Balim raced across the hospital parking lot with the elixir, flip-flops scuffing the rough concrete. His iridescent heartblood-red tattoos reflected the midday sunlight, and his slacks and long-sleeve gray shirt clung damply to his hard muscle.

Bursting through the reflective glass doors, he stormed into the emergency room.

It was filled with an assortment of bright and dim-souled humans in different postures.

The brightest soul belonged to a female with short hair. She sniffled and smeared black paint around her eyes with a fistful of paper napkins. Her soul glowed in the center of her chest like a small sun.

Her expression changed to recognition even though they had never seen each other before. She stepped toward him as he pivoted toward her.

“Where is he?” Balim asked her tightly.

“They took him back already.” Nora waved behind her.

He started in that direction, but he couldn’t help asking, with irritation. “Why did you bring him here?”

She hiccupped in surprise, following him. “The ambulance brought him.”

“You should have waited for us at the coffee shop.”

“B-but he was—”

“Sir?” An elder woman’s voice cut across the room. “Sir, you can’t go back there.”

A security guard pushed out the interior doors and blocked their entrance.

Balim stopped. “You must let me through.”

The security guard looked at the elder.

“My warrior is there,” Balim told the uniformed hospital elder. “He cannot have your medicine. The effects are unknown and could be catastrophic.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You must release him at once to my care.”

The elder flicked tired, world-weary eyes to the sniffling female. “Who’s the patient?”

“Pelan,” Balim said.

“He got sh-shot.” Nora pointed at her own shoulder.

“You do not know how to handle his anatomy. You must let me administer this healing elixir.” Balim held up the single bottle he’d had on him when he’d received the call.

The elder stared at it, then nailed him with a look. “Sir, that’s a Dasani.”

“It is filled with the pure elixir of what you call Sea Opals.”

“That’s a gemstone,” she said skeptically.

“We covered them in your local tap water and steeped them in an Instant Pot.”

“Yeah… So, we do have bottled water here.” The elder pointed him to the chairs of the other waiting humans. “If you’ll just take a seat, I’ll let you know when—”

“He must have this immediately to avoid a tragedy!”

“This is a level three trauma center,” the elder assured him. “And you’re my third ‘medicine man’ this week, so I assure you, we’re fully trained and able to, ah, ‘heal’ your ‘warrior’s’ human body.”

“But that is precisely the problem,” Balim insisted. “His body is not human.”

The elder checked. “What?”

Balim lifted his hands and spread his fingers, shifting so the webbing slid up to the tips and stretched, turning his hand into a very inhuman, intricately tattooed fin-paddle. “He is a mer.”

The elder’s eyes opened wider and wider. She sucked in a huge breath, but her resulting voice was calm as she pressed an electronic button attached to her uniform and rapidly conveyed the information.

“This way.” Then she led them past the security guard and strode rapidly down a busy hallway. In a low, calm tone, she said, “That information should’ve been mentioned during the intake exam.”

Nora sniffled, trotting to keep up behind them.

Other uniformed humans rushed by, some with injured patients. Even after living in New York City all these months, Balim was still shocked by the sheer number of humans in existence, and he was told that it was in fact only a small percentage of the total humans in this country, much less on the surface of the world.

It was a shocking contrast with how desperately endangered and dwindled his own kind had become. Their secret underwater cities, once grand megalopolises, shrank in every year. Ever since the Great Catastrophe a thousand years ago when the harmonious human-mer treaty was shattered and the mer descended beneath the waves for their own safety, they had begun shrinking in. First, no female mer were born. Then the few islands of sacred women who pledged to join with them and give them young fry sons in secret emptied. And now castles floated empty, mating gemstones piled high with no recipients. Until very recently, he had thought they might die out entirely within just a single generation.

But now, they had hope.

Because his adopted city, the reborn Atlantis, was sending out warriors like Balim and Pelan to meet and woo modern women. All they had to do was find their soul mates.

In a city of millions, Balim had expected it to take moments, possibly days.

He’d been wrong.

And now their enemies had caught up to them.

The elder ducked into a side room. A group of human hospital people were stepping back from a warrior lying on a gurney. Red and black tattoos wove across his body. In the area of his shoulder, a small black hole was placed under lights. He had many wires leading from different parts of his body to beeping and whirring and grinding machines.

Balim ignored the machines and focused on his patient.

Pelan’s worried face broke into a relieved smile. “Balim. And Nora. You are all right.”

Nora’s already bright light intensified. “Of course I’m all right. You shielded me. I owe you my life.”

Pelan blinked, dazzled. “I would die a hundred times for my bride.”

They gazed at each other, their souls brightening together.

Well, good. Finding soul mates during a life-and-death situation was lucky. Soul mates could give each other strength. A tight muscle in his spine loosened, and Balim felt like he could take the first full breath.

Balim uncapped the elixir and handed it to Pelan. “Take a small sip. I do not know when more will arrive.”

He obeyed. Wires taped to the back of his hand and going up into a bag brushed his good shoulder.

Balim examined the wound. It was small like the stab of a single trident point, a smooth one without any spurs. No ripping of the flesh, very little bleeding.

Behind him, the humans were discussing what they’d done.

“There was a problem with the blood test,” one of them was saying. “That should’ve been a clue.”

Balim made Pelan roll on his good side. The bullet did not go through his back skin. There were even more pads and lines and stickers on him though. He made Pelan lie flat again. “You were lucky.”

“Yes.” Pelan smiled at Nora, but it was weaker than before. “We will go to coffee again.”

“My treat,” she said brightly. “Next time, I’ll order the coffee unleaded.”

There was an awkward pause.

Pelan’s soul light dimmed.

Balim’s instincts came to high alert. “You are feeling unwell.”

“A little.” Pelan reached for the elixir. “May I?”

Balim gave him another swallow, then poured elixir into the wound, filling it. He could see the light mixing with Pelan’s soul and Pelan rallied, taking a deep breath and looking healthier. Then, inevitably, he began dimming again.

A whisper of dread touched Balim.

He inspected Pelan more closely. “This is your only injury? No others? Nothing in your abdomen, anywhere?”

Pelan shook his head.

“Did you fall?”

“No.” He looked at Nora, brightening a little. “She cradled my head in her lap.”

She pshawed. “It was the least I could do.”

One of the human healers, a man who introduced himself as Doctor Kowalski, informed Balim that they’d performed something called an X-ray and the gun’s bullet had lodged in Pelan’s clavicle.

“We must remove it,” Balim decided. “You or I.”

“It will be straightforward. You can see the bullet.” Dr. Kowalski moved to the wound.

Balim poured more elixir over it, and the human doctor watched, distracted.

“Is that the magic elixir I’ve heard about? Is it true you can drink it and regrow lost limbs overnight? Like, you can regrow a whole hand?”

“No,” Balim told him. “That is a ridiculous lie.”

“Ah, right.” He sounded disappointed.

“It would require much more than elixir, such as communing with our Life Tree, and it would take several months at least.”

His brows lifted. “But you can regrow a hand?”

“We are not the only marine creature to regrow limbs, Dr. Kowalski.”

“No, of course, that’s…you’ve seen that? With your own eyes?”

“Many times. We are a warrior society. It would be a problem if they did not grow back.”

“Sure. Huh. Wow.” Dr. Kowalski cheered up. “It looks like ordinary water.”

“To me and other mer, it glows with potency.”

“Right, okay. Uh, Healer Balim, was it? Did you want to operate?”

Balim lifted his shirt and removed his honed coral dagger, which barely fit into the largest human sheath he could find. His human liaison, Hazel, had given him this chest sheath after she confiscated his traditional bicep and thigh seaweed sheaths. “They’ll get too dried out,” she’d said with a little laugh. And, wrinkling her nose, she’d said they would interfere with his ability to woo a bride. He wasn’t sure why, but he’d acceded to her better knowledge and adapted.

Dr. Kowalski watched him slide out the jagged dagger, his eyes widening. “Oh! Ah, is that your surgical instrument?”

“The bullet must be removed. Pelan will endure me digging it out without complaining.”

Warrior Pelan straightened on the gurney and nodded, resolute. “Proceed.”

“No anesthesia?” the doctor pressed.

“Yours is unknown,” Balim told him. “And something is weakening Pelan’s light. You feel it, yes?”

Pelan nodded, growing more tired before Balim’s very eyes.

“I believe the problem is the bullet,” Balim said. “Our enemy has chosen some kind of metal that is poisonous to us. We must do a swift removal.”

“Arthroscopic graspers are pretty fast.” The doctor seemed concerned, then decisive. “In the spirit of, ah, cultural exchange, I’ll remove the bullet.”

Balim shrugged and returned his dagger to its locking sheath, stepping back as the others converged around Pelan tearing open plastic bags and snapping on new layers of body armor.

The elder who had led them into this room had long ago left.

Nora edged toward the door. “Maybe I should go back to the waiting room.”

“Stay.” Balim checked the remaining amount of healing elixir. Too little. “Your nearness gives him strength.”

The surgery only took a short time, much of it punctuated by Dr. Kowalski making positive notes such as, “The bone is already healing here, look at that magic.” Pelan did not protest at all, but sweat broke out on his pale face, and despite his promise not to move, he began shivering.

“There.” The doctor dropped the bullet on a tray with a clink and raised his voice for Balim. “It’s removed.”

Pelan did not recover. He clenched his jaw and struggled to keep his eyes open.

Balim moved forward. “Nora, take his hand.”

Nora, who had been facing away hiding her eyes from the procedure, looked back. Her tone changed as she wove through the humans cleaning up and stepping away. “Is he okay?”

“No.” Balim poured the elixir into the wound, which was now bleeding but not in any dangerous amount, and forced the last drops into Pelan’s teeth-chattering mouth. He pressed a hand to Pelan’s cool forehead. “How do you feel?”

“My insides itch,” he chattered. “I am on fire.”

“What’s wrong?” Dr. Kowalski asked in a low tone.

Balim shook his head. “We have removed the bullet but he still acts as though he is being poisoned.”

Nora held Pelan’s hand to her chest, her black-rimmed eyes still smeared from her previous tears. “Get better, okay? I owe you another date.”

“I look forward to…” Suddenly, Pelan’s eyes opened wide. He sat up and oriented on the closed door. “My! Soul mate!”

And he collapsed.

Nora squeaked.

Pelan’s light dwindled to darkness.

The humans rushed in. Nora started to step back, loosening her grip to yield to them, but Balim cut through the chaos. “Do not let go of his hand!”

She clamped it.

The lines in the back of his hand shook the bag, which sloshed with a liquid sound, and sudden realization broke over him. Balim pointed at the bag. “Is that water? Only?”

“No,” Dr. Kowalski moaned, and the humans quickly removed the lines.

The effect was instantaneous. Pelan’s soul light returned, although it was significantly weaker, and he heaved a more relaxed sigh.

“He is better,” Balim said, relief moving through him as well. “Hmm. He is very weak. I would like to transport him to my tank.”

“Aquarium tank?” Dr. Kowalski clarified, perking up.

“He can shift into a mer and heal more quickly. Something in your liquid bag disagrees with mermen. I would like to study it.”

“You can take it.” Dr. Kowalski wrapped the lines and put it in another plastic bag. “I’d be really interested to know what you find.”

The humans arranged transport for Pelan. Balim followed, and Nora trudged behind, exhausted. Balim had to remind her to continue holding Pelan’s hand. The warrior needed every bit of strength.

Dr. Kowalski escorted them to the exit and offered his hand. “I would really like to know more about your facility, your work, and your test results. I’ll be honest, I haven’t paid as much attention, and this whole thing is fascinating.”

“I will inform you.” Balim shook his hand, as was the human custom.

“I’m here!” Hazel, the frazzled assistant and Balim’s mer-human liaison, wheeled a large red ice chest right past the ambulance without looking, focused on only Balim. She stopped in front of him triumphantly. “Traffic was absolutely horrible, but I’ve finally arrived and I have the extra elixir.”

“We do not need it.”

Her shoulder slumped. “What? No way, I spent two hours on the beltway.”

“Pelan is stable.”

“Oh, well, that’s good. Where…” She looked around and realized they were behind her. “I guess any first date you can walk away from is a…Oh, my goodness, Nora, you’re a mess.”

Nora smiled weakly, turning to Hazel as humans loaded Pelan into the back of the ambulance.

Balim pulled a bottle from the red chest and handed it to the doctor. “For your studies.”

Dr. Kowalski took it with a grin. “Aquafina, huh? I’ll be sure not to leave this in the staff fridge.”

Balim bid him farewell and walked around the front of the ambulance, took a deep breath, and stretched, popping his back in three places. Behind him, Hazel was laughing about Nora’s unleaded coffee, and she made Nora’s soul brighten. Among the mer, Balim was known for having an acerbic wit himself, but he’d learned to curtail it around the humans. The gulf was too large. They already had enough trouble understanding each other without adding an extra layer of complexity.

And his kind had enough enemies. Below the surface, he and the other Atlantis warriors were hunted by the ruling All-Council for daring to claim modern brides, defying the ancient covenant. Now, above the surface, a human group called the Sons of Hercules threatened—and apparently enacted—violence against them for the same reason.

A thousand years ago humans and mer had lived in harmony, somehow. With all these vicious swirling enmities and hatreds, it was very hard to understand how that had ever happened. What feeling could possibly be enough to cross their species and bring them together? It was a mystery to him.

Suddenly across the large hospital complex, walking just at the edge of his line of sight, strode a woman whose entire existence captivated him.

A confident rolling gait accentuated her wide hips and thick copper-red hair bounced against her shoulders. She held bags filled with items to her chest. Unaware of his gaze, she was a woman of purpose and energy, focused and divine, a goddess made real.

She walked around the corner of the hospital building.

It was like a string tightened around his soul. He heard a sharp report, a clanging in his chest.

Go.

He broke into a run. As fast as when he was hurrying to save Pelan, perhaps faster, his flip-flops scraped the pavement as he chased after her. Urgency pumped in his blood. He gritted his teeth, trying to assert control, but the force was so strong, it was like holding on to a twig in a tsunami. His very soul shivered.

It took much too long to cross the lot, and he went numb to all outside distractions. His focus narrowed on the edge of the building. He sprinted around it.

This street was busy with parked cars and traffic.

The woman wasn’t visible in the street before him. To his right, stairs led up to a side entrance leading into a wing of the hospital complex. On instinct, he scrambled up the steps and entered.

Unlike the trauma center, this entry was significantly quieter, with forking routes and numerous signs and desks. Visitors moved purposely and were allowed to go wherever they wanted. He turned on instinct again and hurried down a long hallway. At the end were elevators. He searched, but his prey was not there. His mysterious woman was gone.

But she was here. In this city. In this very hospital.

He would search every floor until he found her.

He must.

“Balim!” Hazel jogged up to him and then bent over, partially collapsing as she panted. She straightened and wiped her forehead, gasping. “Oh my gosh. I haven’t run that hard since high school. I thought maybe you saw Pelan’s shooter or something. You just took off.”

“I saw her,” he said.

“Saw who?” Hazel pulled her sweat-dampened shirt away from her skin, flopping it. “Ah, this is making my coffee stain reappear.”

“Her,” he repeated, as the elevators opened and people moved behind them entering and exiting. His senses tingled on high alert and the hair on the back of his neck rose.

“Her, who?” Hazel repeated, then did a double-take and waved at someone over his shoulder. “Hi, Bella!”

He turned.

As the elevator doors closed, inside he saw her. The woman.

Bella.

Her head was lifting and her eyes sought Hazel’s standing beside him.

A powerful wave of knowing crashed over him.

Resonance.

For one instant he saw her up close. He drank in every detail.

Lush curves. Silky copper-red hair he wanted to grip in his fist. A plump red mouth capable of great pleasure. And a plentiful smattering of dark marks humans called freckles patterning her skin in a delicate tattoo.

Mine.

Her soul burned in her chest. Sharp, bright, and yet tragic.

She was powerful.

Her gaze reached Hazel, then flitted toward him—

The elevator closed.

Before their eyes met, the doors closed, cutting off her off.

He leaped to the elevator and pressed his fingers against the warm metal, then his forehead. Before, the day had been ordinary, but now that he’d known her sun, her absence filled him with chill. He was going to tear this hospital apart room by room until he found her.

Hazel stepped up beside him. “You okay?”

“Where is she going?” he ground out between clenched teeth.

“Bella? I don’t know. She must be visiting someone. She was carrying flowers.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know,” Hazel repeated, concerned. “Are you okay? You’re looking a bit pale around the tattoos.”

“I must find her.”

“Okay, I’ll ask Dannika.” Dannika was the manager of MerMatch, the dating agency that was sponsoring Balim and Pelan on the mainland. They had a mission to unite mer warriors with their soul-mate brides, although so far they hadn’t united anyone. “She’ll have her contact information.”

Balim’s muscles slowly relaxed. “You know this celestial woman?”

“The stylish redhead, right? She designed our website. You know, for MerMatch.”

“Designed…”

“And she helped the warriors prepare for interviews and media appearances. Mostly your predecessor, Faier. Then we couldn’t afford her company any more. Oh, that must have been before you surfaced.”

Fate was playing a trick on him. He’d been searching for his mate for months and she was well known to his own people but their paths had never crossed? This was bad comedy.

Balim stepped back from the elevator. Other humans had gathered, waiting, and they averted their eyes and pretended not to see him from embarrassment.

“I caused a disturbance humans find distasteful,” he murmured stiffly to Hazel. “I apologize.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” She looked upward at the ceiling, gestured at the many housed above. “This is a long-term care ward. It’s where they put seriously ill and terminal people. I’m sure everyone here is totally used to emotional displays.”

That helped his rioting emotions cool.

Bella was here visiting someone important to her. An ill parent or much-loved friend, someone who she wished to commune with and honor. Even though every fiber of his body urged him to tear off the doors one by one screaming her name until he found her, Balim would absolutely not intrude in the sacred space between a patient and loved one. Not even to announce himself as her soul mate.

He took a deep breath and let it out, then deliberately moved away from the elevators. “I must meet her as soon as possible.”

“Sure, sure.” Hazel kept up with him easily, tapping her phone screen and weaving between people without looking up. “Does she have something unique that you want to study medicinally? Or did you want her to spruce up your dating profile?”

“Neither.”

They pushed through the doors. The midafternoon sunlight was the same. The rumbling and squeaking and growling of New York City was the same. Everything in the world was the same.

And also, it was entirely different.

Balim looked down at Hazel. “She is my bride.”

Days later…

Bella Taylor tore open the little bag of cheesy chips like she was a desert island survivor who’d just found an ancient treasure trove. The first crunch of the salty-umami snack made her barely suppress her moan. She ate the entire little bag like a feral raccoon and washed it down with canned coffee, then exhaled with a gusty sigh. Dinner at the basement snack machines was totally unhealthy and so, so good.

She dumped her trash, got in the elevator, and headed to the children’s wing.

Tonight’s floor nurse was a grandmotherly angel who clasped Bella’s hands. “The lilacs you brought are still going strong.”

Bella pasted on a warm, genuine smile and squeezed the nurse’s fingers. “I’ll bring more.”

“You don’t have to do that. You’ve got plenty going on. Don’t worry about us.”

“I just appreciate everything you do so much.”

The nurse’s smile widened, and Bella mentally checked off her task of ingratiating herself with the staff. Nurses weren’t supposed to have favorites, but Bella was informed that they were only human so of course they did. Hence her mission.

She made a few more pleasantries to increase goodwill, signed the visitor’s sheet, and strolled into the women’s locker room. She stowed her work suit, showered and dried off, and ripped open the plastic bag of new, unworn blouse and slacks. She put on new non-skid fuzzy socks and forced her damp hair into a bun.

Then she went out the other exit.

This floor was filled with the hum of fans and rustle of plastic. Her heart no longer grew heavy as she made the familiar nightly walk passing doorway after doorway to the very last one.

There, she dumped a small container of alcohol sanitizer into her hands and smeared it over every exposed bit of skin. She doused her cell phone and crammed it, still damp, into a Ziploc bag. Then, she unzipped the plastic door.

A fan blew the air of the room outward, cleansing her in a cool wind.

Inside the aperture, she put on a yellow visitor gown. It hid her body in a hospital burqa with headscarf and veil. She selected an envelope off the shelf and tore open the paper, unearthing her specially fitted face mask and plastic gloves. Bella tugged them on and checked for stray hairs in the mirror.

She looked like a deep sea diver. Plastic covered almost every inch of her body. A bit of speckled skin showed around her eyes.

Now she was sterile. She hoped.

Bella zipped up the external door, opened the second interior plastic door, and entered her son’s room.

It was dark. The TV displayed monotonous, flickering cartoons; the volume was too low to hear over the fans.

Jonah’s lumpy shape shadowed the flat, hard bed. He jutted a bony, pajama-clad leg out of the sheet.

She moved his stuffed bear out of the hard plastic seat next to his bed and ran a soothing, glove-clad index finger along Jonah’s leg to let him know she was here. He didn’t react.

His pajama flannel must be soft, but her plastic gloves blocked all sensation.

Bella tugged the thin hospital blanket over Jonah’s exposed leg and tucked it in, smoothing the fabric.

Fans muffled the sounds of the room like ocean waves crashing against implacable cliffs.

On the table, nurses had left his birthday card, a drawing of a cake with ten candles, and the Nintendo Switch she’d bought weeks ago to sterilize it.

The present was still neatly wrapped. He’d waited for her.

A hard lump formed in Bella’s throat.

She’d always made Jonah wait. Just one more client, just one more project, just one more marketing campaign.

Just one more email. Then they’d go to the park. Just one more phone call. Then they’d go out to dinner. Just one more workday scrambling to pay bills and keep the medical insurance while they waited for a cure. Then he could open his birthday present.

The sun had gone down, the restaurant had closed, and Jonah’s birthday present was unopened. He had always waited.

Bella tilted back in the chair and rested her head against the hard wall. But there was no rest for the wicked. She checked her messages, then her transcribed voice mails, reading the phone messages silently and deleting them one by one.

Work, collections agency, Chaz, low credit alert, scam, work again, bankruptcy attorney. She paused over the attorney’s message.

Please bring more documentation about…have to review all the factors…declaring bankruptcy could affect your son’s status as a patient…

She saved the attorney’s message, replied to the work messages with quick texts, and saved the ones that would require her to speak. Bella even managed to log onto the client portal and finish her most overdue project. She received no feeling of relief from submitting it to her boss. It was one pebble in the wheelbarrow of boulders she was pushing uphill.

Bella closed out the portal and saw a new voice message notification. She always had it on Do Not Disturb at this hour. It was Dannika, again.

“Please give me a call,” the transcribed voice message stated politely. “This is not a work request, as I said, this is a personal request for you to come by and meet one of our handsome warriors, Balim.”

Hairs on the back of Bella’s neck lifted and goose bumps tingled down her arms. Her heart thudded, hard, and awareness tugged her nipples into hard peaks against her braless new blouse.

She moved her shoulders, rubbed against the chair.

This same sense of awareness, of anticipation before a thunderstorm, had touched her nearly a week ago. It had made her so confused she’d accidentally gotten into an elevator going down and had had to ride it right back up to the main floor, where it had opened again and she’d seen Dannika’s assistant Hazel. And something else, a shadow against her awareness, a slash of dark crimson just beyond her consciousness. Then the doors had closed again, and she’d spent the rest of her evening confused, distracted, and feeling like she was supposed to be doing something else.

For some reason, Hazel must have mentioned her to Dannika, because the phone calls had started the next day.

Dannika wasn’t usually this pushy.

And the tattooed warriors were hot. Sadly, their elixir hadn’t cured Jonah. Of course she’d tried it. She’d tried everything.

Sure, she could fantasize about one of the huge, muscled, heavily tattooed males sweeping her into his bulging arms and giving her rapturous nights of pleasure.

But as she well knew from coaching them for media appearances, a warrior’s ultimate goal was to carry their brides back to Atlantis, the fascinating plant city at the bottom of the Atlantic. And it wasn’t like Bella was in a position to get swept away. A tide of emotions could flood in but her feet were encased in concrete. She wasn’t getting swept anywhere.

She deleted Dannika’s voice message and straightened, stretching out her back and rotating back and forth to loosen up her spine.

Jonah moaned and opened his eyes.

She composed herself and put on a soft, welcoming smile. “Hey, Jo-jo.”

He fixed on her. In the jittery TV light, bruised rings and hollow, sunken cheekbones looked like a skull. His dry, cracked lips tugged into the ghost of a smile. “Mom.”

“Happy birthday.” She put on her best enthusiastic voice. “Did the nurses remember? They promised to sing.”

He nodded slowly. Every movement took effort.

“I asked them to blend up your birthday cake and put it in the IV. Can you taste it?”

His light-colored brows drew together, and he frowned at the clear dangling bag of liquid. Didn’t he remember this was their joke? Or was he just tired of it? She used to joke all the time about injecting his favorite snacks and meals into the IV when he couldn’t keep anything down. His illness was making his brain fuzzy.

Her throat closed and her chin wrinkled.

She rubbed her chin and made her voice extra bright to disguise her feelings. “Can you just taste the cake? It’s Funfetti, your favorite.”

His brow smoothed, and he tried to smile again. He remembered. “Yeah.”

Even when he was feeling so bad that he probably had forgotten what birthday cake tasted like, he humored her to make her feel better.

She cleared her throat. “This is a pretty sucky birthday, huh?”

He nodded with more feeling.

“Where do you want to go next year? We could have a huge party with all your friends, and we could go to Ninja Warrior House or Luna Park or even, you know, Disney World…”

He thought about all his options and then said, “Home.”

Her throat closed again. She cleared it once more. “Next year for your birthday, you want to go home?”

He nodded.

She gently rested her hand on his blanket-covered leg, nodding because she couldn’t trust her voice. “Okay. That’ll be…that’ll be great for us. It will be so much fun. We’ll have a big party, dress up in our best, have your favorite lasagna and salmon rolls and daal, and play games at home.”

He smiled tiredly. His eyelids drooped half-closed. Her window of time with him was closing.

“Right.” Bella pulled herself together, turned to the bedside table, and picked up the unwrapped present. “Did you want to open your…”

His eyes had closed.

While she’d been looking away, he’d gone back to sleep.

Bella rested the present on her lap, crinkling the paper, and then returned it to the table.

Jonah used to sneak in late at night while she was working, and she’d pretend she didn’t see him. He’d fall asleep at the end of her desk, snoring softly, until she finished her work and carried him back to his bed.

She should have noticed he was sick. She should have caught it sooner. She should have protected him.

A wave of sadness crushed her in its fist. She closed her eyes.

She’d been so scared he’d never reach his tenth birthday. And here they were.

Will he reach his eleventh birthday?

She breathed through the stabbing pain. This could not be endured. She could not endure.

The clock beeped. Midnight.

Her boss wanted her to come in early on a Saturday to redesign the client proposal to redeem a company she very much doubted could be redeemed, but her job was to do the impossible. Control the narrative. Twist lies into truth and truth into lies.

So Jonah could keep his health insurance. So they could search for a miracle cure. So he could stay alive.

She rested both hands on his bedside. Silent prayers raced through her head.

I will save you. I don’t know how. But I will bend heaven and earth to find a cure. I will not enjoy one single moment of happiness until you’re healthy and well once again.

And if God won’t answer, I’ll chase down the devil.

Jonah slept, his chest rising and falling.

Bella rose and whispered, “Good night.” She did not kiss his cheek before she left, not even through the plastic.

Her kiss could be poison.

Outside his plastic-encased room, she peeled off her gown. Gloves and mask went in the trash, gown and fabrics went in the linen bin for sterilization. She changed at her locker and dropped the used outfit into the donation bin on her way outside.

A deep breath of dark fall air emptied her lungs of the hospital stench. She checked the subway schedule.

An unknown number lit up her phone.

She swiped it away to review the schedule but her thumb accidentally answered the call.

“Bella Taylor.” A weirdly feminine, possibly distorted voice spoke through phone interference. “You have been requested by the merman Balim.”

God, dating sites were aggressive these days.

She ran a hand through her limp red hair. “Yes, thanks so much. Tell Dannika I need to cancel.”

“You can’t cancel.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. Now’s not a good time.”

“I will pay your entire hospital debt if you do me this one small favor.”

“Uh-huh. My hospital debt is a lot more than you think it is.”

“Is it possibly…” The caller rattled off the exact number she’d gotten in her most recent report.

She paused.

No dating site would call her after midnight on a weekend.

“Meet the merman,” the mystery caller ordered.

She checked her app was recording, then continued on her route. “Why?”

“The inhuman creatures are keeping a flower from their underwater Life Tree in an aquarium behind their reception desk. The nectar from the flower is a hundred times more powerful than the infused elixir of their Sea Opals.”

Her fingertips tingled. A hundred times more powerful?

“I will provide you with a necklace. When the monsters’ backs are turned, you will dip into their aquarium and steal their flower. Then you will bring it to me.”

Bella hiked to the subway station a few strides behind a uniformed police officer. “What if the necklace doesn’t match my dress?”

“You’re not taking me seriously.”

“Well, to be fair, I don’t even know your name.”

“You can call me ‘Herc.’”

Herc, short for Sons of Hercules? They’d been in the news for attacks against mermen. The difficulty with catching them was that they were so weirdly disorganized. The most recent perpetrator was an unemployed recent college grad who’d gotten radicalized via an online forum. He wasn’t a soldier. He didn’t report to anyone. He just got angry and shot up a coffee shop. And he was caught immediately and jailed as a public danger while awaiting trial, but who knew what other armed wackos were out there?

But paying a large sum of money to steal something with a necklace, that required organization, planning, deliveries, receipts. Things that could be tracked. Prosecuted.

“I don’t think you have the money to pay off my debt,” Bella pushed, testing the speaker.

“Our funds are liquid.”

“Oh? Are you going to pay me in drachmas or Monopoly money?”

“Then you agree?”

“Pay off my debt and we’ll talk.” She ended the call and got on the subway.

Awake and interested in a new problem for the first time in over a year, she tapped her heels together as she considered all the possibilities. Would they pay? Or even attempt to? Banks had routing numbers, transaction records. Data.

And what about the flower?

It was one hundred times more powerful than the elixir…

A text popped up on her phone. Check your balance.

She navigated to her bank, but it was normal. Then it occurred to her to check the hospital billing. The bill for this hospital showed it was paid.

Bella immediately texted the one woman who could help her. You up?

The reply came in moments. My day just started.

Bella took a deep breath and blew out her nervous excitement. I’ve got a live one.

Her sister sent a string of emojis.

Bella smiled. She was tired of pushing the wheelbarrow up a mountain. With her sister’s help, she’d turn it around and let go, and the wheelbarrow would knock out and crush any so-called Sons of Hercules in its path.

A hydra had a ton of heads.

But it only had one body.

She was skipping the useless battle and going straight for the heart.

“Balim!” His new office manager, Roxanne, ran down the hall to where he was supervising a delivery. She held out his cell phone. “It’s Dannika. She has big news. Your bride said yes! She’s going to meet you. Also, you’re supposed to keep this on you.”

He took the phone, his chest unusually fluttering, as Roxanne headed back to her office. “Bella will meet me now?”

“We’ve set the date,” Dannika said over the phone.

The flutters calmed. “In the future?”

“Just next week. I did ask if she could come by, you know, casually drop by the office, but she’s too busy.”

He set himself back to deal with his disappointment. Humans didn’t feel the same soul mate connection or compulsion as warriors. Once their eyes finally met, once their souls resonated fully, once she saw him, then they would never again be apart.

“I understand,” he said.

The delivery driver held out a pen and a clipboard. “Sign here.”

Balim crossed an X on the paper. “You have eye strain. Would you like a cool washcloth?”

“Nah. I stayed up too late watching TV.” He grinned and elbowed Balim. “You don’t have any of that miracle drink, do you?”

The driver’s chest barely glowed.

Balim shook his head. “Elixir only helps humans who naturally resonate with the sea.”

“Ah, well. I’ve always been more of a mountain guy myself.” He carried away his clipboard, then wheeled a stack of boxes down a ramp. “Where do you want these?”

Balim showed the driver to the storage room.

The driver shook loose the stack and returned to the truck for more.

“Why don’t you finish up there and come by the office?” Dannika suggested over the phone. “We can plan our date.”

Balim opened the lid of the top box. Thick plastic covered the Sea Opals, but he could still hear tinkling chimes deep within. “No coffee.”

Dannika trilled. “Ah, no, we were thinking something a little more cozy and intimate since you already know Bella is your soul mate.”

Van Cartier Cosmetics had purchased multiple Sea Opals to create skin-care products that made resonant users miraculously young. Then, they had tried to take more Sea Opals by force.

Queen Aya had ended their reign of terror, dismantled the company, and retrieved their old scientific materials.

He carried one box of Sea Opals into the room they’d repurposed into Mitch’s laboratory.

Dannika prompted him. “Balim?”

“Anything other than coffee is fine.”

“How about the rooftop garden? We can coordinate deliveries or I can make Hazel cook.”

In the background, Hazel’s voice protested. “Hey!”

Mitch opened the box and lifted out a file of old Sea Opal research documents.

“Look at this.” He showed a paper marked with human writing squiggles. “How to See Shiny Sea Opals by Best Friends and Cousins Elyssa and Aya. How cute.” He set the paper aside and reached back into the box. “Even as kids, they were doing great things. Whoa.”

Mitch pulled out a heavy rock encased in paper and bubble wrap. He clunked it on the desk. It made a strange mechanical ticking noise like a human clock.

“Heavy. What is it?”

“Not a mating gemstone,” Balim said.

“Huh. Some kind of equipment I guess.”

Balim went back to the storage area, grabbed another box, and carried it through the lab to the large pressure cooker machine. Normally steeping the elixir took a thousand years, but with the pressure cookers, they had cut the time down to days.

He went back to the main hospital recovery room.

Dannika finished her side conversation with Hazel and returned to him. “We were just thinking after Pelan’s attack, it would be better to have a meeting that wasn’t open to the public.”

Balim walked to the steel frame enclosing a giant glass aquarium with bubbling aerator and heat lamp. Mitch had taught him about aquariums, both saltwater and fresh. A ladder was affixed to the outside.

The black-and-red warrior floated in the center, sleeping.

“How is Pelan?” Dannika asked.

“He is resting,” Balim said, his lips twisting. “Alone.”

“Oh dear. Nora left again?” Dannika chuckled. “She really does have an independent streak.”

“If my soul mate were hurt, I could never leave her. Not for a single instant.”

“Mm.” Dannika made a sympathetic noise. “Everyone deals with their anxieties differently.”

They completed the phone call, and Balim dropped his phone on Roxanne’s desk so that the next time he was away and it rang, someone would still answer it.

He understood what Dannika was communicating.

But as a healer, he could not condone it. Nora being apart from Pelan dimmed his light. It increased his injury.

Balim pressed the intercom button for all-building announcements. “Come back.”

The order echoed through the halls of the warehouse they were trying to convert into a hospital.

“Sorry, sorry.” Roxanne bustled into the room ushering Nora in a white hotel bathrobe. “We were just having a little girl time. A little chat, you know. Personal break.”

Pelan’s chest flared with light.

“You must remain as close to him as possible,” Balim reminded Nora.

“I know, but I’m so bored.” She sat at Roxanne’s desk and crossed her heels, making herself comfortable. “Can’t I just hang out here?”

“No.”

“He’s been asleep for a week,” she complained. “Over a week, technically.”

“That is not unusual for the mer. Time passes differently underwater.”

“I know, which is why I can’t float in the tank with him and watch TV.” Her rebellious gaze drifted back to Roxanne’s phone screen.

“The closer you are, the faster he will heal,” Balim snapped.

“Just one more episode. Please?”

“Practice shifting.”

She flexed her feet, first one and then the other. Her bones shifted and unfolded, lengthening to be as long as her calf, and the skin stretched tightly between them. Although humans had long pictured the mer as having a monotail, this was the true form. Nora mimed kicking her feet in the water, then flexed again and they shrank back into stubby human feet with chipped purple nail polish on the toenails.

“Please?” she repeated with more of a whine.

Balim sighed and turned away, disgust mixed with awe.

Honestly, most humans couldn’t transform their feet into fins for months, even years. Difficult things seemed to come easier to Nora. And instead of celebrating it with her mate, she rolled her eyes at Balim and watched TV. It defied his understanding.

But Nora had to be his soul mate. Not just any human could drink the elixir and then transform as she had. Only soul mates could do that. She had a mer soul mate close by. It had to be Pelan.

And then his soul brightened when she was near. Like now.

Balim stood next to Roxanne, who rested one hand on the glass, staring in at Pelan with her mouth slightly ajar, her eyes unfocused behind her thick glasses.

“The closer you are…” Roxanne tilted her head, her crinkly brown hair stuck up in wild abandon. “…the faster he’ll heal?”

“Yes,” Balim affirmed.

“You mer are so fascinating. I used to collect postcards from all over the world, and one of my favorites was a mermaid statue in Poland. There’s a lot of them, actually. The Mermaid of Warsaw. She was caged by a rich merchant, but the poor fishermen loved her and set her free, and now she defends the city, ever ready with shield and sword.” Roxanne mimed holding a sword over her head, but the whole time she never took her eyes off Pelan. “Oh, don’t worry, this isn’t interrupting my work. I’m waiting on a call back from Singapore.”

Roxanne’s clothes were disheveled from spending all day pricing, negotiating, and coordinating the delivery of essential equipment to set up the hospital.

Mitch came in wiping his fingers on a paper towel. “Hey, I can’t figure out what that heavy piece of equipment is supposed to be.”

“Show me,” Roxanne prompted, dropping her hand from the glass.

“It started leaking oil on me so I put it outside.” Mitch pointed behind him in the vague direction of the parking lot. “It just had all these wires. No obvious motor or view screen. Some kind of superglued black box. I don’t know, very homebrew.”

“And it was ticking,” Balim said.

The two humans looked at him.

“Ticking?” Roxanne repeated flatly.

“I didn’t hear any ticking,” Mitch said.

“Very subtle, the dial on your wrist.”

Mitch held his watch up to his ear. “You can hear that? I can’t hear anything.”

“Very subtle,” Balim repeated.

“How far away from the building did you put it?” Roxanne asked Mitch sharply.

“Uh…”

Boom!

The ground beneath his feet trembled.

Pebbles spattered the window, cracking the glass. He ducked. Nora shrieked and dove under the desk.

Water sloshed out of Pelan’s tank and slapped the floor.

Roxanne opened one of the unbroken windows and craned her head to see the parking lot. Next to the dumpster, a large chunk of concrete was missing. A new hole sizzled.

Mitch eased into a seat and stared at the hole in shock. “I…held that. In my office. For I don’t know how long. I just now put it outside.”

“The Life Tree has preserved you,” Balim murmured.

Mitch clutched his chest. “I think I need to lie down.”

Balim put in a call to Dannika, who was appropriately horrified, but he cut straight to his diagnosis. “You must inform the king and queen of Atlantis. Our enemies are increasing their attacks.”

“It’s so random,” Dannika murmured, distraught. “I’ll send the ordnance team.”

Pop.

A crack crossed the glass wall of Pelan’s healing aquarium.

They waited.

A tiny stream of water flooded out.

Mitch stood. “I think some Flex Tape will seal that right up.”

Two more cracks appeared, seeping water.

Mitch frowned. “Mm. Maybe not.”

The tank exploded.

Bella hurried through miserable drizzle the last blocks to the MerMatch office building, her nerves jumping like the lines on an erratic heart monitor. It was her first date.

The repurposed tenement building was only a few blocks from her work, ironically, and she almost turned the wrong direction on the pedestrian thoroughfare. Brown concrete and tinted glass rose six floors into the cloudy gray sky; between buildings, the ocean canal was a gray smudge.

Her phone buzzed. Video recording had started. Bella stuck a miniature earbud in her right ear. Its tone matched her skin and with her hair down it should be invisible.

“Oh, hello.” Her half sister, Starr, greeted her with the usual stuffiness. She suffered from allergies. “What a gray, dismal day for a break-in.”

“Fall in New York is supposed to be beautiful,” Bella murmured.

“Great. Very clear. Now, drop the phone in your purse and speak again.”

She stowed the phone as instructed. “Oh, well. Maybe next year.”

“Clear as a bell. We are a go.”

Bella tightened her stole around her shoulders and climbed the few steps to the glassed-in lobby. A security officer on the top step nodded at her. Another officer peered out.

Security was tighter than last time.

Her belly twinged with nerves. Butterflies banged into each other.

This was good.

Tonight’s supposed date would be her chance for Starr to do a security audit. Bella would tell Balim she was in contact with the leader of the Sons of Hercules. She could set up a meeting if he gave her the Life Tree flower. She would leave the building without the flower, work the authorities or the mermen or whoever, and set up the meeting to give Herc “the flower” that would probably be something Starr and her spy-friends would create after seeing it tonight. Then authorities would burst into the meeting, arrest the leader, and dismantle the Sons of Hercules permanently. Balim would give her the flower as promised and she’d try to cure Jonah.

The mermen didn’t know it, but they were counting on her. She sucked in a deep breath, straightened, and entered.

She passed her purse through the metal detector. The officer ran a wand over her tight dress. Her earrings buzzed.

Bella smiled. “Titanium.”

The officer studied the square ingots in Bella’s ears and stepped back, waving her to go ahead.

She shouldered her purse and crossed the lobby.

Starr snorted. “Titanium? Really?”

Bella hummed the song, “I am Titanium,” about enemies shooting her down but refusing to fall. She twirled as though marveling at the architecture.

Starr narrated as she walked.

“I see…security cameras. Heat sensors, motion. Good coverage, and a good brand. Windows are covered, as we expected. I looked up the building schematics and the security team is adequate to cover the general security. No audio jammers yet, but prepare to lose me in the elevator.”

Hazel was sitting on a bench next to the elevators typing on her phone. The caramel-brunette bravely wore a white business suit which showed a smudge on the right lapel. “Bella! You made it.”

“Sorry I’m a little late. I almost got mugged in the subway.”

“Ugh.” Hazel pulled something out of her purse and raised a fist. “That happened to me three times last year. This year, I’m prepared.” She opened her fist to display a siren-like device with one trigger but three outputs.

“Hazel, is that a combination of mace, Taser, and an air siren?”

“I like this girl,” Starr said.

“For people who take personal defense seriously.” Hazel packed the device back into her purse. “No one’s getting the drop on me now. And if they do, they’ll regret it.”

Bella smiled wryly. “New York.”

Hazel pulled papers from her tan messenger bag as they stepped into the elevator. “Here are the forms Dannika mentioned.”

“It seems like you’re increasing security,” Bella said, taking Hazel’s pen. Nondisclosures, privacy agreements, promises not to go on talk shows or write books about tonight’s date without letting them review the contents first. She scribbled her signature without reading.

None of this mattered.

“Yeah, after the bomb.”

“Bomb?”

“You didn’t hear?” Hazel shook her head. “Those jerks really have it in for Pelan. I don’t even know why. After the shooting, they sent a bomb to Balim’s hospital. Luckily it went off outside, but it still damaged the hospital tank.”

Bella made a silent note to check out the hospital.

“If he were feeling better, Pelan would be back in Atlantis with his bride already. Dannika’s been talking to the police and she has a friend in the FBI but the Sons of Hercules have no head guy, no leadership, nobody to go after. It’s just a bunch of keyboard warriors with mental health issues.”

“Maybe their leader’s been in hiding all this time,” Bella suggested. “And maybe something is about to draw him out.”

“Maybe. I was afraid to even have your date, but Dannika insisted. We can’t let the terrorists win!”

