Chapter 6
Ariella appeared at sunrise.
One moment the water was empty—dark waves rolling towards the shore in their endless rhythm—and the next there was movement.
A sleek shape cutting through the surf with the kind of grace that made Valrek’s chest tighten.
Then a head broke the surface, dark hair flowing around her shoulders as her pale skin caught the growing light.
She came back.
His beast howled with triumph
Control. I have control.
But his heart was pounding like he’d just sprinted across an entire mountain range, and when she finally saw him and raised a hand in greeting, the urge to leap from the rocks and dive into the water to meet her almost overwhelmed him.
Instead he watched as she made her way towards the shore, pulling herself gracefully from the waves.
She wore the same diving suit as before, the mesh fabric clinging to her body in a way that revealed every slender curve.
The small specks on her skin glowed a gentle blue as she approached the cliff path.
He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He just watched her climb, mesmerized by the fluid grace of her movements, the way her body found purchase on rock that was slick with spray. Even though she was no longer in the sea, she still belonged in this wild environment.
She stopped at the entrance to the cave, her bioluminescence shifting uneasily from blue to silver as he rose to his full height.
In the growing light, he knew he must look like something from a nightmare—almost seven feet of scarred muscle and barely contained aggression, his eyes already starting to glow with the force of his emotions.
He waited for her to flinch, to retreat, to show any of the fear that his appearance usually provoked.
Instead, she tilted her head and studied him like he was a puzzle she was trying to solve.
“You’re still here.”
Her voice was exactly as he remembered—low and musical, with that strange resonance that made his beast want to roll over and bare its throat.
“This is my territory.”
“I know. You made that very clear. I know you told me not to come back.”
“Why did you?” he asked gruffly, his voice scraped raw by the three nights of restless waiting.
She hesitated, her gaze darting towards the cave behind him. “I was worried about Lilani. I wanted to make sure she was healing properly.”
“She is.”
She fell silent, watching him with those strange luminous eyes.
Up close, he could see the details he’d missed before—the elegant slits of her gills, sealed now that she was above water, the fine translucent webbing between her fingers, and the pearlescent sheen of her skin that made her look like something crafted from moonlight and sea foam.
Beautiful, his beast whispered. Mate. Ours.
He told his beast to shut up.
“Is that the only reason you came back?” he asked, refusing to admit that he hoped it was something more.
“No. I found something,” she said slowly. “In the trench, before the storm. Before I heard your daughter. And I don’t know why, but I think… I think it might be important. To you, or more specifically to your people.”
His eyes narrowed. “What kind of something?”
“It’s a type of musical instrument, one we would call a flute. But there’s something different about it. When I touched it, it… responded to me. To my—” She made a small sound in her throat that might have been a laugh. “To my Song, I guess.”
“What does that have to do with the Vultor?”
“I’m not sure but there are some engravings on it and the patterns are similar to the ones I saw in your home.”
He froze. Was she referring to the lineage symbols he’d sketched around Lilani’s bed alcove?
His pack might have rejected her, but they were still part of her heritage, and he’d planned on explaining that to her when she grew older.
They were only simple sketches, a father’s attempt to preserve their history. He was shocked she’d even noticed them.
“You couldn’t have seen much,” he said, more of a growl than a question.
“I saw enough,” she answered quietly. “And the markings on this flute… they feel important, Valrek. They feel old. They feel like they belong to someone.”
A spark of suspicion ignited in his mind. “You want payment.”
“Of course not!” The words burst from her, her skin flashing. “I’m not here for payment. I’m here because…” She stopped. Her gaze drifted towards the sea, then back to him. “Because you’re not the only one who is alone here.”
Alone. The word landed between them, heavy and undeniable. He was alone. He had Lilani, and he would die for her, but the isolation of their exile was a constant ache, a hollow space inside him that had grown wider with every passing year.
“Show me,” he ordered, the command harsher than he’d intended, and she raised her chin. “Please,” he added, the word rusty from disuse.
After a tiny hesitation, she pulled a small, tightly wrapped package from a pouch at her waist, then came to join him.
This close, he could smell her properly—that intoxicating mix of cold sea and warm honey that had been haunting his dreams—and hear the soft flutter of her heartbeat, faster than it should be.
