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“Yes, you should have.” She grabbed onto his cheeks and gave him a little shake before shoving him up into the current. She trailed along behind him as he made his way back toward their home. “I’m proud of you, though.”
“I’m older than you, Virago. You don’t get to be proud of me.”
“Well, I’m bigger than you.” His sister shrugged. “So maybe I get to be proud of my brother when I wish to be.”
Chapter
Seven
Standing in front of her father’s office, Alys froze with her hand frozen and ready to knock on his door. She didn’t want to do this. But she also didn’t have a choice.
She’d heard the conversations. She knew what their people were planning to do, and she couldn’t stand here and let it happen. Or at the very least, she needed confirmation that her father wouldn’t actually let them destroy so much of the ocean.
She didn’t even know if it would affect Imber and his people. But did it matter? Her people needed a safe place to live, but that didn’t mean they got to destroy everything that stood in their way. That wasn’t how the world should work. Not everything had to be a battle. Sometimes, it could just be a quiet ask and an understanding that of all the things that happened, there were people who were willing to help.
Still, she remained frozen. Afraid of what would happen if she asked her father to tell her the truth.
Because what if the truth was what she feared?
“Come inside, Alys,” her father’s warm voice called out. “I know you’re out there.”
Something melted inside her. Her father had always been a good man. He was the first one to show her the ocean andconvince her to let it sink into her soul. He loved it just as much as she did, and he’d proven that to her countless times.
Of all people, he knew how important it was to maintain the glory and original beauty of the sea. He loved it. Deeply. They’d been on countless explorations together, just the two of them in his submarine where he named every single creature that they passed, every shell, even the currents that pushed their ship this way and that.
So she went into the room with her shoulders stiff and her jaw tight. Ready to argue for the place they both loved.
Her father sat at his desk, his glasses dangling from his neck while he poured over all the architectural designs that were likely for Alpha. His room was a mess, as always. Filled to the brim with objects they found on their dives, shells and coral and countless skeletons that he’d meticulously wire wrapped and then displayed. There was only one window in his room, but it didn’t let in much light with the volcanoes like they were today. Instead, he lit the room with countless whale oil lanterns that turned everything orange and red.
He looked up at her, those eyes wrinkling at the corners because they always did when he saw her. His entire face lit up whenever his daughter walked into the room.
She remembered someone asking him about that once. And he said that his greatest discovery had nothing to do with the sea, but with the life he had made. Because no matter what he found, or what he made, his daughter would always be the first person who mattered.
Tears pricked her eyes. It was hard to think of her father as a bad man when he was the one who had been there for her. But she knew that he also wanted to make sure this city was everything that anyone had ever expected of him.
She loved him. Even through his faults. Even though maybe he was focused on this a little too much.
Sighing, she rubbed at her eyes and slumped into the chair in front of her father’s desk. “Dad...”
“You seem upset.”
“I’ve been listening through the walls,” she muttered. “I overheard everything you and the General said to each other. And I... Dad. You can’t do this.”
Her father leaned back in his chair. She could see how hard it was for him to pull himself away from his work. Even when he looked at her, his eyes flicked to the small details on the pages in front of him. His mind didn’t want to stop thinking about all the things that he needed to figure out. No matter how hard he tried to focus on her, he would always look first to his work.
It had been this way her entire life. Alys shouldn’t feel so bad about it. When she was little, it was fun to work with him. She enjoyed going out to the sea and listening to him ramble about all the dreams he had. That he would be a great man who no one forgot.
But now, she saw the flaw in it. He was a man obsessed.
“Why?” she asked when he didn’t reply to her. “Why do you want to ruin something so beautiful? Something you and I have dedicated our entire life to exploring?”
“We’re not ruining all of it,” he replied. But she could see the shadows in his eyes. Even he didn’t believe his words. “Just a small section. Carving out an area for our people to live will not be easy.”
“No, it won’t. But I don’t think the General is being honest with you. You don’t need to have cameras and weapons pointed in every direction. What could possibly hurt us in the ocean?”
She knew what could hurt them. The undines were long and strong. They were powerful in a way no human could ever be, and she wasn’t even all that confident her people could fight them off if they tried to attack. She knew, without a doubt, that should be a concern.
But she also respected Imber. She saw the beauty of his kind and understood that her people were trying to take over his home. They had to understand that there were people already there, and so the respect they had to have for the undines needed to come first.