The elevator opened onto the roof.

Dannika greeted her personally. “Bella Taylor.” She extended ring-covered hands and clasped Bella warmly. The socialite was well-connected and good friends with Bella’s boss. “I’m so glad to see you again. How is your son, Jonah?”

“Holding steady.” Bella returned Dannika’s squeeze. Heirloom diamonds, rubies, and emeralds on Dannika’s rings made her hands heavy in Bella’s grip. “Thank you so much for keeping us in your thoughts.”

“Yes, of course. You look lovely. What a pretty necklace.”

Bella touched the tiny rubies on a slim gold chain. This was not the necklace that the Sons of Hercules had delivered to her via bike messenger the previous day. That chunky plastic monstrosity was with one of Starr’s friends who’d taken it apart and found it was just an ordinary plastic globe necklace with a screw top so she could fit about a tablespoon of water inside. They’d looked carefully for any special technology or any tracking device but nope.

Anyway, Starr’s friend still had the necklace and Bella was wearing her own colors. “I love your ombre caftan.”

“Thank you! Balim’s waiting for you by the pergola.” Dannika led her into the garden.

“Save room for dessert,” Hazel chirped after them. “I made raspberry mousse.”

The women strolled between boxed planters full of sweet-smelling sages, lavenders, and chamomiles. They ducked under trellises covered in blue and yellow passionflowers, and passed benches arranged with orange poppies and indigo morning glories. All closed up in the damp, chilly night, but the garden still glimmered like a fairy land dotted with landscaping lights like twinkling fireflies.

“That’s so beautiful,” Starr said wistfully. “I wish more than anything I could see it.”

“This is more extensive than my building’s rooftop garden,” Bella commented.

“Yes, the owner is a dear friend and allowed me to have a free hand.” Dannika directed Bella to the corner of the garden where the night-blooming flowers twined around stone statues—evening primrose, wisteria, chocolate flowers, jessamine, and moonflowers.

“Hey, those are all aphrodisiacs,” Starr commented.

“How romantic for a first date,” Bella murmured aloud.

Dannika glanced back at her, a smile of having been caught by surprise. “I’m so glad you agree.”

She led Bella around a mossy wall to a covered shelter in the center of the misty rooftop garden. Curtains of wisteria parted on a rustic wooden table set with vintage rose plates and cutlery, and lit by thick jar candles. To the side was a small koi pond lined with decorative rock.

“Wow. These mermen know what they’re doing in the romance department.”

Bella agreed, although she suspected Dannika had more to do with creating the atmosphere than a water-born warrior.

“And this is Balim,” Dannika said.

Balim rose from the table and stepped toward her.

Despite being a warrior he was dressed like any other man on a first date. His gray suit complemented his intricate red facial tattoos. With hands loose in his slacks pockets, he tilted his chin, awaiting her judgment.

She reached out to shake hands. “Hello, Balim. I’m—”

His eyes locked on hers, and her words died midsentence.

He was otherworldly, a warrior, and all male.

Shock paralyzed her. Her heart thudded loudly in her chest. Sweat dampened her palms.

This could be my salvation.

Dark brown irises threaded with iridescent red matching his tattoos. Dark slacks accented hard thighs, a trim waist was looped by a belt, and a flat, and a gray button-up shirt covered his bulging arms and torso. Short, dark hair cloaked his head.

But the heartblood-red tattoos stitched the stories of his life.

Tattoos curled across his skeptical forehead like capillaries. They tapered into vine-curls against his right cheek and down his jaw.

And suddenly everything fit into place.

She could not lie to him.

He stepped toward her. Dark knowing filled his gaze. “You feel it.”

Her throat went dry. She licked her lips. “Feel?”

“Resonance.” His eyes raked her body, fanning coals to smoldering flames. “Our resonance.”

She couldn’t speak. His charisma filled her senses. A spicy, fruity scent like dark cherries teased her nose. She wanted a taste.

He took another step. “It is not only me.”

The words disconnected in her head. She was struck dumb.

He leaned over her. Powerful and arrogant and so tempting. “Is it?”

Balim commanded her soul. She was stunned, flushed, hungry.

“Bella? Bella! Wake up.”

She blinked rapidly and struggled to regain her composure. This was supposed to be an opening and a negotiation. She was supposed to charm him. Not fall helpless under his spell.

Where had Dannika gone?

Only Starr buzzed in her ear, trying to drag her back from the ledge of an uncontrollable tidal wave of sensation.

Bella cast for something, anything, to make sense. “You said you wanted to meet me.”

A smile of pure arrogance tilted his lips. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you are mine.”

Her? Her?

He lowered his head. His mouth closed on hers. Their lips united.

Tender, sweet pressure and spicy male unlocked her heart and spilled her soul out. Arousal flooded her veins. Feelings she didn’t even know she still possessed—desire, innocence, vulnerability—flushed through her. Her pussy throbbed, hot and ready. She was his lock. He was her key.

His powerful hand spanned the back of her neck, commanding her to let go of her resistance and yield to his unstoppable possession.

Bella melted into Balim’s kiss.

She mustn’t let herself enjoy his firm lips on hers, his tantalizing breath on her cheek, or the soft brush of his hair against her forehead. The scent of the ocean and his masculine salt mixed with the heady floral spice of the night-blooming jasmine. Innocent and yet so alluring.

He was just a stepping stone. A way for her to reach her goal. The male she had to—

His lips parted beneath hers, nibbling. Licking, sucking. Teasing.

Hot need sizzled into her center.

She parted, allowing him in.

He surged forward, unstoppable as the tide. Passion crashed over her, fizzing in white tingles. She felt her whole existence in his possession. His tongue thrusting into her mouth, claiming her. His even teeth nibbling on her throbbing, hot, sensitive lips. His mouth owning hers.

Accept my claim.

She wanted to.

She wanted him to push her down. Scoop her breasts free of the emerald velvet, releasing her from the too-tight corset, push her skirt above her thighs, bury his cock deep into her aching center. Forget herself and just exist as woman and man until her responsibilities floated away and she recaptured the easy freedom of her long-ago youth.

Jonah.

She broke off, gasping.

Bella wasn’t sure if Starr had said her son’s name or if she had just thought it, but it broke the spell. Her lips were wet and hungry, and Balim also breathed as though he had run a marathon.

She covered her mouth, struggling for control of her quivering body, and pulled out of his arms.

His kiss broke her.

“Bella? Please answer. Please, Bella!”

She lowered her chin to keep her lips away.

He stayed near, his hard jaw smooth against her cheek. She pulled in a deep, steadying breath. Her heart leaped and her knees shook.

Powerful rightness shook her foundation. She fought against it.

How dare he make her feel hungry? Hopeful? Happy?

When her life was crashing, how dare she feel anything?

She’d met him. He was her one. Her soul mate. And she didn’t believe in soul mates. He was her everything.

Balim’s soul mate, Bella, changed the color of her pale cheeks to bright pink. Her green eyes glistened with liquid. Her chest brightened with revitalization.

Good.

Her soul light was dimmed and brightened, dimmed and brightened as she struggled with the realization.

“I am here,” he murmured, reassuring her. “You are no longer alone in your struggle.”

Her passionate inner sun reignited.

“Don’t say that,” she whispered, fighting against it. “You don’t know…”

“I will come to know everything. Give yourself to me.”

The tidal wave had crashed over her. They tumbled together on a current neither of them could control.

Her lips parted, and she risked a furtive glance up at him again as though testing herself.

He tasted her lips once more.

Her soul was hungry. So hungry. He needed to feed her.

They kissed.

He nibbled, giving more, demanding all of her.

She yielded to his wish. Her lips were plump, sweet, and the gateway to his dreams. His cock strained the human clothing, throbbing to burst. He memorized the suppleness of her lower lip, the sweetness of the upper, the damp secrets contained within. She released a sweet moan of need.

Her trusting sound made his heart clench.

This time, he ended the kiss. Not only her soul but also her body was starving for nutrients. He needed to heal all of her.

She held his soul in her hands.

No matter how much he feared that fact, he could not rip it away from her. It was already hers. From the moment he had first seen her, he’d known.

“You are my soul mate,” he intoned again as she rested and breathed against his jaw.

She lifted her head. Her beautiful eyes caught his. “What does that mean?”

“Our destinies are sewn together. Yours and mine. For all time.”

She rested one hand on her chest. “You’re remarkably calm after that revelation.” A touch of dryness entered her tone as she struggled to lighten the seriousness of his vow.

“It is what I have always wished for. A bride who will be fully and completely mine.”

Her face clouded. “I think there’s been some mistake.”

Dannika appeared at the opposite corner of the pergola holding a tureen in her pot-holder-filled hands. She cleared her throat. “Tom yum soup?”

Bella pulled away from Balim and forced a smile to her face. “Thank you. That would be lovely.”

Her words were smooth and mature. Dannika’s soul brightened with ease. She thought this date was going well.

But in truth, Bella’s soul flared and extinguished chaotically.

Balim followed Bella’s lead to take a seat at the table, watching her intently.

Bella was sick. Soul sick and body sick.

By the end of the first date, she would become his mate.

His queen.

And he would heal everything in her completely.

Dannika ladled steaming hot broth into their bowls while Hazel brought out and identified additional dishes—caramelized onion and pear crostinis, Moroccan-spiced salmon rillettes—and then the women withdrew.

Bella crunched the small bites and moaned in pleasure. “Cheese chips are great for what they are but eating real food makes me feel like I’m coming back to life.”

Balim enjoyed all her joyful expressions, his own chest warming in response. “That is the proper response to being with your soul mate.”

“Ah, it’s working.”

Bella ate and drank and breathed deeply. She must truly need this wholesome, flavorful food as much as she needed the sweet, flower-strewn benches and the vibrant gardens.

Dannika brought out a large multi-color dish of Ethiopian food and withdrew again. Bella tore the bread, scooped a handful of green mush, savored the scent, and bit in. She moaned and her soul light glowed bright.

He chewed his own bread-ful. The mer did not have hot foods under the water. They had few spicy dishes, though.

The yellow dish was creamy and tangy, the orange was crumbly and zesty, and the red was spicy. His tongue flared with heat.

The metallic squeak coming from Bella’s right ear made her enjoyment flicker. Her insightful green eyes closed on him and then veered away.

“Your ear is bothering you,” he suggested, waving to it.

She froze mid-bite. “What?”

“It is squeaking. I can almost…make out words…”

She covered her ear with one hand and finished chewing. “Can you really hear things like that? New York must be noise torture for you.”

“At first, it is overwhelming, but right now I am focused with all my attention on you.”

“I was going to wait until after dinner, but…” She swallowed and patted her belly, stared down at the food. “I’m full but I want to keep eating. I’m so excited to get calories with nutrients.”

“I will serve you many nutrients in Atlantis.”

She nailed him with her clear gaze. “You’re a doctor, right?”

“We call my role a Healer,” he affirmed.

“In your professional opinion…” She broke off, frowning, as her ear squeaked. Then she reformulated her question. “How do you fight for a patient after you’ve tried everything?”

“I rest him against his city’s Life Tree. Its healing sap flows in the blood of every warrior, and its resin forms into the mating gemstones you call Sea Opals.”

“Because everything for you comes back to your Life Tree.”

“It is in our blood, in our soul. And yours now, too. It called us together.”

Her eyes softened and a smile touched her lips as the warm light surged in her chest. It made his own chest swell to bursting.

Then her ear squeaked and she dampened.

“You will see it yourself when you drink the elixir and swim with me to Atlantis,” he assured her.

She became serious again. “Say that you had a patient who, for whatever reason, could never go back to the Life Tree. You fed him elixir and no result.”

“I am struggling with that now,” Balim admitted, leaning on his elbow and crossing his ankle on his knee. “Pelan is not recovering as fast as I expect him to. He has found his soul mate and yet their lights are out of sync. Hers is dim and his is bright, or the opposite, at unexpected times. I have just repaired his tank, which is filled with elixir, and placed him back inside but he is not recovering. When we go to Atlantis for our marriage ceremony, we will take Pelan and his bride, and then he will be healed.”

Bella nodded thoughtfully. “But you have a flower here that’s a hundred times more potent than the elixir.”

“The nectar within the blossom.” Balim held out his hand. “Would you like to see it?”

“I would like to have it,” she joked with a laugh, taking his hand and rising.

“Okay.” He looked down on her. “It is yours.”

Bella stumbled as she moved out from the table and she leaned on Balim’s arm. “You’re just giving me the flower?”

“No,” the gorgeous warrior said very reasonably, holding her securely.

“Oh, right.” Of course not. She wanted it so badly that she hallucinated his meaning—

“As my bride, you are a queen of Atlantis. The queens of Atlantis have dominion over the Life Tree and its flowers as much as I do. It is yours already.”

Emotion welled up in her like a rising tide cresting her chin and splashing her in the face.

She didn’t have to bargain or beg or double-cross anyone. She could just have the flower. The hundred-times-more-potent Life Tree flower.

Balim had just said she was no longer alone in her struggle, but this was too much. She couldn’t believe it.

And yet her body believed it.

Bella’s heart thudded harder and harder.

Relief welled up in her heart. Her soul sang. The future beckoned with gold, rainbows, and stardust glimmering as it fell between the twinkling flower petals.

The steady warrior with the soothing, calm voice and mesmerizing eyes tugged her fingers. “Come see it.”

“Yes,” she murmured, following him.

“Bella?” Starr’s voice in her ear was tight with worry. “You’re acting weird. Did they drug the food? Why are you just believing him?”

Bella didn’t know how to answer as she followed Balim through the gardens.

His fingers were a lifeline. His broad back and hard lines enticed her beneath the smooth suit.

This was crazy.

Crazy.

She had to tear her gaze away and breathe.

This resonance was no joke. She never reacted like this to a client. She never reacted like this to anyone.

Dannika rested with Hazel just inside the shelter. Dannika’s hands were folded serenely while she seemed to meditate. Hazel typed furiously on her phone.

Dannika rose, concerned. “Is everything all right?”

“Fine.” Balim pressed the button to open the elevator doors. “We are going to the office so Bella may claim her flower.”

“Oh?” She glanced down at their linked fingers. “Then, you are soul mates?”

“She is my bride,” Balim confirmed.

“And you accepted?” Dannika’s eyes sought hers, innocent and sparkling with enthusiasm.

Bella avoided meeting her eye. “Well…”

“We are in agreement.” Balim entered the elevator and pulled Bella in with him. “We both know she is mine.”

“That’s wonderful.” Dannika clapped. “Another successful match. I like you both so much, and I was hoping you’d feel the same.”

Bella’s heart hurt. Don’t be this excited for me. It’s not going to end how you think. She needed to escape this bittersweet nightmare.

Balim pulled Bella closer as though protecting her from Dannika’s enthusiasm. “Excuse us, Dannika.”

It had been a long time since a man had protected Bella. A long time.

“Are you coming back?”

“No,” Bella said.

“Aw,” Hazel said. “But I made mousse.”

“Thank you, Hazel,” Balim said as the door closed.

“Sorry,” Bella murmured.

They descended.

Balim loomed beside her, an impressive and undeniable force. His intensity filled the small space and she wanted to turn to him, bury her face in his shoulder, breathe in his oceanic scent.

Instead, she whispered, “And thank you.”

He tilted down toward her. “For?”

“Getting me out of there. How do you know I…?” She touched her face. She didn’t trust her expressions around him.

“Not from your mouth.” He slid one sensual finger across her hot skin just above the low-cut neckline of her emerald dress, beneath the tiny ruby necklace, and placed his palm against her chest. “From here.”

Suddenly, there was no oxygen.

“I don’t have words in my chest.”

“You do.” He placed his palm over her heart. His fingers curved above the mounds of her aching breasts. “I hear, see, feel them. You have been starving and silent for too long. You want, Bella.”

Heat kindled from his words and his caress. Her breasts swelled, threatening to spill from her constricting undergarments into his palms. A warm, liquid ache made her clench her thighs.

She wanted him to speak her name again in that soft, measured tone—in her ear, followed by the teasing tug of his teeth and the hot, wet slick of his tongue.

His intent gaze deepened as though he knew what she was thinking.

She closed her eyes.

Bella always controlled the conversation. But from the moment she’d walked into the garden, every fiber of her will bent to Balim’s domination.

No one dragged Bella around.

She wasn’t supposed to remember, in panty-soaking detail, how many years it had been since she’d ridden a man’s thick, hard, dominating cock. Or to fantasize about Balim’s in rich detail.

They reached the floor of the office. Balim dropped his palm and exited the elevator.

“You’re killing me. There are more security cameras,” Starr noted as Balim touched the keypad lock and punched the numbers. “Why aren’t you leaving? I’m having a heart attack. You know I can’t get to you. There’s a security guard on the corner. And the MerMatch office has a keypad lock.”

Balim glanced back at Bella’s ear.

“Gah, how does he hear me? It’s inhuman.”

Bella hummed “The Sound of Silence.”

Starr shut up.

Balim pushed open the now-unlocked door and let her in.

The walls of the reception were a soothing sage green with accents of warm sand by the windows and peaceful blue couches. The thirty-gallon fish tank behind the desk glowed with light, and inside a single, white creature fluttered like a flower on the aerated tank current.

The Life Tree blossom.

Despite being a plant, its movements were smooth and calming, hypnotic, and it danced as though it were alive. It looked like a small water lily or extra-large cherry blossom, glimmering and catching the tank lights.

He stood beside her watching her. “You like it?”

“It’s beautiful. Hypnotic.”

“Good.” He smiled, squeezed her fingers, then released them. “I will get a container.”

He went into one of the interior rooms.

It felt like he took the sun and the stars with him. Her arm felt cool where moments ago his nearness had made it warm. She rubbed her arm, startled at how intensely she noticed his absence.

“Ooh,” Starr said, breaking her silent concentration. “This entire place is hot. I’m not sure how effective that door locking keypad is. This place is crawling with bugs.”

Right. The job at hand.

Even if she didn’t need to use Starr’s security audit as a bargaining chip to get the flower—because Balim was just giving it to her, what the heck?—she wanted to complete it to help them. Violence did not belong here in this quiet office devoted to helping women and warriors find love, and Balim’s entire life goal was dedicated to healing. She needed Balim to be safe.

Bella perused the office, following Starr’s quiet directions to inspect or check on the different bug locations. She emptied out a decorative metal candy dish on the desk and dumped in the easily removable cameras and transmitters, closing the metal lid. It might not be sufficient to cut off their transmission signals, but it was something. Then she placed stickers on the windows, a jammer on the underside of an aromatherapy diffuser, and unplugged the phone cable to attach Starr’s diverter. But the plug didn’t look right.

“Of course.” Starr laughed to herself. “The Sons of Hercules are already intercepting their traffic. Take their diverter off.”

“They’ll know it was me,” she muttered.

“You’ve already tossed the original plan into the trash, haven’t you? Log me on to the computer.”

Bella sat at the reception desk computer. The password was taped to the monitor. Bella followed the prompts to give Starr access.

“All right, just leave this running.”

Balim exited the office with a small leather-like pouch in his palm, black with a greenish tint.

Bella stood and showed him the bowl of small devices. “This whole office is being spied on by, I’m assuming, the Sons of Hercules. There are probably more devices than this. So, we should assume we’re under observation and anything you were trying to keep a secret here is well known to them.”

He frowned at the bowl. “I will inform Dannika and Hazel.”

Her heart thumped. He just believed her? She didn’t have to argue, convince him, or defend herself. He just assumed she knew what she was talking about and acted accordingly.

“That’s it?” she pressed.

“Should I do something more?” He took her right hand. His warm, capable fingers encircled her wrist and splayed her fingers.

She laughed breathily. “I’m going to fall in love with you.”

“Yes.”

She swallowed. “Yes?”

Balim brought out a small moon shell from the pouch and dipped his finger into it. He smeared the cool green gel inside on her scabbed ring finger cuticle where an irritated hangnail had caused her mild annoyance all day. It gelled like aloe and smelled like the sea.

He put the shell back into his pouch and then wrapped an ordinary Band-Aid around the tip of her finger.

Then he met her gaze, the red threads in his warm brown eyes iridescent like magic, hypnotic as the flower. “Yes.”

She wanted to lean into him.

And she would.

After.

She sucked in a deep breath, reclaiming her focus. “The flower?”

Balim released her, unfolded a stepladder behind the reception desk, opened the tank, rolled up his sleeve, and reached in with a small plastic cup. The Life Tree flower floated into the cup. He lifted it out and offered it to her.

It danced like a mote of stardust on a dark night.

“I need a container to transport it,” she said, hypnotized.

He replaced the stepladder and rummaged in a cabinet underneath the tank. She expected him to bring out another shell or pottery, some ancient sacred vessel worthy of the flower, but instead he straightened with an empty Evian bottle, which he carefully poured the cup into, topped it off with a little extra from the tank, and then capped it securely and handed it to her. Heartblood-red tattoos snaked up his wet arm, a contrast to his suit.

She closed her hands around the bottle. It was heavier than she expected, and the small flower danced with a strange light.

Bella’s chest swelled with gratitude. Finally she had something, some tiny shard of hope to cling to. She turned to Balim, her throat tight with a year of uncried tears. “Thank you for trusting me.”

“It is the hope of every warrior to give his Life Tree flower to his bride.” His serious eyes mirrored hers, and she felt an even more powerful surge of gratitude like their emotions were reflecting and growing stronger. “I had begun to lose hope of ever reaching this moment. So, I am the one who must thank you.”

The lump in her throat got too big, and she nodded, unable to get the words out.

Then impulsively she took his hand, unable to part with him. “Come on.”

He moved with her easily. “Where?”

“You trusted me.” She hefted her purse higher on her shoulder as she pushed out of the office building. “I’m trusting you.”

Balim had truly found his bride, and now she was about to show him a very secret treasure. He knew it, deep in his bones. She was nervous, and she didn’t trust easily, but they had already vaulted past any objections. The squeaking in her ear was silent. So, he had overcome that, as well.

Good.

First, they returned to the roof to tell Dannika and Hazel about the spying. The women were mid-clean-up and were properly upset. Bella assured them she had a security consultant reviewing things and would be in touch. Then Dannika called a car service.

They rode the elevator to the ground floor.

As they crossed toward the exit, Bella’s ear squeaked, and she came to high alert. His warrior instincts pinged. Bella pulled him behind a potted plant and peered out the windows.

Balim’s hands clenched for his trident. Daggers. Dannika had been upset finding out Hazel had given him a sheath for his dagger because apparently they had an agreement with the United States government not to be carrying weapons around the mainland, so he had taken his off. Now he needed it badly. “Where is the danger?”

Her ear squeaked.

“We’re not sure, but don’t like the look of that guy by the front entrance.”

Balim evaluated him. The human male seemed young, wore baggy clothes, and every few moments he looked away from the entrance to glance at his phone, then looked back. “He has a dim soul.”

“He’s a criminal?”

“Not necessarily, but, it is possible.”

A yellow car with the markings of Dannika’s car service pulled up in front.

Bella’s ear squeaked. She glanced at the emergency exit, considering, then murmured, “I’m going to try the direct approach.” Her ear squeaked more.

Bella straightened and pulled Balim with her to the security guards at the entrance. “I think that guy might be stalking him.”

The guards looked at Balim, then each other. The larger guard swaggered outside and confronted the young male. The male argued hotly, and the guard came back in.

“He says he’s waiting for his mom,” the guard reported.

“Okay, I’m just a Nervous Nelly.” Bella wrapped her hands around Balim’s bicep and leaned into him. “Can we go out the emergency exit? And would you mind escorting us to our car?”

The guards acquiesced, the same larger guard leading them to the side exit. An alarm chirped as the door opened, but he pressed a button while sealing it again, then led them to the yellow car. They skirted the young male, who watched them. But, it seemed, that male was not a threat, as he only talked into his phone. They entered the car. When Balim looked back, the male had changed his mind on his waiting location and walked away.

“The male departed,” Balim reported to her.

“Yeah,” Bella murmured, an edge to her tone. She was not surprised and considered it suspicious. But then her attention was captivated once more by the flower dancing.

Her expression made his heart happy. “You resonate with it.”

“It’s the only one of its kind on the surface.”

“Normally they can only survive a short time after being pulled from the Life Tree. This one has survived for some months.”

“Why?”

“In the past, another such flower survived because it was worn by a warrior’s bride. A future queen. So it is possible that this flower, too, has been replenished or revived by the presence of future queens.”

“I did come to the office,” she murmured, turning the bottle to follow its dance. “I don’t remember seeing it then. There was construction.”

“It must have been covered for safety.”

They crossed the city in companionable silence. There was less traffic than during the hot parts of the day, but always the stops and starts he’d become used to. What amazed him with his sense of peace. He felt like everything was fine now. Everything he’d most wanted had suddenly come to pass. Even though he hadn’t done half of the correct things to make Bella his bride, her soul accepted his. All the other things were a formality.

And he sensed that his mere presence was healing to her. Whatever it was that she had to show him, whatever she was trusting him with tonight, was merely another step on their journey to going to Atlantis, marrying before the Life Tree, and settling back down into life under the sea.

Idle fantasies distracted him as she studied the flower.

She would take to the water and transform instantly as Nora had done. If she did not, he would help her. Her body would swell with his young fry. They would raise their son together surrounded by the mer of the city. Another would take his place here on the surface and finish the hospital because he would not have time while raising his massive family with her beneath the waves.

It was a beautiful vision that made him glow with happiness and pride.

He must prepare to take her to Atlantis. He would begin tonight as soon as they finished this errand.

They arrived at the metropolitan hospital, the very place where Balim had first seen Bella, and got out. Bella hid the bottle inside her purse, which she held close to her chest, and scanned the street. Streetlights cast pools of illumination around the parked cars. Even at this hour the noise was loud, the crowds of moving people vibrant.

He too was on alert, his hackles raised as he escorted his bride—his bride—across the bumpy concrete.

Because there was a familiar dim-souled male moving toward them.

It was the male from his building. The young male leaned into his shoulder to ram into Bella.

Balim stepped in front of him, thrusting Bella behind him, and caught the young male’s hard shoulder in his palms, absorbing the force in a ready stance.

The young male blinked and looked up at him in surprise.

He lifted a brow. “Still waiting for your mother?”

The young male’s eyes flew wide.

Then his nostrils flared and his face contracted in fury.

Balim leaned into the fight. On land, he did not have the advantage. He had strength, but not speed or experience. He wore flip-flops to be able to shift quickly, and these were also not a great grip.

But as the male attacked him, movement behind him filled him with rage and dread.

Another male broke from the crowd and grabbed Bella’s purse.

She shrieked and yanked it back.

Balim started to wheel with a roar.

But the first male attacked.

Balim caught the blow with his own shoulder, then a wild elbow hit by his nose. The pain disappeared in the fury of the fight. He grappled the young male, pulling him in close. His attacker bucked and writhed, slipping out of his own thick, damp shirt.

In his periphery, Balim saw the second attacker yank Bella’s purse viciously. She flew in a circle, hanging off it like a ferocious warrior herself.

But then, tragedy.

The glimmering bottle containing the delicate Life Tree flower was flung out of the purse.

Bella shrieked again, letting go of the purse to chase after it.

Her attacker dropped her purse as well.

Both fought each other, scrambling for the bottle.

It hit the concrete, smashing one corner and shattering the plastic there.

Bella’s attacker shoved her away, body contorting, and accidentally stomped on it.

The container broke into pieces as the attacking male stumbled through its wreckage.

The Life Tree flower’s brilliance winked out.

Bella fell to her knees with a moan. “No…”

Their attackers stepped back.

Other humans shouted at them and crowded around.

The attackers raced off, Bella’s purse forgotten on its side in the middle of the sidewalk.

A kindly person handed it to Balim. He accepted it, suddenly conscious of a small drip of blood on his lip, and sniffed, wiping it away from his swelling nose. He carried it to Bella.

She knelt in the dimming pool of leaked elixir, her fingers questing for anything left of the blossom. There was only a few torn pieces. As Balim watched, they disintegrated into nothing.

Bella kept searching, unable to give up, even after the light faded entirely. “There has to be something.”

He rested his hand on her shoulder. “It is gone.”

“Something…” she insisted. “Just give me a minute, I’m going to find it. I’m going to…find…”

And then she stopped.

Her soul darkened like an eclipse to near death.

She leaned over, her beautiful copper hair sliding forward to cover her face. She sucked in pained breaths. And then she emitted a sound of soul-crushing grief that broke his own heart and shattered the pieces, slivers digging into his muscles and leaking out nothing but poison.

He couldn’t catch his own breath.

She remained in that position, silenced.

Then, her right ear squeaked, and her soul light returned. Just enough to prove she wasn’t dead. Then a little brighter, but still very, very dim. She started breathing again.

“Bella.” Her agony cut him deeper than a knife. “I failed you.”

“No.”

“Yes. I was not strong enough. I did not protect you.”

She straightened, then accepted her purse. She wiped her face, checked her image in a compact mirror. Finally, she stood.

Her eyes were dry, her face a little red. But otherwise, from the signs on her face, it was impossible to see that her soul was only half as bright as it had been minutes ago. “I should’ve expected this. We lectured you about security but I was the one who took stupid risks.”

The police had already been called by someone in the crowd and so she and Balim gave their statements. Since it had taken place outside the hospital, there was hope that something identifying had been captured by nearby cameras. But in the end, identifying the perpetrators could not bring back her flower.

After the officers left, Balim pulled her into his arms. She remained stiff and upright, as though only a sheer effort was keeping her from breaking down, and he did not mind. He only sought to give whatever comfort he could. Her guilt and shame and sadness were mirrored in his soul. They both absolved and released the other of blame.

He finally asked, “Did you still wish to visit your honored friend who is in this hospital ward?”

She sucked in several deep breaths. Her soul light brightened and dimmed. This was a difficult question for her.

But she did, eventually, nod and take his hand, leading him up the steps. “I’m sorry it’s like this. But yes. Now that we’ve lost our best option, I need your professional opinion.”

Balim followed his soul mate into the elevators to an upper floor. She greeted the employees there with a warm and friendly tone and exchanged pleasantries. To his ears, she sounded completely normal, but to his eye, she was suffering a deep and critical wound, and he had to figure out a way to heal that, to cure her. It amazed him that she was even able to continue on with such a horrible aching.

She led him to a shower room, then paused. “Have you ever showered before? Remove clothes, use shampoo and soap? You don’t shift every time the water touches you, right?”

“No,” he assured her.

“Right…” She nodded, convincing herself it would be fine. “Well, meet me out here when you’re done.”

He completed his shower as instructed and walked out dripping and nude.

She came out a few minutes later, then made a wide-eyed noise and disappeared back into her room. She returned with a damp towel, which she wrapped around his waist. “I should’ve specified. You should probably wear underwear.”

“Underwear?”

“Ah, never mind. This way.” She led him down the hall, his bare feet padding on the floor while she moved silently in thick socks. At the end of the hall, went through plastic into an entryway and dressed him in crinkly paper clothes, leaving his towel on a shelf, and covering him with plastic and things. Then she zipped doors and led him into the room.

A small human boy sat on a bed clutching a stuffed toy. He looked over at them as they entered.

Bella’s soul brightened and she quickly moved forward, wrapping him in a hug. “You’re awake.”

He blinked heavy, sunken eyes on Balim. “Who’s that?”

“This is Balim.” Bella straightened. “He’s a healer and a merman. Balim, this is my son, Jonah.”

Jonah stared at him, his soul brightening a little.

Balim only let his shock stop him for an instant. She had a son? A human child? His bride already had a child with another man? This was never allowed under the ancient covenant. He could have his hands and lips cut off for daring to touch another man’s female, much less one with a child…

But Atlantis was not governed by the ancient covenant.

They rebelled against it. Rejected it.

Bella’s child was her greatest treasure, clearly. She was trusting him.

He tried to force a lifetime of traditions and messages, ones which he thought he’d already conquered but instead realized he’d naively ignored, out of his mind.

In the end, it was his healer experience that came through and saved him, allowing him to put aside his shock and his feelings, and to focus solely on his patient.

“Jonah, you are ill,” Balim told the human boy gravely.

Jonah nodded.

“We gave him elixir,” Bella said, forcing a worried smile to her face as she smoothed his hair. “But it didn’t seem to do anything, did it?”

Jonah shook his head.

“That’s why…” Her smile faltered, then she rallied. “If I have the soul of a mermaid queen, I thought, shouldn’t my son have some kind of response to the magic? He should. Shouldn’t he?”

Balim studied the boy’s dimmed soul. His body was whole. There was no bleeding-out injury like a gunshot wound that could be staunched, no simple trauma that Balim could take his tools or salves or bandages to. And yet something was poisoning him from the inside. More slowly than the liquid bag that had poisoned Pelan, but inevitably.

“How much elixir did you give him?” Balim asked.

“A few cups,” Bella said.

“I would give him much more. All his liquids should be elixir. He should drink it and bathe in it. Be immersed as much as possible.”

She nodded slowly. “I’ll need a lot.”

“We can send over what is in the reception aquarium to start. In a few hours, the next batch of elixir will be ready at our hospital and you will have my…”

He broke off, somehow unable to say that she could have his mating gemstone. He’d made a mistake using it to make elixir miscalculating the hours. He was supposed to give it to her formally, a symbol of his devotion and desire. She was supposed to accept. Then they were supposed to do all the rest of it.

He’d convinced himself it wasn’t very important to do it in order because he knew in his soul that Bella was his.

But now he was unsure.

She had a child. A child. She’d been with another male. Bore his child.

Surely that male would not be okay with anyone pushing in and claiming his wife.

Humans were different, he reminded himself firmly yet again.

But were they?

Were they really that different?

“…my mating gemstone,” he said finally, firmly, even though the words tasted strangely on his tongue. Bella was his bride. Therefore she owned his mating gemstone.

“Could that benefit Jonah?” she asked.

Could it?

“Perhaps by making elixir,” he suggested. “Perhaps just by its presence, yes. Warriors will rest against their Life Tree. Mature Life Trees are always surrounded by piles of mating gemstones.”

Jonah stared at him.

Bella squeezed his shoulders to her hip, her clothes crackling. “Did you have a question for Balim?”

“Do you have a trident?” he asked.

“Yes. It is not allowed on your land,” Balim confirmed. “I have secured it in a reef just off shore.”

The slender boy rested his head against Bella.

“Why don’t you show him your fins?” Bella suggested. “That looks pretty neat.”

Balim slipped off his flipflop and did so, his foot bones unfolding and lengthening as his tattooed skin stretched tight. His foot extended to double the length of his lower leg. His paper clothes stretched against the muscle in his calf.

Jonah stared at his foot. The barest hint of light blossomed in his chest. That was a good sign. He was interested and resonant with the sea, which was required to respond to elixir or any other intervention.

Soon Jonah closed his eyes, sagging against Bella, and she eased him back gently into the bed, tucking him in with a small soft toy. Balim shifted his fin back to foot and they undid the process of visiting, removing their paper clothes and putting back on their original garments.

Outside at the front desk of the floor, Bella communicated with the hospital staff about transferring in the aquarium elixir, and Balim was asked a number of detailed questions such as whether boiling or heat deactivated the elixir or affected the potency. Eventually, despite the late hour, with the coordination of Dannika on the office’s behalf, they completed the arrangements.

Bella watched it all happening while crossing her arms and biting her lip. Tired lines darkened around her eyes. “I would give anything to still have the flower.”

“You need extraordinary healing for your son,” Balim confirmed, rubbing her stiff shoulders. “And humans receive the most extraordinary healing themselves when drinking the nectar.”

She leaned into his touch. “How does that work? I should’ve drunk it and then tried to donate my plasma?”

“It does not matter now.”

“But if we could get a second flower…” She mulled over her options, tilting so first one shoulder received deeper rubs and then the other, and giving him a powerful sense of rightness from her easy acceptance of him. “If I went down to Atlantis and brought back a second flower, then we could try it.”

“I will ask if another flower has grown.”

“They’re not common,” she murmured, understanding. “Usually they grow when?”

“When the bride appears before the Life Tree to join the city as a permanent member.”

“So I probably could go down myself. Then I have to keep it alive all the way back.” She pressed her lips together, then sagged against him. “What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m trying to do all this and Jonah doesn’t respond to elixir or Sea Opals or anything?”

“There is hope, Bella.”

“I know, but, give me practicalities. Give me alternatives and options. I don’t want to rely fully on one more possible miracle. My heart can’t take it. What if Jonah doesn’t respond to anything related to the Sea Opals?”

“If he does not respond to the life-giving resonance of the mer… I would rely on human medicine.”

She heaved a huge, disappointed sigh. “So, nothing else?”

“If a human soul does not brighten with resonance, all the elixir on the surface will not cure him.”

She made a pained moan.

They watched the delivery of the aquarium elixir, glimmering, and Balim also watched their processing. He confirmed that it was still as potent as it could be by the time it was sterilized, and whatever chemicals and treatments they did to it did not overly dilute its power. Bella once more watched over Jonah as they awoke him and used the elixir. She was right to be concerned. He did not have a strong reaction to it.

She glanced at Balim as though looking for confirmation.

He squeezed her hand. “Your instincts are correct.”

She sighed unhappily, then returned his squeeze.

Dawn was breaking when they finally exited the hospital again. Bella fell asleep against his shoulder in the car service. His emotions whirled. He was feeling so much right now he couldn’t parse his feelings. His bride needed and relied on him, and he snugged her closer, silently breathing in the ticklish aura of her mussed hair. She needed him as a warrior and as a healer.

But he had failed her in both.

He had failed to convey the Life Tree flower to her son, and he had failed to protect her from the attack. Under the water, he was never the strongest or fastest, but he had always done well enough. Above the surface, that was clearly not sufficient, and his bride and her child had suffered because of him. He would never forget her noise of suffering when she tried to cup the spilled liquid. Even the memory of it pained him like a scalpel strike.

That was his fault. He should’ve done more to secure her, to protect her, to keep them all safe…

She shifted positions against him and sighed, reacting to his self-recriminations, and he focused on his breathing. No matter his own shame, he must be strong for her, his soul mate.

All this time he had wanted, craved his bride, and suddenly that seemed naïve. There was so much he didn’t know about her. Mere hours ago he’d assumed that because she’d accepted his claim, they would immediately leave for Atlantis and live the rest of their lives there. Now, he knew better.

What other surprises lay ahead?

They reached her destination—a neighborhood some distance away—and Bella awoke with a sigh. Her own musings had not brightened her soul, either.

He scooted across the seat to exit the car with her.

She stopped him with a hand on his knee. “Call me when your elixir is done and I can pick up your Sea Opal.”

His chest stung.

The exchange of a mating gemstone from warrior to bride was supposed to be holy. Sacred. Not transactional.

But he focused on the more immediate problem. “Soul mates should stay together.”

“I want to be alone for a little bit.”

“Bella, I will help you. Protect you. Make you feel better.”

“I somehow know that’s true, but…” She frowned. “I want to feel bad. Really bad. I just want to crawl into a little hole and hide away in the darkness for a while.”

“I will—”

“And I don’t want to drag you in with me.”

He closed his mouth. The only thing he could think to say would cause her more pain.

She patted his knee. “Call me.”

“I will,” he promised.

She leaned toward him, but then, before they touched, she deliberately veered away. Like it was natural to turn to him for strength and comfort, and she had to force herself to reject him. She got out of the car, closed the door, and stood unsteadily. It took all his will not to leap out and force her to accept his steadying hand, but he knew in the ramrod straightening of her spine and the way she hiked her purse higher on her shoulder that she needed to use her own strength, not his. She disappeared into the building.

It felt like the stars had given way to pure darkness.

He sucked in a breath, another, as the car service drove him back to his hospital.

What he had not told her was that her choice did not save him in any way.

They were emotionally linked. Connected, now.

She wanted to crawl into a hole and suffer.

He would suffer too.

Balim made fists, rested them on his dirt-smudged and bloodied slacks, and forced himself to endure the coming onslaught.

Bella was trapped in darkness and unable to breathe as wave after dark wave poured over her dragging her down, down, down…

Her phone ringing jarred her from sleep. She blinked, her mouth cottony. Only a few hours had passed since she’d laid down, and she hadn’t been able to fall asleep right away. Even though she’d only gotten to enjoy Balim’s arms last night for the first time, their absence had felt wrong and lonely. She’d thrashed, reliving the attack over and over. Her body felt stretched out, and her brain throbbed in pain.

Her phone rang again.

She rolled over, squinting through the dimness of her messy bedroom. She only came here long enough to sleep, so there was barely a mattress on the floor, a single laundry bag, and a loose rack of her hanging clothes. Another reason she’d rejected Balim: pointless vanity. Once she’d had a lovely bedroom with coordinating sheets and pillows, a walk-in closet, sprays of lavender and aromatherapy. Now she lived in a hovel of her own making.

Finally, she grabbed her phone and answered.

“Bella Taylor,” the distorted feminine voice said. “You went back on our deal.”

Fury pushed Bella upright. “I didn’t go back on our deal. You attacked me.”

“Because you went back on our deal.”

“You wanted the Life Tree flower. I was bringing you the Life Tree flower. First, I was taking the nectar inside the flower for my son, and then I was going to bring you the flower. But we never got to do that before you idiots destroyed everything.”

“We asked you to bring the whole thing, flower and any other substances—”

“No, you just asked for the flower. And I was delivering it. You could’ve had it already. You screwed it up.”

There was a long silence.

Even though this was a complete lie, Bella actually felt significantly better for it. Let these terrorists think she was arguing over semantics. If it made them regret last night for even a fraction of a second, it was worth it to her.

“You owe us a replacement,” the voice said finally. “Some recompense for paying off your hospital debt.”

“Take it back,” she said recklessly. “I’m a mermaid queen or something. I’ve got access to Sea Opals money now. I don’t need yours anymore.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Herc said ominously. “You will give us a replacement flower, with the nectar inside.”

“You said it yourself. This was the only flower on the whole surface of the ocean. They don’t even grow that often, I found out, so it’s not like I can order one delivered.”

“Then you will go to Atlantis and take one by force.”

“Yeah, it turns out, I don’t take well to threats of bodily harm. Find yourself another gal.”

“Or else your son—”

“Stop.” Her heart thudded in her throat. “You do not threaten my son.”

“Now, you understand—”

“You do not threaten him, or this ends.” She shot to her feet and paced between neatly stacked boxes in the small apartment. “I’ll end you.”

“You don’t have anything.”

“I don’t need anything. Do you know where I work? Do you know what I do?”

Herc was silent.

“You want to be seen as scrappy heroes fighting inhuman monsters who ‘steal women.’ So how will it look when you, in your own words, threaten to harm a sick, helpless, adorable little human child?”

“I didn’t actually say it,” Herc muttered.

“Oh good, because I’d rather not spend every waking hour using my new Sea Opal money to make you regret the implication.”

Silence met her rant.

She took a deep breath and straightened. “How would you like to proceed, Herc? As friends? Or as enemies?”

“Let’s go back to being friends,” the caller drawled, syllables elongated in the distortion. “How can I make you happy, Bella Taylor?”

“I’m so glad you asked.” She returned to her mattress with a huff. “You realize there’s only one thing in this world I want.”

“A cure for your son?”

“Yes, and you ripped it out of my hands during that violent attack.”

“Staffing has been a slight issue. Not everyone is as professional as I would wish, and sometimes the infusion of new capital comes with an equivalent bureaucracy.” Herc chuckled. “But Bella Taylor, the Sons of Hercules isn’t sitting on a secret cure for leukemia.”

“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem.”

“Entertain me. If I could somehow cure your son, what would you do for me? Would you go down to Atlantis and charm the king himself?”

