall of rock and vines. This wouldn’t be like climbing a tree. But the vegetation was secure, and this was her only shot. Jax wasn’t going to take her home. If she wanted to ease her loved ones’ grief, to confess everything to Camrin, she had to climb.

Taking a deep breath, she reached up as high as she could and slipped her fingers into the mess of vines, wrapping the loose ends around her hand. She tugged and then leaned back with her full weight.

The vines held.

She released a tremulous breath and jumped, grabbing another handful of vegetation. Pressing her feet to the rock, she found whatever purchase she could with her toes, and climbed. She held her gaze on the top as she moved higher and higher.

Time was limited — Jax could return at any moment — but she kept her pace slow and steady. There were only three possible outcomes for this. He’d come back to find her part way up the cliff, he’d come back and find her missing…

Or he’d find her broken body floating in the pool below.

The thought made her dizzy. She pressed her forehead against the vegetation and closed her eyes.

Focus. Just keep looking up.

Perspiration beaded on her skin, and her muscles screamed with exertion. Long hours of labor in the fields had kept her fit, but she was unused to these motions. She was lifting her own bodyweight each time she moved higher.

By the halfway point, her limbs were trembling, and doubt had infested her mind. She halted, clinging to the cliffside, and forced herself to take deep, even breaths.

Let your people think you died in the storm.

“No.”

You already let them kill you within.

“I didn’t,” she rasped.

Her denial didn’t make Jax’s words less true.

Think of Camrin. Of Aymee. Of mom and dad, and how they must feel. First Sarina, and now me…

But mom has always blamed me for Sarina’s death.

“Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry.” She squeezed the vines, hands aching, and looked up. “Almost there.”

Bracing her feet against the rock, she stretched one arm, reaching high above her head to resume her climb. She’d made it another meter when dead vegetation crumbled beneath her foot; she slipped and clutched the vines desperately. The sweat on her palms made her hands slick.

Macy dropped, stomach lurching, and clawed for a handhold. A scream caught in her throat, frozen by fear.

She came to a jolting halt when she caught a thick, tangled mass of vegetation, and her arm felt as though it would be torn off. She wound the vines around her hands and wrists and closed her eyes, trying to calm her pounding heart and slow her frantic breaths.

It was a close call, but she had to press on, had to fight through her fear. Time was running out.

She moved her feet carefully, securing one before seeking a spot to brace the other. She needed to relieve some of the strain on her arms.

The vines loosened. She slipped a few centimeters.

Her heart stopped.

Jax was uneasy, leaving Macy alone; there was a sinking feeling in his gut, and his throat was tight. He couldn’t shake the sense of blind, nervous anticipation. Something was going to happen.

He kept his hunt short, gathering a few of the hard-shelled bottom-dwellers scuttling amidst the rocks and vegetation below the tunnel opening. He slid a claw between the armor segments behind their eyes to kill them; their underbellies were unprotected, the meat sweet and easy to access. Hopefully, humans could eat them without getting sick.

Though collecting his prey was a simple task, his hearts were racing by the time he finished. He hurried to the tunnel and dragged himself through rapidly. Perhaps she’d talk to him again, as the food cooked, and he’d be granted another glimpse of the female behind the sorrow and anger.

I am the reason she is sad, the reason she is angry.

The truth was unavoidable. He was keeping Macy against her will. It was just as damaging as her need to give everything to the other humans without leaving anything for herself, if not more so.

Arkon had a word that seemed fitting now; Jax was a hypocrite.

Though he railed against being contained, though he resisted the commands of others and sought his own path, he’d stolen Macy’s freedom without a second thought. What did it matter that she was a human, or that their peoples shared a violent history? She was a thinking being, an emotional being, and seemed to possess many of the same yearnings as Jax himself.

He emerged from the tunnel, lifted his head over the surface, and swam to the island. As he laid the hard-shells on the ground, he glanced at her shelter. Even through her anger, she’d cast appreciative glances at him each time he’d returned with fresh food; he longed to see that expression now.

