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She gave me a sad smile and one of her hands went up to her heart. She’d felt my sorrow over losing Cayoni—surely someone as smart as she was could infer that it came from a great love. “How long were you together?”
“Ten years.”
“And was your . . . egg . . . your first?”
I nodded, although she could not see me. “Kraken breeding cycles are very erratic. But I was the most joyous kraken under all of the sea, for a time.”
I watched her swallow, and I felt her holding something back. “I don’t feel safe having children.”
I knew absolutely nothing about how two-leggeds bred. “Is it because you are so small?” I asked.
She gave a short laugh. “No. Remember how you wanted to know why I had scars? That’s why. Kind of,” she said, and then pushed memories at me. Of her sister with the blue-eyes, and strange buildings with long, cold halls. Metal knives and waking up alone, having lost parts that will not regrow. “I can’t put anyone at risk of that. But—don’t get me wrong—I do like babies.” I felt her heart thrill at the thought of children, before it quieted again. “I just would be scared to have my own.”
I could only tell her what I knew to be true. “There is nothing wrong with you, Elle of the Air.”
She gave me a rueful grin. “I bet you tell all the ladies that.”
“You are the first sentient creature I have touched in three years. There are no others, nor will there be.”
I watched her swallow again. “Anyone ever tell you you come on a little strong?”
“Is that good or bad?”
She bit her lower lip for a moment. “Honestly? I like it. It’s been awhile since anyone was interested in me. I’m getting a divorce.” I had no idea what that meant, so I pressed my confusion forward. “My husband. He...left me. We were married. I mean, that’s what we do in the air. It’s our version of your mates,” she informed me.
“No, it is not.”
She pouted. “How do you know?”
“Because if it was, he wouldn’t have left you.”
We stared at each other in silence, me at her great beauty, and her out at the ineffable darkness I was encased in, until the tablet made a beeping sound behind her.
“Let’s see what we got from the ROVs!” she said, quickly changing the subject, and because I sensed she was uncomfortable, I let her.
chapter 28
ELLE
I got blankets from my bed to snuggle in and brought the tablet out again. Two of the ROVs’ footage was so damaged as to have been worthless—and the others weren’t much better. It was like they were functional, drifting across the structure’s sides, recording, but then did the wrong thing and died, dropping down like so many flies.
One of them tried to take a scraping of the wall—and my best guess was that the wall didn’t “like” that.
Another tried to drill into it—and summarily went dead.
A third went black, but I didn’t even understand why.
“What did it do?” I asked aloud.
Cepharius grunted. “Couldn’t you see?”
I turned back to shake my head at him. He thought for a moment. “The concept is complicated. May I look for something related in your mind, to help me explain?”
As complicated, or less complicated, than divorce was?
I nodded—and felt him slip in.
Now that he knew most of my secrets, I wasn’t scared anymore. In fact, having him use my mind to think—which was a concept that would’ve panicked me even a few hours ago—was pleasurable.