“Absolutely, I’d open up that box of troubles. I’d become your personal Pandora.”

“Your face would launch a thousand ships?”

“Uh, sure,” she said, although he was obviously confusing her Pandora’s Box reference with Helen of Troy, whose beauty and charming of kings caused the Trojan War. “Yeah, I’d do anything.”

“I love desperate women,” Herc chuckled again and ended the call.

Bella forwarded her recording and call information to Starr. Her sister was probably still sleeping. She mostly worked at night, even when she didn’t have a project like this consuming her.

She got up, drank water, sorted through empty cabinets for food. Nothing edible remained in the apartment. She pulled on new clothes, checked her phone again. Somehow she’d missed a call.

It was from Balim.

Seeing his name made her chest ache.

She pressed a hand to her chest. She’d rejected him last night—really, this morning—for vanity and because she wanted to feel suffering without comfort, but also because she couldn’t make room in her heart for any more pain. She couldn’t care about another person. Jonah needed all of her attention. She knew Balim was upset with her last night, not just for rejecting him but also he’d been shocked when she sprang on him that she had a child. She could tell that no one had informed him before their date. And she’d just ignored his shock and demanded he be okay with it.

This was only the beginning for them, she could tell. She was already making room in her life, even against her own will. Thinking about how they could spend more time together.

But she couldn’t. She just couldn’t.

She checked her voice messages.

His was short, his rich voice making her shiver. “My gemstone is yours, Bella.”

* * *

Balim walked with Roxanne toward the exit of the hospital trying to keep track of her words. The watch on her wrist was beeping. She talked over the noise at her usual fast pace.

“I’ve only got a moment. I have to catch a plane to my baby sister’s wedding. I told you about it. She’s got the most beautiful ceremony planned, and her fiancé is such a doll. The two have never seen an orthodontist. They’re going to have adorable buck-toothed children.”

She tapped her front teeth.

“Mitch has to be at his son’s recital tonight. I’ve made sure the night security officers will keep the place locked up tight. Pelan’s got color in his cheeks, or at least he did a few minutes ago. I have this feeling I shouldn’t go, but weddings are like babies, they’re on their own schedule, and this one isn’t on mine, so...”

“But where is Nora?” Balim pressed.

“I don’t know. You’ll have to check the usual places. It doesn’t matter if she’s right next to him because it doesn’t seem to affect their resonance for some reason, isn’t that what you said? It’s so lovely they’ve found each other. Everyone is finding happiness.” Her voice got choked up and she looked back at the hospital for a long, long moment. “I shouldn’t go. Oh, I have to go, that’s my alarm.”

“Yes, you—”

“Before I forget, that Doctor Kowalski called. I think he’s looking for a job. We can’t afford to pay him, but we sure could use a hand; especially once Pelan is up and about again. I’m happy to give him my hands if they would help. Pelan, I mean. I hope he feels better soon. My alarm again. I’ll see you on Wednesday, and I hope things go well.”

“Yes, I—”

“Although, you know, I could come back early. My family hasn’t seen much of me in the past decade, and there are several aunts I intended to catch up with, but I can’t help feeling like something’s about to go terribly wrong. If you need me, I could cut my visit short.”

“Your alarm,” Balim observed on her behalf.

“Yes. Well, I really must go, or I’m going to be terribly late. In fact, I already am. I can’t stand here chatting with you while my plane flies away without me. Unless you think I should stay for the health of Pelan.”

“I will watch over Pelan,” he assured her.

“Okay. All right. Good day, then.” She hurried to her car, worry still wrinkling her brow and her crinkly hair flying in the wind.

Balim returned to the bed where Pelan was resting. He lay alone twitching restlessly. Since the tank was being repaired, his healing had gone even more slowly.

Suddenly, Pelan’s eyes flew open and he gasped awake.

Surprise flushed through Balim.

“I have you,” Balim murmured, helping him sit upright. “You are doing well, Pelan.”

“I have lost her.” The warrior strained, looking all around him sightlessly. “My bride. She is gone.”

Balim again silently cursed Nora for leaving at the exact moment her soul mate needed her. “I will find her.”

Pelan lay back with a sigh. His voice emerged, weak, from his dry, chapped lips. “How do humans heal without a Life Tree?”

Interesting that was the second time in two days Balim had heard this question. “Very slowly.”

“It is terrible.” Pelan winced and rested the meat of his palm against the edge of the seaweed bandaging his chest. “I feel hollow. As though my heart has fallen into a deep hole.”

“Your bride will return soon.”

He held Balim’s gaze. The red-and-black threads in his eyes glimmered with fear. “It does not comfort.”

“Once she becomes a queen, she may grow powers to be able to heal you.”

He released Balim’s gaze and stared out the window. “She does not wish to be here. That is why she escapes. She left me on the land, and she does not wish to enter the water.”

“Of course she wishes to be with you.” His own words tasted dry like salt powder in his mouth. “On your very first coffee date, she drank the elixir. She’s been at the facility ever since to be with you.”

Pelan frowned.

“All that remains is for you to go to Atlantis, marry beside the Life Tree, and produce a young fry.”

He shook his head.

“Do not give in to fear, Pelan. Your health will improve once your mind calms.”

“I am calm.” His soul light flamed cool but steady, giving truth to his words. “And I do not fear. But something is wrong. I feel it. Perhaps I am not destined for happiness.”

“All warriors find their soul mates.”

“No.” Pelan sucked in a breath and winced. “You know we do not. My words taunt me when I speak them aloud. Perhaps you are right. I am unwell.”

He closed his eyes, his face going pale as his soul light dimmed.

Balim’s stomach dipped.

He lifted the edge of the seaweed. A deep wound pocked Pelan’s breast plate. His body had not filled in the mass, and his bone poked beneath the thin, red scar of flesh.

But that was an ordinary wound.

Pelan was exhausted and ill in human form.

Balim sealed the seaweed once more. “Rest here. I will check on the tank.”

Pelan sighed and slipped back into sleep.

He looked so vulnerable, and yet he had found his bride. What about the new warriors arriving from Atlantis? Without brides, the warriors would have no hope of healing from a traumatic wound.

He must repair this tank and finish this hospital.

Balim found Mitch pouring in elixir to the half-way mark, so together they moved Pelan back into the tank, carefully lowering him into the water. The red and black warrior gained color again as he shifted, gills opening up on his lower back and his feet and hands slipping into fins. His soul glowed faintly, recovering.

“We must go to Atlantis,” he murmured aloud, repeating it as he returned to the room with the pressure cookers to check on how many hours until they would be finished and he could add more elixir.

Nora was squished between two pressure cookers, not within line of sight from the door.

Balim stopped.

She looked up from his phone, which she’d stolen. “Hi.”

“Pelan awoke,” he told her.

Her soul light flared and she scrambled up excitedly. “Does that mean I can leave?”

“Leave?” This he could not understand. “Where would you go?”

“Home. A coffee shop. The sea shore. Literally anywhere.” She handed back his phone as she stretched. “I just feel like there’s something I’m supposed to do. Someone out there I’m supposed to find.”

The phone showed the profiles of warriors on the MerMatch dating website. Not everyone had an image yet but they all had words.

“Pelan is here,” Balim reminded her sharply. “You transformed in his presence. That is only possible when your soul resonates with a soul mate.”

“What if there was another warrior hanging around that day?” she pressed following him as he checked the times. “What if my soul resonated with that guy and Pelan was just a mistake?”

“The odds of that are astronomically low. We are the only Atlantis warriors on the surface. All other cities have rejected modern brides. They remain in hiding trying to pretend our existence was never revealed and living according to the ancient covenant, seeking only sacred brides.”

“Yeah.” She followed him back to the tank, staring in at Pelan.

Neither of their souls brightened. It was as if they were mere strangers or friends, and Balim could not blame her next question.

“Does fate ever make a mistake?”

He shook his head.

Nora sighed, tossed her robe on the chair, and climbed the ladder. She wore a string bathing suit. Unlike Pelan, who was nude, she preferred the coverings if she was going to be stared at, she said. She eased into the water, staring at Pelan, then deliberately rolled away and looked out, past Balim, as if trying to pierce time and space itself and find what she was seeking.

Balim had told her fate never made a mistake, but the truth was, he did not know.

When Bella had rejected him yesterday, that had felt like a mistake. And every hour they spent apart, he was aware of how far away she was. He could almost sense her within the city, moving closer or farther away. It wrapped like a string around his heart and pulled tight.

Of course, he didn’t blame Bella.

Not when he had failed at protecting her.

Now Bella had to rely on human medicine to heal Jonah.

He fished her Sea Opal out of his white jacket pocket and studied the smooth pearl.

She would never be back again.

Mitch’s voice echoed in the room behind him. “Morning, Bella.”

“Hi, Mitch.”

Her voice clenched Balim’s soul in a fist.

He leaped out of his chair and stumbled into the main room. Around the corner of the office, he could see the entrance corridor. And there she stood. Bella.

Balim stared at Bella, stunned that she was here and also that he had not sensed her, and immediately pivoted to her. “You came.”

Bella smiled. “Balim.” Her soul light flared, showing that her calm was a lie.

Blue denim material hugged her curvy thighs, and a puffy green shirt swooped low over generous breasts he wanted to bury his face in.

He dragged her into his arms.

She made a surprised noise but allowed him to hold her taking the comfort he needed. Her softness made him ache. He wanted to unite their mouths again, stoke her desire, make her want him so she would never let him go again.

But she did not tip up her mouth to meet his, and so, he let her go, even though it didn’t feel right. “You came,” he repeated, stating the obvious.

She smoothed her clothes, touched her hair. “I did.”

“How’ve you been?” Mitch divided his attention between friendliness to her and his clipboard of tank specifications. “It’s been a while. Your kid’s okay?”

“Pretty much the same. I came to talk to Balim about him, actually.”

“Good thought. He’s never lost a patient.”

“Never?”

“That’s what the warriors said. He—”

“You know each other,” Balim said.

Hazel had known her. Dannika had also. Now, Mitch. Everyone knew her but him.

“Mitch’s son is the same age as Jonah,” Bella said. “He helped me with the elixir when we were conducting the first tests.”

“Before you surfaced,” Mitch said.

The coincidences of how close Bella had been this whole time shook Balim. Only a short time ago, he’d thought their near-miss at the emergency department was the closest they would ever be. It was still so surprising that in this city of so many it was possible to come close and never quite connect with one’s soul mate.

Mitch left them.

Balim reached into his pocket and brought out his smooth mating gemstone. Smaller than some other warriors’, still tinted with the minerals of his home city, and all his.

“Is it…?” Bella whispered, suddenly reverent.

He swallowed. “Yours.”

Bella’s fingertips ghosted across his palm.

Shivers walked up his spine. She took the mating gemstone, and he clenched his hand.

She lifted the pearly gemstone. The light cast colorful shadows on her skin. It looked larger in her hands than in his. Wonder and terror lit her face.

“I can sense you on it somehow.” She turned the palm-filling pearl over and over. “I saw Faier’s once. Yours is more…I don’t know. Sustaining, and capable, and yet also dark…”

“It is yours.”

She closed her fingers around the gemstone tight and held it to her chest. Her soul brightened with fierce heat. “I can have this?”

“It already belongs to you.”

She returned her gaze to the gem. Warriors had been gifting them to sacred brides for generations. When a bride accepted her warrior’s offering, she accepted their marriage.

“You give me everything I want before I can even ask you for it. Is it supposed to be easy? Nothing is ever easy.” Wicked light reflected in her green eyes as she pressed it to her chest greedily. “Mine…”

The rush of hunger crashed over him and dragged at him, urging him forward. To take her into his arms. To own her. To unite their bodies and souls.

He set his feet, resisting.

The metal in one ear vibrated.

“You wear the earring once more,” he commented.

Discomfort flashed across her face. “Oops. Caught again. How do you do that?”

“Hearing such high-pitched sound is a trait of the mer.”

“That seems likely.” She twirled around the room, glanced into his office, and peeked out the hall doors to the labs and conference rooms. “I came to peruse your new lab… There…and to invite you on a road trip.”

“Road trip?”

“Upstate. Sort of a last-ditch, hail-Mary attempt to get a cure for Jonah and I could really use the company.”

He’d promised Roxanne he would watch over Pelan…

“Come on.” Bella pulled him, prancing backward through the lab. “I promise you’ll have a…a time.”

Well, Nora was here. Their security company had increased caution and staffing after the bomb incident, carefully checking everyone who came in and out, and they were overnight also. Mitch would only be gone a few hours for his son’s recital, then he agreed to come back. Balim contacted Dannika and Hazel to let them know of his plans, and they agreed to cover any gaps.

Balim followed Bella to her matte-red car.

She secured his mating gem inside her purse. He folded into the passenger’s seat. As they drove out, Balim traded waves with the guard at the gate.

Everything would just have to be fine.

Bella drove onto the highway.

“I never drive,” she confessed, weaving between cars and jerking hard on the wheel. “We have to make a quick stop.”

He concentrated on the sounds of the engines of these strange land boats. Bella clicked on the radio. Her nail lacquer was fresher this time, as if she’d put it on when she was more composed.

They exited the blaring road and parked at the metropolitan hospital.

“How often are you here?” Balim asked, following her up to her son’s floor.

She glanced back at him, her tone sharpening. “I don’t think it’s unusual for a mother to spend as much time as possible with her hospitalized child.”

“No, I think the same. When your soul is truly entwined and the other is in need, it is natural for a warrior to wish to be with them as much as possible. I wondered if humans were the same.”

“We are.”

“It is strange, then…”

She glanced up at him, but they arrived at the nurse’s station. At her request, he waited while she carried his mating gemstone back to her son. She was not gone long.

“You gave it to him?” Balim asked, standing.

“He was sleeping.” Worry washed across her, even though she tried to smile at him as though there was no problem. “There’s no change even though he’s had so much more elixir.”

Balim pulled her against him. He did not have experience soothing a human. Warriors were supposed to accept fate stoically. Not all did, but they had closer friends than he, a healer, and so he had seen much grief in his time, but tried to assuage little of it.

Bella leaned into him, making him feel for one moment, a little peace.

“You are giving him your most precious gifts,” he murmured into her ticklish hair. “You are doing all you can.”

She sucked in a breath and straightened. And again, even though he could see the pain dimming her soul, the expression she gave him with dry-eyed and confident. A person who could not see souls might think she felt nothing at all.

“Not quite,” she told him, then linked his fingers. “But I’m about to hit bottom, so, keep me company.”

He strode with her. “Wherever you go, I will also go.”

She looked up at him sideways, a smile playing on her lips. “Even to the pits of hell?”

“Even into the trenches leading to the blacknight sea,” he promised, holding open the door for her. “Even beyond it where the living cannot survive.”

She nodded, her smile fading. Then, she took his hand again. “Okay, then. Here we go.”

The implacable warrior promised to go into hell or beyond with her.

Few people would call a pleasant Sunday drive to Upstate New York “going into hell,” but Bella braced as if the autumn leaves were sparks of flame.

Once past Yonkers, the whole state opened up to scenic greenery—well, it was fall, so the green had turned to rustic reds, coppery oranges, and golds. Soon the trees would die back and reveal peeks of the nearby mountains.

Her shoulders relaxed.

New York State was such a strange mix. Inside the city, in the boroughs, the concrete and glass seemed infinite against the gray of canals, sea, and cloudy sky, but only a short distance out of town nestled the rural underpinnings of apple orchards, mountain villages, and the tip of the Great Lakes. Buffalo was six hours’ drive from Manhattan, but it felt about six states away, instead of being within the same state.

Bella fiddled with the radio, alternating between NPR and old jazz.

Balim turned his dark, thoughtful gaze on Bella. The red threads in his eyes gleamed. “Where are we going?”

“Hell,” she repeated, mostly for her own amusement. Then, she relented. “You said if the mer medicine doesn’t work then we have to rely on human medicine. So I’m trying to arrange that.”

“You are gathering human medicine?” He thought for a while. “Are we gathering a type of plant or animal product that only grows in a dangerous place?”

“No.” She snorted. “I wish. That’d be easier, honestly.”

“What are we gathering?”

“Bone marrow. I hope.” She sighed. “Are you familiar with AML? It’s a type of leukemia, which is a blood illness.”

“We know of blood illnesses. Poisoning, envenomation. It travels through the passages of the body toward the heart.”

This struck her with sudden interest. “You’re a healer. How many scientific details do you know about the body?”

“I know what is necessary,” he said. “I am learning new things all the time.”

“Well, bone marrow is what makes new blood. Did you know that? It makes red cells, white cells, and platelets. In leukemia, mutated or stunted cells crowd out the good ones, and it leads to a whole mess of problems.”

“Such as?”

“Such as anemia from low red cells and strange bruising from low platelets. Stomach aches from the buildup of immature myeloblasts in the liver and kidneys. Catching every single cold and flu. And just when you’re on a deadline and out of sick leave from caring for your constantly sick kid, the doctors call you in for bad news.”

The intermittent radio hissed.

She flipped channels seeking a signal. “Well, there’s personal history you don’t want to know.”

“I do want to know you, Bella.”

“Yeah, well, I feel compelled to confess to you, so you’re about to learn other bad things.” She sighed again and rubbed her mouth. “My parents were hoarders. They’d lie their way into a nice house and then turn it into a garbage dump, filling rooms with literal trash, then fight the inevitable eviction with every tactic. They destroyed every place they lived. Lied to trusting people’s faces. My sister developed life-threatening allergies. I thought I got away, but somehow I carried illness away with me and it’s struck Jonah.”

Another long silence filled the car.

He broke it. “Leukemia is not one of the one hundred seven illnesses known to afflict the mer.”

“Lucky.”

“But we also have no machines to see inside a warrior or to perceive creatures smaller than the eye. Warriors sometimes fall ill, afflicted with invisible illnesses. Perhaps the technology of humans could identify and ease their suffering.”

“Our technology hasn’t done Jonah much good.” She tasted the bitterness on her tongue. “If I’m a bride, why doesn’t he respond to Sea Opals? He carries half my genes. Why isn’t that good enough?”

Balim was silent for a long time.

Then, he said, almost unwillingly, “Many brides have cried over the accidental drowning of their human children.”

Her heart felt heavy.

“I am sorry, Bella. But also, humans have resuscitated their children long after they had given them up for lost. So long as there is life, there is hope.”

That was what kept her going.

At the hospital, she had taken the dead battery out of Jonah’s raggedy bear—it was supposed to play the soothing sounds of a heartbeat or music, but it’d worn out long ago—and put in Balim’s Sea Opal, Velcroing it into the soft toy. Then she’d put it back into the crook of Jonah’s arm. He’d tightened on it, hugging it to his chest. Please work, she’d prayed silently. Please, please make this heal him.

But if it didn’t, she was finally doing something she’d put off for ages because she knew, in her heart, it was doomed.

Balim was a good crutch for her. She hadn’t planned to invite him. But somehow, when she’d turned up to take his Sea Opal, he’d looked at her with such a broken gaze that she’d needed to take him.

And now she was grateful for his distraction. They passed several pleasant hours snacking on old packages of goldfish crackers and gummy bunnies and diet cola. They reached the final turnoff into the suburb as the sun descended. Dying leaves clustered beneath large oaks and crunched beneath her tires. She parked and shut off the engine.

Chaz lived on a nice, sidewalk-lined street filled with picket fences, raked-over garden beds, and kids’ trikes. Lights inside his house reflected the cold.

“Okay.” She got out of the car and tightened her warm sweater around her. “Go along with me.”

Balim also exited the car. “Go along?”

“This is my last hope to get a human cure. I’ll play a desperate, grieving mother. You play a rich merman with buckets of Sea Opals.”

He opened his empty hands. “I could have brought a bucket of gemstones if you had asked me.”

She faced him, fully, and cupped his cheek. “I’m sorry, Balim.”

He stilled. “For?”

“I keep expecting and assuming that I can’t have what I need, that I’m on my own, that nobody can help me. And you keep telling me, over and over, that you have exactly what I need and are more than willing to give it to me.”

“You have been alone a long time,” he murmured.

Her chest squeezed. He understood her. She stepped forward, the urge to kiss him overwhelming her, but she forced herself to brush her lips against his cheek. “Thank you.”

His eyes flared, glimmering with beautiful power. “Bella…”

The desperate way he said her name made a shiver go up her spine.

Later, she promised herself.

She stepped back, squared herself. “Just follow along.”

“I do not feel confident I can lie.”

“You won’t have to.” She climbed the steps and clanked the big knocker. “I’ll do all the talking.”

Balim had no idea what to expect.

Only the dread filling Bella’s heart, which looked like darkness on her chest, punctuated by bright spots of anger. He tensed for an emotionally devastating fight.

She clacked the metal clapper.

Someone thudded inside the house, and light glowed out the window.

Bella straightened, smoothed her purple sweater, and fixed on her widest fake smile.

Balim braced for combat.

The door opened on a slim, short female with disheveled blonde hair scooped into a messy heap on the top of her head. She wore thick glasses. She squinted through them. “Yes?”

“Caro.” Bella smiled broadly, her lips closed over the tooth gap. “Good evening. Is Chaz in?”

“It’s dinnertime.”

“I’m so sorry. This will only take a few minutes. I’ll be gone before you know it.”

She peered at Balim, but her gaze veered away. “You should really call.”

“I did call. You know how he is about calls. And I left voice messages. And email.” She maintained her false smile the entire time. “Please. I’ve driven all this way. It will only take a few moments. It’s about Jonah.”

Caro reluctantly let them in. She walked in socks down the hardwood floor and left them in the subdued living room. “Don’t touch anything.”

“Of course not.” Bella linked her fingers.

Caro eyed her suspiciously and padded deeper into the house.

Small plastic cars and miniature human clothing spread over the room furnishings. On the wall hung photos of two boys posed on human bicycles.

Balim set his feet. Why had she instructed them not to touch anything? “Are the items fragile or booby-trapped?”

“No, she was warning me not to steal.” The false smile tightened Bella’s face as she tried to find amusement in the warning.

“Do you intend to steal?”

“If it were possible to steal what Jonah needs, I wouldn’t hesitate.”

“Bella.” A man’s voice accompanied his shadow. “Caro says you brought a lawyer?”

Bella glanced back at Balim, her gaze lingering on his dry button-up shirt and jacket Hazel had told him was proper for most situations. “He’s a doctor.”

“A doctor?” Chaz flipped on the lights as he entered the living area. He stared at Balim in confusion. “What’s the meaning of this?”

Caro lingered at the end of the hall, close enough to overhear. She crossed her arms over her chest. Her light faded. This man was bright with defensive anger.

Bella put her hand on Balim’s shoulder. “Balim is a merman. He’s chosen me for his bride, and he’s gifted me a Sea Opal worth well over a million dollars.”

Chaz lifted his chin, his arrogance and anger focused on Bella. “Did you come here to brag?”

She was instantly infuriated. Her tone sharpened and her words shortened. “No, Chaz, I came here to ask you again to—”

Two boys barreled around the corner and flew past Caro. They landed in front of Balim and stared up at him in shock.

“Wow,” the older one said while the younger stared in awe. “What are you?”

He squatted to their height. “I am a merman.”

“A what? No way.”

He held up his hand and shifted. The thin skin between his fingers tightened and stretched to make a mitt that would scoop the water. It was the easiest way to show his powers.

“No way! No way, no way! Are you really?”

“Yes. Ask me anything.”

While Balim distracted the boys, Bella spoke to Chaz. “It’s not a brag, it’s a bribe. He has money, Chaz. Money that could be yours. A million dollars. Help me, and I’ll help you.”

While Bella spoke with this Chaz person, Balim studied the human children. He had seen more young ones in the past months above the surface than in his entire life beneath the sea. Young fry were innocent and bright no matter whether they were humans or mer.

Balim brushed the hair off the older one’s eyebrow. A scab had formed. “Hmm. You have an injury.”

“He fell off his tricycle,” Caro said defensively. “He rips off Band-Aids.”

Balim patted his suit pocket and pulled out his smallest kit. Removing gel, he smoothed it on the boy’s cut. “Now you will have no scar.”

The child wrinkled his brow, trying to stare up at the gel quickly drying into a bandage. “Wow.”

The younger boy bounced. “I want one too.”

Balim checked his hands. This boy was afflicted with one of the 107 illnesses: small, round growths on his index and middle finger knuckles the mer called Minnow Bites. He’d scratched several, because they jutted up from the skin. “Can you keep on bandages?”

He nodded.

“Yes,” Caro said.

He sprinkled salt into his paste and wrapped a seaweed bandage around each knuckle. “Leave this on for two human days. The growths will shrink into your skin until they disappear.”

The boy rubbed the slick green seaweed with awe.

“Those’ll never last for two days,” his mother said, pulling both her children back and away, and trying her hardest not to look at Bella and Chaz. “He takes a bath, and he just loves running his fingers in the sink.”

“It is better if the bandages remain wet.”

“It is?”

“Yes.” Balim stood and returned his small kit to his jacket pocket. “Under the water, it is always wet.”

She blinked, frowned, and ushered her children back to their food. The boys raced around the corner and disappeared into the brighter section of the house. Caro remained near Balim in the doorway to the living room, while Bella and Chaz’s argument grew loud.

“I’m not taking your test.” Chaz cut the air with his hand. “You know how they harvest the marrow? They stick a needle in your bone.”

“Only if you’re a match.”

“No, Bella. I won’t put myself through that.”

“So take the test.” She whipped a paper envelope out of her purse and lofted a small plastic tube. “One cheek swab. If you’re not Jonah’s match, I go away forever.”

He held up both hands. “Get that thing away from me.”

“It’s a Q-tip, Chaz.”

“I already told you no! There’s nothing you can say to change my mind.”

Her chest flared to match Chaz, anger to anger, while her smile only broadened. “Not even for a million dollars?”

The man glanced at Balim and then back to Bella. His greed was piqued. “What are you talking about?”

“If you match Jonah and donate bone marrow, I’ll give it to you. A million dollars. For you or anyone in your family. Or anyone.”

Caro stepped forward. “Chaz already told you no.”

Chaz tapped his lip with his index finger, then jerked his head at Caro without looking at her. “Go back to dinner, Caro.”

Her light dimmed, but she held her ground. “You always get dragged around by her.”

“Caro.”

She sputtered at Bella. “I won’t let you touch my boys.”

“That’s your choice.” Bella focused on Chaz. “They’re only a one-in-a-million chance of matching Jonah like you or any other stranger. Chaz has a one-in-two-hundred chance.”

She got more upset. “And you want him to sell off his body parts for money!”

“For his son. And bone marrow grows back.”

Balim tilted his head. This was Jonah’s father? Bella’s original mate? She had no resonance with Chaz whatsoever. Except for their obvious anger at one another, Balim wouldn’t think they even knew each other, much less had once shared bodies and souls.

“Quit asking for pieces of my husband,” Caro cried.

Bella’s smile flattened. Her true feelings flared out. She ticked off a list on her fingers. “I have never asked for alimony. Never come after him for child support. I don’t even send you guys a Christmas card.”

“We don’t want one!”

“Jonah is dying. He needs a bone marrow transplant. I have no choice.”

Chaz came to a decision. He motioned Caro the rest of the way into the room and put his arm around her, while she continued to cross her arms and glare. “Bella. I cut you out of my life a long time ago. This is my family now. No more sneaking in a surprise bone marrow registration drive at my church or my workplace. We’re through.”

She tapped the tube against her wrist. “Not even for a million dollars?”

He hadn’t heard her. “Huh?”

“You won’t swab your cheek for your firstborn son for a million dollars.”

He jerked his head back and pressed a hand to his chest. “Hey, I’m not the bad guy here. Your kid has bad luck. I made youthful mistakes, but now I’m the head of a good Christian family.”

“The other members of your congregation tested. You walked right past.”

“Because you won’t manipulate me.” He gestured for her to leave. “Take your blackmail and your guilt trips and get out of here. You’re giving me more indigestion than Caro’s idea of pot roast.”

His wife’s soul light grew weaker with his insult. She squared her shoulders to make herself more in sync with her husband.

Bella stuffed the envelope into her purse. “How insensitive of me for inconveniencing you during dinner. You probably weren’t a match, anyway.”

“Quit your harassment.” He hugged his wife. “Leave me and my boys in peace.”

Bella’s chest light extinguished. She turned and bumped into Balim.

He held her shoulders, supporting her. Bella swallowed convulsively, regaining control. She did not show weakness, and the other couple would only see her back straight with pride.

He studied Chaz, irritated and righteous, beside Caro, threatened and scared.

“What are you looking at?” Chaz demanded.

“I do not know,” Balim responded.

“Huh?”

“It is strange.”

“You think I’m strange? You’re the one with scary red tattoos on your face.”

“Humans have so many children, yet such bounty does not increase your joy.”

“Of course not.” He snorted. “We’ve got more mouths to feed. If it’s a choice between my kid and somebody else’s, I’m saving my kid. You’re lying if you don’t treat your ‘treasure’ the same.”

“Young fry are not one male’s or one city’s treasure. They are the future, and therefore the treasure of all the mer.”

“Her kid’s not my future. I wasn’t there when he was born. She’s the one who screwed up.”

“That is what I cannot understand. You carry such coldness in your soul.”

Chaz raised a brow. “If the only way to save her kid was to hurt yours, you’d hurt your own kid? That’s not love. That’s sick.”

His question struck too close to Balim’s bone. Long-suppressed anger, which had been leaking out along with the other emotions since Bella had first crossed his path, hissed like acid as it ate into his heart.

“You let my son die! How dare you heal your son first? He is useless! Not even a warrior! Now you will die, false healer.”

Balim would never forget that shout. The grief. The screams.

Hard anger made his empty hand clench for his trident.

Bella sucked in a long, deep, calming breath and let it out. Fierce. Strong. She straightened and murmured to Balim, “Thank you,” before once more facing Chaz.

Her chin trembled, but her voice remained steady. “That is the difference between you and him. He heals everyone who crosses his path, even a little scrape or hangnail. You won’t lift a finger to save your boy’s life.”

Chaz darkened.

Caro trembled, held on to Chaz’s elbow, and spat at Bella, “Get out.”

Bella’s chest flared. “I hope your sons don’t get sick. Because it’s a long road to travel alone, and as you can see, he won’t even swab his cheek with a Q-tip.”

Caro’s soul light fluctuated. She knew the truth of Bella’s accusation. For the first time, she looked at her husband with a question.

Chaz didn’t notice. “Go, before I throw you out.”

Bella linked hands with Balim and tugged him through the front door.

They had failed to acquire human medicine from this selfish Chaz. Now what would happen to Jonah?

Once more, Balim had gone to war with Bella and failed her. Healing was all Balim had ever been able to do, and now even that was called into question.

Outside the house, Balim breathed in the crisp air and tried to focus on calming himself. The acid of his memories damaged him, dissolving his usual limits. The night felt strange. Dangerous.

He focused on Bella. “That male must have changed since you chose him to father your child.”

“Chaz was always selfish.”

She brushed empty food packets out of her way and settled into the car again. While he buckled in, she checked messages on her phone, made sure they were both ready, and drove down the road into the city of Buffalo.

“He was a rising salesman at the first firm I worked. We were sleek and selfish and rising stars together. Then, an accident happened. I got pregnant.”

“And he did not treasure you.”

“No. He did not.”

Balim stared out at the strange lights in the human city. So much of the human world had become familiar, and yet so much would never make sense.

Bella made a frustrated noise. “I shouldn’t have said that to Caro. I would feel bad if one of her kids got sick.”

“Your words were accurate.”

“Yeah, but I would hate for anything to happen to them. Or anyone. I mean, maybe Chaz is right, and he’d be in the millionth percentile of people who go healthy into a hospital and end up dead.”

“You do not believe this.”

“Of course I don’t. I’m trying to talk myself out of going back, breaking into his house, tying him up like some kind of psychopath, and jamming that swab down his throat.” She tapped the steering wheel with her palm. “Freak accidents could happen. Like the guy who went crab fishing, stuck his finger, and contracted flesh-eating bacteria.”

“Crab-Cut Disease,” Balim identified.

“It’s a known illness?”

“Yes. It is also known as ‘Warm Seas Disease.’ It is common and terrible if untreated.”

“I bet. The news made it look terrible even when treated.”

“The victim must drain the poison, pack the wound with astringent gel, and rest against the Life Tree until the streaking descends into the wound and disappears.”

“Yeah, well, we have antibiotics. I think the guy lost an arm.”

“He experienced a mild infection.”

“Mild!”

“Although inconvenient, an arm will grow back.”

She blinked. “No, it won’t.”

“Ah. I forgot it is different for humans.”

“Grow back…” she muttered. “Limbs don’t just grow back.”

“Ours do with the healing sap of the Life Tree.”

“I wish we had a Life Tree on land. Then we could cure everything.”

He nodded. “Unfortunately, there are a few rare diseases that do not respond to the Life Tree.”

“So what do you do?”

“Nothing. They are ancient diseases that have never left their cursed grounds.”

Except once.

Never again.

To avoid any follow-up questions, he reached back into Bella’s purse, removed the envelope, and examined the plastic tube. “How does it work?”

“How does what work?” She glanced over, saw the tube in his hand, and her expression flattened. “You want to test yourself for a match?”

“Yes.”

Her soul light flared and her chin wrinkled. She sucked in several breaths and cleared her throat, but she continued driving one-handed, the other pressed to her mouth.

“Why does my action make you so sad?”

She answered, muffled by her hand. “You’re not even Jonah’s… You, an absolute stranger, would offer to help him and the people who should care refuse…”

“He is your treasure,” Balim pointed out. “And I am your soul mate.”

Bella dropped her hand, pulled a U-turn at the next intersection, and drove the opposite direction.

“I have upset you.”

“No. No, no. This is just… I can’t let you affect me like this. So I won’t. You’ll see.”

Her soul fluctuated between bright and dark, and she ripped off her jewelry—earrings, vibrating metal earpiece, necklace, and hair clips. Her hair descended and brushed her shoulders.

“You must calm.”

“No, calm is the last thing I need right now.”

She drove to a parking lot, got out, and walked to a railing. Beyond it, mist blew off a slow-moving river and a giant bridge roared with traffic. Bella gripped the railing with hands covered by the thick sleeves of her sweater.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“We’re still in Buffalo. This is Black Rock Canal. That’s the Niagara River. It drains from Lake Erie over there. And that’s the Peace Bridge. The other shore is Canada.”

How strange that humans had no real markers between cities or countries. They bled into one another, sharing resources. Cities beneath the sea were much more separate. Above the ocean, humans crossed between countries via a simple bridge. Such freedom of movement was impossible undersea.

“I was going to take you to the Niagara Falls because the light show is so impressive, but this can’t wait.” She turned to him. “The first time I transform after drinking the permanent Life Tree blossom nectar, my body will experience ‘extraordinary’ healing. It’s not affected if I transform after only drinking the temporary Sea Opal elixir?”

“No. They are separate.”

“So I could transform right now and still try the nectar trick later with Jonah?”

His heart thudded, sudden and hard, and a lump formed in his throat. He had to clear it, and his voice broke when he spoke. “You wish to transform?”

“I feel too much to stay confined within this skin.” She clenched her fists against her chest. The gesture was a horrible insult beneath the water, and it fit the intensity of her feelings. “It has to come out. Right now, right here, or else I will go somewhere with you and—”

She broke off, but her gaze lingered, hot and fiery, stroking his pectorals and abdomen and centering right on the hard, throbbing center of his rigid cock.

His cock tugged under her heated gaze.

“Go somewhere with me,” he said, his voice thick with hunger.

She jerked her gaze away.

“We have no elixir here, Bella.”

She turned away. Her breath emerged as fog and joined in with the mist above the river.

He stood beside her and rested his bare hand on the damp metal rail.

She glanced at his shirt. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Rarely.”

“Are you serious? Like, not even in the Arctic?”

“Never in the water.”

“Never cold. I’m so jealous.” She gazed out over the mist. Her soul fluctuated a bunch. “Jonah’s been sick over a year. Do you know the worst part? Sometimes I want to escape it all. Pretend I’m single. Start over. Isn’t that awful? He’s my child, no one else is fighting for him, and what happens if I give up?”

Her question chilled his heart. “You have not betrayed him yet.”

“Yet,” she agreed and rubbed her chest. “But I will. Someday. I’ll go on living while he…I mean, I hope I don’t, but everyone else says it. Does that disgust you?”

He studied her. She was a mystery. “Are you trying to disgust me?”

“It would be easier.”

“What would be easier?”

“If you would just go away.” She dropped her head on his shoulder. Her temple was warm, and her hair caressed his cheek like ghostly fingers. “Then I could stop feeling guilty.”

He allowed himself to reach up and touch the soft tickles. His fantasies from before washed over him. During the drive. Thinking about sliding kisses up her arm, resting on the parking brake, across her chest. Kiss every one of her freckles. His cock pulsed hard in his slacks, ready and thrusting for her. Her long curls, her large sunglasses, her jeans. She called her dress casual, but she amazed him. He had plotted his own betrayal for years.

“I will never force you to choose between me and your son,” he said.

“I know, but I almost wish you would. Because that would mean Jonah was doing well and I’d have a choice.”

She straightened, pulled off her sweater, shirt, and shoes and tugged down her pants. Her curves were exposed to the chilly air, and she shivered as she stepped out in generous undergarments humans called a bra and panties.

Then she ducked between the rungs and shivered, hugging herself, on the edge of the small embankment next to the river. “I can’t stand it.”

“Wait.” He leaned on the railing to grab her arm. “Do not enter this water.”

She leaned out of his reach.

“Stop, Bella. You have drunk no elixir.”

“Actually, that’s not true. It’s been a few weeks, but I’d say I’ve drunk gallons of it.” She shivered. “Let’s see if it’s still in my system.”

“This is a dangerous test.”

“Does it anger you?”

“It worries me. Do not treat yourself so savagely.”

“Savage.” She laughed, her teeth chattering. “Maybe that’s what I really am.”

“Bella—”

“Am I a mermaid, Balim? Am I your destined bride? Soul mate?”

A wave of tenderness crossed over him.

“Yes.” He pressed against the railing. “You are.”

“Then…” Her soul light flickered as her gaze lowered, dropping down his chest, to his belt, and then up again. Her lips quirked. “Go crazy with me.”

“Bella!”

She slipped out of his grasp and tipped backward into the water. A splash collapsed over her body. The frigid waters cut off a horrified shriek.

He dove in after her.

She had not transformed.

Now, she was drowning.

Bella self-destructed hard.

In the moment before she’d leaped off the too-high embankment, in a moment of flawed judgment, desire to let Balim in had overwhelmed her. She’d needed to jump out of her skin before she bared everything.

Before she let him into her soul.

And if she couldn’t transform, he was a doctor and a mer. He’d fix her.

“Bella!” he’d shouted.

Icy water slapped Bella hard. Her head rang and her lungs shuddered.

Her urge to be wild and crazy, to shake off her feelings for him, evaporated beneath the cold, hard ice of reality.

Why was she so stunned? It wasn’t that far of a drop. She twisted in the black water and struggled to figure out which way was up. Her lips and fingertips numbed.

Everything was going wrong.

She had done irresponsible things in her life. Once, when a crush had asked her to be his girlfriend, she’d jumped off the back of a motorcycle in the middle of traffic because her feelings had been too intense and she’d just needed to get away from them. Another time, she’d climbed up on a balcony and spun over a sixty-foot drop, laughing at the people she’d scared.

She dropped her responsible act to throw them off. Prove she was the one in charge of her destiny. Not their feelings, not their expectations. She was in control.

Now she refused to yield herself to Balim. What better way to shock him than by drowning herself? She could be vulnerable while he raised his own defenses.

This wasn’t supposed to kill her.

New icicles fingered her intimate crevices.

Why was it so cold?

Her diaphragm spasmed. Ice water filled her mouth and seared her lungs. She clawed at her throat. Panic turned the world to blackness. She was dying. Literally dying.

“Hold on to me.” Balim’s voice was somehow echoing inside her own chest, hot and demanding, as he clasped her frigid hands with his warm palms.

She thrashed for the surface, for air—

“Hold. I am with you. Calm.” His arms tightened around her upper back, pinning her arms, and his powerful thighs clamped hers. “You have gills. Use them.”

Gills? She had gills?

Bella writhed. His words could not overcome the dark, deadly weight in her lungs.

He nuzzled her forehead with a gentle sigh. “Why do my patients never listen to me? Bella, you are not even my patient, and yet you are the worst for following my instructions. Listen, now. Under the water, I am the medical professional.”

She stopped writhing.

Probably people didn’t listen because he said crazy things were possible, like regrowing arms.

“It is possible now for you too,” he murmured, replying to her unspoken remark, “at least temporarily. You have transformed, Bella. Feel my fingers along your gills?”

No. Now that she’d stopped struggling, she would drown here, alone, in the dark.

“You are not alone.” He tightened his hold on her and skimmed one broad, warm palm down her back to rest at her hip. “And it is not dark. Open your eyes.”

She obeyed.

Balim looked watchful, cautious. A serious wrinkle between his brows hid the little vein of red tattoo. His dark hair waved, and her red hair floated in a watery, free tangle.

No…

“Do not fear.”

He pressed his lips to hers. Their kiss. Hot and tingly and utterly different from the surface. More intimate, more intense.

Did his kiss give her the power to breathe underwater like him?

“You already have this power,” he rumbled while his mouth continued its exploration of hers, replying in his rumbly chest to words she had not spoken aloud. “You are using it to breathe and hear me. Feel it within you now.”

Powerful rightness filled her. He was correct. Bella was no longer cold. The water swirled over every bit of her body and invaded her intimate places. It felt wild and free and dangerous.

Just like her.

His worry smoothed. He looked at peace, and that twisted her heart into knots of tenderness she did not want to feel.

She could stay with him forever…

No. She broke away. Too much remained unspoken between them. But she no longer felt about to die.

In fact, she would finally live.

She released him and twirled, savoring this new temporary transformation.

The lake opened up like a massive underwater room. The surface above was opaque, with distant flat lights, a colorful drink, and the bottom spread out in perfect, rocky and seaweedy detail.

Fish wove between reeds and darted at the surface bugs, flipped, and splashed. The ground moved with crustaceans, worms, crabs, and a hundred creatures she’d never seen or thought about but were as ubiquitous as flies, pigeons, and squirrels. The world was upside down. She flew in the watery “sky” and the surface was “ground” above her.

“It is disorienting.” Balim’s chest thrummed, and she heard his words in a space inside her own chest. His mouth remained closed as he spoke. “Orienting is easier once you are farther from shore.”

Right, because the ocean was much larger.

“That is not the only reason.”

She kept hearing him in her chest. It was strange.

He tilted his head at her. “I am guessing at your words. It was frustrating on the surface, but at least underwater, I can understand enough to guess. Will you not speak and be clear?”

Her own chest cavity echoed with his words. She tried mimicking the vibration. “I’m never doing this again.”

“You must. Only your passive senses have transformed. Do you feel your confidence growing? As you grow confident, you will develop your human toes into mer fins. Believe, Bella. Your soul is freed now, and your passions are rising. This is how you claim your destiny as a powerful mer queen.”

She felt it. She felt it in her bones, lifting her from the muck and rinsing off frustration, turning to beautiful connection. Vibrant life flowed through her still-human fingers, swirled around her still-human toes.

Temporary. This was all temporary.

“I will never be a queen,” she insisted, even as her heart soared with the healing movements of the currents and fresh, clear water, like standing under a glacier waterfall while all else fell away. “I can’t join your world.”

His brows lifted. “Then why did you enter?”