She wasn’t there.

Jax pulled himself onto the island and moved to its center. She wasn’t looking through the containers, and he didn’t see her in the water. It was only when his hearts resumed their pounding that he heard a rustling of leaves.

He turned to the waterfall just as a small rock fell from the cliffside. It clacked noisily on the ledge and rolled into the water.

Jax tilted his head back. The breath fled his lungs when he saw Macy clutching the vines, halfway up the cliff face.

Surging forward, he plunged into the pool and called her name as soon as he had air enough to make the sound. Though he spent little time outside the water, he knew things worked differently in the air. Things fell differently.

Macy gasped and looked down at him. Just as their eyes met, the plants she held tore free. She screamed and fell backward. The vine caught with a jolt and Macy slammed into the cliffside before the plants snapped. She dropped.

He heard nothing but her scream and his thundering hearts as he leapt onto the ledge. Cold fear flowed through him, but his chest burned. He couldn’t tell if his lungs were too full or too empty.

She hit him in the chest. He wrapped his arms around her as the impact knocked them into the water, reaching out with his front tentacles for some purchase on the rocks. Macy thrashed, kicking wildly and swinging her arms. They were under for three heartbeats before Jax gained a strong enough hold to pull back onto the ground. He kept her in his arms.

Macy coughed, spitting up water. Her soaked hair hung around her face, and her fingers clutched his arms tightly enough for her blunt fingernails to feel like claws. She sagged against him and breathed raggedly.

She was frightened, but he didn’t think she was hurt.

If he’d returned even a few moments later…

Jax’s relief was swept away on a tide of fury. If he understood the danger of what she’d done, Macy had undoubtedly known the risk.

“Were you trying to kill yourself?” he demanded.

Macy stiffened and reared back. “I had to try!”

Her response should have cooled him. He had offered similar reasoning in his youth when his early explorations had resulted in injury or near-death. But it only angered him further.

He caught her wrists with two tentacles and pressed her against the wall, pinning her with his body.

She arched her back and strained to pull free. “Let me go!”

He took hold of her face, forcing her eyes to his. “So you can die? If I wished you dead, I would have let it happen during the storm!”

“Why didn’t you?” She glared at him and bared her teeth. “If I’m going to die in this damned cave, why not let it be now? Why are you keeping me here?”

“Because you are a treasure I plucked from the sea, and you are mine!” he roared.

Macy gasped, staring at him with wide eyes. She’d gone completely still.

Only her shocked expression made him realize what he’d said. It was the truth, the heart of his motivation, the thing he’d denied — even to himself. He desired her, was drawn in by her allure, and she roused his curiosity…but it wasn’t enough. He needed to claim her. Had needed to since his first glimpse during the storm.

“You are mine,” he repeated, “and I will not let you go.”

She struggled to free her arms, holding his gaze with hers. “You’re a monster.”

Jax’s chest constricted. Hearing that from her, spoken with such fury, was more painful than he could have imagined.

He released her, and she fell her knees.

Vision clouded by rage, he lashed out, tearing the vines off the cliffside with claws and tentacles and throwing them into the pool behind him. Brittle, dead growth snapped and poked at him, and bits of rock and dirt tumbled down, but he didn’t stop. He attacked them like they were his most hated foe.

They had nearly taken Macy from him.

When there were no more vines within reach, he turned to Macy and leaned over her, chest heaving.

Shock and fear had replaced her anger.

“Kraken are exactly what humans made us to be,” he growled.

Jax plunged into the water before either of them could say anything more. He had never known such fury, had never allowed it to so fully drive his actions. A small part of him — a part that had somehow maintained a semblance of control — insisted he leave before he turned his rage upon her. Whatever she’d said, whatever she’d done, she didn’t deserve his wrath.

If anyone deserved that, it was Jax himself.