Page 29 of Claimed By the Deep
"And what did you decide?"
"That they were right. That watching you risk everything for independence, for discovery, for the simple freedom to work where you choose..." I trace my thumb along her palm. "You embody everything my people hoped to find in yours."
Tears glisten in her eyes, though she doesn't let them fall. "Cyreus..."
"I know it sounds impossible. I know the practical barriers, the difference in our worlds, the limitations we both face." I drift closer, bringing myself level with her platform. "But for the firsttime in ninety-seven years, I don't feel alone. For the first time since the crash, I remember what it felt like to have hope."
She slides down from the platform into the water with me, her clothes creating small currents as she moves. "You're not alone anymore."
“I want to be with you. More than I've ever wanted anything. But wanting and deserving are different things entirely."
"Why wouldn't you deserve it?"
"Because I'm stranded here, unable to offer you the life you deserve. Because loving me means accepting limitations that could trap you as surely as they've trapped me." I cup her face in my human hands, memorizing every detail. "Because I've been alone so long I might not remember how to be part of something bigger than myself."
She covers my hands with hers, her touch warm and steady. "What if I don't want the life I'm supposed to deserve? What if I want the life I choose?"
"Even if that life involves secrets, isolation, living between worlds?"
"Even then." She moves closer in the water, close enough that I can feel her breath against my skin. "Cyreus, I've been living between worlds my entire life. Land never felt like home. The surface world never quite fits. But this..." She gestures to the space between us, the water that holds us both. "This feels right in ways I've never experienced before."
The words unlock something in my chest that's been locked away since the crash. Hope, yes, but more than that. Thepossibility that I might not be broken after all. That nearly a century of isolation might have been leading to this moment, this woman, this choice.
"Meri," I whisper, her name carrying harmonics that make the water around us shimmer.
"Yes?"
"I think I'm falling in love with you."
"I think I fell in love with you the moment you called me magnificent."
"You are magnificent."
"So are you." She moves even closer, close enough that our bodies are nearly touching. "All of you. Every impossible, wonderful part."
The sincerity in her voice breaks down the last of my emotional barriers. This extraordinary human sees me and chooses connection over safety, adventure over certainty, love over logic.
I wrap my tentacles around her more securely, pulling her against my chest while my human hands frame her face. "What are you doing to me?"
"Loving you," she says simply. "Is that all right?"
Instead of answering with words, I lower my mouth to hers, tasting salt and possibility and the promise of finally,finallynot being alone.
Meridian
FOURTEEN
When Cyreus kisses me, it's different. His lips claim mine with newfound confidence, tasting of salt and something distinctively him that still makes my head spin even after our previous encounters. His human hands frame my face while his tentacles support me in the warm water, familiar yet thrilling as they curl around me.
But after days of separation and uncertainty, I need more.
"Show me," I whisper against his mouth, echoing his earlier words back to him. "Show me what love feels like in your world."
His eyes darken with recognition—he knows exactly what I'm asking for. "Are you ready for that? Once we begin this, there's no turning back."
"I don't want to turn back."
The last traces of hesitation vanish from his expression, replaced by determination and hunger. "Hold onto me."