She couldn’t answer.

Aloud.

Because she’d lost her mind tonight. Balim ensnared her with his words and made her remember who she used to be. Before she’d compromised, grown up, lost her way.

He waved her protests away. “By now, your unpredictable behavior should be predictable. Stay close.”

She paddled toward curious spires. “What are those?”

“Watch the riptide.” Balim grabbed hold of her.

A current of water—which was visible too! Like a mist upon the water—picked them up and carried them deeper into the lake like a hand picking them up and tossing them.

It was exhilarating, releasing her control and just existing. She clamped down on her scream and gave in to its power.

Balim flowed with the current and carried her deeper to calm water.

The spires grew in size. It was the broken mast of an overturned shipwreck. “I forgot this was down here.”

“Do you know this body of water?”

“I should. I grew up a few miles away. Can we see the name?”

He kept her in his arms, flowing in whichever direction she wanted. His suit bunched around his joints and water moved along his hard, masculine body. His feet below his trouser cuffs extended into long fins like a scuba diver in a casual business suit. Two separate legs pumped the water, arching them over the wreck.

She pointed. “There’s the helm.”

He hovered over it.

“I used to dream about going on yachting tours. I never wanted my own. I just wanted to be rich enough to be invited.” She let go of his hand and gripped the barnacle-crusted wheel.

“Bella, no!” He yanked her away.

Hard barnacles sliced her hands. Blood spotted the water.

“Ow.” She tried to put her cuts in her mouth.

“No. You must let them flow.” He held her wrists firmly in the current to drag the blood away. “Cleanse the wound if this graveyard is infected.”

“Infected?”

“The disease that cursed this battleground could still be dangerous.”

Battleground?

Wrecks lay in every direction. A shadow of a hull silted over and turned into caves for animals, others preserved as if the boat had lain to rest on a beach.

No wonder he thought they had fought a war here. But the wrecks were from different eras. A steamboat, a small galleon, a paddleboat, a speedboat. Canoes. A fancy yacht with broken stained glass windows. A shallow hull.

“The disease that felled these humans could hurt you,” he repeated, his gaze boring holes into her cuts as though he were lasering any dangerous viruses away. “A single touch—a single mouthful of tainted water—and the disease awakens, spreading its deadly name once more.”

Subtle tremors afflicted the hands holding her wrists too tight.

He was terrified.

Her cuts throbbed, but Balim’s caring squeezed her heart. “This isn’t a battlefield, Balim. Storms rise suddenly on the Great Lakes, and this was a main port in the old days.”

“Then why are these vessels abandoned?” He jerked his chin.

Beneath the rusted wheel, an overturned coffee mug was still visible. Funny little artifacts of the fishermen who had piloted the vessels that had survived, intact and unmoved, despite whatever storm or failures had sunk these dreams.

“Probably it’s more expensive to dredge the boats out than to leave them in their watery graves. You must have seen wrecks on the bottom of the ocean.”

“We avoid human wreckage. They crash in barren rock.”

“Disease didn’t kill these people,” she repeated, pulling him away from the dark memories. “You’re upset.”

“This field reminds me of another. Oannes Field.”

“I don’t know it.”

“No human would. It was a field where the coral grew into perfect uncured tridents. Two great cities, Atargatis and Derketo, claimed ownership. Warriors fought for a generation over the same ground. After too much blood had been spilled, the warriors sickened. A chain of interlocking blue rings emerged on their chests, arms, shoulders, and legs. It ravaged the field, spread to the cities, and killed both Life Trees.”

Balim swallowed and focused on her cut hands once more.

“To this day, any warrior who enters the field to honor the dead, to pluck a trident, or even to study the disease, or will succumb before escaping the basin. No warrior contracts the curse and survives.”

She tried to soothe him. “That place is far away from here.”

“And it is like this. Abandoned. The greatest tridents and daggers of the ages are lying out in that battlefield like these cups and plates, tempting any fool to take them.”

“This is more of a too-many-sandbars or inexperience-meets-stormy-weather cursed lake. I promise you, nobody died from anything here besides drowning.”

He loosened his grip on her wrists as though coming back to himself, but fears continued to battle. “There are other illnesses. Even in fresh water.”

She tried to meet his eye and soften his fears with a smile. “You won’t let anything happen to me.”

“It is not always my choice. One incurable disease decimated two kingdoms. To this day, the abandoned field seethes with death.”

He inspected her small cuts, unrolled the tools he’d taken from his jacket pocket, and administered medicine. “Reject me and reject Atlantis, but never reject caution. If you are hurt and I cannot save you…”

Balim released her and, still avoiding her gaze, rotated, casting his wary gaze over the wrecks.

She gathered her thoughts. “What are you looking for?”

“I do not know this area,” he said. “It is a large body of water. Do any mer colonize it?”

“I have no idea.”

“What animals live here? Lotar is better at evaluation. He is in Atlantis.”

Cold seeped into her once more.

He felt it before she did and pulled up. “Bella?”

“Let’s go back to the car.”

He blinked in surprise and then collected her and flew across the lake to their exit point.

Just before he reached the rocky beach nearest her jump and clambered out, she stopped him. “You’re a healer, but you’re also a warrior. Did you ever have to attack someone you healed? Or heal someone you’d attacked?”

His dark gaze told her the answer before his chest vibrated the truth. Both. But his actual words skirted her question. “I am not a human saint, Bella, and the mer follow no code like your Hippocratic oath.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your doctors vow to heal. Always. The mer do not.”

Oh. He looked so pained, though. She suddenly realized what he was saying. “You killed someone who came to you for healing. You used your own medicines to poison them. Didn’t you?”

Dark shadows pooled under his eyes. He was tired, suddenly, and his eyes turned flat and hard. “Do not ask questions that you do not want to know the answers.”

He helped her out of the water and they climbed back up, picked up Bella’s clothes, and went to her car. She was still mulling over the shocking things she’d learned.

She often thought of herself as a bad person. Like tonight, she’d irresponsibly jumped into the water without really knowing if she’d be okay, almost relishing it if she might get hurt. She wanted to use the Sons of Hercules, somehow. If she could lead them on and then hurt them, then, she’d be happy. And that was a pretty dark thing to want.

She looked over the roof at Balim. “It’s kind of funny but this whole time I thought of you as the ‘pure’ one in our relationship. Like, if I have darkness in my heart because I want to destroy anything in my way, you’re the one who’s healing, so you have light.”

“We are alike.” He met her gaze, beautiful and somber. “But do not fear that you are the dark one. I promise you. I have done terrible things. My heart is blacker than death.”

Balim sat on the foot of the bed at the rental while the shower ran in the other room, washing the icy lake water off his bride’s chilled body.

He had suggested going into the shower together.

She’d eyed him with a flare of uncontrolled hunger that made him stiff with arousal.

And then she’d pushed him out the door and told him to give her a minute.

It had been several minutes now.

His confession froze his heart.

He rested the towel on his wet shoulders. The dark river-lake water bunched up his shirt and pants. Since leaving the water, Bella had barely looked at him. She said it was too late to drive back tonight. He had contacted Hazel and Dannika letting them know his situation and now he prepared to spend the night here with his bride.

There was only one bed.

As a mer, he never used beds. At the hospital, he slept in chairs or on the floor. Perhaps he would do the same here. He could sleep at the foot of the bed. So long as Bella could look him in the face, again, and meet his eyes, he would be happy.

The shower shut off. Minutes passed. She did not emerge from the bathroom.

He rested his palms on the edge of the bed.

The bathroom door opened. A puff of steam danced on the ceiling as Bella emerged. Her skin was pink and clean; her rounded shoulders peeked from the thick towel. Her shapely legs and bare feet padded across the carpet. Her curls dampened to red ringlets against her freckle-dotted shoulders.

His body reacted as he gazed on her. She was any male’s dream, warrior or human.

The last thing he expected was for her to plop beside him on the foot of the bed. Still avoiding his gaze, she curled her toes. “You’ve probably seen many people naked, being a doctor.”

He bobbed his head. “The mer swim nude.”

“No big deal, then.” She brushed her hair off her shoulders. “The freckles go all the way down. That surprises some people. Not you, though.”

He didn’t know how to answer.

She also didn’t seem to know how to talk normally. “The shower’s free.”

Balim rose and toed off his damp loafers.

“Balim.” She hooked her fingers around his wrist, stopping him. She’d just emerged from a hot shower and was still radiating heat, yet her fingertips were cool on his skin. “I want to hear the rest of your story when you’re ready to tell me.”

“There is little to tell.”

Her eyes narrowed. She traced the line of tattoos above his thumb knuckle. “Who did you kill?”

A frisson of electricity went through him. “My king.”

Her brows lifted. “The king of Atlantis?”

“My birth city, Undine.”

She nodded slowly. “Isn’t it dangerous to admit you killed your king?”

“A death sentence.”

Her gaze lifted to his. “Did you have a good reason?”

Pain tightened his throat. All the tumult of emotions, long suppressed and ignored as he moved from one patient to the next, one emergency to another, never letting himself sit in the pain of the past. Until now. “Is there ever a reason good enough to justify a healer turning on his patient?”

She held his gaze. Her chest flickered, soul aligning with his. Finally, she released his hand. “Go take a shower.”

He obeyed, leaving her on the bed looking shaken while he scrubbed off the water of the lake and replaced it with the strange oils and lotions preferred by the land-dwelling humans. When he returned, Bella was in the same place, her chest bright and a strange resolve on her face.

She rose. “This night is outside of time.”

He set his feet, ready for whatever punishment she should decide for his confession.

She dropped her towel, revealing her shapely body to his hot, hungry gaze. His cock hardened and thickened with readiness. There was no doubt of her meaning. Not in her eyes, her actions, or in the glow of her soul.

He swallowed. “This is not a punishment.”

“Don’t say that until afterward.” Bella’s tone lightened. “It’s been a while for me, and you might end up thinking it’s a punishment after all.”

“Never.”

She unfastened his towel at his waist. He was not as massive as some warriors, but he was still a warlord of the sea. Ropes of muscle bound his biceps, pectorals, lats, and quadriceps. Her hungry gaze traced them all.

She pressed the tattoo at his hip. The scar of the injury was long gone, but the two sides of the tattoo had cinched together off-center. “What’s this?”

“My citizen mark for Undine.” He curled his hands around her slim fingers and brought the cool digits to his lips.

Arousal washed over her face.

He kissed her fingers, nibbling the soft pads and the sharp nails, teasing and testing her will. No matter what lay in store for them, she was his soul’s match, and he would worship her until she radiated pleasure.

She stepped into his arms. Her full breasts that had already nursed a child displayed proud pink nipples. Her wide belly that had already carried a human child to term was rounded and ready.

Bella opened a small square packet.

He watched with curiosity as she unrolled it. “What is this device?”

“A condom.” She touched the tip to his cock head. “It prevents pregnancy.”

Her confession intrigued him. She did not wish to bear his young fry? But then what was the point of their joining?

Her clever fingers drew pleasure from rolling the plastic over his hard cock, and he suddenly felt that joining was more important than producing young fry, at least, this time. “Only humans would invent this device.”

She looked up. “When you have ten kids, I doubt you’ll complain.”

“Ten young fry? I would not tax my female’s precious body with more than one.”

Her lips quirked, and pure laughter gleamed behind her twitching expression. “Mmm. Glad to hear you won’t fight me on it.”

“Fight you? Never.”

“Good.” She rose and placed his hands on her hips. She was warm and soft and smooth, feminine, and touching her made his body clench with hungry wishes.

Knowing the battle that raged within, she cupped his cheek and nuzzled his lips. “Only tonight. Understand?”

He understood. Even though the welling of powerful need filled him with heat and hunger and denied her words. He would only hunger to claim her again. Better never to taste than to crave the flavor which could never be his.

Despite that, he lowered his head to her tipped-up lips and gave in.

* * *

Bella hadn’t intended for this to happen. She’d been with a few men since Chaz. Some might have developed into relationships if she’d been more willing to compromise.

But she had never been with a male as beautiful, as thoughtful, or as wounded as Balim.

She opened to his delicious flavor, and again the unstoppable feelings mesmerized her. He settled her soft vee against his firm, thick cock, and then his hands lifted, united on her breasts, rubbed the pearly nipples. Desire streaked to her center, and hot liquid slicked her feminine channel. He lifted his head, his lips damp with her flavors and his gaze wild. He kissed down her chest to her breasts and wet her nipples, worshipping first one with his mouth and then the other. Another wave of hot need crashed through her. She clung to his shoulders and moaned.

Balim walked her back onto the bed, kneed between her thighs, and kissed to her belly. He was careful of his cock, never touching the condom to her body, at the ready.

Sweet need thrilled her as his hands cupped her mons, parted her sex lips, and his skillful fingers entered her with authority.

She rested her heels on the edge of the bed, opening to his expert exploration. “You’ve studied female anatomy.”

“I study it now.” He lifted his head. “You are my first subject.”

“Oh? Well—mmm.”

He focused his mouth, tongue, and fingers on her throbbing clit.

The same way he knew to pleasure her breasts, he moved over her body, bringing her to the peak of need and then letting her float, bringing her almost to the peak a second time, and releasing her tension, and then starting on a third until she was so mindless with want for him, she needed sex, now, with him and no other. Thank goodness she’d already put on the condom or else it would never have happened.

And only then, as if reading her mind, did he release his hold on her hot pussy and turn his attention to the other parts of her body begging for his claims.

She let go of her fears, her schemes, her very identity. Just as she’d promised him this one night stood outside of time. She was female, a crusader, and he was male, a warrior.

She gripped his hips and dragged his smooth rubber-clad cock to her wet entrance, begging him to take her and finish. Some men never approached a peak. None lasted to three. And if he took her now, they would share something she’d never experienced: Patient, masterful, satiating sex with a male who knew her mind.

Because he did. They were linked. Mind and, as much as she fought against it, soul.

His cock arrested at her entrance. Heat burned his gaze as he held hers. “You are mine, Bella. My bride. My queen.”

Yes. But no. She wasn’t doing this now. Tonight was outside of time.

“Please,” she begged. Not to make her lie. Not now. Not like this.

He kissed her savagely, mixing his hard spice with her own taste, and his rubber-clad cock plunged into her channel, filling her. She gasped, and her body spasmed like when she’d dropped into the freezing water. But it was not freezing now. He was hotter than the sun, and she needed him in the depths of her core.

He ground his cock into her, finding her pleasure and chasing it, watching her with the savage need of a warrior who healed and who also hunted. Tonight, she was both patient and prey for him.

“Yes,” she murmured, arching into his thrusts, reaching for the ultimate peak with every pounding wish he fulfilled.

The orgasm shook her to her core.

Her channel clenched around his cock, spasming with helpless wonder, releasing her from her worries and her fears and herself. It purified her like a confession. It cleansed her soul and remade her into the woman she wished to be again.

He dropped his forehead to her shoulder and shuddered his own release. His cock pressed against her pleasure spot for one final hit of wonder. Then, they lay together for a long moment before he eased out.

She helped him remove the condom and dispose of it, and then they finished getting ready for a sleepy bedtime. He put back on his shirt and boxers, and she wore her long nightshirt. In bed, with only the bathroom nightlight for illumination, she nestled against his side.

Too bad Balim hadn’t been her first husband instead of Chaz. But she had been so selfish then. She wouldn’t have appreciated him.

She allowed herself a little tenderness. In the morning, she’d drive back to Jonah and execute her strategy against the Sons of Hercules. And as for Balim, she would try her best, but it was hard for a man to come in last. So, they’d just have to see. She wouldn’t hold her breath.

Although, come to think of it, she didn’t have to hold her breath.

For at least one night, she’d breathed underwater.

Bella clung tight to that memory.

It might be the only one she ever had.

Because they were awakened in the early hours by Dannika calling Balim in a panic. “Someone broke into the lab and stabbed Pelan.”

“Where was Pelan’s bride?” Balim demanded as he stormed through the door of the hospital, Bella trotting behind him. “Where was the security?”

“They thought it was one of us,” Dannika said, striding forcefully, her soul bright with intensity.

“Do all humans look alike to them?”

“The driver was a human, but they said the passenger had tattoos like a warrior.”

He stopped. “Tattoos?”

“Iridescent purple blackberry-vine tattoos, I guess.”

He kept walking hard, shock going through him. “Gray like Lotar?”

“It’s not Lotar. We just put up cameras outside and you can see him sneak in. I don’t recognize him but you may.”

“I will review.” Balim burst into the main hospital room.

The aquarium tank water was cloudy and strange looking.

“What got dumped inside?” Balim asked.

“We don’t know,” Dannika said.

He clambered up the steps. Scum bubbled on the surface. The whole tank smelled foul. “We have to drain the water.”

Pelan’s healing would stop again.

Mitch started the draining while Dannika and Bella used a portable computer to access the new cameras. Then Mitch helped Balim haul Pelan out of the drained tank and washed off the scum.

White foam coated Pelan’s gills.

Large, dark bruises covered his entire body, and in the center of each bruise was a small dark spot. They splotched across his chest in a singular blue chain…

Balim jolted. Can it be? As if speaking aloud of his sin to Bella had summoned the cursed, incurable disease—

No. He forced himself to examine Pelan. This was not the incurable Blue Ring. It was a simple case of Crab-Cut Disease.

His stomach rolled with the memory of his fears.

Pelan had floated in fresh water. Fresh, sterilized water steeped in Sea Opals. How could any disease penetrate?

That mystery would wait.

“You said he was stabbed.” Balim eased Pelan onto the bed, checking his entire nude body for injuries. “I cannot find anything new.”

“Oh?” Nora leaned in the doorway. “Sorry, I saw the guy leaning over the tank with a dagger and I thought for sure he’d done it.”

“You saw him lean over the tank?”

“From there.” She pointed across the huge warehouse room. “At first I thought you’d returned somehow, but then I realized it was a stranger. As soon as I shouted, he took off, dagger in hand.”

“We have the video,” Dannika called.

Balim walked back out, muttering, “Why weren’t you in the tank with Pelan?”

“Because then I’ve been stabbed too,” Nora returned tartly, crossing her arms.

Dannika rubbed her shoulders empathetically. “That must have been very frightening.”

“I guess.”

They watched the video on the small screen. Balim stood naturally behind Bella, and she leaned against him. He appreciated her calming presence. He would figure this out.

On the video, Nora floated restlessly in the tank while Pelan slept. She finally climbed out, put on her robe, then did some cartwheels and somersaults on the hard concrete.

“Uh, don’t watch this part,” Nora said awkwardly.

On video, she crab-walked sideways. Then she watched some TV. Finally she gave a huge sneeze, spraying a lot of snot. She covered her face and raced off camera.

A tall, unfamiliar warrior strode across the concrete. He indeed had spiky purple vine tattoos. He looked older and almost familiar.

“Who is that?” Nora murmured, transfixed on the screen. “I feel like I’ve seen him before.”

“He is not a warrior of Atlantis,” Balim replied.

“I knew it.” Dannika beamed, pleased. “What’s he dropping in?”

The unknown warrior leaned over the tank and dropped something with a plop. It began fizzing and causing the soap scum. He reached into a pocket and pulled forth a jagged-edged long dagger.

“Pause it,” Balim said tightly.

Dannika pressed the pause.

The symbol on the pommel was almost visible. Oann… Balim’s stomach squeezed. Of course a warrior who had ties to the ruling All-Council would be able to access Oannes Field. Even steal a weapon from it. This dagger looked suspiciously familiar.

But surely not. That would be too dangerous, even for one of their warriors.

Everyone who touched one of those cursed daggers fell ill.

Everyone except one warrior…

“Continue,” Balim ordered, and Dannika let the video continue.

The warrior hovered the dagger over the water, but then he swiftly looked back at where Nora had disappeared. He jumped to the ground and dashed out the open window. Nora raced over, then closed and locked the window. She called security, then went to the tank to check on Pelan.

“The dagger did not touch the water,” Balim said, with a hint of a question.

“No,” Bella confirmed, and Dannika and Nora agreed.

“Then the dagger is unimportant. Mitch, you will continue to analyze the water. Test for fish poisons.”

Mitch nodded. “Already on it.”

“Pelan’s condition is bad,” Balim told Dannika. “I think it is time to evacuate him to Atlantis.”

Dannika nodded, then touched Nora’s arm. “Are you ready?”

“I’m going to Atlantis?” Nora knitted her fingers, a smile warring with a frown. “Do you really think I should?”

“You should stay as close as possible to your soul mate,” Dannika assured her quietly.

“Are you sure Pelan is my soul mate?” Nora asked her, turning away. “Do you ever think fate might make a mistake?”

They spoke quietly.

Balim turned to Bella.

She hugged one arm with the other, attempting a smile. “I guess this is it.”

He nodded, pulled her into his arms, and she yielded, sealing herself against him. He did not want to be apart from her for even a moment. But he understood without asking that she would not come.

“I will return,” he promised, his lips moving against her ticklish hair. “If the Atlantis Life Tree has grown another blossom, I will bring it with me.”

Her throat worked. She managed to nod as she stepped back, out of his arms, her voice tight. “Thank you.”

“Bella.” Dannika touched her forearm gently. “I wanted to thank you again for putting us in contact with your sister, Starr. We have another security audit of our office scheduled for next week. She’s exceptional with technology, isn’t she?”

Bella nodded again, her smile coming more naturally. “She is.”

“I keep thinking we’re taking extraordinary measures but then something like this happens and I feel like I’m not taking them nearly as seriously as I need to.” Dannika crossed her arms and tapped her lip with one perfect fingernail. “A driver and a warrior working together broke into our facility. Despite not wanting to expose themselves, at least one warrior has done so to help our enemies. If they’re going to expose themselves anyway, why not be on our side?”

But they had no answer.

And now Pelan was suffering the cost.

Balim didn’t want to leave Bella, but he had no choice.

This was the worst thing that could ever happen.

Bella was still feeling bad when she left Balim at his hospital and drove to Jonah’s.

She’d gotten used to having Balim here. Let her guard down, even felt a good stretched-out soreness from their one gorgeous night together. Now he was leaving. She had to hope he would come back, and that it would be the same.

Bella was just thinking she should find her earpiece from Starr, which she’d taken out yesterday to go lake diving, when Starr called her.

“Oh my god, thank goodness you’re all right,” Starr gasped. “You haven’t answered since last night, and Bella, there’s been another security breach.”

“Last night?”

“Just now! At your apartment and the MerMatch offices.”

“My apartment?”

“Yes! Two college guys broke in and went through your things. I have it on video. Your landlord chased them out the back window, and he reported it to the cops.”

“Yesterday they got into Balim’s lab.” She stopped outside the front doors of the hospital. “Dannika says we’re underestimating them.”

“She’s right. Bella, my financial guy got back to me. He traced the payments as far as he could, but his contacts think this goes way higher than we thought.”

“Oh?” She went down the hall, lowering her voice respectful of the other people. “Like eccentric billionaire territory?”

“Like secret government black ops territory.”

Her belly went cold. “Dannika has contacts in law enforcement.”

“And they were being stonewalled. My financial guy agrees. Just be cautious, all right? This is way above our usual territory.”

Bella ended the call and got into the elevator, her stomach churning.

Their past stings had targeted academic fraud and elderly scams, and while the perpetrators had had money and lawyers, the law had been on their side. A secret government black ops, or any large enough conspiracy theory…if paying off her hospital debt was a drop in the bucket then they could be in real danger.

And they had threatened her son…

Bella stepped off the elevator at her floor, anxiety calming only at the thought that she would see Jonah and put her worries out of her mind.

The sweet nurse looked up from the desk and then rose, a smile breaking out over her face. “Bella! I thought we wouldn’t see you any more now that Jonah’s been transferred.”

Her stomach dropped to her feet. “Transferred? Where?”

“To the private facility? With all the specialists? You moved him yourself this morning.”

Her heart thudded in her ears.

Turning away from the station, she began running down the hall.

“Bella?” The nurse called after her. “Bella!”

Bella flew past the locker room, weaving between surprised staff. The nurse called after her, and the others tried to catch her, but they couldn’t react fast enough to stop her. Bella was accelerated by the fears of a million years of parents returning to the safe cave where she’d stashed her child and finding it…

She reached Jonah’s room.

The plastic was dismantled. The room was empty. Nothing was inside it. Not her son. Not his clothes. Not his raggedy bear. Nothing.

Her heart cracked.

The nurse caught up to her, gasping, chest heaving. “You can’t…come back here…”

She channeled the deepest, blackest, most murderous pit of fury. “Where is he?”

“…anymore.” The nurse frowned like Bella was crazy. “What do you mean? He’s with your new private care physician.” The nurse patted her arm as she caught her breath. “Why are you looking at me like that? No, of course you know. Did you get the transfer time wrong? It must be nerve-wracking, given the risks. He had more color this morning, and he stayed awake while we moved him to patient transport.”

“Who. Took. Him?”

“The patient transport company. Here, hon, calm down. I know it’s unsettling when you miss an appointment but just breathe. He’ll be settled into the new hospital by now. Shall we call together?”

Her heart suspended its cracking, holding together with trembling glue. She would not break. She didn’t have the whole story yet. “Yes. Call.”

The nurse called on the wall phone. “Can you patch me through to an outside line? Yes. … Hello? Yes, I’m following up on a patient transfer. His mother’s here, and…what do you mean you never received a call? I talked to you myself. Jonah Taylor. He…you don’t have a patient by that name?”

The nurse grew increasingly concerned and looked at Bella.

Bella shook her head.

The nurse grabbed another colleague, while still on hold, lowered her voice to convey the words no parent ever wanted to hear. “…potential kidnapping…”

A whole lot of things happened at once, then.

The hours passed in a blur.

Police were called. There was a whole hospital protocol. Bella was sat in the director’s office. She made no effort. The hospital insisted it had followed all its protocols and that she had somehow authorized the transfer of Jonah in person, but she had evidence that she’d been in another part of the state. She had toll records if they wanted. But none of it mattered. She felt numb.

After all the paperwork and the apologies and everything, dusk was falling as she stumbled out of the hospital and staggered toward her home.

Her phone rang, and she answered the unknown number hoping it was the police, one of Starr’s contacts with information, anything.

“Bella Taylor.” The not-feminine distorted voice sounded pleased.

She stopped in the middle of the darkening sidewalk. Traffic flowed around her. She went completely cold. If the speaker were in front of her right now, she would stab them in the chest without a second thought. Pure, icy, murderous rage flowed through her veins, and it burned with spikes.

She asked, without a hint of emotion, “What have you done with him?”

“You asked for a cure. It’s on its way. Your son is with the best researchers in the country. In the world, in fact. You can thank me.”

Her tone didn’t change. “I’d like to see him.”

“Ah. Unfortunately that ship has sailed. Literally.”

Acid burned the back of her throat.

She swallowed down the urge to be sick. “I warned you.”

“And I’m giving you what you want, Bella Taylor. Your son gets cured, if it’s possible, and in return, you launch a thousand ships.”

She considered her options. “Which direction?”

“Down, Bella Taylor. Down, down, down.”

“To Atlantis,” she said grimly.

“To Atlantis,” the voice confirmed. “We left a little present for you to take with you. Don’t try to get out of it. Jonah’s counting on you.”

Balim collected his trident from the reef. Then he, Hazel, and Dannika met Bella at the airport.

They waited in a private room while the final preparations were made to the specialized jet that would fly them to the middle of the Atlantic.

Hazel and Dannika spoke quietly to one another, subdued.

Bella sat ramrod straight in her chair. As before when she was upset, her face betrayed no hint of her inner turmoil. She looked focused, determined. The darkness in her chest was a yawning gulf visible only to him.

He sat beside her, silently threading his fingers through hers. He could not imagine what kind of villain would steal another warrior’s sick child. But, whatever villain that was, when he reached them, he would not hesitate to strike.

“I wish I could go with you,” Dannika murmured to Balim. “With you and Pelan matched, I feel useless here.”

“You must watch for the new warrior,” Balim told her. “You know all the warriors who have arisen so you can recognize any imposters.”

“That’s true. And you two will check for any double agents on the ocean platform anchored above Atlantis.”

“Do you think the Sons of Hercules have double agents in Atlantis?” Hazel asked.

Dannika tapped her lips with her index finger. “They would have to be mermen.”

“Right, so, you’ll have to look for a guy with those blackberry-vine purple tattoos.” Hazel sighed and squeezed her phone. “I feel like we’re rowing against the river up here. The police catch Pelan’s gunman, but he’s an unbalanced creep looking for an excuse to hurt people. They catch the homemade bomb maker because he stupidly left his actual address on an internal mechanism of the bomb, same thing. Nobody stops the organization that’s inciting these crazies and spreading hate.”

Bella looked up. “Nobody? That’s not true. There are people trying to stop the Sons of Hercules.”

Hazel and Dannika both looked over at her.

Bella’s chest flared with powerful fire. “The people stopping them are us.”

Her pronouncement echoed through the little waiting room. Hazel and Dannika straightened. Balim’s lips quirked into a slight smile.

“Ever since the Sons of Hercules contacted me, I’ve been working double shifts on a marketing campaign to expose them as terrorists. Starr has been tracing them through every method she can think of. We’ve uncovered lower-level recruiters and she thinks we’re getting close to the leaders. Once we recover Jonah, we’ll unleash my campaign.”

Bella’s announcement galvanized them.

Hazel clenched her fists in a fighting pose. Dannika arranged her flowing scarf and folded her hands in the picture of a determined, wise woman.

Balim took Bella’s hand in both of his, a silent promise that she had his strength.

“Our small but mighty crew will spread hope,” Bella said. “We’ll stand against the men who tried to hurt us. And once I rescue Jonah, we’ll smash the organization from the head down.”

The words were inspiring. Balim contemplated her strength as they loaded Pelan, with Nora, onto the jet along with his and Pelan’s weapons and possessions. They left Dannika and Hazel and New York City far behind.

Balim sat beside Bella on the long, grating flight across the Atlantic.

The converted airplane carried five passengers beside the captain. Balim and Bella, Pelan and Nora, and an employee from the human construction company. Bella lost to exhaustion. She’d told Balim the entire Sons of Hercules plot, from the moment she’d received Herc’s first phone call to the ransom demand for her son.

“What do they want you to take to Atlantis?” he murmured in her ear beneath the grinding engine.

She shook her head. “I don’t know yet. But I don’t think it’s good.”

He could think of nothing to say that would comfort her, but just sharing her silence seemed to be enough. A short time after, she closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder and fell asleep.

Pelan lay flat on a stretcher strapped between the seats. In these few short hours, his bruises had blackened to necrotic. The toes of one foot had turned an unnatural green. Pelan’s human breathing labored, and the growl of snot filled the back of his throat, interrupting every breath with a choking snort.

Nora sat by his head and stared out the window. Her soul light dimmed and flared, dimmed and flared, completely disconnected from Pelan. It was as if they weren’t soul mates at all.

Balim hoped he was wrong, because if Pelan didn’t receive healing from the Life Tree and his soul mate…

The converted oil platform appeared on the horizon.

When Queen Aya had arisen from Atlantis after defeating the All-Council armies some years ago, she had arranged for a human company to rebuild the surface city of ancient Atlantis.

Based on old carvings, the ancient city had once spanned the breadth of a large human island. In the deep sea wreckage, carved stone could still be imagined into tall columns, frescoes, domes, and more in the styles of human cities such as ancient Athens, Carthage, and those of the Etruscans. Hundreds of pressurized coils had once lifted and lowered the city. King Kadir had planted his Life Tree seed and formed rebel Atlantis in its shadow.

Few human companies built on the ocean, much less over blue water equidistant between Florida and Senegal, but oil companies had anchored the massive platform using thrusters, partial submersion, and other human mechanics.

Because the platform was so isolated, the Sons of Hercules had not yet penetrated. As far as they knew…

The plane landed, bumping across the massive swells of the mid-ocean on its large float pontoons.

Everyone roused. Bella stretched and yawned, looking at Balim in welcome and making his heart contract, before the events of the past hours cascaded in on her and she darkened, hugging her elbows.

He stroked her back, knowing it was impossible to ease the ache.

He hadn’t been able to save his father, and seeking revenge hadn’t made him feel better, either. If he saved her Jonah, would he finally feel absolved?

The plane motored on top of the water like a bug. The platform lowered a hook and winched the floating plane onto the landing pad for refueling. They were lucky with the weather and calm ocean conditions. Sometimes traveling here was completely impossible for days or even weeks.

The rear cargo door creaked open.

Balim clambered out of his seat and unstrapped Pelan. He and Nora pushed and pulled the gurney down the ramp.

Lotar met them at the bottom of the ramp. The tall, strong, gray-eyed warrior wore Bermuda shorts and flip-flops. He took charge of Pelan. Bella and Nora collected their weapons, including the tridents. Lotar spoke to Balim alone as they hauled Pelan’s gurney across the long platform.

“Unfortunately, you missed Queen Lucy and the twins. They descended yesterday. You will have to beware of All-Council warriors come to harass us on our descent.”

Balim’s fingers flexed for his trident. “How many?”

“Fewer,” the warrior said grimly. Fresh cuts scraped his cheekbones. “My unit will escort you to the midpoint. I have called down to announce your arrival.”

“Good.”

In the past, the mer had descended using currents that could sometimes be very slow or deposited them far from their desired destination. Thanks to the human cables anchoring the platform above ancient Atlantis, they could ascend and descend directly. But their bodies did not react well to rapid fluctuations of pressure and temperature. New techniques for breathing, kicking, and even shifting forms had been developed to take advantage of the structures.

They had also installed a submersible filled with pressurized breathable air at the bottom of the ancient city. King Kadir stationed warriors to attend to the communication wire inside. Now, they could call from the surface to the sea floor in seconds and do so privately.

A human miracle.

A small group of humans blocked the entrance to the elevator.

Lotar spoke quietly. “The owner of the construction company wishes to speak with you and your bride.”

Wind whipped Bella’s hair across her face, and exhaustion darkened her soul.

Balim released Pelan’s gurney fully to Lotar, who navigated the warrior into the elevator, leaving them behind. Bella gave Balim’s trident and dagger to Nora, and she followed Pelan and Lotar.

Balim took Bella’s hand.

Her soul brightened and she leaned on him.

One genial man stepped forward from the group. He held out his hand to Bella. “Merrit Ryerson. Welcome to Ryerson Deep Water Construction.”

Bella greeted him with a human handshake.

He led them into his office.

“I understand your friend is ill, so this will take no time,” he murmured, sorting through cardboard boxes. His office was furnished with books and a wide wooden desk with a computer on top. “No time at all. Something came for you in the last supply shipment. We get those by the slow boat, you know. Ah! Here it is.”

He handed Bella a padded orange envelope.

Bella paled and took it. “How long does it take a shipment to reach this platform?”

“Sailing from the closest port, ten days in good weather. Why?”

“Just curious.”

“Are you?” He set his feet apart and folded his fingers across the belly of his button-up, cream shirt. “Let me enthrall you further. Do you have time to experience the technological marvels we’re creating here with Ryerson Deep Water Construction?”

Her lips curved, closed, over her teeth. “I’m sorry. No.”

“What a shame. I think you’d love it, Bella Taylor.”

A knock on the frame of the open office door wiped the smile right off his face. He looked past them, and his tone flattened. “What?”

The site manager stood in the doorway, his nostrils pinched. “We’re having trouble again with thruster A-29.”

“So get to it.”

The site manager lingered.

Merrit’s smile tightened. “Something else?”

“The turbine’s lugging—”

“Parts are on the way.” He shooed the site manager out and forced a laugh. “Every project has delays. We at Ryerson Deep Water Construction are committed to and capable of bringing your dreams to life. If you’ll give me a moment…”

Then he ducked out into the hall and quietly conferenced with the site manager.

Bella ripped open the envelope. Inside was a vial of blue liquid and a small paper scratched with human writing.

“Inject this into the Life Tree,” she read, then frowned and shook the vial. “Inject what? How?”

Balim took the vial. “Mitch can analyze liquids.”

“Back in New York.” Bella’s soul light extinguished. “It’s got to be dangerous. I can’t possibly take it with me. But if I don’t…”

If she didn’t, the Sons of Hercules would harm her young fry son.

Balim pressed Bella to his chest, soaking up her weakness while she battled this intolerable choice. He knew the crush of emotion and duty, where all that lay in either direction was grief. So he spoke the words he wished someone, anyone, had spoken to him.

“I will help you. Do not be afraid.”

“I don’t know how to inject it.”

“Injecting something is easy. Jam it into the stalk. The Life Tree’s circulation will suck up the poison just as a body sucks poison toward its heart.”

She pulled back, staring at him, disturbed. “You make it sound so easy.”

“Murder is easy.” Cold memory spread throughout his chest. “That is why warriors cannot let an enemy enter the city. Hide the vial in my bag with your small plastic-coated picture of Jonah and be strong.”

“But I can’t…”

“Two times, you inject a poison. Once, to kill a person, and second, to kill something worse. The second meaning is the philosophy of your human ‘chemo’ medicine, yes?”

She nodded, choking.

“Then concentrate on the second and control your sadness. Your enemy has eyes here.”

She put a hand to her cheek. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.”

“I told you, Bella. I will help you.”

“Okay.” She straightened her loose clothing, battered by the wind, and tucked the vial into her bag. “I’m relying on you.”

“When must we inject this?”

She reread the papers and checked inside the envelope. “It doesn’t say.”

“And there is no way to ask?”

“Why?”

“Time passes differently under the water. The queens call it ‘time dilation.’ You will not sleep for months, and so you will not realize how many surface days have passed.”

“Hopefully, the Sons of Hercules took that into account.” She sighed. “Okay. I’m ready. Let’s go.”

The owner returned to the office, took in her red cheeks, and lowered his voice, solicitous. “Are you feeling seasick? The platform is large and secure. You shouldn’t feel the ocean swells, but suggestive minds imagine them.”

“No.” She waved away his gesture with a false laugh. “I’m feeling sentimental. Thank you. Where can we meet our friends?”

“My site manager will show you the entry spot. I’m taking your airplane back to civilization.” He held out a hand to shake again. “Goodbye, Balim. Good luck, Bella Taylor.”

They bid Merrit farewell and followed the site manager across the metal gangways to the surf. Waves like rolling hills sprayed them with ocean water.

“I hate this.” The site manager sniffed as he deposited them by Lotar and the others. “I wish we’d never taken this job. Can’t go in the water without taking my life in my hands.”

Balim noted the long scab on the back of his dominant hand. “You need a bandage.”

“And whose fault is that?”

Balim brought out a roll of seaweed bandages. “I will heal—”

“Heal yourself!” The site manager jerked his hand away and glared. “Healing me doesn’t get rid of the savages tormenting my men.”

He stormed back into the platform, slamming the door behind him.

“Pleasant guy,” Nora commented.

Balim stowed his clothing and shoes into waterproof tubs welded to the platform. Bella followed his lead, stripping down to the skin. Unlike most warriors, who strapped daggers to their biceps and thighs, Balim wore only a single dagger. He secured the small photo of her son and the vial of poison in his seaweed pouch, where he always carried his tools, and tied it to his waist.

His chest twinged.

If his enemies knew about this poison, they would take it and use it. His friends would exile him without hesitation.

And they would be right to do so.

For the second time in his life, he was committing an action that was treasonable. Only weeks ago, he would have prosecuted himself without mercy for risking the lives of the city and the new young fry.

But the dark part of him was capable of evil. He’d already proved it.

And he would rather bear the evil than Bella.

Balim forced it from his mind and instead focused on the dangerous task ahead. He collected his trident from Nora and tested the balance, tightening it to his side. It rested, awkward on land, in the crook of his elbow.

Bella walked into the wind. At the platform’s ledge, a well-armed and otherwise nude Lotar balanced Pelan over his shoulder while Pelan’s completely nude bride shivered.

“It sounds like we’re diving into a war zone,” Bella said, ineffectually covering her feminine places with her palms and giving a mirthless laugh.

“You are.”

“What?”

“Do not think, Bella. Trust in me. In the Life Tree. In your destiny.”

Her soul fluctuated, but she turned to him and gave him that trust. His heart swelled. He would protect her.

“Leap.” Balim entwined their fingers, led her to the edge, and they jumped.

Trust. That was not something Bella did naturally.

She tensed up as her toes left the platform.

The cheerful way Balim announced they were jumping into a war zone distracted Bella from the uncontrolled white-water surf crashing and smashing the metal platform.

Then the seawater closed over her head and encased her in a frothing, thrashing, bubbles-and-surf fist.

Panic hammered her chest.

Unlike during her plunge into Lake Eerie that night, this water didn’t chill her, although it was at least the same temperature or colder.

Balim floated in front of her and vibrated. “Release your air.”

She blew, letting go of a long sigh, and then tightened against the inevitable.

Seawater hit the back of her throat, and she fought the gag reflex, mastering her response while tears burned in her eyes. Alone and cold, she struggled.

Balim’s arms closed around her, and she relaxed. He was warm. Solid. Her anchor.

She didn’t want to rely on him, but in this vulnerable moment, she did.

Her heart thudded hard. Warmth filled her. All she had to do was trust in someone else for once in her life. Believe everything would work out, embrace being a mermaid, and pursue a new life with Balim in Atlantis…

Her throat closed.

She choked.

Cold seeped into her body. Icy water suffocated her.

It wasn’t working?

“Bella?” Balim’s arms tightened. “You are transforming back into a human. Let go of your fears and yield to the shift.”

She’d thought she was. She’d focused on becoming a mermaid, and knives stabbed her in the back.

“Bella…” His voice faded out as the sounds of the seawater blubbed into her brain.

She spasmed.

“…your eyes. Open your eyes!”

She forced herself to look at him. The ocean was dark and frigid and heavy. His face faded into the darkness. He pushed her. The surface loomed.

But she couldn’t rise. She had to save Jonah. She had to trick the Sons of Hercules into revealing themselves.

The ocean brightened as if stadium lights had turned on. And she saw a million miles in all directions with perfect clarity.

Balim’s worry shone in stark relief. He was kicking to the white water. The other warriors were shouting as they tried to keep him from being swept away by the furious currents.

“…not transforming! Quickly, Bella is human—”

“It’s okay.” Her chest vibrated the words, arresting him. “I’m fine now. Let’s continue.”

Sharp worry furrowed his brow. “When did you last consume elixir?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

Lotar appeared at his shoulder. “You must clip on the cable.”

“I must examine my bride and ensure she is fit to descend.”

“I’m fit,” she insisted, even though she wasn’t sure she was. But she didn’t have a choice. Jonah’s salvation lay below.

Lotar guided Balim across the underside of the platform while Balim checked Bella’s vitality.

The mass of the submerged platform was like an iceberg where a part was above the water but much more anchored underneath. Lotar hauled them down through a maze of cables to a central column where four other warriors hung suspended with Pelan and Nora. They had shifted to mer. Pelan grew long fins while Nora’s feet, despite previously transforming into fins in Balim’s hospital, currently remained short and stubby like Bella’s. The current dragged them away from the cable.

Lotar had to fight hard to clip on a harness. But Balim wasn’t finished.

Nerves tensed in Bella’s throat again. “We should go.”

“You cannot revert on our journey.” He nailed her with his serious gaze. “If you have a doubt, you must surface.”

“I don’t have a doubt. It’s for Jonah.”

Lotar’s gaze fixed on Balim’s. He awaited Balim’s diagnosis.

Balim’s frown deepened but he signaled for them to descend. To Bella, he vibrated, “Concentrate on your son. And hold tight.”

The warriors watched her, round-eyed in fear.

She lowered her voice to a murmur, “Are they worried about me?”