She’s nervous, he realized. Nervous, but not afraid. Not of me.
Despite her nerves, her hands were surprisingly steady, as she unwrapped the package to reveal a length of pale bone, carved with holes and etched with patterns. Patterns he’d seen only once before in his life, in the archives of his grandfather’s house. He stopped breathing.
“Orath’kaan,” he breathed.
She gave him a startled look. “You recognize it?”
Recognize it. She had no idea. She had no idea what she was holding. What she had brought to him.
“We call it an echo-pipe,” he said, reaching out with a hand that trembled slightly.
“It’s a Vultor artifact. From before the Great Migration.
From our homeworld.” He let his fingers trace the etchings, feeling the deep history in the simple lines.
“This should not exist. Not here. Not on this planet.”
“It was in the trench, deep in the Maw,” she said softly. “It called to my Song. It seemed… lonely.”
A choked sound escaped him. “It is. We all are.” His people, scattered and broken, their history reduced to half-remembered stories and faded scrolls. And this… this was a piece of their soul, lost in the vastness of space and found by a human female with webbed fingers and stars in her skin.
She hesitated, looking down at the flute. “I think it’s supposed to be played by two people. Maybe more. The resonance is… complex.”
Before he could ask what she meant, she raised the flute to her lips and hummed a single, clear note into it.
The sound that emerged was unlike anything he’d ever heard—a pure, crystalline tone that seemed to vibrate the very air around them.
But he felt something else, a secondary vibration, an echo beneath the main note that resonated deep within his chest, a hum that spoke of ancient forests and starlit plains, of the pack running under twin moons.
His beast stirred, not with aggression, but with a deep, profound longing. A homesickness so sharp it was a physical pain.
Lilani appeared at the entrance to the main chamber, still half asleep. “Papa? What’s that song?” Before he could answer, she spotted Ariella and her whole face lit up. “Star Lady! You’re here!”
Racing across the short distance, she threw herself into Ariella’s arms hard enough that his female rocked back on her heels.
Instinctively he threw out his arm to support her and froze, his bare skin pressing against the soft material of her diving suit.
The contact sent another jolt through him, and he knew that she felt it too, her bioluminescence flaring violet for a brief instant.
“It’s like the star song!” Lilani chirped, completely oblivious to the tension thrumming between the adults. “The one you sang to me in the water. It made me feel warm and safe and not scared anymore.”
Ariella’s arms tightened around the little girl for a moment before she let out a low, gentle hum, her Song soft and soothing. Lilani immediately melted against her with a happy sigh.
She doesn’t even have to try, he thought with a mixture of awe and something he didn’t want to name. His daughter, who rarely responded to anyone but him, was completely at ease in the arms of this strange, luminous female.
“What’s like the star song, little one?” Ariella asked gently.
“The song that thing is making,” his daughter said simply, pointing at the flute. “It’s playing in your bones. And in Papa’s bones. Can’t you hear it?”
He stared at the flute. He couldn’t hear anything now that Ariella had stopped playing, but he could still feel it—the ghost of a resonance, a memory of sound that seemed to echo in the marrow of his bones.
But how could Ariella feel it as well? She wasn’t Vultor.
He tried to remember what his grandfather had told him about it, but it had been long ago and he’d always been more interested in more physical pursuits.
“Why would a Vultor artifact respond to me?” she asked, echoing his thoughts.
“Because you’re the Star Lady,” Lilani said cheerfully. “Are you staying for breakfast?”
“I… I…” She gave him an uncertain look and even though he knew he shouldn’t, he found himself nodding.
“You should stay. So we can talk about the echo-pipe,” he added quickly.
“All right,” she agreed, and his beast howled triumphantly. “If you’re sure.”
“It’s fine. We have plenty.” He led the way inside and added a few more pieces of wood to the firepit.
“I can help. Do you have any fresh water?”
“From the spring,” he said, indicating a small trickle of water running down the back wall of the cave to a carved basin.
She walked over to it with Lilani skipping along beside her, her movements so fluid and graceful that she barely seemed to touch the ground.
She rinsed her hands, then her face, and he found himself staring at the slits of her gills, sealed against the dry air but still visible, a reminder of the world she came from. A world that was not his.
He turned away before she could catch him looking.