“A bride is stronger with her husband. Your reversion in my arms frightened and disturbed them. And me.”

Balim pointed down and kicked.

She held on to Balim.

Gleaming fish flitted and small crustaceans, worms, and wigglers adhered to the cable, tooting funny noises. Their chests glowed.

Her ears popped.

“Normally, we descend with the current,” Balim told her, kicking steadily after Lotar. “Descending this swiftly, our bodies must adjust.”

The oil platform shrank as they swam away from it. But it was still crystal-clear to see it overhead. She saw for a hundred miles. The rig, which looked so massive up close, was a tiny dot in a vast sea.

If Starr were here, she’d notice the vulnerabilities. Her calming presence, even as a young child, contrasted with Bella’s constant kinetic motion.

“This isn’t so bad.” Small, see-through shrimp danced on Balim’s broad shoulders like crustacean pixies. “A peaceful, if windy, war zone.”

“Risk increases as we descend,” he grunted, kicking hard, “because the All-Council knows we use this column. They can attack us at their leisure. It is expedient but dangerous.”

Her worry panged.

Bella held on to Balim. She had to trust in him. Let go of her own power and trust that he and the other warriors of Atlantis would fix everything.

Her throat closed in protest.

She focused on her own fingers clenching Balim. I still have power here. I need to claim it. Helplessness was not something she tolerated, and ever since the Sons of Hercules had captured Jonah, putting her at the mercy of others, they’d pushed her off center.

She wiggled her human toes.

His long fins whooshed the water.

“What can I do?” she asked, crinkling her toes.

“Watch for danger.”

A shark swerved toward them.

She pointed. “Like that?”

He glanced in her direction and raised his voice by vibrating louder. “Lotar!”

The gray-eyed warrior unclipped from the column and floated into the current, legs splayed and arms out so his limbs formed an x with his trident stretched. He made himself look large.

Three sharks swerved and flew past, giving him a wide berth. They emitted a siren sound like emergency vehicles from a different country, impossible for her to ignore.

Balim focused on kicking.

Bella watched over his shoulder.

In Balim’s arms, destiny swept her away. The water felt right. She was at home.

What would she do about Jonah if she were imprisoned in Atlantis?

The choking sensation returned.

Not now. The elixir needs to work. Just a little longer.

Lotar faced the sharks as they split, circling the group.

One dove at him. He thumped it with the sharp edge of his trident. It swerved away with a snarl. He rotated to the other two as though he understood their shark communication, positioning himself just before the second one swerved at him from the other direction.

He slashed.

The trident made a shink sound as it slid across the sandpapery gray skin. It did not penetrate.

The shark swerved away again.

In the distance, an inhalation sounded like someone gasping in shock. It made the hair on her neck stand up and shivers of primal fear run up her spine. A giant maw lumbered toward them.

The trio of sharks swerved erratically. The inhalation disoriented them, and so they darted back in the giant maw’s direction.

“Curse it.” Balim clinked their harness hook on the cable. “Diran, how secure is this cable?”

The warrior closest to Pelan, long-haired Diran, answered. “A Merman Warrior has not tested it.”

“Merman Warrior” was the mer name for a megalodon because it was the only creature in the ocean that could destroy entire cities—and the mer could do nothing to stop it.

He vibrated harder, calling out to Lotar. “Snap on.”

Lotar obeyed, his gaze never leaving the giant hissing mammoth.

“What is that?” Bella demanded.

“A megalodon,” Balim replied grimly.

The giant sharks, which scientists had long thought extinct, apparently lived on in the deep water the mer called the “Blacknight Sea” and occasionally emerged to torment the bottom-dwelling warriors.

They were significantly larger than scientists had thought too.

She tightened her grip. “What can I do to help you?”

A partial smile curved Balim’s lips. “Relax.”

“You’re joking, right?”

He gave his head a quick shake. “When our bodies move in rhythm, a warrior and his bride can move more efficiently than a single warrior alone. King Kadir discovered this with Queen Elyssa. Relax.”

She tried to relax. Think relaxing thoughts. Ignore the massive, creepily inhaling megalodon hissing on a collision course.

This wasn’t the worst fear of her life. A visceral fear, but not the worst one. She let go. Gave in to Balim. Yielded her body to his, his powerful thighs swishing the water, his fins kicking between her stubby human toes while awareness of his nude, hard waist heated her blood.

They moved faster, sliding up to the warriors hauling Pelan and his bride.

The choking happened again. A tickle like a terrible, deadly sneeze gripped the back of her throat. If she let herself go, she’d shift back to human, and that tickle would turn into choking while the water transformed into shattered glass.

She stiffened, controlling herself.

Balim’s kicks slowed and grew heavier. “Relax, Bella.”

“I’m trying.”

His wide hand held her head, and his vibration turned into a private, sad question. “Can you not trust me?”

She couldn’t. She couldn’t. She couldn’t.

Because giving in to this enchanting world, and Balim specifically, would kill her.

“The All-Council has outdone itself,” Diran vibrated, glancing over his shoulder at Balim, unaware of their struggles. “Merman Warriors are creatures of the blacknight abyss and the vents. They cruise the ocean bottoms and should not rise to this column of the water.”

“This Merman Warrior is lost,” Balim vibrated flatly. “Want to give directions?”

Lotar eyed him as though to ask why he was resorting to sarcasm now that their lives were in immediate danger.

But Diran answered. “The All-Council has been attacking us with many distractions. We withstood their attacks, and so they have escalated to sharks and now a megalodon. When will their reign end?”

The megalodon came at them like an approaching blimp.

With her new senses, the blue column of water appeared to be vast sky, and the megalodon crossed it like a deadly Hindenburg.

One smaller shark flew too close.

The megalodon twitched. It vacuumed up the writhing shark. The shark had seemed so large close-up, but it was a minnow inside the massive jaws. The megalodon drifted toward them, crossing the miles of ocean with disconcerting speed.

“How far to the midpoint?” Balim asked, his chest vibrating with a sharp edge of fear. “Any shelter?”

“Some distance.” Diran slowed, released his grip on Pelan, and unclipped as he leveled his trident. “You continue.”

Balim snapped. “Do not be a fool.”

“I must protect the future queens of Atlantis.” He lifted his chin. “I will—”

“Diran.” Lotar’s tone ordered him to obey Balim.

Diran paused.

A new sound reached Bella’s chest, one of gravel tumbling in the washing machine, like when Jonah had come home unbeknownst to her with pockets full of rocks, combined with a scratchy record on top making a high-pitched “we-we.” Awful, tone-deaf, and yet somehow, a cheerfully defiant noise that greeted them from below.

“Praise the Life Tree,” Balim murmured. Everyone kicked toward that terrible sound as fast as possible. Then, he swore again. “This is not the midpoint.”

“No,” Lotar confirmed.

A gigantic octopus filled the ocean below them. Standing on top of the octopus’s head, arms out as if she were embracing them, was a human.

“Queen Lucy.” Balim’s vibrated worry mixed with awe.

“That’s a queen,” Bella repeated.

“She is your future.”

Lucy’s hands glowed with a white light that reminded Bella of the glow of the Life Tree blossom. The same gentle light glowed over them in a sphere of protection.

The octopus waved one arm in the megalodon’s direction and squawked. He curled his arm like a crotchety old man shaking a fist and shouting to get off his lawn.

Across the ocean, the megalodon checked itself and then it turned away. It disappeared into the far distance. The creepy hissing noise like inhaling snakes dissipated with it.

Around Lucy, the protective glow faded.

They descended to the level where the woman had stopped. The octopus curled one giant arm around the rope like it was hanging out, fist at the ready in case it needed to thump someone. Its noise changed to a satisfied gurgle-snort.

Lotar and the other warriors ringed Lucy. It became really noticeable that all the warriors were bristling with daggers, tridents, and blades while Lucy floated entirely nude without even a pin in her flowing hair.

Balim wielded his doctor’s implements. “Queen Lucy. This is not the midpoint. You will injure yourself.”

“I went slow,” Queen Lucy protested, obediently holding out her wrists for him, blinking and fluttering her gills on command while he conducted an exam with Bella still within his arms. Lucy smiled self-deprecatingly at Bella while she submitted to his orders. “Patrols swore they heard a megalodon, and when we found out you were coming down, I had to risk it.”

“What would you have done if your lungs had inflated?”

“Been shocked since I don’t have lungs right now,” the woman replied.

Flowing black hair swirled around her head like a halo as she stood with normal human toes on the generous head of the giant octopus.

“You know I used to scuba dive, Balim. I may be an idiot about mer things, but I’m more aware of the risks and symptoms of rapid decompression than you are.”

“You seem well,” he grudgingly agreed, bandaging a small wound on her finger. “Tell your young fry they must stop using your fingers to teethe.”

“That was Prince Kael. Stand back. I want to greet everybody.”

She drifted off the octopus and kicked her feet, grimaced, kicked a few more times like she was trying to kick-start a recalcitrant motorcycle, and then her feet finally morphed into long fins. She opened her arms to Bella and Nora.

“Welcome to the middle of nowhere, the ocean! I’m Lucy. This is Octopus Kong, our resident giant cave guardian.”

The octopus curled his tentacles around Pelan’s bride and nudged Balim aside.

He released Bella reluctantly.

Octopus Kong curled around Bella delicately, with her safety harness still clipped to the cable. Despite his massive size, his control was expert. He held her with perfect care, the large suckers tightening and loosening.

Bella rested her hand on his rubbery skin. Aside from the raucous noise, he emitted a bright light like a lantern in daylight.

He released her, Nora, and also the cable.

Balim examined the places the octopus had touched Bella, ensuring that no sucker had marked her, and then entwined her again.

Octopus Kong stretched his massive arms. Flying out in an exploratory manner, he acted as if he had done his due diligence of greeting them and was now off to do octopus things, creaking and groaning the whole time.

Beneath him, a squadron of warriors rose.

They’d held back, cautious of the giant, and now traded greetings with the Atlantis warriors using a subtle hand gesture of two hands touching in the center of their chests three times.

“Second Lieutenant Ciran.” Lotar approached the leader. “The cable is not safe. The All-Council moves.”

Just as Bella remembered from meeting him months ago at MerMatch, the studious warrior paused his orders only long enough to gain information and then returned to his authoritative role.

“If the All-Council moves, then we must also move.” Ciran’s coffee-and-green tattoos tangled around his cheeks like twin plants. “Nothing will turn us away from claiming our brides and reuniting the air and water kingdoms. So says King Kadir.”

They repeated the gesture honoring the king of Atlantis.

Balim greeted the warriors rising to find their brides. They looked and sounded worried. Their view of Pelan, too sick to greet them or introduce his own bride, gave them pause.

“And Queen Bella experienced a reverse shift after entering the water.” Lotar’s gray eyes met hers across the distance. He vibrated softly, as usual, but was too disturbed by the experience to stay silent. He turned his back on her and continued to Ciran. “Her transformation is unstable.”

“She must drink the Life Tree blossom nectar right away.”

No! No, she mustn’t. Jonah’s cure!

The warriors separated into two groups.

Bella’s heart ached for them. They risked so much to go to the surface, meet their soul mates, and have a child. They escaped the traditionalist All-Council trying to crush them only to run into the Sons of Hercules forcing them back into the water at gunpoint. It was hard to see Pelan looking so ill. It was a terrible warning of what reaching for dreams could cost.

“Despite this setback, we must not give up until all warriors have found their brides.” Lucy’s voice vibrated with crisp hope.

The warriors straightened with her encouragement.

“We will not be cowed by fear. We will not be stopped by anger. We will not be hobbled by grief. Together, we will rise and claim our destinies. Just like Balim and Pelan have.”

The warriors relaxed.

Bella’s own heart lifted as the fears fell away. She had already fought the Sons of Hercules. Starr would continue her work. And somehow, she would get Jonah back. Then, she would destroy them.

“You must be Bella.” Lucy exuded a motherly warmth. “I’ll escort you the rest of the way to your new home in Atlantis.”

“Thank you.” Bella’s chest twinged with the twin fears of excitement and worry. She was going to a mer city.

A sneeze threatened the back of her throat.

She swallowed hard.

The vial of poison clinked in Balim’s bag. It brushed against her as he positioned her to continue their descent.

“You’ll love Atlantis,” Lucy exclaimed as she descended. “You get your own octopus friend, your own castle, and rule the ocean as a queen. It’s awesome. You’ll never want to leave again.”

Which would be tragic when Bella poisoned them all.

Balim felt Bella’s tension through the water.

“I can’t wait to see Atlantis.” Bella smiled at Queen Lucy with closed lips. “I’ve heard so much about it.”

“Conveniently, two Life Tree blossoms have just bloomed, so you and Nora can both drink the nectar at your wedding ceremonies.”

“Two?” Bella questioned. “On the whole tree?”

The groups separated, and Queen Lucy waved goodbye. Lotar, Diran, and the surface warriors ascended the cable with the escort of Octopus Kong. Queen Lucy led Balim, Pelan, her warriors, and Pelan’s bride to Atlantis.

Bella bit her lip.

“We can still save yours,” Balim vibrated quietly. “As long as you can remain stable, you can avoid drinking the nectar until you are with Jonah once more.”

What if she couldn’t remain stable?

And what about the poison she was supposed to inject?

“How do you feel about becoming a doctor’s wife?” Queen Lucy asked Bella conversationally as they descended along the cable.

“About the same as he feels becoming a marketing executive’s husband,” Bella replied deftly.

“Oh, you do marketing? We could use some positive PR.”

“I’ve completed a marketing campaign against the Sons of Hercules and am waiting for the ideal timing to release it.”

“Good. It’s difficult to maintain a life on the surface and also raise a family, rule a city, and change the world beneath the sea.”

“You did a wonderful job of introducing the mer with your Facebook videos, but new voices have arisen. We need to take back the narrative.”

“But instead of doing that, you’re here.”

“I am,” Bella agreed, grim once more. She swallowed convulsively.

He held her closer. Feel my strength filling you with the power of the Life Tree…

She swallowed again hard.

Just a little farther…

The wreck of ancient Atlantis emerged on the ocean floor. It differed from the last time Balim had seen it.

Cables were embedded in the wreckage. Human lanterns were stuck into bits of the floor and flattened the view throughout the territory.

It gave their enemies more places to hide.

King Kadir had a great interest in the past. His warriors sifted through the ruins for information about the Great Catastrophe. They’d searched for frescoes and found ancient drinking vessels and ornamental boats. Each discovery inspired questions and answered nothing.

Now the descending group unsnapped their harnesses at the base of the city. A team of warriors greeted them, hailing Bella and Nora as future queens.

“There’s Octopus Kong’s home.” Queen Lucy pointed to the giant cave at the foot of the extended coils. “We’ll go over later and leave his favorite fish.”

“Did King Kadir authorize you to approach his lair?” Balim asked.

Queen Lucy smiled. “Since Octopus Kong is the official savior and guardian of Atlantis, King Kadir can’t exactly say no. Anyway, we don’t bother the giant on his bad days.”

They flew on to Atlantis, the reborn city.

The Life Tree twinkled like a sun in a galaxy of stars. The great castles glowed green. Beneath the floating castles, the massive ribs of a felled megalodon glimmered white and fed nutrients to the vibrant sea floor.

Balim’s throat tightened.

He had never wished to leave Undine, not even after the horrible events that had claimed his father and his prince. He’d always felt a grateful tightening when he’d returned home. Atlantis was now his home, and he had the same reaction.

Even though treason clinked in his bag.

When the city had first been planted, only King Kadir’s and First Lieutenant Soren’s lonely castles had arisen from the sea floor, but now a hundred castles bobbed around the Life Tree in concentric circles. So many for such a young city.

They crossed the bare rock toward the increasingly lush floor where the Life Tree and castles anchored.

Bella’s chest lit along with her eyes gleaming with wonder. “It’s like a fairy ring.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Queen Lucy twirled as she kicked her fins. “I think they look like bull kelp and Elyssa thinks little planet balloons. Balim, you’ll be excited to know yours grew in your absence.”

His chest twinged. He didn’t deserve this, and yet he couldn’t stop wanting it. “Thrilled.”

Queen Lucy laughed again as though he were being modest. To Bella, she explained, “You’ll get an octopus and grow your own garden, and it will be your sanctuary. You’ll love it.”

Bella returned her smile, closed-lipped.

“But first, the Life Tree.” She aimed for the brilliant light in the center of the ringed castles.

The warriors shouted greetings, swirling around them. Strong hands took Pelan so that their group could move faster.

Attacks had damaged the Life Tree’s protective petals, leaving it cracked open and dangerously exposed.

Queen Lucy descended through one of the large cracks in the protective petals.

Inside, calming radiance soothed Balim’s heart.

Bella held him closer, and her thighs brushed him as did her forehead. She breathed. “It’s not beautiful…but it is.”

He knew what she meant.

Balim landed at the foot of the barren tree.

Like an oak bereft of leaves, the Life Tree’s bare branches stretched toward the surface. Tiny pebbles of Sea Opal resin beaded up on its small clefts and tinkled to the dais. Two small flowers bloomed at the upper branches of the tree.

It, like its crumbled dome shelter, had been battered to its roots. A silvery trunk was embedded into the dais, and the pastel pink of rebirth tinted the upper portions. The two colors intertwined.

“The roots are the original tree planted from King Kadir’s seed,” Balim told her. “Queen Elyssa grew the trunk when she brought King Kadir back to life after the first betrayal.”

Bella clutched a hand to her throat. Guilt and hope crossed her expression and echoed in her soul light. “Would she visit Jonah?”

“Her healing powers work only on her mer, and only under the water.”

“Oh, yeah. I should’ve known that.”

Warriors rested Pelan against the Life Tree. Queen Elyssa and King Kadir entered the sanctuary. Queen Elyssa glowed with warm welcome, her human eyes twinkling at Balim.

King Kadir lifted his silver-streaked arms, daggers bristling from regal sheaths. “Welcome, future queens of Atlantis, to the—”

“Gaaah!” Young Prince Kael wiggled out of another warrior’s arms and grabbed on to his father’s hair, yanking King Kadir’s head. A huge smile filled his happy baby face. “Gooo!”

King Kadir winced at the tugs and tried to unwind his young fry’s strong grip. “And my son welcomes you also.”

“Come here, you little Sea-Monkey.” Queen Elyssa tickled her young fry. The baby prince squealed and yanked his father’s hair harder. “Oops! Wait, wait, don’t hurt your dada…”

The two parents soon were surrounded by a cluster of warriors with advice on how to get Prince Kael to release his father’s hair.

Zoan, the warrior who took care of the Life Tree and was close friends with Pelan, jangled a Life Tree citizenship seed. “Look what I have for you, Prince Kael. Much more valuable than hair.”

The prince agreed because he let go with both hands and wiggled up to Zoan, his little baby feet kicking and kicking and kicking, until he captured the rattle. Zoan arched his brows at the other warriors, who had gentle envy for his superior child-rearing skills.

Beside Balim, Bella touched her hand to her throat. Was she choking? No, this emotion was different. Her chin wrinkled hard, and her soul light fluctuated.

He pulled her back against his chest, and she melted there. Her soul light steadied. She took comfort from him.

King Kadir smoothed his flowing hair. “Now then, again. Welcome to Atlantis. Let us begin the wedding ceremonies.”

Bella stiffened. The hand at her throat turned to a clutching motion as if someone was choking her and she needed to pull their grip off.

But before she could speak, Nora reared her head. “Wedding? No.”

The Life Tree sanctuary grew deathly still. Even Prince Kael quieted.

Queen Elyssa spoke first. “Didn’t Dannika explain what happens at MerMatch?”

“She did, but come on. I can’t marry a man in a coma.”

“Your marriage will bring Pelan back to life.” King Kadir turned to Balim for medical approval.

But in truth, Balim did not know how to respond. He felt hot. “This is true, Nora.”

Nora looked between the warriors. “You can’t be serious.”

“The Life Tree responds to important life events,” Queen Elyssa offered, “like birth, marriage, that kind of thing. Kadir’s not wrong.”

“Okay, I’ve been thinking about this. I like Pelan, but I just can’t marry him.”

The warriors rumbled. How could she refuse now?

“You drank the elixir and kissed,” King Kadir vibrated, giving voice to his warriors’ disgruntlement. “You had the coffee date.”

“Right, exactly.” She rubbed her shadowed eyes. “The instant we met, he said I was his soul mate. We kissed. I saw stars, and I felt like a contestant on The Bachelor.”

“Like a movie star,” Queen Elyssa vibrated, nodding earnestly. “That’s normal. That’s how you know you’ve met your soul mate.”

“But it wasn’t fun. It was all paparazzi. And as we were leaving the coffee shop…” She shuddered and brushed her chest. “Then…”

The rulers stared at her with confusion stamped on their faces.

King Kadir turned to Balim. “You have observed her and Warrior Pelan. Are they not destined?”

“Nora...” Balim shook his head. “You have stayed beside Pelan for so long.”

“Because you said that would help him. But did it? I can’t possibly marry someone I barely know. What if he’s not a fan of the Knicks?”

She gripped her short, dark hair. Rebelliousness welled in her expression. Although she no longer wore the dramatic purple lip coloring, black eye outlines, or scuffed jeans she’d preferred on the surface, her fierceness made her soul glow.

Queen Elyssa tilted her head. “Are sports important to you?”

“I don’t know.” Her soul extinguished, and she scrubbed her cheeks. “I’m so tired. I’ve been tired for weeks. But I feel like there’s something else I’m supposed to do. Somewhere else I’m supposed to go, someone I have to find.”

“Who?”

“They’re just outside my field of vision, just beyond my reach.” Nora shook her head. “Not here. Out there.”

“She did not rest with Pelan?” King Kadir asked Balim.

“All she did was rest with Warrior Pelan.”

“It wasn’t that restful,” she replied, and the dark rings still under her eyes showed that she spoke the truth. “I lost my job. I had to give up the lease on my apartment. My friends packed my stuff into storage, and I’m pretty sure my ex-roommates helped themselves to my knife set even after I told them not to. And I had to manage it all on ten-minute breaks because otherwise, you freaked out at me for ‘abandoning Pelan in his moment of need.’ I spent this whole time trying to repay Pelan and I’m sorry but I can’t marry him. This is a step too far.”

“So you did not focus on Warrior Pelan’s recovery,” King Kadir decided.

She glared. “For the love of Pete, here I am, aren’t I? I care very much about his recovery.”

“Do not give your love to Pete,” Second Lieutenant Ciran interrupted from the back. “You must love Pelan.”

She raised one brow at Bella. “Am I the crazy one?”

Queen Elyssa lifted quelling hands. “Nora is here because she’s dedicated to helping Pelan. But if she’s not Pelan’s soul mate, as unusual as this situation seems, we must not force anyone to marry.”

“Humans do not always know their desires,” King Kadir vibrated gruffly. “And they cannot see souls light. If they are soul mates, their souls will brighten as they approach.”

Nora obligingly swam up next to Pelan.

Their souls did not react.

Warrior Pelan leaned with his back against the silvery base. His soul flickered weakly. He gathered strength from the Life Tree, but not as much as he should. He was weakening. Getting sicker. Even though he should have resonated with the healing wood.

The Life Tree could not cure Blue Ring…

Balim forced his mind away from that traitorous thought.

The other warriors muttered amongst themselves. King Kadir had pointed out an unfortunate fact. They had brought Pelan’s bride to Atlantis, and her supposed future husband did not resonate for her.

He had once. Enough to declare them soul mates. Nora had drunk the elixir and transformed. Now, everything was called into question.

King Kadir looked to Balim, worry and confusion stamped on his features. “What is the medical explanation?”

“He is ill.”

King Kadir’s gaze darted over the mass of warriors behind them full of hope to claim their brides, now having to confront the horrible idea that they might lose their soul mates if they were too ill. Nora abandoning Pelan was a terrible shock.

Nora rubbed her dark eyes.

“Perhaps after she rests, she will know her heart,” Queen Elyssa murmured to King Kadir.

King Kadir glanced back at his disturbed warriors. Although the decision would be unpopular, he nodded. “Very well. We will postpone their wedding until the bride has rested.”

“And Pelan’s conscious,” Nora insisted.

“As you wish.” King Kadir turned to them instead. “Balim and Bella. Step forward and share your vows.”

Bella’s soul light burned, and she turned in Balim’s arms. Certainty firmed her expression. “I can’t drink the nectar.”

But she would share vows. She would marry him. He was her chosen husband. Her soul mate. Hers.

His chest squeezed as if a fist had clenched it. He laced their fingers, sealing her promise. “Consuming the nectar is not essential to the marriage ceremony.”

The warriors rumbled uncomfortably.

King Kadir vibrated about the strangeness of their conversation. “The Life Tree has gifted you with a blossom to make Queen Bella’s transformation permanent. You reject its offering?”

Bella’s mouth opened and closed while she tried to vibrate a thoughtful, smooth way of explaining herself.

But Balim spoke the simple truth. “She wishes to reserve the healing power for her ill son.”

“She has a son?” another warrior asked in shock. They murmured then about the same things Balim had first wondered—about her original mate, her son’s father, and how she should not have multiple mates…

Balim ignored them. “Bella’s vow is the only promise I need.”

Her mouth closed. She swallowed, and her eyes rimmed with red as her soul flared to the warmth of a beautiful sun. “Balim…”

His chest warmed to match, and even without speaking the vows aloud, he knew she was his bride wholeheartedly. Their souls entwined. The ceremony was only a ceremony, sacred though it was. She was already his.

As though realizing it herself, a strange black poison emanated from her chest. It extinguished her soul light and strangled her lungs. Her eyes widened, and the green color dulled.

She clawed at her face and choked. “Blub!”

“Bella!” He tugged her into his arms as she writhed.

The gills in her lower back had sealed to form smooth human skin.

The elixir had stopped working. On the bottom of the sea far from any replacement source.

She was a human.

* * *

The world crushed Bella in a terrifying shaker of force and darkness.

Like the one time she’d gone white-water rafting with the office before anyone knew she was dating Chaz. On the first rapid, he’d thought it would be hilarious to push her in. She’d gone from breathless excitement to terror as the dark rapid had closed over her head, tumbled her over and over, scraped her across the riverbed, and made her thrash for the brighter surface. Their guide had scooped her back into the boat, and she’d gagged up half the river while Chaz had laughed.

On the next rapid, one of their senior VPs had pushed Chaz in. He hadn’t laughed so hard getting out again.

Red flags. So many red flags. Had she only been with Chaz because it was easy not to trust him? She’d known before he’d abandoned her, pregnant, that he’d leave her someday. Balim loved her completely and would never leave her. That terrified her.

But here, there was no surface. There was no light. There was no raft.

She was alone in a turbulent, frigid silence. Cold weight pooled in her lungs. She couldn’t breathe. There was no thought. Just animal survival. She bit, thrashed, struggled. The water held her in a fluid vise. There was no escape.

This was how she died.

And all hope for Jonah, for Balim’s happiness as a husband, for the warriors of Atlantis died with her.

She’d wanted to be Balim’s bride. Why did that desire cause her to transform back to human? She’d wanted to embrace the mer way. She’d wanted to marry and yield and give in…

“…more, Bella. Yes, drink all.” Balim’s voice echoed, disjointed, as his words vibrated through the thick, black slurry at the bottom of the sea.

The cold receded, and the weight lifted off her chest. Her belly warmed with energy. She was not dying. She was transforming back into mer.

Oh, thank goodness. She could bring hope to the warriors. She could make Balim’s darkness ease and rest in happiness. She could save Jonah’s cure…

The ocean lightened again, and she opened her eyes.

Balim’s dark gaze gleamed with heartblood-red hope as he hovered over her.

She rested in his arms.

As she blinked and focused on him, his relief lasted only a few instants before he queried her. “Bella? Can you see and hear me?”

“Yes.” Her chest vibrated. She sucked in a deep mouthful of water, and it soothed her even though it was unnatural.

“I am sorry, Bella. Forgive me.” His eyes darkened. “Forgive me. I could not lose you. I am so sorry.”

Bella squeezed her eyes shut, refusing this reality.

The Life Tree and her wedding ceremony faded into a blur.

Balim communicated with the other warriors, explaining only enough so they understood why this joyful moment represented such tragedy to her, and then he carried her away from the sanctuary.

The pressure changed—no, that wasn’t it. The wide-open ocean feelings narrowed to a tunnel inside one of the living spherical castles. Balim’s castle. How did she know? The castle held his subtle flavor, like sleeping in his sheets while wearing his oversized shirt.

He rested her inside a small room, and when the smooth oak-like precious wood slid against her heels and buttocks and elbows, she opened her eyes.

The room was a vibrant olive green. The aperture he’d swum through looked out onto a courtyard garden bursting with plants. They nestled at the base of a dome, and the walls were pocketed with rooms just like the one she rested in. Twisty corridors and trailing plants unveiled a fairy forest rather than revealed they were deep beneath the sea. Lavender flowers fluttered on subtle currents.

Balim rested on his knees. His hands hung useless in his lap. “There is food in the pantry. Are you hungry?”

“No.” Grief bubbled up in her chest. “I’ll never be hungry again.”

Matching pain flashed in his eyes. “I had no choice.”

She looked away.

“Your pain is physical.” He examined her, his caring touch soothing as it probed. “We should return to the Life Tree. Married or not, it will heal you.”

“No. I can’t be there right now.”

“Bella. You can only save your son if you are alive to do so.”

She hardened, knowing it was true, and also that she could only focus on the next thing. “Do you have the vial?”

He pulled out the small blue vial. It seemed less sinister than on the surface.

“If the Life Tree is poisoned, doesn’t it hurt all of you?” she asked. “I thought I heard that.”

“Yes,” he said somberly.

“Not just the adults, but the kids as well?”

He nodded.

When she’d first received the vial, she’d known it was an object of evil. But she’d steeled herself to do the awful act, focusing only on Jonah. Now that the Life Tree nectar had seeped into her blood, she couldn’t do it. She felt the connection with all of them, somehow. She could imagine trying to hurt others in order to save Jonah, but not this. And it felt like a personal failure, a failure of her determination. If only she had the fortitude to kill for him, Jonah would live, and because she couldn’t murder others, Jonah would die.

Failure or not, she felt it keenly. “I can’t destroy a city. I can’t kill anyone. We have to give this vial to King Kadir and Queen Elyssa. This is their city. They have to know.”

Balim pressed his lips together.

But she had made up her mind.

Her body had failed. She couldn’t live as a mer with just elixir. If she’d been able to do that, then she could’ve saved her permanent transformation for Jonah’s cure. She was at fault. Only her.

“The king and queen are touring the old wreckage.” He touched a seamless wall and pushed out a cabinet, stored it inside, and hid it away. “We will give it to them when they return.”

Bella nodded.

“Please.” Balim approached her, touched her still shoulders, stroked her taut neck, massaged her temples. “Do not suffer. You will resolve this. You will become a queen and—”

“Stop.” She leaned into him, teasing her hot nipples along his firebrand chest. “Make me forget. I just want to exist.”

His gaze darkened with hunger, and then his lips covered hers. Sweet aches twisted between her legs, tightening her pussy and making her want him. She melded his abdomen to hers. His cock pressed against her soft belly, making delicious promises if she would once more let him in.

“I wish,” he vibrated in his chest as his mouth descended to kiss her collarbone, her chest, and then to snag a hot, aching nipple, “we had more of your plastics.”

A sliver of responsibility returned. She couldn’t just lose herself with Balim or be swept away.

Well, for a little while.

“Yeah,” she agreed, breathless with arousal. “But we can still feel pleasure.” She wrapped her fingers around his hard cock while he groaned and switched to her other breast. “Let me teach you.”

“I must heal you.” His vibrations sounded ragged. “A warrior must pleasure his bride.”

“You will. Watch.” She encompassed his cock in her hands, savoring the length and curvature. He watched her suck the head into her hot mouth, skepticism battling arousal, and then she sucked him in deeper, tonguing his shaft.

He groaned. “How is this pleasure possible? My mind is quiet and empty and filled with you.”

“It gets better,” she promised, her chest vibrating as she continued to tease and arouse his shaft. Watching him fight his arousal made her own increase. She slipped her fingers between the soft, slick folds of her feminine center. She was so ready for him, and she wanted him, but the sliver of responsibility had returned and she couldn’t give in without betraying…everything. She pushed those thoughts from her mind.

Balim took advantage of her distraction to lift her, rotating her mouth around his cock, and rested his hand on her soft feminine vee. “You need this.”

“Yes. I do.”

He palmed her mons, massaging her and studying her, chasing her pleasure until he pressed in one finger and found her G-spot.

“How?” she gasped.

“I see your soul light.” He smiled, cocky, his pleasure immobilizing her. “You are bared to me, Bella.”

She shook. Waves of arousal crashed over her, the orgasm threatening. He did see her. Chaz had never seen her. No one had ever seen her. Not like Balim.

Dangerous. This was too dangerous.

No. Forgetting everything was what she wanted. Needed. Craved.

Tingles filled her fingers and lips and toes. A rainbow of happiness wrapping around her chest in happy fulfillment. Everything would be okay. She was fine and everyone else was fine too. For this one moment, her burdens lifted and she was free as she’d been at seventeen leaving her house for the first time, a future career woman with the world at her feet and fortunes waiting for her to pluck.

Just like before she’d had Jonah. That’s how it was now. She was happy, as if she’d never had Jonah.

She was forgetting him.

All the nights she’d intended to put him down in his crib and get to work—and instead found herself playing with his baby fingers, booping his stubby nose, gazing deeply into his serious brown eyes as he drifted to sleep on her chest. All the days she’d taken her weekend work to the closest park and sat in the shade while he raced around the shallow cement pool chasing wily ducks. The fearless way he tried absolutely every food she carried home from a street truck, considering each bite with quiet contemplation. His delighted laughter when she’d finally mastered the newest silly dance that he and his friends had been trying to teach her so he could introduce her as the “cool” mom at school.

All the ways Jonah had seeped into her broken heart and sealed the holes, teaching her the true face of unconditional love.

“No,” she murmured.

Balim held her stationary, stopping his movements, holding her safe. “Bella?”

She swallowed her sudden, uncharacteristic emotion. She was breaking inside, and yet she didn’t want him to know it. “I can’t enjoy this. I can’t enjoy anything. Not when my baby is sick.”

He stroked her. “Releasing will refresh you and give you new strength. Your soul glows in my arms, under my touch. The brighter you glow, the more powerful you will become.”

She shook her head painfully. “I can’t…You can’t trick me…”

“Bella, I cannot. You are a female with maturity and experience. You are not frightened or confused. You know your heart and your mind. I only want to help you. Let me do this.”

Perhaps Balim was right. Perhaps she wasn’t forgetting. Perhaps she just needed to rest so she would be strong.

She just needed to let herself go…

He held his position as the orgasm exploded around her, rainbows flying free, lifting on a cresting wave of delicious tingles and then falling. He withdrew from her, releasing her pussy.

She closed her hand around his trembling shaft.

He grunted in surprise and then her mouth filled with his heat and salt. They were linked on a spiritual level. Souls. Lights. And more than fate operated. She felt him in her bones.

And that was terrifying.

Bella struggled to separate. Balim helped her, again stroking her with silent support as though he knew the chaos running through her mind and he didn’t judge her. He never judged her. That was also terrifying.

She struggled free and stared at him.

He stared back.

“Sorry.” She touched her forehead where there ought to be a headache, but she felt fine. “I was thinking about Jonah.”

He nodded and waved for her to come to him. “Rest.”

“I just can’t be happy until he’s safe.”

“That is correct.”

“We have to find a new cure.”

“Yes.”

Balim’s normal answers somehow calmed her. He was right. This cure had been removed because of her, and the failure stung just like her failure to test Chaz had stung. But so long as Jonah lived, she had time. She had the will.

And deep in her heart, she knew he still lived.

Jonah was connected to her. As a mermaid with resonance, as a mother of a child who was sensitive to elixir, she sensed his soul.

And no matter how she fought it, she also sensed Balim.

She returned to Balim’s side and rested against him, floating well off the floor of his garden. She would think of a new cure. Right now. “Did you know the story of the name Jonah?”

“No.”

“In ancient times, he was ordered to deliver a prophecy, but he tried to get out of it by sailing away. A storm came up to punish him and endangered the sailors. Realizing his mistake, Jonah sacrificed himself to save everyone else. He jumped overboard and was swallowed by a whale.”

Balim frowned. “No whale would swallow a human.”

“Some whales do. The Moby Dick whale.”

“Sharks swallow humans. Fish scavenge the dead. No whale acts as you describe.”

“It’s just a story,” she said. “Anyway, three days later, the whale spit Jonah out on shore, where he delivered the prophecy. Disasters were averted. Happy ending.”

He listened and then prompted, “Then what happened?”

“I don’t know.” She sighed as the weight settled on her once more. “It’s ironic. My Jonah’s been swallowed by the whale of cancer. And he’s been in the belly of the beast much longer than three days.”

She had to stop.

Balim cupped her cheek and stroked one thumb across her lower lip. Soothing, loving.

“Sorry.” She swallowed and collected herself. “I know it’s not the time for this. We have to get the Sons of Hercules to reveal Jonah’s position and then save him. Somehow.”

“You will.” Balim held her gaze with absolute faith. “By—”

“Healer Balim!” Ciran shouted from the entrance to their castle, and his vibrations echoed through the long tube through the wall into their courtyard. “King Kadir assigns guards to Queen Bella!”

“Enter!” He offered his hand to Bella and floated into the main courtyard to greet the warrior.

So the working world intruded.

Ciran flew in with two warriors. The trio tucked their tridents against their elbows and saluted.

“Queen Bella,” Ciran acknowledged.

“You still haven’t learned how to smile,” she noted. “I told you during our first meeting that you’d get more interest with a roguish grin.”

“My soul mate does not mind.”

Ciran’s quiet announcement rocked the warriors and surprised Bella.

“If you have found your soul mate, why are you here?” Balim voiced the question for all.

“Because she has not chosen me.”

Everyone stared.

“Who is it?” Bella asked. “Your bride, I mean.”

“When she has selected me, I will tell you.” He gestured to his accompanying warriors, closing the conversation. “These will be your guards until the welcome ceremony when you may choose alternates: Iyen and Gailen.”

Iyen had deep maroon tattoos and a silent but capable mien. He saluted again, his fingers touching before his fit chest and his gaze passing Bella to take in the whole area as though seeking enemies.

Gailen grinned and also saluted; his thumbs couldn’t bend. “Nice to meet you, Marketing Executive Queen Bella.”

She straightened. “Er, thank you.”

“You are welcome.”

Balim made a tsk sound—which was a feat underwater—and gripped Gailen’s wrists, rotating them to examine the thumbs. “No improvements to your thumbs?”

“Nope.” He showed his limited range of motion to Balim. “I am as scarred and limping as Faier, but not half so heroic.” For Bella’s information, he added, “Faier received his injuries saving other warriors from raiders and snatching a child from inside the teeth of a megalodon. I received mine for a stupid reason of no consequence.”

Balim frowned as he rotated the thumbs. “We all broke a little when we escaped our origin cities, Gailen. Do not feel shame.”

Gailen reddened and looked away.

Iyen fixed his gaze on Balim for a long, measured moment and then resumed his silent scanning of the interior.

“Your bones have fused improperly.” Balim wiggled the joints. “On the surface, humans would break the bones a second time and then splint them into the correct position. We may try it here.”

“How strange to break something already healed,” Gailen said.

“Yes. Humans cannot regrow limbs, but they have adeptness at fixing the limbs that remain. You would be awed by their mechanical limbs.”

Gailen looked like he was considering the procedure. “Does it take long?”

“The healing process can. You could not grip during that time.”

Gailen pulled his hands away and wrapped his fingers around his trident. His badly healed thumbs rested on the metal. “I wield a trident. I complete patrols. I have battled the enemy. Make me infirm when I am infirm and can no longer be of use to you.”

“As you wish.”

“Good,” Ciran said, relieved. “Queen Bella, Iyen and Gailen are your guards during the period before you have made your fins and captured your queen power. Afterward, they will serve as your messengers. They will stay with you when you separate from Balim.”

She clutched Balim’s hand. “I won’t separate.”

“I see.” Ciran seemed to calculate her answer. “Balim, you did not complete the mer ‘hospital,’ and so you must review the health of the warriors King Kadir has chosen to surface.”

“How many?”

“Forty-three warriors and one queen.”

Balim’s arm around Bella tightened. “That is more warriors than founded our city.”

“Including the warriors who have surfaced, it is less than half of our current strength. The number remaining can continue patrols with one backup. I have calculated it.” Ciran never smiled once through the conversation, so serious and yet also somehow young and confident.

“I thought we were waiting to send up big numbers to the completed platform.”

“The surface weather is changing from fall to winter, and soon we must wait another year. Perhaps two. King Kadir will not wait. Atlantis will not wait. We will become powerful with queens, vibrant with young fry, and the world will see our united strength.”

Ciran’s chest vibrated with conviction, and the other warriors straightened, heartened by his words.

Balim looked at Bella. For one instant, she shared the same thoughts as him. They both knew what dangers lurked in the surface shadows.

Bella voiced the caution of experience. “The Sons of Hercules aren’t going to sit idle. And you don’t have a hospital or a doctor. It’s a big risk.”

“We will fly in a healer from Dragao Azul as needed.”

“The Sons of Hercules are more determined than you realize. We underestimated them, and I don’t want you to make that mistake.”

“We will not surface together in a clump like a bait ball,” Ciran assured them. “We will take the recommended precautions of the human security team Dannika has contracted.”

“That’s not enough.”

He straightened and puffed his coffee-and-evergreen-scrolled chest. “We are warriors.”

“You’re literally fish out of water. How can you defend against an enemy you can’t see?”

“Bella is right,” Balim affirmed. “Beneath the water, we see raiders. But on the surface, the enemies are eels hiding within sea grasses. It is impossible to identify the poisoned strands until they are stabbing you in the chest.”

Ciran considered this. “I will present this to King Kadir. Balim, you will review the health of the warriors in case we proceed anyway. Come out when you are ready. And prepare, Queen Bella, for the welcome ceremony!”

The trio of warriors flew out of the castle.

Her heart squeezed again. “Balim, I can’t let them welcome me to this city.”

“You must.” His gaze glowed with certainty. “This is your home, Bella. You drank the nectar. The sap of the Life Tree flows in your veins.”

“But the poison—”

“Must not touch the Life Tree. We are agreed. We will not inject it.” He entwined her in his arms and kicked. His feet unfurled into long fins and they crossed his courtyard with a single stroke. “We will tell King Kadir and Queen Elyssa about the vial after you have thought of a new way to defeat our enemies. Such as developing your queen powers.”

Queen powers…mystical powers that women could sometimes develop underwater…

“I can’t see how I could use any magic powers to defeat the Sons of Hercules,” she admitted.

“Observe.” He flew down the long, green entrance canal through the wall of the castle and exited into the city beside Ciran and the others. “You see things others do not. Meet the other queens.” Balim released her outside the Life Tree sanctuary beside Elyssa and Lucy playing with their children. “They will teach you what you need to know.”

Balim left her and flew to a growing group of warriors a short distance away to perform the health inspections.

Bella tried to smile at the women while her mind turned over the problems.

A poisoned vial. A missing child. An elusive cure.

How would she escape this mess? Without hurting Atlantis, Jonah, or Balim?

Balim kept Bella in his field of vision while Second Lieutenant Ciran led him to the assembled warriors.

He did not think of it often, but Ciran had come from Undine as well. When they’d both lived there, Ciran had kept a respectful distance, but he had never taken part in the cruelty Balim had suffered there, and he had never publicly blamed Balim for his role in the tragic deaths.

Reuniting in Atlantis, they had never spoken of their old home. Balim’s past there was too dark, perhaps, even for Ciran to acknowledge. Ciran kept the serious mien of a scholar and represented his origin city well with his logic. Although aware of emotions, he did not let passions rule him. He was a true Undine.

Balim had not felt like a true Undine since meeting Bella and feeling his cold demeanor catch fire.

But Ciran made a strong second lieutenant. He signaled Bella’s guards. Iyen made brief eye contact with Balim before flying to Bella’s area and spreading between the warriors assigned to Queens Elyssa and Lucy. Gailen saluted and twirled after Bella.

She was so well-guarded, and yet she had been so close to death when she shifted back to human unexpectedly in front of the Life Tree. He’d almost lost her. The shock, her spasm, the dulling of her gaze and the slipping away of her soul… He choked on the memories. Not Bella. Not his Bella.

Second Lieutenant Ciran glanced back at him. “Healer Balim, are you unwell?”

“No.”

“But your soul…” Ciran noticed the dangerous fluctuation of his soul light. “Do you also question whether your bride is your soul mate?”

“She is mine,” Balim reassured the listening warriors beyond Ciran. “She must acclimate to the mer world. Her confusion and distraught emotions are natural. My unsettled soul reflects this because we are united.”

Ciran’s brow smoothed, and he nodded his understanding.

Crisis averted.

The queens—Elyssa and Lucy—played with their young fry. The twins romped, and Prince Kael trailed.

Their giggles echoed in the city center, warming the hearts of all who heard the glad noise and filling the waiting warriors with smiles.

Queen Elyssa waved at them. “Bella, come over! We’ll practice fins. Tory and Yrun will show you how it’s done.”

“Healer Balim.” King Kadir, with silver lightning bolts, floated with him beside the gathering of warriors. “Ensure these warriors are at their peak of health.”

A shadow under the king’s rib cage caught Balim’s eye.

He turned and inspected the king’s chest. “You have stopped taking on weight.”

King Kadir locked his hands over his ribs. “Queen Elyssa likes this slender form for me. Turn your eye on these warriors, healer.”

Balim obeyed, muttering to himself about patients deciding they were well with no evidence, and began his inspection.

The warriors stiffened and moaned when he taped up minor scratches no matter how he reassured them small injuries would not disqualify them from arising. He understood their fears.

Nilun held his hand behind his back. “I am fine.”

“Then show me your hand.”

The fiery warrior growled. “I have shown you all you need to see.”

“Warrior Nilun, you will not surface until I have inspected you.”

“I will fight you if you say I am unhealthy!”

Balim felt his eyes rolling back in his head. “Even I could win if you cannot use your weapon.”

Nilun’s teeth gritted. Balim had stumbled upon his true fears.

“Just show me your hand,” Balim said, irritated. “You are slowing the other warriors.”

Nilun looked over at the others and jutted his hand. A skin lesion covered the back and thumb, arresting his ability to wield a trident.

Balim inspected it. No bleeding, smooth rather than ragged edges, a pinker center… “You have been hiding this.”

“Because!” Nilun gritted his teeth. “I must avenge Pelan.”

“The shooter was already imprisoned by human justice.”

“But not his leader. I must find the enemies who injured Pelan and repay their attack!”

From the Life Tree sanctuary, Nora paddled out and stretched.

She smiled at Bella and the other queens and watched the warriors with interest.

Zoan also floated at the edge of the gathered warriors. He and Nilun were the closest friends of Pelan, although Zoan’s teasing was the opposite of Nilun’s hotheaded impulsiveness.

Balim had never made such close friends.

“You must allow me to surface,” Nilun continued, issuing his request as an order without a hint of asking. “I must exact my vengeance.”

“You may surface.” Balim unrolled his tools and spread healing paste on the lesion while Nilun hissed at the pain. “I would not forbid a warrior to surface who has an infected water flea bite.”

His jaw dropped as his chest vibrated. “Water flea?”

“This reaction is rare. Djullanar has warmer water fleas. You are unfamiliar with colder Atlantic water fleas.” He bandaged the paste with seaweed and pressed it neatly to make it adhere. “But you will not avenge Pelan. Keep this injury wet until the bandage falls off, and you will avoid a scar.”

He tried to flex his hand. “I cannot grip.”

“Correct. And keep the wound wet so it will heal.”

“How can I keep the wound wet? The air is dry.”

“There is water on the surface,” Balim reminded him. “Ask for a bowl of water.”

His face blanked. “You wish for me to keep my hand in a bowl of water? How can I move or pursue or wield a trident?”

King Kadir floated forward. “Warrior Nilun, you will surrender your weapons before you go to the shore. It is our treaty with the Americans.”

Emotion worked his face. He looked back at Zoan, who shrugged, and then into the sanctuary, where it was impossible to see Pelan. “But I must avenge him. That is my whole purpose for surfacing.”

“Consider serving your race as well as your king and search for your soul mate.” Balim turned to the next warrior.

He debated whether to tell King Kadir now of the vial of poison, or whether to wait.

King Kadir was aware of Jonah’s kidnapping. That had been conveyed via the wire before their flight. He would understand Bella’s desperation.

Balim decided to wait.

Bella must develop her queen powers to destroy the poison, save Atlantis, and find and cure her son. Here, with Queen Elyssa and Queen Lucy to guide her.

And in case they did not know about it, he would not poison them against her.

She had to learn before it was too late.

Bella lingered at the side of the playing area where the three young mer children zoomed between their moms. The sight made her heart squeeze.

Elyssa’s child, Kael, was a year and a half maybe. He romped after Lucy’s two-year-old fraternal twins, girl Tory and boy Yrun. Pumping their stubby legs and already-impressive fins, they flew from Lucy, avoiding her tickles, to Elyssa and back again, giggling and squealing.

Behind Bella, Nora watched with her arms crossed, her human toes dangling. “They make it look so easy.”

She flexed her toes, twisted her ankles and jiggled her knees.

“You’re practicing,” Bella noted, returning the cool observations. “Any luck?”

“It’s frustrating because I got it on the surface. Now I’m underwater and I got nothing.” She massaged her toes with her hands. “The sooner I’m independent, the better.”

Yrun, looking behind him and giggling, flew into Kael with a cry. The two tumbled against Tory. Elbows and knees smacked into soft tissue. Little wails crossed the city, and everyone stopped except Balim and King Kadir, both of whom homed in on the injuries.

“Ouch.” Nora drifted back.

Everyone else, including Bella, leaned in.

Kael flew into Elyssa’s arms. She kissed his head. “There, all better.”

King Kadir reached them a moment later and enveloped both of them in his arms. “I shall also perform the kiss.” And he did. Then he brought out a small treat from the seaweed pouch all mer carried. “To sweeten your tongue.”

Prince Kael’s wails faded to a whimper, and then he stuck out his lower lip, trembling, but otherwise calmed. He took the small bit of fruit and chewed on it with his few baby teeth.

Elyssa smiled at her husband.

That closeness, that instant support, was something Bella had never experienced until she met Balim. He, too, would be an attentive father.

Bella’s throat tightened.

Lucy gathered her darlings, soothing and kissing them. They cried and rooted urgently until both latched on and peace reigned.

The warriors remained on alert.

“Warlord Torun will return to support you shortly,” Ciran informed Lucy.

“What? No, don’t interrupt his research. It’s only a playground tumble.”

“He must know the condition of his young fry.”

“And they’re fine.” Lucy insisted. “We’re fine. Nothing a hug from Mom won’t cure. Right, Balim?”

Meanwhile, Balim examined Kael—only a tiny scrape, which he soothed with gel while Kael watched. Then he examined the twins, who had older bruising. Lucy assured him they lived a rough-and-tumble life so a little bit of knee and elbow bruising was normal.

Only when everyone was proclaimed fine did the warriors relax. Balim was allowed to return to his examination of the surfacing warriors. King Kadir left them a moment later, and Kael insisted on going after his father. King Kadir willingly carried his son off with him.

“Kael’s become so independent,” Elyssa sighed and cast her eyes on Lucy. “I miss that stage. I thought we’d nurse for longer, but as soon as Kael could swim, he became his father’s little man.”

“I keep thinking mine must be done.” Lucy gazed on her children with fullhearted love. “They’re only two years old. I spent a lot longer grieving I’d never have my own before the Sireno Life Tree healed me. I just have to hug them close for as long as I can.”

As if on cue, first Tory and then Yrun wiggled free, satisfied with their tiny snack and energetic again.

“And they’re off,” Pelan’s bride noted, still crossing her arms. She’d drifted away with the talk of the kids; they did not hold her interest.

Lucy folded her hands, smiling, as her twins darted and danced like little underwater jumping beans, never still, always bright-eyed and bumbly and active. “You know how fast this stage goes by, right, Bella?”

“I formula-fed,” she confessed before anyone could think she had a special contribution to their weaning discussion. “I never had time to fit nursing around my career.”

“The mer have formula.” Elyssa frowned as she searched her mind for the specifics. “Some combination of fish protein, blubber, and plant fiber.”

“Yum.”

“Torun offered to make it for me.” Lucy stretched and leaned back on her elbows, floating lazily. “But you know, it’s way easier to nurse even twins when you have endless maternity leave, you’re already totally naked all the time, and an entire city of fit warriors is waiting to serve you like a queen.”

That made Bella smile against her will. “Yes, that might have changed my priorities.”

Elyssa’s optimistic smile flickered, and she rested her hands across her belly. The area grew quiet.

Sadness welled in Bella’s throat. It choked her, not like when her body was rejecting the elixir and the transition to mer, but like a normal painful sadness that she swallowed down without a sound.

Across the field, Balim caught and held her gaze. He always knew. Silently, he asked—could he help her?

No. She swallowed and searched for a better topic. Something to channel her sadness and focus on the future.

“How did you make that ball of light from your hands?” Bella asked Lucy, changing the subject. “When you scared off the megalodon, it was amazing.”

“I channeled my queen powers. It’s the same way I make my fins.”

“How?” Nora asked, interested again.

“Well, I think about how much I love Torun and then ‘pop,’ out they come.” She demonstrated, kicking her human toes multiple times. Nothing happened. “Oh, come on now. Come on…yes! There they are.” Her fins unfurled.

“It doesn’t look easy,” Nora commented with dismay.

“For me, it’s not.” She huffed and rubbed her dark hair. “Look at my kids, though.”

Tory flexed her feet, imitating her mother and popping them back and forth and back and forth, fins and toes and fins and toes. Beside her, Yrun picked at his lips. One foot flexed to fins and the other held toes.

Bella calculated their abilities based on her memory of Jonah. “They were born underwater. They can’t be great walkers yet.”

“They’re not bad. We practice surface-time with Mum-Mum and Grandada every few weeks. They’re better than toddlers, but maybe not quite ready to run a relay race.”

Hmm.

“Every woman finds her inner power differently,” Lucy said, and Elyssa nodded in agreement.

“I think meditative thoughts.” Elyssa crossed her legs in a yoga pose, closed her eyes, and hummed. “Ommm.”

Then she stretched into an underwater Downward Dog, and as she straightened her body, her fins emerged, flowing like a long dress.

Beautiful.

“So you have to find your own way,” Lucy finished. “First, make your fins. As you gain confidence, power will flow.”

Nora closed her eyes and tried the meditation route, but she didn’t have much luck.

The women chatted about their more magical powers. Lucy sheltered others with a shield. Aya, Elyssa’s cousin, pushed warriors away, and Elyssa healed. Other queens who had descended to the second rebel city, Dragao Azul, possessed similar powers.

“We used to think they were separate queen powers,” Lucy continued, “but everyone has a natural talent for one that comes easier. That’s why the more women marry into the city, the more we work together, the stronger we are.”

“Do you have to marry first?” Nora scrubbed her face. “It’s not enough to be a mermaid?”

“So far as I know, you have to drink the nectar of the Life Tree blossom, not just elixir, and that means joining with your husband,” Elyssa answered. “I don’t know of anyone who’s developed their powers independently.”

Nora ground her teeth.

“Don’t worry. Balim is a great healer. Pelan will wake up soon, and then you’ll know that he’s the one for you. You’ll drink the nectar, we’ll teach you how to make your fins, and you’ll embrace your queen power.”

“Yeah,” Nora muttered, unconvinced, and drifted back into the sanctuary to Pelan’s side.

Bella’s spine tightened.

Sickness, a raiding party, war…the underwater world was more dangerous than she imagined, and making a mistake could change everything in an instant.

Bella closed her eyes. A quiet, tinkling, holy music from the Life Tree filled her with peace.

“Balim!” Nora burst from the sanctuary, fear on her face. “Pelan’s having trouble breathing.”

“What do you mean?” Balim flew to them. “He does not breathe air. He is a mer.”

“I know, but he’s arching his back.” She demonstrated. “Like he can’t breathe. Come look.”

Balim automatically came to Bella and reached out to her, linked Bella’s hand with his, and flew into the sanctuary, keeping her close as though he could sense the ripples of danger on the currents.

Inside, Pelan arched like Nora had described. The other warrior, Zoan, huddled over him with worry. Zoan called to Balim, “His soul is darkening. He is not responding to the Life Tree.”

Balim released Bella, shifted his feet to human, and knelt at Pelan’s side.

Nora stood next to Bella, horror mixed with helpless inevitability. Bella knew that feeling too well.

“What’s wrong?” Elyssa crowded in with the other warriors. “Why isn’t Pelan being healed?”

Balim rested on his heels and straightened, a dead expression on his face. “Because he has an incurable illness.”

“What? What do you mean?”

Balim pointed to the small interlocking blue loops crossing Pelan’s chest encasing him in silver-blue chains. “He has Oannes’ Curse.”

“No,” King Kadir growled.

“Yes.” Balim looked sick. “The official name is Blue Ring.”

Balim knelt before his patient. An unfamiliar rage twisted him.

It was as if his old king had arisen from the dead and taunted him. “You will never succeed your father. You are the only warrior of this era to have seen Blue Ring with your own eyes. You are cursed because you survived.”

Warrior Pelan, the young, hopeful male who had sacrificed so much to reach Atlantis, should have a happier life ahead of him with a bride. Not be suffering and dying from this curse.

Pelan moaned.

His bride knelt beside him and tried to take his hands. “Pelan? Can you hear me?”

Pelan dragged his hand free. Otherwise, he had no reaction to her. His soul remained dark, unaffected by her, as before when she’d refused the marriage ceremony.

She grimaced, rose to her feet, and backed away. “It’s not working.”

Behind him, the warriors and queens discussed what to do.

“Is Blue Ring contagious?” Queen Elyssa asked. “Are we at risk?”

“Perhaps it is not Blue Ring,” a warrior interrupted in the back. “No one living has seen it. Healer Balim is mistaken.”

Others pressed forward, encroaching on his patient, to get their own look while the more distant warriors argued.

Second Lieutenant Ciran’s vibration leveled their words. “Respect Healer Balim’s expertise.” He met Balim’s gaze, revealing nothing. “If he says it is Blue Ring, Warrior Pelan is infected with Blue Ring.”

“Then is it not too late?” An unidentified warrior asked the fearful question. “We are exposed. His sickness infects us.”

Panic edged the rumbles.

“Empty this sanctuary,” King Kadir ordered the nearby warriors. “Those who remain must be quiet.”

Nilun covered his flea bite with one hand and stood to the side, his worry palpable. Half the warriors flew out, leaving a quieter crowd.

Pelan had to respond. Balim pressed Pelan’s shoulders into the Life Tree.

The warrior thrashed. His blood had been corrupted against resonance, and he reacted as a dull human. Balim released Pelan, and the warrior collapsed in a heap.

Disconcerting.

Bella floated beside Balim and leaned over him. “Are you at risk?”

“Normally? No.” He flexed his own fingers, finding no cuts or injuries, not even the tiniest break of skin. “The disease is confined to Oannes Field. It afflicts only those who touch or handle the cursed weapons. So, how has Warrior Pelan contracted it?”

“No one entered the sanctuary since he arrived,” Zoan affirmed.

“Then he touched the weapons before.” Just as Balim’s instincts had told him. “Possibly any of us touched the weapons without knowing. Or perhaps Warrior Pelan is the weapon.”

“There was that dagger…” Pelan’s bride reminded them from the edge of the crowd. “The guy with the tattoos had it.”

“It did not touch the water,” Balim said.

“Maybe it touched the glass and got washed in.”

Queen Elyssa floated forth. “Let me try to heal him.”

Balim’s first impulse was to deny her. She should not risk herself. Queen Elyssa was the light and hope of Atlantis. As the first queen, she had welcomed all warriors with her heart.

But she was Warrior Pelan’s best hope now.

Queen Elyssa knelt and rested her hands on Pelan’s feverish brow.

Pelan whipped his head back and forth as though trying to shake her off. He flung an arm. It cracked against Queen Elyssa’s shoulder.

She opened her eyes and gasped. “Ow!”

Prince Kael flew toward his mother with a cry.

“No!” Queen Elyssa tried to stop him. “I’m all right. I promise! Just surprised.”

King Kadir intercepted Prince Kael, soothed him, and gave the young fry to Second Lieutenant Ciran with grave instructions. “Confine the young fry to my castle until the Life Tree sanctuary is purified. Guard them with our most faithful warriors.”

“My king.” Ciran turned away without meeting Balim’s eye. He gathered his select guard, and they escorted the young fry out with Queen Lucy’s gentle but worried encouragement.

Balim checked Queen Elyssa’s arm. The skin was reddish from the contact but not broken.

She laughed, a little shaken. “I don’t know if I should try again. I felt nothing from Pelan. It’s like something’s blocking me.”

This was a nightmare.

“Healer Balim!” First Lieutenant Soren’s gruff vibration called out from the entrance to the sanctuary. Warriors parted to make way. “We have grave news from your human hospital.”

The massive first lieutenant was the size of two warriors and covered in black tattoos. Once he had declared that he possessed no honor, but now he quieted that declaration around his brilliant queen, pale Aya.

“We have grave news here,” Queen Elyssa said, curling her hand around King Kadir’s bicep. “Pelan has Blue Ring.”

“Blue Ring?” The dangerous first lieutenant rested at the edge of the dais. “I heard he had a different illness.”

“That is what Healer Balim thought also. But it is Blue Ring.”

“The cursed coral field,” First Lieutenant Soren murmured to his smart bride. “Where the coral grows into perfect tridents but none may harvest it because of Oannes’ curse.”

“Now, he has cursed Atlantis.” King Kadir gazed on his injured warrior with deep unhappiness. “Why?”

“The All-Council would say we face a fit punishment for having broken the ancient covenant,” First Lieutenant Soren growled. “How lucky for them we should be the new center of this legendary illness.”

If Atlantis became a cursed battlefield like Oannes Field, then their rebel voice would die.

Aya kicked forward, her light even more brilliant with power. “Balim, how contagious is this Blue Ring?”

He shook his head for the second time. “There is no way to know… No. My mentor studied Blue Ring for years. He might know how it has escaped the field and whether there is any hope.”

“Can Pelan travel? Where’s your mentor?”

“No.” King Kadir straightened. “The more important question is ‘who is your mentor?’ Correct, Healer Balim?”

They were both good questions. And Balim only had impossible answers. “My mentor is Dalus, Healer of the All-Council, and he lives in the great hall of healers inside the All-Council stronghold.”

The warriors murmured his answer. Healer of the All-Council. Pelan was as good as dead.

King Kadir gritted his teeth. He had devoted much effort to sneak into the archives when he had been a bright, young assistant to his city’s representative.

They could not possibly drag the injured Pelan across the ocean, break into the most guarded All-Council stronghold, and beg the rulers to treat a rebel warrior infected with an incurable disease.

But they might have to try.

Queen Aya asked the hard question they were all thinking. “Can Pelan survive the journey?”

“I do not know.” Balim rubbed his forehead. So many unknowns. “I will go alone. Healer Dalus studies illness, not politics. The mystery of how the disease traveled into Pelan’s blood will entice him.”

Pelan’s not-bride crossed her arms over her chest. “Pelan was shot in the heart.”

“By a human. And you swam with him, yet you are not ill.”

Her soul light was strong. She did not so much as sneeze. She was healthy.

Queen Aya glanced at Soren. Their eyes met with wordless communication.

“What is it?” he asked.

Queen Aya answered. “Just now, we were coming to tell you that your scientist, Mitch, has gone to the emergency room for strange bruising.”

No.

“A security guard at your hospital had the same flu-like symptoms, but she recovered. Mitch’s just got worse.”

This could be no coincidence.

“They both were exposed to the same cursed package,” he said.

Queen Aya’s hands clenched into fists. “So humans can get this disease?”

Balim speculated. “Many warriors fought over the small Oannes Field. Many more humans share space in New York.”

“Oh.” Bella covered her mouth even though her chest was vibrating. “Of course. The Sons of Hercules will love this.”

“Exactly. An incurable disease transmitted by mer contact?” Queen Aya laid out the facts, and Bella agreed with every point. “This will go before Congress. It will affect the UN. We’re fighting for basic rights, and now they’ll see us as the vector of a health panic. This isn’t just a disease. This is a PR nightmare.”

Queen Elyssa hugged King Kadir. The other warriors endured the knowledge that humans would turn against them and deny their chances for brides. Their women would run in fear while the mainland governments made laws to hunt them. They would abandon Atlantis. No one would choose them. They’d have to go back to their origin cities and face exile.

The All-Council would win.

“The Sons of Hercules are behind this,” Bella declared. “It’s too convenient.”

“I agree,” Queen Aya said.

Balim did not.

“If I surface,” Bella started, soul flaring, “I can get ahead of this. My campaign is prepared. I’m just waiting until…until…” Her soul light dimmed and she didn’t complete her thought. She sensed Balim’s intense gaze and looked away. “But maybe this is more important…”

Her offer rested on the silence. No one knew what to say.

It hurt his heart. He reflected her emotions like a mirror, so he knew she was hurting too. Darkness swirling so deep, he tried to contain it to prevent her from knowing it was there.

He had murdered his king. Plotted for years. His determination had never wavered.

He had seen the same determination in Bella.

She did not match Balim’s darkness.

Balim had brought this curse here, somehow.

He was too horrible for anyone to love.

Queen Elyssa broke the awful silence. “But Nora’s not sick.”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Nora tipped her chin at Pelan. “I’m healthy as a horse.”

“A seahorse,” Queen Elyssa said, smiling.

“I like that.” Nora uncrossed her arms to stroke her hair. “Yeah, a healthy sea horse.”

Even amid tension and fear, Queen Elyssa had an ability to soften the mood, connect people, and give a moment’s smile. The entire sanctuary brightened as the warriors and queens reacted to her simple statements, and the Life Tree reflected their gentle kindness outward.

Her presence was possible because of the vision of Atlantis.

The vision could not be clouded.

Atlantis could not be lost.

And there were so many ways to lose it.

Balim had to think. Why was Nora healthy and Pelan so ill? Why was Mitch sick with suspicious bruising when Nora had no bruises?

“You remained by Pelan’s side?” Balim pressed, searching for the clues to unravel the mystery of this disease. “You left him many times for long periods.”

Nora tightened her arms around her chest again. “Are you saying him getting sick is my fault?”

“Was Mitch closer to Pelan than you?”

“Of course not.”

“You are certain?”

“No, I’m not certain.” She hugged herself. “I’ve been feeling guilty for weeks. For everything I did. Everything I didn’t do. Even now, this place is so beautiful. I feel guilty for enjoying it, even for one second, when my soul mate is sick.”

Bella’s soul light darkened. “I know what you mean.”

“Do not feel guilt, my queens.” Zoan floated nearer to them, trying to ease the darkness knotting around their souls. “Happiness and sadness can exist together in Atlantis. One full warrior swims beside his friend who has skipped lunch. Nilun sleeps a long while I fly double patrols.”

Nilun reddened. “You slept in the sanctuary.”

“My vigil over our mutual friend is unceasing. Unlike yours, which is divided by fights with water fleas.”

Nilun clapped his healthy hand over his injury.

But, like Queen Elyssa, Zoan’s teasing lightened the mood once more. The other warriors did not snap. They allowed Balim to mull over the clues.

Queen Elyssa kept up the light tone with Zoan. “Har har. The day you’re serious, Zoan, is the day Balim examines the inside of your head for injuries.”

“Healer Balim only ever examines my outside, so you have issued a good challenge, Queen Elyssa.”

“It’s not a challenge, it’s an observation.”

Zoan cleared his throat and straightened to give his faux-serious lecture. “Happiness and sadness are two warriors in your heart. They are separate, although the same. They work together, and apart.”

“How mysterious,” Queen Elyssa teased.

“Look at me.” Zoan tapped his scarred hand on his chest. “My twin brother was captured, imprisoned, and tortured in the All-Council prison. He was released to impersonate me and destroy our Life Tree. I am happy he was freed and sad he nearly killed King Kadir. Two emotions entwined.”

His confession quieted the sanctuary. But within his tragic history lay the true hope of their city. They had endured catastrophic destruction in the past and survived.

Nora cupped her own elbow. “I guess I know what you mean. I’m happy Pelan’s survived. He was hurt just because he talked to me. If I could go back in time, I’d oversleep and miss our date.”

Queen Elyssa released King Kadir, swam to Nora, and touched her shoulder. “What happened to Pelan wasn’t your fault.”

“I know, but the last weeks could have been really different in both our lives.”

Zoan also lowered his vibrations to speak kindly. “Accept your burden, Bride Nora.”

“But Zoan, it’s not her fault.”

“Queen Elyssa, next you will say I am not tainted with my brother’s badness.”

“You’re right. You’re not.”

“Roa held the same ideals as I did when he was captured and I escaped. He was tortured and I was not. I could be captured. I could be tortured. Would I not want revenge against the brother who had failed me?”

Her brows drew together. “Would you?”

He shrugged. “Have not many fine warriors broken under torture? Not everyone can hold their vision under the press of death like King Kadir.”

The king’s mouth twitched in a slight smile. “I was not offered any opportunity by my captors to release that vision, Zoan.”

“Then my brother’s badness is within me. But this truth does not define me. It is not who I am.”

“It is not only who you are,” Queen Elyssa murmured. “You’re also a gentle attendant to the Life Tree, a fierce guardian of your friends, and a clever wordsmith who enjoys teasing us into thinking differently.”

The warrior regarded his queen and dipped his head at the honor of her clear sight, then turned back to Nora. “You wish to take the burden of Pelan’s illness onto yourself because of the actions you did not take. Very well. Accept these burdens so you too may be free.”

Bella’s soul lightened, and Balim felt a strange shift in his own heart. Zoan was not a warrior he expected to have deep thoughts. But Queen Elyssa had described him accurately. More accurately than the rest of them had even noticed.

His words were as relevant to Bella and Nora as they were to Balim’s own history.

Zoan beamed at Nora. “And that, my future new queens, is my bid to have the inside of my head examined by our favorite healer once he has cured and restored—”

“Hey!” Nilun broke formation, something a warrior from Djullanar would never do, to swim toward the couple. “What are you doing, Zoan? Why does your soul resonate with Pelan’s bride?”

A taut silence spread through the sanctuary.

Zoan’s chest was glowing. And so was Nora’s. They matched. Like a warrior and his bride.

But she belonged to another.

Nilun shoved Zoan’s chest. “Do not steal Pelan’s bride when he is ill.”

“Wait, Nilun.” Queen Elyssa held up her hands. “Kadir, you have to stop them.”

King Kadir flew to her and pulled her back, away from the danger.

“I steal no one.” Zoan shoved Nilun off, the twinkle gone from his eyes. “Your senses deceive you. Nora does not resonate with me.”

“She does!” He glared at Nora. “You should have married Pelan when you arrived! Your indecision makes him sick!”

She hunched in on herself. “I already told you I’m sorry.”

Zoan touched her arm. “Do not be. You are—”

Nilun bashed his hand off and gripped the pommel of his dagger. “You must not touch another warrior’s bride!”

Zoan moved protectively in front of her. “Do not frighten this young bride.”

“Then do not resonate with her soul!”

“How can you accuse me? She descended as the bride of our friend.”

“She is the bride of our friend.” Nilun’s hand on the dagger pommel, still sheathed, shook and his chin wrinkled with fury mixed with betrayal. “How dare you lure her away, sickening Pelan for your own selfish wish?”

Zoan drew his dagger. “I would never—”

“Stand down!” Soren barked.

“Warrior Zoan. Warrior Nilun. Stop.” King Kadir released Queen Elyssa and kicked forward, a deep wrinkle on his brow as this new nightmare unfolded. “Warrior Zoan, anyone who has eyes can see you resonate with Queen Nora. Warrior Nilun, we do not resolve a bride dispute in Atlantis with single-warrior combat.”

Zoan frowned hard and rubbed his own chest.

“Then how do we resolve bride disputes in Atlantis?” Nilun demanded.

It had never been done. King Kadir frowned heavily. “The way…we will decide…is…”

“With death!”

“No.” King Kadir held up a hand, and Nilun checked, his blade half-withdrawn. “We decide our way now.”

But he looked lost.

Queen Elyssa murmured to him, “I know this is upsetting, but for humans, it’s real life. On the surface, we meet people. We date. We change our minds.”

“Because you cannot see soul lights as we can,” he replied, guided by his queen.

“Dating is messy. Relationships are messy. Part of being human is figuring it out.”

“We are not humans. We are mer.”

“But we’re melding cultures. Atlantis has to change too. And the mess will only worsen after the finished platform entices more humans to join us.”

“No.” He rejected her because his warriors could not handle so much uncertainty. Not now. King Kadir swung to his most faithful warriors. “How are bride disputes handled in other cities?”

“Death to the bride stealer!” Nilun vibrated, shouting.

“Yes, in Djullanar, and I believe the same in Rusalka.” At Iyen’s nod, the king confirmed the common experience of open combat.

“In Sireno, the elders hear both cases and decide.” Warlord Torun’s astute observation rumbled across the crowd. He swam in with Queen Lucy.

Their young fry were secured in the castle with trustworthy guards, and he had returned from the ruins of the ancient city to face the multiple threats now striking Atlantis.

“But in practice, warriors fight. The current king, Jolan, lost his own father when the elders ordered the bride to return to her first husband and she would not. Good, honorable warriors died because the elders did not honor the bride’s choice.”

Queen Elyssa linked arms with King Kadir as Queen Lucy wrapped her arms around her husband, Warlord Torun.

“We journeyed to Atlantis because you honor the bride’s choice of husband.” Warlord Torun rested his hands across Queen Lucy’s. She snuggled in, and both of their soul lights shone as their shared resonance multiplied, increasing not ten or a hundred but a thousand times brighter than either could shine on their own. “Your resolution is obvious. Let the bride choose.”

“What of females who entwine with males on their descent?” another warrior muttered, and the grumble was taken up by others. “What of the coffee date? This is madness.”

The mutters grew louder. Someone in the back vibrated a shout. “What of the warriors without brides? How will we stop them from taking rightful brides from other warriors?”

King Kadir frowned.

Queen Aya spoke for the first time. “There are no ‘rightful brides.’ Banish that ridiculous thought from your heads.”

The mutters were shocked to silence, but it was mutinous. She had calmed them but not won them over.

“Aya is right.” Queen Elyssa placed a calming hand across King Kadir’s heart. “Can you imagine any situation in which it would be okay to force me away from you to be with another warrior?”

His chest blazed. “No. I would fight to the death.”

“Because I choose you. I’m not with you because I got assigned. And I would not go to someone else. I’m with you because we have this.”

She placed one palm over her own heart and closed her eyes. Their chests resonated, glowing brighter and brighter, until their souls were as powerful as Queen Lucy’s and Warlord Torun’s. The Life Tree tinkled with harmonious joy, cleansing the water and purifying the sanctuary.

Queen Elyssa opened her eyes and met King Kadir’s intense, devoted gaze. “We’re together because we are soul mates.”

His taut shoulders lowered.

He looked over to Queen Lucy and Warlord Torun and then at Queen Aya and rugged First Lieutenant Soren, who would defy the ocean to be together, and over the waiting warriors.

Then, finally, to Nora. “Warrior Zoan is your choice?”

“What? No.” Nora hunched in making herself a smaller target. “You said Pelan was my soul mate.”

“But you resonate with Zoan.”

“How? I just met him a day ago.”

King Kadir frowned. He did not understand.

She turned to Zoan. “You seem nice. But I don’t think we’re meant to be.”

“No,” he agreed, floating to put a greater distance between them to lessen any more misunderstandings. “After I betrayed my brother, I swore never to pursue a bride. This includes you.”

“To be fair, you didn’t pursue me, so your vow is safe.”

“You are resonating again,” First Lieutenant Soren growled.

“No, we’re not,” Nora denied, even as the two kicked farther apart and Nora fluttered her hands in the water between them to swish away any more misunderstandings, as if their resonance was dirt motes or algae.

“You must marry Pelan right away,” Nilun insisted. “Before you resonate with any other warriors. He is the warrior you vowed to be faithful to.”

“He can’t even say ‘I do,’” Nora snapped, brightening even more at Nilun than she had with Zoan moments ago. “And are you listening? You’re the ones who decided Pelan was my soul mate. I don’t understand why I’m resonating with anyone else any more than you do.”

Queen Elyssa floated forward to mediate. “Don’t you feel something extra for Pelan?”

“No more than I felt for Zoan. You’re both nice and friendly and I like you. Are you my soul mate? I have no idea.”

The calmed warriors rumbled again. Mutiny. The ones who had no brides might try to woo her, Nilun would fight off any who tried, and Nora’s seductive resonance enthralled all warriors.

“Perhaps Nora resonates with the sea,” Queen Lucy mentioned to Queen Aya. “Everyone wanted Kadir to marry you even though it was obvious you were destined for Soren.”

“Less obvious to him,” Queen Aya said, digging her elbow into the first lieutenant’s side.

He captured her elbow and placed a quelling kiss on her forehead.

“How could you kiss Pelan if your feelings were a lie?” Nilun demanded, furious with Nora and edging closer to her.

“It was only one time,” Nora pointed out. “A first-date kiss is not supposed to be life-changing.”

“It is for us,” Nilun insisted. “You drank the elixir. You accepted his mating jewel.”

“Actually I never did. Pelan’s Sea Opal is still in a pressurized vat in Balim’s hospital. And I only stayed with Pelan so much because Balim told me to.”

Everyone swung to him.

He faced their attention, heating as the mistake pierced his chest. Had he caused this danger on top of an already volatile situation?

“Balim.” King Kadir focused. “Did you force a female to stay with a male who was not her husband?”

He stiffened. “I thought she resonated with him. It seems Nora can resonate with many warriors in friendship. Perhaps healing is her primary queen power.”

Nora snorted.

“You find this funny?” Nilun demanded. “Torturing and now failing to heal Pelan is a joke?”

“Healing’s my power. Your doc just said so.” She stared down Nilun, unyielding, her soul light bright once more. “I’d kiss anyone if I could heal them the way I helped Pelan after he got shot.”

Nilun’s chest flared as if she had just offered to kiss him.

Truly, she had a dangerous resonance.

Zoan pulled Nilun back. “Calm yourself, Nilun, before you injure the inside of your head. Healer Balim is busy with Pelan.”

“How can you brag of your infidelity?” Nilun shouted at Nora, taking no heed of her boiling rage.

Before she could shred him to pieces, the other warriors erupted into disagreement.

“What is the point of surface matchmaking if you do not meet your bride?” a warrior grumbled.

“If you are not a bride, do not shine your bright light on Zoan or Pelan. They are not yours!”

The Life Tree sanctuary chimed a warning.

Pelan spasmed.

Balim held him down, watching the blue rings track across his chest. He had succumbed to this sickness because he was injured. Because he had no bride. Because Balim had made a mistake.

Was Pelan to be the first patient in Atlantis he lost?

King Kadir bellowed for silence. His vibration echoed. The warriors stiffened, and the sanctuary quieted once more.

A mistake. Balim had made a mistake…

“Everyone leave here.” King Kadir motioned to the warriors to exit. His judgment rested on Balim. “Even you.”

Bella swam out of the sanctuary with Balim.

She couldn’t read soul lights the way the mermen could, but his shoulders drooped. He was devastated. All mer respected their kings. He’d just been disciplined by his. And he had to feel bad.

“Balim.” She wiggled, irritated that her fins wouldn’t work, and clasped his chiseled forearm. “I’m here.”

He tugged her into his arms and buried his face in her neck.

They rotated in the opening to the sanctuary. Light shone out through the battered holes in the petals. Bedraggled, the tree, and even the sanctuary, was stronger because it had survived the long-ago attacks. Because now two seeds twined together instead of spinning on alone.

She rubbed his shoulders. “You’ll figure this out.”

“Nora resonated with Pelan once. She was his bride.” He vibrated, chest to chest, as he mused over his error.

Bella had meant that he would figure out how Blue Ring spread from a cursed battlefield to the tank at his makeshift hospital, but this also must bother him. “What changed?”

“Perhaps outside the ambulance, I, like other warriors here, mistook the strength of Nora’s own resonance to synchronize with Pelan’s. Perhaps even Pelan mistook this and reacted. But he did heal at our hospital. His soul glowed with the nearness of his bride. He started to get better. When Nora wasn’t around, he even awoke with a gasp and cried out for his missing bride. He did synchronize with someone…”

“So now you believe me?” Nora floated outside the sanctuary. Soren and Aya were escorting her out.

Balim rested Bella’s shoulder against his and faced the others. “I believe you are not Pelan’s bride. Forgive my mistake.”

She shrugged. “Sure. Fine. Whatever.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s fine. I mean, I can understand how it happened. Soren just told me I have a ‘dangerous’ resonance because I’m not guarded like Aya.”

Aya elbowed Soren for the second time. “That’s not necessarily a strength.”

“Yeah, well, it must make it a heck of a lot easier to figure out who your actual soul mate is if you don’t have guys throwing themselves at you.”

Aya straightened. “Yes, that was never my problem.”

“To tell you the truth, I was excited to meet my soul mate, and it’s disappointing it turns out I haven’t.” Nora jerked her chin over her shoulder. “I’m sure he’s worse off because of it than I am. But I get that no one set us up.”

Balim stiffened. He did not tolerate mistakes well, and he needed to concentrate. He had to heal Pelan and prevent mass hysteria against mermen—or worse, hysteria accompanied by a deadly health crisis.

Bella smoothed a hand over his taut shoulders, soothing his muscles. “Don’t give up hope. You’re not here for your health.”

Nora cocked a brow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that not just anyone can transform into a mer. Elixir isn’t a magic potion all by itself. I had to resonate with Balim before I could transform.”

Nora’s gaze fixed on the open ocean. “So I resonated with someone that wasn’t Pelan. Someone else was there the day I transformed. Someone who’s still out there…”

“A one-in-a-million chance happens eight times a day in New York.”

“How can I know my soul mate if I resonate with everyone?” Nora asked.

“You’ll know,” Bella assured her, and Aya nodded emphatically.

“But these warriors keep thinking I—”

“No, Nora. You’ll know.”

Her natural skepticism faded to grudging belief. “I guess you’re right. I knew I wasn’t Pelan’s soul mate, right? So I’ll know it when I finally meet my soul mate. Somehow…”

Balim focused on Nora as if this was the missing information, the puzzle he had not understood before. “When did you know you were not Pelan’s soul mate?”

“Ever since the tank,” she said. “You said I should want to be with him all the time, but I was so intensely bored and just over it. When he had to be out of the water while you repaired the tank, I spent a lot of time organizing my life, and every time I left the room I’d come back and find Roxanne in there sitting next to him.”

“Roxanne?” Balim repeated. A new urgency filled his tone. “Our hospital coordinator?”

She nodded. “If I helped him during the operation to remove the bullet even though I wasn’t his bride, maybe Roxanne could help him through this illness now even if she’s also not his bride.”

“Or maybe she is his bride.” Balim turned to Soren. “Summon her to Atlantis.”

The massive first lieutenant raised a brow, but he respected Balim’s expertise. “Zoan. Swim to the ancient city and send our request.”

Zoan kicked past.

“We will have to transport Pelan back to the surface because this Roxanne will not be able to transform. Nothing has been done properly here.” Soren compressed his lips in worry. “I hope he will endure it.”

“It’d be a great relief if his bride was Roxanne.” Nora wiggled her stubby feet as she tried to keep up with Aya. “Then maybe I could master these fins.”

“Oh, sure, I’ll show you a little trick.” Aya took Nora’s hand and flew toward her castle. The other warriors cleared out, and soon, only Balim and Bella floated in the sanctuary’s mouth. King Kadir and Elyssa tended Pelan, while the other warriors clustered in groups nearby, but they had a pocket of privacy.

Bella felt the fire in Balim, and a tendril of hope curled around her heart. She rubbed his shoulders, encouraging him. “How long can Nora avoid drinking the nectar before she collapses?”

“Perhaps a long time,” Balim mused. His vibration unexpectedly turned bitter. “She is not conflicted like you.”

Bella felt the sting but chose not to react. “My son is—”

“Not him. You are conflicted about me.” Balim’s hurt sharpened like a blade honed beyond the edge so it was twisted, nicked, and hard. “My heart is too dark.”

“I don’t even know what you mean.”

“You have carefully not asked me about the details of my past.”

“Because I was waiting for you to tell me. I didn’t want to force you to relive your pain just to satisfy my curiosity. Was that a mistake? Do you want to talk about it now? Here, in the middle of your city?”

He gritted his teeth. “You will never understand.”

She studied him for a long, hard moment. “I haven’t suffered enough, huh? If you say it, it must be true.”

“All you do is close down your feelings,” he seethed, unexpectedly angry at her. “You are planning how to leave me. You wish you were not my bride.”

“Although that is true—”

“I knew it!”

“I gave up on leaving you a long time ago. You’re pushing me away now, Balim, and I’m too old to play games. You’re stressed beyond your breaking point so you’re lashing out. I did the same thing to you when I dove into the freezing lake. We repeat our worst patterns when we’re stressed. So, I’ll give you the grace you gave them then. Hold me and calm down.”

His brows slowly lifted. He looked lost. She rotated into his arms and he crushed her, shuddering.

“Now,” she vibrated without loosening her tight grip for an instant. “Tell me what you need me to hear. I’ll listen.”

“No.” He held her more tightly. “You are right. Pelan needs me. I can focus.”

She pulled back. “I’m here for you.”

“I understand.”

“We’re all here. We’ve got a city full of magical queens and powerful warriors. Let’s talk to Kadir and Elyssa about the vial right now. It’ll be one less thing to stress about, and your mind will be at peace.”

He squared his shoulders, looking uncertain, but showing because Bella made this argument, he was willing to try.

He linked hands with her. “Very well. We will tell them now.”

They turned toward the Life Tree sanctuary to find Kadir and Elyssa.

Behind Balim, in the distance, a strange “pop” echoed across the city as if contents under the intense pressures of the deep sea had burst. Thick glass shattered.

A high-pitched sound emerged. It sounded like screaming.

She suddenly had a very bad feeling.

“Was that…?” Bella clutched her hand to the throat. “The vial?”

Balim looked back at her with dark eyes ringed black with horror. “It exploded?”

“I don’t know. I mean, anything’s possible. Maybe.”

Elyssa flew out of the sanctuary. “Who’s attacking? Why is the Life Tree screaming?”

“The Life Tree is screaming?”

“Well, it’s a castle, actually.” Elyssa searched the city for the source while rallying the rest of the warriors for a fight. “It’s the sound it makes when it’s under attack.”

“There.” Balim pointed grimly at his castle, which shuddered with black streaks of poison. “The castle under attack is mine.”

Balim flew after the other warriors to his castle.

“I can’t destroy a city. I can’t kill anyone.”

Bella’s words echoed in his head. He’d collected her instinctively at the sound of danger and now they both flew behind Queen Elyssa and also King Kadir to Balim’s screaming castle.

Bella couldn’t destroy a city or kill anyone.

But Balim had. He’d done those things.

“I could never live with myself if anyone got hurt because of me,” she moaned, rubbing her chest.

Ice frosted his heart and she drove needle wedges between them with her panicked words. He swallowed the lump of sharp coral.

They hovered in a circle around his shrieking castle. No one knew how to proceed. The entrance was closed up tight.

“Who is inside?” First Lieutenant Soren demanded. “Warriors, to me! Whoever emerges will face their death!”

“But no one’s inside. Just my mistake.” Bella’s face constricted, and she clutched her hands to her chest. “I caused this. I’m death to everyone.”

Her words slapped his heart once more and stung. She was horrified by a murderer.

And Balim was a murderer.

The castle darkened. Black lines spread across the sphere.

Ciran shouted from the back of the sphere. “What is it? What is this attack?”

Balim’s heart thudded hard. Sickness built in his throat. He had to hold it together. Losing his castle and Bella was only the punishment he deserved. He should not feel so tormented.

To speak would be to incriminate Bella. But not to speak would endanger the entire city.

“It is not an attack.” He looked King Kadir right in the eye as he pronounced his own exile. “It is a substance from the surface. A poison.”

King Kadir’s eyes widened. He kicked back from the darkening monstrosity. “What have you done?”

“What I must,” Balim said.

“What substance is this? How do we combat it? How do we heal it?”

Most likely they could not.

King Kadir’s fingers clenched his trident. He wanted to shake Balim until an answer tumbled out.

“We cannot stop it.”

“We must!” King Kadir flew to the black streaks and stabbed them.

The castle continued shrieking. Although his trident punctured and cut, the thick walls puckered away from his attacks. He could not gain entry, and he did not stop the poison.

It would destroy Balim’s castle.

“Is it going to stop?” Queen Elyssa vibrated the question tightly beside them. “We have to cut it off here. The city is interconnected. If that poison kills the roots, it will destroy the other castles and the Life Tree.”

“Sever the stalk,” Balim ordered.

Queen Elyssa looked at him long and hard. “There’s no way to save it?”

He shook his head. Perhaps there was a way, but he could not figure it out before it endangered the entire city.

Queen Elyssa turned and vibrated with a decisive shout. “Cut the anchor!”

Warriors attacked the base where the bulb connected to the stalk.

“Farther down. Down!”

They detached from the base and descended toward the ocean floor to attack the monstrous stalk with daggers. Two warriors flew in with longer serrated swords.

The castle collapsed in on itself like a rotted pumpkin with no interior structure. Black poison lines pooled at the base of the deflated bulb.

The warriors’ sawing made a creaking, shrieking sound as the massive tree-like anchor yawned. Queen Elyssa put her hands on the cut. It glowed as did her hands.

Black poison streaked into the stalk.

King Kadir snarled at Balim. “When we stop this, you will answer for your crimes.”

Balim’s heart cracked. He strove to endure his king’s disapproval with honor.

King Kadir chased the dark poison, slicing his trident at it as though he could force it to yield first.

Queen Aya joined Queen Elyssa and put her hands at the upper stalk. A sharp crack made the stalk jerk away from her as if she’d shoved it back with a white bulldozer.

The warriors rallied around King Kadir and sawed on the reverse side. Would they beat the seeping poison?

First Lieutenant Soren snarled at Balim. “How unfortunate we never prepared to lay siege to our enemies. We never thought to construct a stalk-cutting saw.”

Balim bowed his head to endure the warrior’s judgment. Soren was the first warrior he had pledged his allegiance to after drifting from Undine. His fury cut a long wound in Balim’s heart.

The first lieutenant slammed his shoulder into Balim. “Do not leave.”

It pained him.

Of course he would not leave. “I will heal the wounded.”

“They will never let you touch them again.” First Lieutenant Soren flew to aid. With a mighty roar, he attacked the stalk. It broke into pieces. The warriors concentrated their daggers on the last filaments.

New realizations filtered into Balim.

Of course First Lieutenant Soren was right. He was a traitor. Bringing poison into Atlantis, regardless of the reason, was dangerous, as this had proved. Such a total lack of wisdom would make many question his motives. He was too smart to be so stupid. Too clever to lack so much judgment.

Finally, he would face consequences for the act he had committed years ago.

Regicide.

“Balim. This is horrible.” Bella’s fingers curled around his, seeking comfort in this disaster. “Your castle… How can we ever explain this so your friends will understand?”

“We cannot.” Balim disconnected their fingers and pulled free. “You can.”

“Me?”

“I must bear the judgment.”

From a distance. He would not wait per Soren’s request to be judged, sterilized, executed, and thrown into a vent. He still had to atone.

He had unleashed the deadly Blue Ring on the old king of Undine. Now, Blue Ring had returned to haunt him.

He could not die now. He was the only one who could understand Healer Dalus’s answers.

And his absence could absolve Bella of the crime of blackmail. She was still pure. He alone had the blackened soul.

“Find the Sons of Hercules,” he ordered, keeping his mind on the immediate task and not allowing the grief of his losses to pile up on top and smother him. “Free your son and live happily.”

She wiggled after him. “Balim. Wait!”

Her cry dissipated in the frantic battle of the warriors as they destroyed his most prestigious and permanent tie to the city of Atlantis.

But her second, more furious cry reached him through the noise. “You said we’re the same.”

He turned on her, fury snapping in his chest. Anger was welcome after the pain. “But we are not, are we?”

“You’re a healer. You fix things. You don’t destroy them.”

“To atone. I heal to atone because this is who I am, Bella. The one thing you could never be. I am a murderer.”

She jerked as if he’d slapped her in the face. “Don’t brag about it. You regret it deeply, so don’t lord it over me like it’s something to celebrate.”

“You do not know.”

Crack. The stalk of his castle broke just as the first tendrils of poison rotted it away. The whole castle collapsed, sizzling, like a broken flower.

“Don’t let it touch the sea floor!” Queen Elyssa shouted. “We can’t let the poison contaminate the ground! We have to drag it to the barren rock.”

“A vent.” King Kadir overrode her orders, and the warriors swimming together kept it from crashing.

The withered husk turned in on itself, the poison continuing to darken its former vibrancy, black streaking across gray and turning it darker and darker. The warriors en masse moved it while the queens used their powers to buffer it, pushing it between the stalks and out of the city.

“You didn’t kill your castle on purpose,” Bella insisted. “This was an accident. Tell me the truth. Your past was an accident too.”

“It was no accident.” Balim’s vibrations sharpened as his emotions broke. “Remain here. Find your son. Stay pure. And be happy.”

He turned away from her and kicked hard, leaving her in the city where she would be safe and protected. He left his heart, his soul, and any ghost of happiness far behind.

Be happy? Be happy!

Balim’s last order played in Bella’s head like an insult long after he had left her behind.

Of course he left her to deal with the aftermath. Was she supposed to be happy about that too? Just because he’d claimed responsibility before he’d run off didn’t mean the kind, trusting, generous families who’d welcomed her to Atlantis would consider her an innocent victim and move on.

The stump of his castle waved like a missing leg. And Bella didn’t think this limb would grow back.

It was gone.

Just like Balim.

“Betrayed.” King Kadir swished back and forth in front of her in his castle while his closest elite warriors and advisers listened. “You have betrayed the ideals of trust, openness, and exchange that founded Atlantis.”

Bella prepared her rebuttal speech while King Kadir ranted.

“You accepted a mystery substance from deadly terrorists to steal a Life Tree blossom and destroy the city, and you told no one. What do you say for yourself?”

“I saw no other way to save my son.”

“We would have moved the oceans and the earth to help you.” King Kadir’s eyes flashed with silver threads. “Do you know how close you came to destroying our city? To sickening our warriors and queens? Our young fry?”

Torun juggled their sleeping twins. Elyssa pressed Kael to her cheek.

Bella felt like throwing up. “I never meant to use the poison.”

“But you did not know how the poison could be released. And instead of consulting with one of our warriors to assist you, you hid it away. You betrayed us.”

She endured his anger, his fear, his hurt. He wasn’t wrong, and she didn’t take his words lightly. But her mind kept returning to Balim’s parting words.

“Find your son and be happy.”

Something was wrong. Very wrong. Just like when she’d run through the hospital seeking Jonah after the Sons of Hercules had kidnapped him, she felt the same sense that someone was about to commit an act that could never be reversed.

Balim had left with such a look so stony that it sent fear streaking into her heart.

Since the first moment, she’d known in her soul they matched. Balim was hers. They were the same. And yet he’d left her. He’d left her behind.

She felt twitchy, impatient. She needed to do something.

Bella did not handle helplessness well.

“Queen Bella.” King Kadir jolted her back by using a title that was the least fitting after everything that had happened. “You have been with us a short time. We were happy for you to live among us for as long as you wished. But that possibility is gone now.”

She averted her gaze.

“Balim is an exile. His name must never be spoken. If he is found within our city…” King Kadir’s jaw flexed.

Elyssa floated close, stroking his shoulder and hugging their sleeping son. Comforting him.

Kadir continued. “…he will be judged, exiled, and executed.”

Exiled and then executed seemed like overkill, but that was just her mind trying to lighten the situation. “I understand.”

Bad things happened in this world. Jonah got sick. Balim carried some kind of evil memories that poisoned him. She’d let Balim be, focused on her own things, and his sickness too had festered until it reached this acute point.

For a very long time, she’d blamed herself for Jonah’s illness. She hadn’t paid enough attention to him. She’d been annoyed when he got yet another cold instead of panicking and insisting the doctors run more tests.

But that was in the past.

She couldn’t go back in time and force herself to know Jonah was seriously sick, and she couldn’t go back in time and force Balim to tell her about the memories that tormented him. All she could do was move forward.

Blame, in this case, couldn’t teach her anything. Wallowing in the past when nothing could be learned from it wasn’t helpful. It was like picking at a scab. She felt the obsessive piercing sensation and a sick satisfaction from reinjuring herself when she should be focused on letting her body heal.

Fine, then.

She refused to wallow in recrimination and regret.

Moving forward was what she did, even if it made others call her unemotional, and she accepted that about herself. She moved on.

“Queen Bella.” King Kadir jolted her out of her thoughts. “Answer.”

She had no idea what he had asked her. “Will you repeat the question?”

“I asked if you are prepared to surface and never return?”

“Because I…okay. I can understand why you can’t trust me. But I have a plan.”

He shook his head. “You have committed an unforgivable crime, Queen Bella. The warriors will struggle to remain friendly. It is safer for you to surface.”

“The Sons of Hercules will know I didn’t do their bidding.”

“You will tell them that their poison ended your privilege.”

“Jonah—”

“We will find your young fry.” He rested his arm around Elyssa’s shoulder and held his son close. “But we cannot trust you in this city. You are exiled to the surface. Go to the cable and prepare to rise.”

Balim flew out of Atlantis with the same edge of darkness and anger that had followed him out of Undine.

Queen Elyssa and the warriors had saved the Life Tree. That was all that mattered. No one had died during the attack.

He’d felt the final snap of his castle’s stalk in his spine.

His head and his chest and, for some reason, his tailbone ached. A dull, throbbing pain. Was this how Pelan felt as he was sickening with Blue Ring? Now, as an exile without a connection to a Life Tree, Balim’s blood would sicken. He was vulnerable to the contagion.

Bella would not be punished. King Kadir would see the goodness in her, her innocence, and he would protect her. Atlantis was filled with worthy warriors. Many better than Balim.

The shock of her expression when they’d parted for the final time cut into Balim. He still felt her anger in his bones.

Balim pushed through the dull, throbbing pain. He swam alone to the edge of the city avoiding patrols and staying far from anyone who might intend to stop him or chat.

He had a short time to escape.

First Lieutenant Soren’s horror echoed in his skull. Balim had shocked even the darkest, most disreputable warrior in Atlantis. His exile was assured. Whether or not he wanted it.

Balim must brave the wilderness. Alone.

“Hey. Wait up.” Nora’s voice vibrated behind him.

He was so startled, he obeyed. “Why are you here? Go back to the city.”

“It’s not my scene.” She kicked abreast of him. Long fins trailed behind her, and her bright, shining soul propelled her through the water. “Can I come with you?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“The open ocean is dangerous. You are vulnerable. And I am bound for the seat of the All-Council, where a single modern female is the antithesis of their existence.”

“There’s safety in numbers. Besides, Elyssa said you guys can’t tell male or female under water.”

She was not wrong. Queens possessed a certain brightness in their souls. But unless they were swimming entwined with their husbands, no one else might notice.

“I am an exile. Any warrior with honor will kill me, traditional or rebel.”

“So I can help you.” She held up her hands and spread her fingers. Little streams of light traced between them and then dissipated. “I’ll use this power to keep you safe.”

“Then the All-Council will know you are a queen.”

“You said it yourself. If I have to use it in front of the All-Council, you’re already screwed.”

He acknowledged that and swam again.

Nora fell in beside him.

“Why do you wish to flee with me? You can surface to leave Atlantis.”

“I’m not ready to go up yet.” She twirled, keeping up with him. “I can’t believe I gave up my promising career in busking and food service just so I could go underwater and cause drama.”

“You did not cause drama. I misidentified you as Pelan’s bride. Direct your anger at me.”

“You’re also immune to my ‘dangerous resonance’ or whatever.” She twirled again. “I’ve never been unpopular, but down here, the guys are way too thirsty. They look at me twice and stick out their chests. It’s weird. You’re different.”

“I am a murderer.”

“Murder’s kind of in the ‘warrior’ job description.” She shrugged. “You can’t be all bad. Bella’s smart enough to stay away from losers.”

“She is smart enough to stay in Atlantis,” he vibrated, muttering.

“You shouldn’t be so mad at her,” Nora continued. “She wanted to make things right.”

His heart warmed, and he crushed the hope. “We had no disagreement. You are mistaken.”

“Balim. I was there.”

“You were where?”

“By your castle. Late castle. Floating about five feet behind you guys. I heard your whole argument.”

He had thought they were being quiet. “I do not remember.”

“And that’s why I’m here.” She grinned and stretched in all directions. “You and Bella were so wrapped up in each other, the rest of the world disappeared. Including me. I don’t usually enjoy being forgotten, but considering how much unwanted attention I’m currently getting, your downright ignorance of my existence is nice.”

“She never wanted to be my bride. Now she can find a pure-hearted warrior and sever our unwelcome connection.”

“Mmm. No.”

“I am a healer, Nora, and a merman. I can sense souls.”

“Well, you’re pretty crap at understanding women.” She tilted her eyes at him. “People like her and me, who attract lots of people, refuse to settle while we’re waiting to find our soul mates. But when we find our soul mates, we know.”

“You will know,” he agreed, confused about why this was a conversation topic.

“And Bella knows.”

“Bella knows,” he repeated and shook his head. “No.”

“She knows, Balim. In her soul, she knows.”

Warmth seeped out around his clenched heart because he couldn’t contain this feeling that Nora was right. He knew. Just like King Kadir knew. And Bella knew too.

Yes, his soul was black. He had once lost himself. Devoted all his energy to revenge when he should have had a cooler head and obeyed the law of the mer. Bella forgave him without even knowing about it, yet he could not forgive himself. And now he’d received the punishment he’d always deserved. Exile and revulsion.

And he still craved Bella.

Her smile, the one where she covered her teeth with her lips and the ones where she showed that small gap. Her soft skin with its intricate pattern of freckles as natural as a mer’s tattoos. Her bright, fiery spirit as she took risks over and over again to chase justice, defend others, and tried to improve life.

He wished she were here now. More than anything.

No.

Bella was safe in Atlantis. Those worthy warriors would protect her. King Kadir would not blame her for Balim’s irresponsible actions. And once Starr found her son, she could rise and save him.

He must push on to the All-Council. Even if he wanted to go back and find Bella, he could not turn aside from his mission to cure Blue Ring. The fate of the mer depended on him.

Nora broke into his thoughts. “Besides, you’re still trying to save Pelan’s life. It’s my fault he got shot and half of my fault he stopped healing. I want to make it up to him.”

“Keep up. I will not slow for you.”

“Sure.” She kicked harder. “I’m so ready for this.”

Nora was not Bella, but Balim was a little grateful not to be alone as they escaped into the wild ocean.

Bella was safe in Atlantis.

Balim would find her after he’d uncovered the cure. He would atone.

If he survived.

And if she would let him.

Bella couldn’t be exiled to the surface. She just couldn’t.

Balim was down here. Bella still hadn’t found a cure for Jonah, discovered her queen powers, or made things right with the Atlanteans. Starr hadn’t located the Sons of Hercules. Going up to the surface would only put her farther away from her goals. It would ruin everything.

She wiggled her fingers in Aya’s strong grip. “Let me go.”

“I can’t.” Aya held Bella’s wrist and flew her away from Atlantis to the cable over the ancient city. “I’m sorry about this.”

Her mind whirred as she tested escape routes. Aya was faster and a queen, but the real problem was that they were surrounded by angry guards led by the unsmiling Ciran.

Aya had asked to convey Bella alone. “It will be less embarrassing if it’s just us.”

Ciran had rejected her. “Queen Bella has no powers. We must protect her.”

“I don’t need your protection.” Bella had calculated she had better odds of escaping one person rather than a whole unit. “Aya’s more than enough.”

Ciran had regarded her without smiling.

Now, he flew behind them. His warriors, swimming in strict formation, cut off every possible avenue of escape.

And still, Bella tested out her options.

“You can’t let me go. I understand,” Bella murmured while her mind worked the problem. “I guess you have no choice.”

“Don’t be silly. Of course I have a choice.” The commanding queen looked at Bella with two raised brows like she was an idiot. Then Aya glanced behind at the warriors and lowered her vibrations to a murmur. “If I let you go right now, what’s your plan?”

Bella stopped twisting her wrist. “Plan?”

“Where will you go that’s better than the surface?” Aya’s brow furrowed. Her blonde hair streamed behind her as she swam efficiently toward the ancient wreckage. “The Sons of Hercules will have to contact you. When they do, they’ll expose themselves, and then we can capture them and find your son. They’ll be punished. Maybe Balim can even get un-exiled.”

Her heart thudded out of rhythm. “You’re trying to help me?”

“I understand why this surprises you, but yes. All of us are.”

“The warriors—”

“I mean us queens. Lucy and Elyssa are mothers. Kadir has to be a strong king, but even he understands.”

She was at a loss for words. “I didn’t think you would.”

“We tried to design a punishment that would seem appropriate and also position you to continue the fight. I can’t think of any better solution than sending you back up to the surface. It’s like making you bait.”

Bella rolled the word “bait” around on her tongue. “I hate waiting.”

“If you have a better idea, share.” Aya switched from holding Bella’s wrist to linking their hands. “Soren will join our ascent. He wants to excavate the poisoned castle. If someone snuck in and activated the vial, they had no time to escape before being poisoned.”

“You think the Sons of Hercules have spies in Atlantis?”

“No, but the All-Council does. Something is strange, Bella.”

“Only one thing?”

“Yes, good point.” Aya smiled faintly but focused on her conundrum. “We’re in the center of two or three colliding plots. First, the demand for a Life Tree flower. You could have brought them a flower from Atlantis, but they didn’t care about that anymore. Why would the Sons of Hercules destroy the Life Tree before they get what they want?”

“They’re not the most organized.”

“Second, Pelan contracted a rare mer disease on the surface. Soren has informed me it is impossible to remove anything from the battlefield. All who try will sicken and die.”

“That’s not entirely true. Balim removed something.”

“He wouldn’t infect Pelan, would he?”

“No. I think it was a long time ago. Anyway, he’d never do that.”

“Someone did.” Aya mused on the other loose threads. Pelan misidentifying Nora as his bride and then his shooting. The Sons of Hercules’s bomb and then their incursion into the mer hospital. The megalodon that had risen unnaturally high into the water column to attack. She circled back to the poisoned vial. “I can’t see how the threads come together. What mastermind plot is this?”

Bella shook her head. “Have you identified the mer spies?”

“We’re only guessing on their identities.” Aya perused the warriors following them. “They don’t volunteer for surface duties because to ascend and, heaven forbid, meet a modern bride would violate the ancient covenant. Soren’s strategy is to woo them over to our side. Whenever a suspect sheds the old jingoisms and makes friends, we’re one warrior stronger in our goal to win over the entire undersea world.”

No wonder Aya and the others were so willing to forgive Bella. They lived with known enemies.

“So the All-Council spies refuse to surface, and the Sons of Hercules are human and can’t swim down.” Bella faced the ultimate conundrum. “Yet they are collaborating somehow.”

“And when we find proof, we can unravel the whole conspiracy.” Aya changed her tone. “I’m sorry for your son. I’m pregnant right now with my first.”

“Yes.” Bella smiled despite the situation. “Congratulations. You’ll never sleep again.”

“I thought getting up to pee every hour came later.” Aya sighed out a long stream of water. “When I’m not plotting the demise of my enemies, I’m doing prenatal exercises, watching my diet, and practicing yoga poses.”

“You should probably stop plotting the demise of your enemies to reduce stress.”

“Oh, that’s far too satisfying to give up. And, counterintuitive as it may be, it’s the source of my queen powers.”

“The source of your queen powers is plotting the demise of your enemies?”

“In great detail.” Her smile widened. “Right now there’s a particular senator blocking his committee from finishing their report on the humanity of mermen. I wish he would take a long walk off the viewing platform over Niagara Falls. I understand it’s very difficult to survive the falls especially if you’re not wearing any protective gear.”

“Yes, people die that way on the regular.” Huh. “Elyssa prefers meditation.”

“My cousin is a better person than I am.” Aya kicked hard for the ruins. “Embrace your darkness, Bella. If visualizing the light doesn’t inspire you to transform, loosing your demons can be an energizing activator.”

They reached the edge of the old city.

Buzzing noises like a thousand out-of-tune seagulls assaulting a garbage truck floated out of a large cave at the base of the extended tower.

“Octopus Kong.” Aya angled over the cave.

The giant heard them and extended a few tentacles in greeting, and Aya waved back.

“Balim said he was dangerous,” Bella vibrated softly.

“The warriors consider him a crotchety, ill-tempered guardian of the ruins. But, ever since he chased off three megalodons, he’s been in a much better mood. He and I have a professional relationship.”

The disconcerting giant octopus spoiled the melodies of the fish in the surrounding ocean.

Aya kicked to a metal bell surrounded by guards. Bubbles emerged from it, and an unnerving growling sound pressed against Bella’s ears.

“Oxygen generator and power supply,” Aya explained as she released Bella to open the hatch. It swung open, and they rose into the bell. “Ready to be human again?”

Bella wasn’t sure. The air pocket was strange, stuffy, and uncomfortable. Aya threw up seawater, choking and tearing up, and Bella did as well to gasp dank air.

Aya clambered onto the metal floor.

A warrior knelt before a microphone. He saluted them with both hands touching before his chest. “Queen Aya. Queen Bella.”

Aya returned his salute. “Any messages from the surface?”

“None since we contacted them about Healer Balim’s treason. Bride Roxanne has started her descent.”

Aya’s lips twitched into a surprised smile. “She transformed? Without Pelan there?”

“Yes, she insisted on descending immediately. It was thought to be impossible, but, she did not die, so…” The warrior shook his head. “Since she may become Warrior Pelan’s bride, should I call her queen?”

“She can tell you her preference when she arrives.” Aya composed herself. “Do you wish to send a message, Bella?”

“No.” The cramped metal bell made her long for the expansive wilderness of the sea. “Not yet.”

The warrior nodded emphatically. “We will find your young fry, Queen Bella.”

Her heart throbbed. “Thank you.”

But now she was alone, stranded, and burdened, and she had no idea how the warriors would find Jonah when the Sons of Hercules controlled everything.

Aya led Bella out of the air-filled bell and back into the water.

The shift choked her hard, and then she was through it, filled with cold in her belly and radiating through her body. The last time, she’d gotten through shifting with Balim. It was harder to shift alone.

“It never gets easier,” Aya confided, gripping her hand and leading her up the cable to the anchor bolt. “Just more familiar.”

“So, now what?”

“Now, we wait.”

Again with the waiting.

Aya caught her expression and sympathized. “The Sons of Hercules will contact us. Maybe through Roxanne. Maybe they’ll wait until you surface. Trust in your companions, and be ready to act.”

Bella gripped her hair. “I can’t take this.”

Aya laughed. “When Elyssa married Kadir and was the first human to ‘live among the natives,’ I had to wait a month to make sure she’d survived. Patience.”

Balim had patience. Not Bella.

She flexed her human feet beneath the anchor bolt, trying and failing to unleash the fins that everyone else shifted to so naturally.

Second Lieutenant Ciran floated closer to her.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

He addressed her. “If you do not surface, will you go to Healer Balim?”

So, he had overheard them, even though she and Aya had tried to vibrate quietly.

“Yes, if I can find him. Why?”

He looked down at Octopus Kong’s lair, and then to the glimmering new Atlantis. Still floating, a beacon of hope amidst the wreckage of the past. “Healer Balim had no castle in Undine. Did you know this?”

“No.”

“He was not allowed. Although he performed his duty as healer, he was not allowed to be a citizen. The king punished any warrior who spoke or smiled at him. It is the reason I eventually left. A warrior cannot both belong and never belong. I could not stand to live in such a kingdom. Now, I feel that I should have done more to prevent this second exile.”

Bella considered the logically minded warrior thoughtfully. “Balim said the king of Undine was murdered.”

“The king of Undine died of madness,” Ciran corrected, emotionless, logical. “He was ill for a long time.”

“If he never had a home in Undine, it’s extra sad Balim lost his castle here.”

Ciran looked at her human foot. “It would be even sadder if he lost his bride.”

She flexed her foot again struggling to bring forth her fins. It almost sounded like even Ciran was saying if she had a plan, he would also not chase her. If she had powers.

If she had a cure, if she had money, if…

“Bella!” Aya waved her over. “Roxanne’s almost here.”

Finally, five warriors descended from the surface escorting Roxanne, a woman with deep anxiety who vibrated an insistent flutter.

“I knew I shouldn’t have left for that wedding. I didn’t enjoy it, barely tasted the cake, and forgot I had two pieces because my mind kept returning to Pelan. I just knew he was in trouble, and boy, was I right. I should have demanded Balim try me out as his soul mate instead of that Nora, but she was so sweet and ambitious and hopeful, and I’m opinionated and talk too much and I’m old. It’s a good day when I look any better than frumpy. Is Pelan all right? I feel like I would know if he wasn’t, but I don’t feel too good right now, so the sooner I see him and make sure, the better.”

“He’s at the Life Tree,” Aya vibrated. “And he could infect you, but we’re without a healer, so we have to figure out how to take precautions.”

“Never mind precautions. I’ll be thrilled to see him, healthy or ill. If I’m his caretaker for the rest of his life, we’ll have a very nice life together; just ask my mother, which you can’t because she passed away three years ago. I let more than one promising man pass me by prioritizing her comfort. Since she brought me into the world, I should bring her out of it. Not literally, of course, but that was my way of thinking. Where’s Pelan?”

“Here.” Aya helped the warriors unlatch her harness from the cable. “I see you made the shift okay.”

“No problem at all. Balim had me drinking the elixir after a brief cold. That elixir didn’t make me feel any better but it ‘arrested’ the sniffles, and I held that position for a long time rather than making me worse.” She latched onto Bella. “The night security apologized a hundred times for mistaking that faker for a merman. They were just so certain.”

“Do you have any messages for me?” Bella interrupted.

“Yes! Forgive me. My head’s falling off with messages. I need to see Pelan right away, you see, but I can deliver the messages while we swim. Someone named Starr says not to worry about your houseplants. She’s watering them.”

“She is…” Bella translated the code Starr had set up before she’d descended. “Did she ‘find’ my ‘houseplants’ okay?”

“No, that’s right. See, Pelan’s filled up my thoughts. Something about her still looking for one that’s missing. What was it? A spider plant? But I didn’t pay attention. I mean, my mind’s been on other things; specifically, on Pelan.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Aya commented, swimming them away from the anchor and toward the new city. “The sniffles are terrible.”

“Mitch and I had the same symptoms, but he didn’t drink enough of the elixir. The night watchman’s ill, but the lady who substitutes seems to be like me, nominally fine. Now Mitch is in the hospital with a fever. Where’s Pelan?”

“We’re heading to him now. And how did you shift at the surface? Did you kiss a merman?”

“I kissed all the mermen!” She wiggled her feet, trying to help Aya along and instead causing drag. “I was so terrified it wouldn’t work, and I just had to reach Pelan. The steps are drink elixir, kiss a merman, transform. So that’s what I did.”

“I think you’re only supposed to kiss your merman,” Aya vibrated. “To activate the soul mate bond.”

“Well, I didn’t have mine, so I kissed them all to be safe.”

Aya glanced back at the group of warriors clustered at the anchor bolt.

They had a cocky attitude. The others gathered around with rapt interest.

“I suspect escort duty will be even more popular than it already is,” Aya murmured. “Ciran will have his hands full keeping the rotations fair.”

“I know it was a bit much, but I had to see him.” Roxanne swallowed, and her jaw trembled. “It was so hard seeing him when he was so sick. I just wanted to give Nora a break. She’s the real hero. But when you said that she wasn’t his bride and maybe I…that maybe I could be the one…” She made a determined fist. “I had to get to him as fast as possible.”

Roxanne’s determination was inspiring. She’d known Pelan was her soul mate even as she’d talked herself out of it because he’d been supposed to be with another. But she’d known. And now she had to be with him.

Just like Bella had to be with Balim.

She let go of Aya’s hand. “I’m leaving.”

Aya pulled up. “What?”

“I have a plan.”

“What is it?”

“I just have to be with Pelan.” Roxanne tugged her hand free. “You two talk. I can see the city. I’ll swim on, and you catch up. I was a member of the swim team, you know.”

“Oh, me too,” Aya said in surprise.

“See you directly.” Roxanne wiggled her human feet, not put off because she barely moved. The warriors clustered around them.

Aya drifted back with Bella. “But what’s your plan?”

“I’m going to find Balim.”

“That’s not a real plan, Bella. I’m sorry.”

But it was a real plan.

Bella felt the rightness of it in her chest.

She was going to be with Balim. The details would sort themselves out. Roxanne had crossed the ocean with no plan but to be with Pelan, and that was enough. Bella knew it. She felt lighter, suddenly, more powerful.

Aya watched her in worried confusion.

The non-melodious sounds of the giant octopus drifted beneath their argument.

Bella jackknifed and kicked toward the sea floor. “Octopus Kong? I have a small favor to ask of a big, strong, handsome octopus who kicks megalodon butt.”

The massive cephalopod drifted from his cave.

“How do you feel about going on a wild adventure to stop a plague, rescue a child, and save the mer-human world?”

He warbled an interested off-tune song.

Warriors flew back to stop her.

But Aya stopped them. “Well, I don’t understand, but I can’t imagine a safer escort. Bella, I hope we’ll have a picnic lunch with Jonah someday. Good luck.”

Octopus Kong’s tentacle curled around her, securing her at the level of his plus-shaped eyes.

She waved to Aya. “Thank you. Octopus Kong? Time to find Balim.” Searching her heart, she just knew which direction to go and she pointed. “That way.”

The warriors watched her fly away.

The giant jetted across the city, flying over the bulbs until Atlantis was far behind and they plunged deep into the wild ocean. Octopus Kong seemed to enjoy the adventure, romping through the currents, twisting and turning, swooping low over the landscape and chasing giant crabs or strange, eyeless animals and then soaring up to fly with pods of giant blue whales. Great sharks veered away and giant squid fled. No one confronted the giant octopus yodeling like wheezy bagpipes were in style.

Flying with Octopus Kong was exhilarating, like being on dragon-back. With that mindless freedom of the open road—the open ocean, in this case—Bella was left with her thoughts.

Balim was her happiness and her sadness in one. Both feelings were okay. They could exist together. She treasured Balim and Jonah. She needed them both.

The giant thundered over the distance and two small figures emerged against the backdrop of the brightly lit sea. Octopus Kong oriented on them.

The back one stopped and looked. Aha! Nora.

As Octopus Kong bore down on the pair of mer like an off-tune, tentacled cloud of doom, she focused on the warrior.

Balim spun and gaped. “Bella!”

She opened her arms wide, jumped off Octopus Kong’s outstretched tentacle, and barreled into Balim. They flew end over end.

“How can you be here?” he demanded.

“How dare you make me love you and then throw me away!” She clung to him. “How dare you try to break my heart?”

He held her tight and trembled, wordless, as though afraid she was a dream and he was about to wake.

But she was no dream, and there was no waking. They were in it together to the end, exiled or free. “You’re taking responsibility for that right now.”

Balim’s heart soared as his beloved Bella crushed him in her embrace. Her fierce love was as brilliant as her soul. They flew end over end in the water, out of control, just like always.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded for the second time. “Atlantis is safe. Your son—”

“How dare you?” she demanded. “I tried everything not to love you. And yet you made me anyway. We are soul mates. You said it. We’re soul mates.”

“I can never go back to Atlantis,” he vibrated, a catch in his chest.

“Neither can I.”

“You were happy there.”

“They kicked me out, Balim!”

He couldn’t believe it. “No. You are a queen. They would not make you leave.”

“They did. I have nowhere to go back to, but that doesn’t matter because I’m happiest with you.” Bella pulled back and looked him in the eye. “Yes, I’m sad about what happened. I’m sad about what you went through and what you’re going through now. I’m sad about Jonah. But I’m better and stronger because I’m with you. And I’ll never be happy in Atlantis without you.”

Wonder suffused him. He still couldn’t believe she was here.

She gripped his cheeks, pressed a kiss to his mouth. He oriented on her fully. With their mouths united, she demanded, “Tell me, Balim. Tell me about your darkness. About the murder. About everything.”

He resisted, pulling back.

Her eyes flashed under the water. She wouldn’t let go of him without a fight.

Behind them, Nora vibrated to Octopus Kong, inspecting the giant respectfully.

Balim refocused on Bella, then took her hand. “My father was a healer, like me. I was to inherit his place, luckily, because my unfortunate warrior skill made me a liability on any mission. The prince oversaw my training. He was the greatest, kindest, most capable warrior in Undine. But one day, when it was just the two of us, there was a disaster. In safe waters, raiders from another city surprised us.”

Balim rubbed his hip, the fractured tattoo where he’d been stabbed.

“I was injured. The prince fought off our attackers at great cost. We returned to the city, and he ordered my father to heal my wounds first.”

“He died?”

“He did not die. My father stabilized me and was turning to heal the prince. The king burst in, mistook his son’s stillness for death, and stabbed my father through the heart.”

Bella watched him in silence. Her soul glowed fiercely. “Your father was murdered right in front of you?”

Balim nodded, bleak in his memories. “The prince then awoke, but with no healer to attend him, he slipped away. I assumed guilt for both deaths.”

“Balim. You didn’t murder—”

“This is not the end,” he corrected. “It is the beginning. We are logical warriors in Undine, not governed by emotion, but I was fully consumed by my hatred and single-minded in my focus on revenge. When I trained at the great hall of healers, I stole a cursed blade from the diseased battlefield. The time came when I was required to perform some minor healing on the king and I used the dagger as my instrument. He contracted Blue Ring and died.”

Bella stroked his temple. “You didn’t get sick?”

“I crafted a kind of human gloves and never touched the dagger with my skin. Still, I was lucky.”

“And no one else got sick either?”

“No, I made sure that he was kept in isolation. A privilege of being healer. My lies were respected.” He still felt the bitterness of being believed. That, almost more than the murder, made him feel sickened at his actions. “I returned the dagger to the field after I left the city and before I joined Soren’s quest to free King Kadir.”

“Ciran said that the king of Undine died of madness,” she murmured.

He was a little surprised. “You spoke with Ciran? That is an interesting belief. The king was prone to fits of rage, which is unusual for our people. They had no choice but to rely on my diagnosis.”

“What did you tell them he died of?”

“Curling flatworms. A meaningless illness, like a small cut leading to systemic infection, and not a noble or valiant death.”

She stroked his skin. “He made his own bed.”

“The mer do not sleep in beds.”

“I mean he killed your father and tortured you beyond your breaking point.”

“Yes, had he lived, my father would have kept him in excellent health.” He felt his tone go flat and matter-of-fact. “I murdered my king.”

“Ciran knows, and he doesn’t blame you. You’re the reason he left. He wants is for you to have a home.”

His determination fell apart like a pulled stitch. “He does?”

“He does. They all do. Even King Kadir and Soren understand. They wanted to help us. Help you.

“But I murdered a patient. How can anyone trust me? And healing is my only talent. I’m a useless warrior. I should have died.”

“The cruelty you endured and the choices you made to survive will haunt you, but they’re over. You’re free.”

“Do not dream away my crime. I am not pure.”

“Neither am I. It’s why I’m here.” She pressed her palm to her chest. “Stay with me, Balim. We’ll be happy and sad together. That’s okay.”

“But—”

“Fine. I’ll heal you myself.” Bella curled her arms around him and kissed him long and steady.

His pulse leaped into his jaw and his veins opened up, flooding his cock with stiff heat. She was his female and he was her male. She was his soul mate.

Bella deserved an honorable warrior, not a murderer.

And yet, she had him.

Balim kissed her. He selfishly needed her more than life. And she needed him too. Joined without tricks, without barriers, without plastics. Skin to skin, emotion to emotion, soul to soul.

But not in the middle of the open ocean in front of another bride and a giant cave guardian, no matter how they tried to pretend they weren’t paying attention.

Bella pulled back with heated cheeks, glanced over her shoulder at Octopus Kong and Nora with a sigh, and tapped her forehead against his. “Later. Definitely later. At least twice.”

His cock pulsed in acknowledgment.

They began swimming again in the direction of the All-Council stronghold.

Bella’s soul glowed with her faith.

“You are happy now,” he noted.

“Because I’m with you. Oh! Look.” She flexed her foot, and her fins unrolled. Her smile glowed, brilliant. “Somehow, as soon as I said ‘We’ll be happy and sad together and that’s okay,’ I felt deep inside I could make my fins. And now I am.”

His chest lifted like a great and crushing weight had finally been removed and he could take a deep breath. “You channeled your power.”

They enjoyed the swirl and flash of Bella’s fins. The long trailing beauties were cream-colored and speckled with her freckle-tattoos just like the rest of her. He observed every detail. She was beautiful.

And his.

“It’s impossible to imagine breathing water when you’re in the air,” she mused, “and it’s impossible to imagine being happy when you’re drowning in sadness. But both worlds coexist. You dive back and forth between them. I have faith that no matter how sad I become, someday, I will once more be happy. And vice versa. And that’s okay.” She pulled him close. “So long as I’m with you.”

He held her.

She’d found her strength. Her queen power. He’d been wrong to think she wasn’t dedicated to Jonah because of her convictions. She was dedicated to justice and never gave up on Jonah no matter how dark his chances. She would never give up on Balim either. Not even if the rest of the world did.

He’d always known he was beneath Jonah in her heart the same way he’d been beneath his father’s and prince’s memory in Undine. But Bella explained she loved Balim and also her son. He wasn’t beneath anyone. Her love coexisted.

“You have changed.”

“I couldn’t let myself be happy while Jonah is sick,” she confessed. “But that was the voice of my deepest fears. My heart is bigger than one emotion. And so is yours.”

His heart clenched.

She was right.

Confessing the truth of his past had lanced his inner wound. Earning her respect drained the infection and allowed healing.

“I may never return to Atlantis,” he murmured, not able to release the last vestiges of his sadness.

“Never say never.” She squinted at the distant mouth of a vast undersea tunnel. “Are we going in there?”

“You cannot. The All-Council stronghold lies on the other side. I must go alone.”

“Nice try.” She gripped his hand tighter. “You’re not going alone.”

Nora pulled closer now that their serious talk had finished. “A merman, two humans, and a giant octopus walk into a bar…”

“And then what?” Bella asked.

“I’ll tell you once I come up with the rest of the joke.”

“This is no sand bar,” Balim told Nora. “It is called the Under-Continental Current and is well guarded by warriors. A giant cave guardian will be noticed.”

“He can cause a distraction while we sneak in,” Nora suggested.

“There are too many warriors.”

“Okay, so we’re all the distraction. The All-Council stronghold is Troy. This guy is our giant wooden horse.” She gestured behind them at the discordant Octopus Kong. “He can hide us in his tentacles. We pop out once we’re inside.”

“He is not under our command.”

“We don’t know that until we ask.”

“Giant cave guardians are unpredictable and violent.”

“That helps us.”

Bella interrupted. “I asked, and he brought me to you.”

The giant cave guardian ruffled his tentacles, plucked a passing flounder, and crunched it contentedly.

“Such a radical plan will not be expected by the All-Council,” Balim conceded. “Healer Dalus’s training hall is distant from the main stronghold. Fewer warriors will chase after us. We may be able to claim a secret audience with my mentor.”

Bella approached the giant cave guardian with respect and explained their plan. “This could be dangerous.”

He warbled something and curled his tentacles around them, even Balim, gathering them into his underside as the ocean closed into thick walls of rubbery tentacle.

“He says, ‘It’s not dangerous for a giant octopus.’” Nora grinned, squishing against him and Bella as they twined together.

“Do you truly understand the cave guardian’s words?” Balim asked.

“No. It’s a feeling.”

“Bella?”

“Same,” Bella said.

“There’s no way this can go wrong,” Nora vibrated nervously.

Balim held Bella closer. “For the sake of averting an incurable plague, I hope you are right.”

The group sat tight while the giant cave guardian flew into the massive underwater hole that comprised the Under-Continental Current.

Balim had been through it several times, but never in the tentacles of a giant cave guardian pressed against his soul mate while praying for their lives.

The current forced them through, and the giant octopus navigated the tunnel, his warble changing from yowl to snarl and back again.

Warriors’ shouts followed them, and Octopus Kong banged about, holding them tighter as he performed rolls and sweeps.

Bella rested her head against Balim’s taut pectorals.

Nora tried to hold herself steady. “It’s like riding in a barrel over Niagara Falls.”

“Let’s hope we stick the landing.”

The longer they continued on and the more aggressive the shouting pursuers sounded, the more Balim was grateful for the giant cave guardian and the queens who had partnered with him.

Any other plan would have been suicide. The exile had clouded his mind. With Bella pressed against him, his mind cleared.

So long as her faith in him was real, someday he could vanquish the darkness in his heart and be the warrior—and healer—she and her ill son needed.

Someday.

“Once we arrive near the healer’s hall, you and I will swim free,” Balim told Bella. “Queen Nora, you will remain with Octopus Kong. Draw off enemies and stand lookout.”

“Queen?” Nora cocked a brow. “Me? As if that will happen.”

“Did you not drink elixir and transform? Did you not already make your fins? A flower will bloom for you. You are a destined queen of Atlantis.”

Nora’s light swelled. She rubbed her mouth to hide her smile. “You’re the only one not trying to get in my pants, so I almost believe you.”

“You are not wearing pants.”

“Yeah, okay, Doc.” She dropped her hand, revealing her pleased grin, and peered through the tiny gaps Octopus Kong had kept between his tentacles to circulate water for them. “We’re coming up on a cliff.”

“Overlooking a battlefield?” He gripped Bella’s hand. “Octopus Kong must release us and carry on with the distraction.”

The giant cave guardian flung his tentacles wide. They tumbled out. Nora grabbed a sucker. “Whoa! Not me!”

Octopus Kong scooped her up.

She waved as his tentacles closed around her once more. “I’ll catch up with you guys later!”

Her vibrations cut off as his protective tentacle closed around her.

A massive army of elite warriors stormed the giant cave guardian from three directions. They were efficient, well-armed, and coordinated.

And no match.

The giant cave guardian raced over the distant pursuers, driving and scattering their formations. They regrouped and chased after him. It was like watching a human wearing an impenetrable suit antagonize swarms of bees. No matter how the bees might think to sting him, Octopus Kong was barely irritated. His appalling song rose in volume. He frolicked over their formations, having a wonderful time.

The All-Council warriors who usually guarded the great stone hall of the healers had disappeared. Trainees raced around disorganized, flying with armfuls of instruments and healing tools, some hurrying toward the giant cave guardian to prepare for healing injured elites and others fleeing from the awesome creature.

Balim and Bella had a short window in which to enter and escape.

He pressed Bella to his chest and dove along the ground, skimming the rock. His fins pumped, rested and ready to move. She belonged pressed against his body. And she did not think he had an irredeemably dark soul.

He flew.

There, the unguarded back entrance led into the great hall of the healers. “Can you make your fins?”

She flexed her stubby feet. “Not on command. I’ll practice.”

“Pretend to be injured.” He coached her to swim side by side with him. When satisfied that they would pass as two male mer, he led her through the cavernous carved stone of the hall.

Unlike most mer cities, which were comprised of organic Life Trees, the All-Council carved their city from immutable stone and cloistered their sacred plant inside a stockade. No warrior could enter its sanctuary.

Those who had seen it said it was disappointing and not worth the mystery. Living in such rocky, harsh conditions, it was spindly and weak, with few resin Sea Opals and never any flowers. The only warriors elected to be elders or representatives had long ago claimed brides and raised young fry. Their reproductive days were behind them. It was the same for All-Council generals and, until recently, the elite military. Any who held power had already met and discarded their sacred bride soul mates. So of course, the Life Tree of the All-Council never put forth any blossoms.

Balim flew across the barren stone.

Most of the guards must have been drawn off by Octopus Kong. Balim snuck along the empty colonnades flashing through the shadows. Other healers hurried to the entrance. None glanced at him or noticed Bella.

His mentor’s voice boomed from his chambers at the end of the hall. “Go forth, my trainees! Rarely does the battle come to the All-Council. Do not let this training opportunity pass. There are warriors to heal!”

Balim reached his mentor’s private chambers, confirmed they were alone, and pulled Bella inside.

The room was as he remembered. Empty of comforts, barren as the rocky halls, but filled with study tools, equipment, and small gardens of curative plants, cages of animals, and piles upon piles of rare healing materials in various states of growth or harvest.

His mentor, Great Healer Dalus, looked up from the weave of one such flat plant. “I told you to—Trainee Balim.” He straightened, noted Bella, and fixed on his former trainee. “I should say, Healer Balim. You are far from the rebel city.”

“I was exiled.” He positioned himself in front of Bella to disguise her appearance. “This is my apprentice. Bella.”

“Bel-la,” he repeated and folded his fingers over his thick abdomen. In the years since Balim had trained with him, the elderly warrior had grown older, wider, and balder. “Not rebel nor Undine.”

“No.”

“You have, of course, come to study Blue Ring.”

Balim’s belly lurched. He knew?

“Yes, yes, of course.” Great Healer Dalus kicked at an easy pace out of his private study and down the empty hall. “The cursed battlefield has seen great interest lately. General Giru himself has asked endless questions. He has ambitious ideas on how to end the rebellion.”

“Did he share those plans with you?” Bella asked smoothly.

Dalus glanced back. “Only what was necessary to prevent contagion within his warriors.”

Balim’s belly fell further. “Then he was successful in removing a weapon from the cursed field?”

“I will show you. See with your own senses, Balim. Do not become lazy because you hold a title of Healer now.”

Bella vibrated to Balim. “Is the battlefield honestly right outside?”

Healer Dalus answered her. “It is my favorite place to contemplate the limits of our knowledge.”

“It seems risky to live right next to an infectious hot zone for an incurable disease.”

“Is it not natural? So many traveled to study the field, it became an established meeting place for healers. A cursed, incurable battlefield is the most natural place.”

They exited to the upper ledge of sheer cliffs.

Below, the battlefield spread out. Like the wrecked boats in Lake Eerie, broken tridents stabbed out of rocks where the bodies, abandoned even by fish, calcified into limestone skeletons.

The shouts of the living echoed along with the noise of Octopus Kong leading a merry chase. Here, the still water contained a deadly message for any who would sit and ponder it.

Dalus heaved himself onto a rock worn smooth on the ledge. He had often rested there to ponder this battlefield during Balim’s apprenticeship. More lines etched his old face, and a deeper sadness mixed with the active curiosity that had safeguarded his permanent place as the highest healer of the mer.

“Trainees still study it?” Balim asked.

“I ask them to consider what drives a male to continue to fight when his body breaks down around him, when sense should hold him back, when even honor has abandoned his fight.”

His curiosity was legend. If anyone cured the disease, it would be Dalus.

“We’re more interested in how to cure it,” Bella said.

“Yes.” His mentor’s lip quirked. “And, perhaps, how it has spread from Oannes Field to Undine to Atlantis?”

Balim’s stomach rolled. “You knew?”

“Not much passes by my eyes unnoticed, especially if a gifted trainee turns his gaze on my passion project.”

Balim had thought himself so sneaky, stealing away when the others were occupied and studying the field. Fantasizing how the old king would die and no one could stop it just as no one had stopped him from killing Balim’s father.

Darkness was only a thought away.

Bella pressed her hand on his.

Her presence washed away the darkness in a soothing wave of light. He needed to trust and focus. The dark time was past.

“The ingenious method you used to remove the cursed items without contracting the illness is the reason new items can be removed.” Dalus cast his eyes back at Balim, insulted by Balim’s surprise. “I know the interests and occupations of my warriors, Balim. Although I am a healer, I am not a hermit.”

“Why are other items being taken out?” Bella asked. “And where are they going?”

“First, to study. But it is impossible for mer to conduct such research without contracting the illness. So, in the end, we collected them for you to study.”

“Me?” Balim repeated.

“You.” He nodded beyond Balim to Bella. “Humans.”

Balim gripped the pommels of his daggers. “Make any hostile move, and I will forget you are a great healer.”

Dalus narrowed his eyes.

“Well, you got me.” Bella hugged herself. “I guess I wasn’t as sneaky as I thought.”

He laughed. “I am trained to examine warriors for physical illness. It would be a sad day for healers if I did not notice your particular deformities in the chest, hip, and fins.”

She squished her breasts. “Thanks for the tip.”

Balim’s heart thudded as hard as when Dalus had revealed he knew of Balim’s crimes. “You will not summon your guards?”

“They are busy with a giant cave guardian that has arrived at the same moment.” His suppressed smile told them he was no idiot. “To answer, I have no interest in engaging in another war where the two sides would rather die than allow the other to survive. We know how that ends.”

They gazed out on the battlefield. Ghosts had come and gone. The past battles were long ended, deaths long forgotten, but still caused a powerful effect on the living.

“You should be on our side,” Bella said. “We’ll save your race.”

“You will save nothing if you succumb.”

“Is that why you surfaced and broke into Balim’s hospital? So you could infect Pelan and the other humans?”

“Surface? No. I have too many responsibilities to ever leave here. But you say Blue Ring infects humans? Do they get the bruising, the blue chains, the suicidal memories?”

“Suicide?” Bella and Balim both repeated the word at the same time.

Balim followed the thread. “The incurable disease kills by suicide?”

“It causes irreparable body decay unhalted by the Life Tree and wracks the warrior’s soul with pain. Most commit suicide before the disease finishes its course, but make no mistake: the disease will finish its course. We have learned that much.”

“What else?” Bella asked.

“What else have you learned?” Dalus pushed back, eager and interested.

Balim answered. “Human females and males are both susceptible, but elixir slows the disease or cures it. At least one modern bride was immersed in the diseased fluid and suffered no effects, while a warrior now circles the last stage of illness.”

“Fascinating.” The healer’s eyes glowed with great interest. “Then, I suppose it will not matter for long. I have lied to you, Balim.”

He clutched his dagger and moved in front of Bella. “How?”

Dalus ignored his movement. “I teach that there were no survivors of this war. That is the lesson of the field and the wish of the All-Council. Not the truth.”

“So there were survivors,” Bella breathed.

“Two,” Dalus confirmed. “They came not from this battlefield. As you know, the last kings carried the disease home in their dying corpses. The citizens, weakened by age and starving from the long war, succumbed also.

“Except in Derketo. A young male remained with his new bride.” He nodded. “They survived.”

Balim frowned. This contradicted everything. “How? Why did they survive?”

“They weren’t starving,” Bella suggested.

“His bride was fuller and more rested than her ragged husband, but by his account, he was quite ill. He even contracted the disease. She never did.”

“And he recovered,” Balim mused. “She healed him?”

“Something, yes, healed him. I have spent my lifetime studying this field and this disease to answer how.”

“She used queen powers.”

Dalus tipped his head back, another smile on his face, and raised a brow. “Legends do not cure diseases. Healers cure them.”

“They are not legends. I have seen the queens wield their powers myself, Great Healer.”

His mentor tsked with disbelief.

“So how did the healer cure him?” Bella asked. “You have a theory.”

“Very rudimentary. After consultation with General Giru, I have learned so many things. Humans classify their illnesses by the creature that causes them: parasitic, bacterial, and viral. He has promised me that once they finish their ‘microscope’ study, they will tell me how to defeat the disease.”

“Which is it?” Bella asked. “Animal, bacteria, or virus?”

“That, human, is something I hope your people will explain.” He looked up again and rose, his fins descending as recognition filled his face with subdued welcome. “General Giru. I have held the intruders right at the lip of Oannes Field as you requested.”

Bella clung to Balim. “A double-cross.”

General Giru descended to their level.

Nerves stabbed Balim.

The general had a strange, unnatural coloration of pale skin and wore an unusual chest plate. Dark weave hid his shoulders and cushioned the skin beneath his daggers. Dark purple, iridescent tattoos tangled across his face like human blackberry vines.

Bella gasped. “The fake merman!”

“I am a true merman,” General Giru barked, his chest vibrations rough. “You poisoned your city. Destroyed your castle. Murdered your king. You and the warriors who compromise our proud traditions are pond scum.”

Balim held Bella tight. His heart thudded out of control.

He was no warrior, and he could not fight off the second-highest commander of the All-Council, who descended to their side, nor the units of warriors massed around him.

“There is nowhere to escape.” General Giru vibrated with a gravelly tone in his chest. “Your weapons, Healer Balim, or I will cut you down where you float and leave your human bride without a protector.”

Balim relinquished his daggers and trident. Although a central tenet of the mer was never to injure females or young fry, the All-Council had decreed rebel queens to be not female. Some generals still treated them with honor and others as rival warriors. General Giru’s feelings were unknown. Balim would not risk Bella.

General Giru’s elite warriors bound Balim roughly. They turned on Bella.

“Leave her,” he begged. “She is merely an innocent bride caught up in our trouble. Take her to the surface and release her.”

“Very well.” The general smiled coldly, his teeth white behind pale lips and semitranslucent skin. His soul was dark. He bit back intense pain. “Great Healer. My draught?”

His warriors lassoed ropes to drag Bella without touching her.

Dalus gave the general a soft jelly flask filled with greenish-black liquid. He swallowed the inky substance. It must have been bitter because his throat muscles worked against his swallows, suppressing a gag. He finished the medicine, shuddered, and waited for it to take hold.

Dalus stood back watching. His manner reminded Balim of Undine citizens under the old rage-filled king. They stood by silent, judging, and leaving Balim to his punishment.

General Giru opened his eyes slowly. “Great Healer, bring the relic box.”

“You require another cursed dagger?” Dalus brought him the equipment he requested.

“The humans have one request.”

General Giru operated a modified metal version of Balim’s lamprey device to capture a crusty dagger from the battlefield below. He donned a thick mitt and studied his prize. The dagger resembled any other weapon lost to the ages. Although invisible to the senses, disease seemed to radiate danger.

Through the mitt, General Giru clasped the crusty pommel and brandished the dagger at an invisible enemy. “Ha! Ha…”

Imagining stabbing someone seemed to give the general relief. His shoulders lowered, and his cheeks went lax. He blinked and straightened. His pupils dilated, and a strange dullness crossed his face. He shook himself and turned on the captives.

Bella watched the loosely held dagger with wide eyes.

Now that he knew she could be immune, Balim’s fears eased. No matter what happened to him, she would survive.

General Giru focused on him.

Balim braced.

The general crossed the distance in a single, loose kick. He positioned the coral-crusted dagger against Balim’s chest, just below the heart, and sliced a deep line.

“No!” Bella shrieked.

His chest radiated pain. Balim’s nerves screamed, and his blood soaked the water. He thrashed, the cloud of disease growing excited as it interacted with his blood. Little stings like invisible anemones struck his veins, invisible sharks biting his body. Streaking, like the poison vial, into his chest and blackening his soul.

Bella moaned. “No.”

“General, I am disappointed in you.” Dalus sagged with a heavy voice. “Was injuring my most brilliant trainee really necessary?”

Bella tried to kick her fins. Warriors dragged her. She needed to catch up to Balim.

His skin paled like Pelan’s, turning translucent, and dark bruising spread out from the scabbed-over cut. His mouth opened and closed like a fish unable to breathe.

General Giru’s warriors escorted them to a cable anchored to a distant rock. They clipped on to the same harnesses used on the Atlantis cable and ascended straight up.

The general sneered at Bella’s anger. “Do you not enjoy the human marvels?”

“I thought the All-Council never surfaced,” she snapped, repeating what Aya had told her. “I thought the ancient covenant restricted you to the sea.”

“The founding of Atlantis destroyed the natural order. We must adapt until the order is restored.” The general’s lazy, complacent tone sharpened. “All who expose themselves to humans will pay. Even me.”

They ascended and then stopped, hovering at a specific mark on the cable to reduce the pressurization effects. Mermen did not get the bends, but apparently, other effects were reduced by pausing instead of rocketing for the surface.

Balim curled over and shuddered.

The general watched him with a dead gaze.

“Why are you doing this?” Bella demanded, furious. “The Sons of Hercules are your greatest enemy. You should hate each other.”

“The enemy of my enemy is an untapped ally.”

“Their goal is to kill you.”

“They cannot poison the faithful,” he scoffed. “Only rebels who deserve to die.”

Balim clenched over his injury. “Does the All-Council know you made this treaty? That you have unleashed an ancient disease?”

“No one will question my results. When all mainland warriors are dead and Atlantis is a cursed boneyard, we will silence the rebel voices. Dragao Azul and Aiycaya will swear fealty to the All-Council. The mer will return to the natural order.”

“Aiycaya?” Balim screwed open an eye. “Another city has rebelled?”

“You would not have heard, would you? You were exiled before the news.”

“What news?”

“Perhaps I will not tell you.” His cold smile widened. “Comfort yourself by knowing Atlantis is emptied of its army. It will be easy for my warriors to stow explosive vials in the remaining castles.” He gazed at his cursed treasure. “Or worse.”

The threat stabbed into Balim. He hunched over and moaned.

She hugged Balim, as powerless now as she had been to soothe Jonah during his chemo when he’d cried because the insides of his bones ached.

Where were her queen powers?

“It’ll be okay.” She tried to channel something, anything, other than his pain-filled decline. “I’m here. This pain will pass. It sucks, but it will pass, and you’ll be stronger because you endured it.”

“He will grow weaker.” The general smirked. “He will wither and die like all warriors who turn their backs on the ancient covenant.”

This big, ugly bully poked at her furious heart.

Bella fired back at him. “No, he won’t. I’ll heal him with my love. It’s my queen power. I just have to develop it. You’ll see.”

“This human ‘love’ is a lie. Only resonance in the soul is truth.”

“And we’re soul mates.”

“More lies.”

“I transformed because of our resonance. Look at my fins.”

“Modern females cannot speak true vows. Their minds are distracted, and their words are weak.”

Balim’s eyes cracked open, and his gaze fixed on her. The distinctive red of his tattoos and the matching threads in his irises darkened. He heard the general’s words and believed them.

“No,” she insisted to Balim. “I haven’t loved anyone like I love you. It’s not just words. Believe me.”

But did he? His eyes closed again, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

Distant notes of discord filtered past their argument.

Her hope rose.

Octopus Kong? Nora?

The general tilted his head, rotating his chest in a circle to pinpoint the direction, and then frowned. “Spread out.”

His elite warriors obeyed.

The noise faded.

The general’s sharp gaze faded into the same lazy fog that had taken over his expression after drinking the medicine. He ordered his warriors to rise once more.

“You vow to love each other forever,” the general taunted her. “But you are a modern human who will change her mind as soon as you meet another warrior more to your taste.”

She hugged her unconscious warrior. “That will never happen.”

“You think you are wise.”

“Obviously you’ve never found your soul mate.”

“Now you are the foolish one. I could not hold this position unless I fathered a young fry.”

But doubt flashed in his eyes, and he turned away.

They approached the surface. The cable they’d been using ended at a floating buoy, and the warriors unclipped everyone, leaving Balim for Bella to handle. Close by, a long boat floated in the middle of nowhere. It pulled on its anchor chain, drifting on the current. She had never seen such massive metal. Each chain link was the size of her own body.

Satisfied that they were alone, the general broke through the water barrier and shifted to air-breathing. He looked even paler but less translucent. Sunlight revealed marks of an old fight bruising his skin.

The boat was painted a military greenish-gray and the massive deck was stocked with cranes, submersibles, and bristling with antennas and satellite dishes. It looked like a cross between a polar icebreaker and a scientific vessel, stable enough to cross the roughest, stormiest Atlantic swells in the middle of winter. How many people lived there? A hundred?

The general led them to the back end of the boat, ordered his warriors to hide beneath the waves, and yanked a long rope to signal his arrival.

A bell pealed.

They bobbed in the large waves.

The general frowned and pulled the greenish, algae-slicked rope again. The bell pealed and pealed, but no one answered his summons.

He swam to a plunging ladder, clambered to the deck, and disappeared.

A platform descended to sea level. His elite warriors dragged Bella and Balim onto the crashing metal and then slipped beneath the waves.

The platform rose.

On the deck, the general stood with his trident out. He was nude aside from the weapons and armor, and his flaccid cock dangled between his legs. “Get off.”

Bella obeyed, pulling Balim with her. They were both nude too. She never noticed that in the water but the instant she was on land, she felt small and terribly vulnerable.

The general sliced through her bonds with the deadly, sharp middle spine of his trident. He freed Balim, rotated the weapon, and nudged him with the rounded base.

Balim groaned.

The general grimaced. “Rouse your so-called soul mate.”

“He’s sick,” Bella protested.

“Rouse him or I will.”

She caressed Balim’s pale, scraped cheek, murmuring her wish. It worked. His lashes fluttered, he blinked, and then rolled over and ejected the water. Gasping on his forearms and knees, he gathered strength.

His cut looked horrible. Purplish-green, festering, and bruised. A direct injury with a diseased dagger was much more virulent than whatever had infected Pelan. The ghostly blue rings hidden beneath his tattoos spread out across his body from the cut.

“Get him up. Walk with me.”

“He’s sick,” Bella repeated, snappish.

The general’s dead expression showed he did not care.

Fine. Well, not fine, but Bella would try. She swung Balim’s biceps around her small shoulders, hardening herself against his pained grunt so she could be the caregiver he needed. “I’ve got you. You’re with me. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Balim forced one half-human foot after another, stumbling and dragging himself on her command.

They staggered after the general.

Bella was not a natural caregiver. But for Balim, like for Jonah, she cared in sickness or health. And the way her spirit was firing for revenge, she’d be there fighting for vengeance long after they were parted by death.

Bella helped her soul mate stagger after the general.

The boat, which could hold hundreds of people, was empty. And that flummoxed the general. He wandered through passageways with no idea what to do.

“Hercules?” His gravelly call echoed down the hall. “Humans? I have your dagger and your test subject.”

“Where is everybody?” Bella asked, looking up from focusing on her footing with Balim.

He raised his voice. “Where are you?”

No one answered.

The boat creaked. Distant waves splashed. It was strange and creepy.

They entered a room full of scientific equipment. The chairs were pushed back and the coffee was overturned, still a wet brown stain on the floor, as if everyone had abandoned the ship in a hurry.

“Something bad happened here,” she warned him. “This is where they studied the dagger? We should go. Now.”

He grunted. “The small boats are no longer attached.”

“The lifeboats?”

A tank of blue water rested on a table. Inside rested a crusty dagger just like the one he had removed from the field and used to stab Balim. The general set his wooden box with the new dagger in it next to the tank, on top of a stack of papers, soaking everything and making the ink run.

“Make your people answer.”

“How do I do that?” she asked.

He gestured at a flickering monitor. “Hercules conveys orders through this device.”

She eased Balim into a chair, stretched, and then examined the computer station. A locked screensaver told her the company owner. NGMT Enterprises. The letterhead on the wet stack of papers spelled it out. Next Gen Mil Tech Enterprises. It was stamped with a government seal.

Next Generation Military Technology.

A government contractor? They had badly underestimated the Sons of Hercules’ importance, influence, and reach. These were not “mere” college students, even though the active shootings and bombings had been performed by disgruntled college-aged men. Those must be the expendable grunts. The true organization was obviously much, much larger.

She tapped the keyboard. It popped up a password field. She walked around the other computers. “They’re locked.”

He unsheathed the normal, non-diseased dagger strapped to his bicep. “Do not defy me. I will carve my dissatisfaction into your exile.”

“I’m not defying you. Look.” She wiggled the mouse and revealed identical password screens. “Do you know the password?”

“Pass…word?”

“The word to unlock them.”

He considered. “Hercules.”

She typed it. “No.”

“Rebel.”

“Nope.”

“Anathema bride.”

“Really?”

“The Sons of Hercules do not tolerate them,” he replied, but of course it didn’t work either, and the third attempt locked her out with a warning that the station had to be unlocked by the system administrator.

She needed Starr.

“We need to find an unlocked computer,” she said.

The general made her shoulder Balim once more and follow him around the boat to the bridge.

It too was empty and filled with buttons, dials, switches, and gages. What did any of them do? Even the maps were strange looking, but a satellite image showed their position: the middle of the Indian Ocean.

And the date said several months had passed since she’d descended to Atlantis, putting home in midwinter.

Time dilation, Balim had called it.

Had Starr made much progress? She hoped everyone was okay. The journey through the undersea world had taken longer than she’d realized.

“Operate the satellite internet,” the general ordered.

She eased Balim into one of the cushy seats and perused the mysterious instrument panels. “Which one controls that?”

“You are the human.”

“I can read. But I can’t understand most of these labels. I’ve never sailed on a boat.”

“Do not defy me!” He lifted his trident to Balim’s throat.

Balim closed his eyes and stiffened.

Bella felt so helpless. Balim was sick. She was imprisoned aboard an abandoned boat and held hostage by an unpredictable, violent, drugged general who didn’t seem entirely sane. He was, hands down, the worst client she’d ever worked for.

Although he had yet to kidnap her child. So he was only second-worst.

What was wrong with her? Why was she able to cut off her emotions and have these ironic thoughts when Balim’s life was on the line?

Her chest blazed. Because that was her strength. She could focus even when her loved ones were in a life-and-death fight. She could feel happiness and sadness and myriad other emotions. I’m okay.

“Operate it,” the general ordered through clenched teeth.

“I told you, I can’t.” She lifted her chin. “You drove in a car. Did you learn how to drive?”

“A human drove.”

“So, no. Don’t be unreasonable. Sailing a giant metal boat isn’t an intuitive life skill. I don’t even know which button to push to turn it on.”

The general lowered his trident. “How do I communicate I have upheld my vow?”

“Let me see…” She finished inspecting the deck and rummaged around in the pockets of the jackets the crew had left hanging over chairs next to opened cans of soda and half-eaten sandwiches. A square metal cell phone was her reward. She pulled it out. “Hold your breath.”

General Giru eyed her suspiciously. “Why? Is it poisoned?”

“If I can guess the password, we can call anyone.”

“How does holding breath assist with your guess?”

“It’s just a figure of speech.” She pressed the power button to wake it. “Here we…”

The phone showed a music player screen with the message, Trusted device nearby. Safety lock disabled.

Huh. Secret government contractors who’d set their phones to stay unlocked when trusted devices were nearby? Starr would love that.

She closed the music player and dialed, waited for it to connect, and prayed.

“I can release my air?” General Giru asked faintly, still trying to hold his breath and talk.

“Yes. Sorry. It’s fine.”

He breathed out.

How trusting.

The dial tone stopped.

Shoot.

“MerMatch,” a clear female voice said confidently over the bridge loudspeaker, making them jump. “Hazel speaking.”

“Hazel, it’s Bella.” Her heart thumped hard.

“Bella! Oh my god, I was just leaving the office, I almost didn’t pick up the phone! Where are you?”

“A ship in the Indian Ocean,” Bella said. “And right now, I’m afraid it’s a plague ship.”

“Stop this conversation.” General Giru lifted his trident once more to threaten a half-conscious Balim. “Contact Hercules.”

“Who’s that?”

Bella looked at the general.

He straightened his spine. His pupils had returned to normal size, and he was showing the strain of whatever injury had caused him to demand medicine from Great Healer Dalus.

“I am General Giru, Second General of the All-Council armies. You will obey my orders, or I will eviscerate your friends, starting with the false healer Balim.”

“E-eviscerate?” Hazel’s tone edged into panic. “What? Bella? Are you okay?”

“For the moment.” She kept a smooth, soothing lilt in her voice. “We just need to contact the Sons of Hercules.”

“But how? We don’t know—”

“I’m sure we do know.” Bella smiled tightly at the general and then gazed at the intercom as she held the phone to her ear. “We didn’t know how to call off this boat and now I’m talking to you, so it’s a similar manner of working through the problem. Contact our contacts.”

“Oh. Um. Oh. God. Okay. Here’s, uh, here’s Dannika.”

The phone clattered, making them jump again, and Dannika’s concerned voice took over the line.

“Bella, we’re so glad to hear from you. You’ll be pleased to know that Faier has returned to us unharmed. He’s even found his own bride. She’s a—”

“Don’t tell me too much. We’re on a party line.”

“Yes, of course. I’m making conversation while Hazel contacts someone who can help with your problem. General Giru, you said? I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure.”

The chiseled general did not answer. Dark shadows around his eyes and hollow cheeks sickened his expression. He straightened by sheer force and looked as though he preferred to hunch over as Balim did.

“You do know him a little,” Bella said, also trying to keep the conversation easy. “He’s the one who entered the mer hospital and infected everyone.”

“How very brave,” Dannika murmured. “He didn’t worry about infecting himself?”

Oh.

Ohhhh.

“I think he did infect himself,” Bella murmured.

He fixed on Bella for a long, hard moment. “I am a general of the All-Council. I do not collapse from weakness. The warriors of Oannes Field fought to death during their sickness. I will do no less.”

“Bella, Hazel has almost connected you to your Starr,” Dannika said. “Just hold on one—”

Clink.

Another voice intercepted the call and boomed through the loudspeaker. Not quite male, not quite female, and masked with computer distortion.

“What idiot forgot to abandon ship? Report to the bridge to be mocked by your superior.”

General Giru straightened. “Hercules.”

“Yes? Who’s forgetting passwords and locking themselves out of their workstations instead of jumping overboard and paddling away like a little pup?”

Bella raised her voice. “And just what exactly do we need to flee, Herc?”

A surprised pause ensued, and then strange admiration. “Why, Bella Taylor. Imagine you showing up on my condemned secret lab ship. You are more resourceful than I gave you credit for.”

Her stomach soured, and fury filled her. “So are you. I assume this is the government lab you planned to use to study the Life Tree blossom.”

General Giru frowned. “Life Tree blossom?”

“Government?” He guffawed. “Private sector! The government pays more if a weapon is developed by a company with black folders to contain its communiques.”

“Packaging is everything,” she agreed.

“Of course you understand. It really has been wonderful working with you, Bella Taylor. If only you had been more competent at your assigned task.”

“If you were thinking of synthesizing the Life Tree blossom into a cure, your premise was a mistake. Blue Ring is incurable precisely because it can’t be cured by the Life Tree.”

“That’s what makes it so good,” Herc corrected, sounding excited like a greedy collector. “Mermen can’t fight it. But I digress.”

“Hercules,” General Giru interrupted. “As negotiated, I have brought you another test subject. Rebel Balim was infected with a fresh strain of the disease. We ascended directly. You may now test the progress on a living merman.”

“Thanks, General. As you can see, we’re suffering from an unforeseen staffing shortage. Tell you what. Leave his body in the dissection lab. Maybe we’ll send someone to dissect his corpse.”

“What about his female?”

“Lock her in the bridge.”

The general blocked Bella from leaving as he dragged Balim out of the bridge and closed the heavy metal, sealing her in.

“Don’t do this!” She jiggled the locked handle and banged on the small strip of glass. “These people are your enemy. They want to kill you.”

“Nonsense.” Herc chuckled. “We want to kill you. And working together in a harmonious partnership, we will. Same goals.”

“General,” she pleaded through the glass. “Your race is dying. I’m a bride. I could be pregnant with a young fry.”

“You will be safe on your human ship. Hercules will release you after he returns.” General Giru gathered up Balim and exited.

“He’s not returning!” She smacked the glass. “Don’t be stupid! You can’t trust these guys!”

But the general and Balim were gone.

“Bella Taylor.” Herc tsked in that weird computer-muffled voice coming from one of the consoles. “Don’t you know better than to reason with an innocently childlike, easily manipulated monster?”

She searched the bridge for an exit.

The seats were bolted to the floor. Heavy metal objects were bolted to the wall. There was a fire extinguisher. She yanked it out of its clip and banged it against one window.

It bounced off, leaving the metal extinguisher dented.

How thick were the windows? Feet?

“I could still get you a Life Tree blossom,” she negotiated, stalking around the bridge and testing another window. Thud-bounce. “Let me out and I’ll find one for you.”

“We’re abandoning the plague project. Despite seeding the illness only a few hundred people got infected and it’s not worth the money to develop a cure.”

“You released a plague in New York City and it’s not worth developing a cure?!”

“You threatened to smear the reputations of my heroic sons. I had to act. We’re heroes, Bella Taylor. We vanquish the monsters who want to steal our women.”

She muttered, “Given that choice, I’d prefer the ‘monster.’”

“Women are whores.”

“That bullet point must delight the Ladies’ Society.”

“They don’t even notice because they fear the ‘other.’ The other skin color, the other country of origin, the other neighborhood, the other class. Hatred is a great unifier. It brings together very different people who have so much fear and so much hatred of each other and concentrates it on the ultimate other: the subhuman merman.”

She crouched on her hands and knees and searched beneath the consoles for tools while Herc congratulated himself.

“Preying upon doubts and catering to our worst impulses changed my little weekend hobby to sparking a movement. Politicians consult me on the sly. Companies have lined up to throw money into my pockets, and they don’t care if my work never passes an audit. Truly, it has been a success beyond my wildest dreams.”

“And then you kidnapped my son.”

His tone flattened. “I give that boy better care than your middle-class income could ever provide.”

Her heart thudded. Jonah was still alive.

“And besides, any expanding company experiences setbacks. Less successful products fizzle while more exciting products come on the line.”

“So the plague is a ‘less successful product’?”

He grew more animated again. “Do you know an exciting illness? Ebola. Three days of brain hemorrhages and bleeding from your eyeballs. Nobody forgets that. Do you know an unexciting illness? Heart disease. Over half a million Americans die of it every year. One in four deaths. And yet do people exercise and eat right? No. Two Americans died in the last Ebola outbreak. Who fears Ebola? Everyone.”

“Too bad for you Blue Ring doesn’t make people bleed from their eyeballs.”

“It takes far too long to kill,” he agreed. “And then one researcher tests positive for the disease when it’s not clear how he got infected and the whole research team suddenly demands to abandon ship. He probably got a paper cut and then handled the dagger. They were supposed to create the ultimate weapon to fight back against a race that regrows limbs and survives bullets, but instead they ran shrieking at the first sign of danger. I expect a man of science to show more grit.”

“You know, rather than developing a weapon, you could have spent those resources figuring out how to regrow limbs so everyone could survive bullets.”

“Mmm. Benefit from the mermen? Not ‘on message,’ Bella Taylor. You can’t unite the groups I have with positive thinking. We’re talking Ku Klux Klan working side by side with ISIS.”

“What a humanitarian.”

“I’m a great unifier. You’ll see when I’m accepting my Nobel Prize for annihilating mermen and safeguarding the sanctity of human life.”

“Conveniently ignoring the biological weapon unleashed in a major US city and, apparently, on this ship.”

“It will be dealt with. When your mortgage is underwater, there’s only one thing to do, you know.”

“Talk to the bank?”

“Burn the mansion and collect the insurance.”

“Mortgage companies hate this one simple trick,” she said drily.

“Well, I’m signing off. I prefer to remember you like this, thinking you’re so clever debating me, but don’t worry. When the bombs hit, you shouldn’t feel a thing.”

“What about my son?” she demanded.

“He shouldn’t feel a thing either.”

“But where is he, Herc?”

The voice chuckled darkly. “Closer than you might imagine.” Click.

A screen embedded in the wall by the speakers lit.

It flashed up security footage from across the ship. Her in the bridge staring at the screen. An empty hallway. Her son, still alive, sleeping on a bunk in a locked room.

Jonah was here! On an infected ship about to be bombed! She had to rescue him, had to find Balim, had to escape—

The screen flashed again to show Balim stumbling back from General Giru. The general held a bloody dagger. Balim clutched his belly. He’d been stabbed again.

Balim’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed.

Balim stumbled back and collapsed on the hard metal floor.

He barely felt his body. It seemed so far away. Even the new pain in his gut where General Giru had stabbed him fell away.

He was back in Undine, a trainee, gravely injured. His prince clasped his shoulders. Blood soaked the water, and dark pain circled his eyes. “You will survive this attack, little healer. Undine cannot go on without you. Your father will heal you swiftly. I will ensure he heals you first.”

“No…”

His moan snapped him back to the present. He was lying on his side on a human boat. General Giru stood over him.

Balim had been stabbed. He was bleeding.

He clenched the wound. Blood spilled over his fingers.

But somehow, he barely felt it. His infected chest pained him much more.

“Balim.” His father’s grateful, worried face hovered over him. Every thread of dark wood and heartblood red in his irises focused on Balim with sharp relief. His features, his steady soul light, his patterns of tattoos were bright and clear. Balim’s wounds pained him, but they were neatly sewn and bandaged, and he tried hard to be brave in front of his father. “Rest and heal. Everything is all right now. I will attend to our prince.”

“Nghgh…”

General Giru advanced, orienting him once more in the present. Sympathy softened his harsh expression.

The memories pushed against his mind, forcing him to reenter them, pressuring him like a suppressed sneeze.

But Balim held them off. He couldn’t get distracted. Not now. “You…stabbed…me…”

“I will again.” General Giru knelt beside Balim and wiped the blade on an abandoned human fabric. Cleaning it before dirtying it again with Balim’s blood. “It is better to die swiftly than live with the pain of Blue Ring.”

A commotion at the edge of the Life Tree dais drew his father’s gaze away from Balim. The king’s cry echoed, mad with pain. “My son!”

Balim moaned.

“Yes, I have suffered with this illness for many human months. It forces me to relive the same moments over and over.” General Giru settled beside Balim. “Great Healer Dalus warned me that I would commit suicide. No! I am not so weak. But this memory torture is more excruciating than any physical pain. Only his draughts give me relief.”

“Where is the healer? Why has he let my son, the city’s prince, slip away?”

Balim’s life leaked out between his fingers. “Bella…”

Her beautiful face turned to him in memory. Light shone from her chest. Her red hair floated like a cloud, and her green eyes glimmered with happiness.

Oh, that was good. Concentrating on her name pushed the terrible swirling blackness away. His belly hurt. He applied greater pressure to slow the bleeding.

“I too think of my soul mate.” General Giru tipped his head back and regarded the ceiling. “We touched lips on the surface. She transformed for me and came into my castle. But then we could not progress.” His chest heaved. “I, the most honorable warrior of Djullanar, destined to fight in the All-Council armies of the most elite warriors, could not sire a young fry with my sacred bride.”

“Bella…”

“I secretly consulted with the only warrior I trusted. My then-closest friend, my second lieutenant. You can imagine my horror when he resonated with my sacred bride instead.”

He tapped the blade against his chest and then set it aside and removed his coverings.

“I considered killing him. Revealing the truth would cause his and my deaths. Djullanar, like the All-Council, does not tolerate deviations from the proper order.”

He set the chest plate aside and unwrapped his blades and the concealing cloths. The bruises and telltale blue rings emerged in the shadows of his atrophied muscles. His original strength had wasted away.

“I endured their secret trysts. Pretended his virility was mine. After that treacherous bride resurfaced, I thought we had reconciled as we jointly raised his outstanding young fry. I continued on to the All-Council and he took my place as a respected adviser to the king. But Blue Ring has forced me to realize that I have not moved past this betrayal.”

He twisted the blade in the air before his emotion-clenched face.

“The moment I held my dagger to his throat—to his throat, the male who saved my life uncountable times, who sacrificed his own father so I could live, who followed me without a moment’s cloud of doubt—and I was so blinded by jealousy over an unworthy surface female, I threatened his life…”

His face blanked, sucked under by the tide of horror-filled memories.

Balim oriented once more on Bella. If he lost concentration now, he’d bleed out.

Because General Giru’s words sparked a realization. He chased it. It was the key to curing Blue Ring.

Balim had thought his most painful memory was poisoning his king, but the memory that Blue Ring kept circling was when his father had healed Balim first. The king had cried in agony. “Is not my son’s warrior life worth a thousand of your weak healer’s?”

Yes. The prince was a greater warrior and a worthier male. If his father had healed the prince first, they would both be alive. Balim’s life wasn’t worth their loss.

But Bella loved him.

Her soul light connected with his, even separated by metal doors and glass, and the strength of the Life Tree flowed into him.

He was aware of himself. His sickness spreading from his chest and now his belly acids poisoning his blood. But he also held the answer. The cure.

The Life Tree could not heal Blue Ring sickness because dark memories clouded a warrior’s soul and forced him to relive his worst moments repeatedly, killing his mind as it weakened his body. Not even the freshest current could blow that sickness away. Nothing could shelter him from the onslaught of his past shame.

But Bella’s love could.

The realization filled him with relief and then faded. Thinking of her was not enough. Her thought held the dark memories back but did not cure him.

“Ah.” General Giru jolted. His face blackened with shame, and then he steadied himself and focused on Balim. He lifted the dagger once more. “You will thank me before you pass into the blacknight sea.”

“No.” Balim mustered his strength defiantly. “I will not.”

“You say that now. But is not your supposed soul mate a mother of another male’s human child? You know my pain even if you do not admit it.”

He weighed the knife.

Balim was not strong enough to stop him. “There is a cure for Blue Ring.”

General Giru hesitated. “You lie.”

“I know what it is.”

“Blue Ring is an incurable disease. Even the Life Tree does not cure it.” He gestured at his injuries. “It will rot your body as it decomposes your mind. You will thank me for this mercy killing.”

“I will show you the cure.”

General Giru lowered the dagger. Hope warred with disbelief. “Then show me.”

“Bring me Bella.”

“No.” The warrior raised his dagger once more. “You have lied too many times. Now you will die.”

* * *

Bella screamed and threw the fire extinguisher at the screen. It cracked—useless—but still projected the same images she was helpless to control.

Jonah on the ship. Alive. Sleeping.

Balim stabbed, lying on the floor, and the general kneeling over him to administer the fatal blow.

“Bella?” Starr’s quiet voice sounded muffled with allergies coming from the loudspeakers. “Are you still there?”

“Starr!” She jumped. “Were you listening the whole time?”

“And recording. The cell phone you called is on the ship’s Wi-Fi. There were hardly any protections. It’s like I’m inside with you.”

“You have to rescue Jonah! He’s here, Starr!”

“You’re a little, uh, closer than me, Bella.”

“But I’m locked in!”

The cursor on the screen moved on its own. “There, I just popped the lock on your door. Jonah’s locked in too.” On screen, a light above his door turned green and his door swung inward. “Oh, not anymore.”

Bella raced to the bridge door and twisted the handle. It moved easily, but the door didn’t budge. “It’s not opening! I’m pushing with all my might!”

“Did you try pulling?”

The door flew open with her tug, and she stumbled onto her bare butt. Laughter bubbled. “You’re the real hero, Starr.”

“I’m eleven thousand miles away and I haven’t left this computer screen since Jonah disappeared. You should really get him before the fighter jets.”

Bella leaped to her feet. “I’ll thank you in New York.”

“You better.”

Bella ran out of the bridge. Where was Balim? She crossed the open deck and ducked into the science lab on pure adrenaline.

She had no weapons, and she was no match for a warrior on land or on sea.

But Jonah was alive and so was Balim. For now.

She had to save them.

Bella raced into the hall just as the general stabbed Balim for the second time.

She screamed.

* * *

Bella’s scream jolted Balim back from the brink of fuzzy memories. A sharp burning pierced his gut.

General Giru had embedded his dagger in Balim’s belly. Again.

“No!” Bella pushed General Giru aside.

The general’s grip closed on the knife, and he pulled it free, leaving Balim with a terrible seeping belly wound.

Bella cupped her hands over the dark blood. “No. No. Please no.”

Her soul light flowed into his. Despite the new pain, old disease, and his other injuries, peace welled in his heart.

His wounds were deadly and incurable.

Bella would cure them.

He lifted his lips. “Kiss me.”

“Balim.” Tears dampened her cheeks. “You’re dying.”

“I need…your strength.”

“Anything.”

His words were draining along with his strength. “Happy, Bella.”

“How can I be happy in this tragedy?”

“Happy. Kiss me.”

She didn’t believe him but pressed her lips to his.

Their souls entwined and multiplied. Not ten times or a hundred times.

A thousand.

Her mouth fitted to his, and, sensing his response, she teased her tongue along his seam. He opened to her, welcoming her in and possessing her in return.

She loved him. His darkest time and his brightest. He was not a murderer to her. He was a warrior. A healer. A male.

Hers.

She pressed one hand to his belly while she nestled beside him. His heart beat with her blood, and his mind focused on their connection. His cock filled with their shared past. She had once invited him into her body while wearing a plastic, and she would do so again.

He connected to her. And her soul filled him with a fierce determination to live, to always chase the light, to heal others.

Now, he healed himself.

The stinging in his belly faded as his skin knit together, sealing his viscera away from the air. Her queen power shone through the red liquid. Because she had found her power. Happiness in sadness, sadness in happiness. The two coexisting in one.

Like them.

He pulled back, releasing her with a sigh.

She looked down at his healed belly in shock. “Queen powers don’t work outside the water.”

“Blood is water,” he replied mildly, and it soaked her hands up to her elbows.

The bleeding had stopped. And so had the sickness. The dark bruises on his chest from the cursed dagger cut faded away. The rings disappeared.

That was why the first couple had survived.

And that was how they would fight the Blue Ring Disease.

“It is curable,” Balim said to her, aloud. “Heal the mind and the body will follow.”

The shining in her eyes matched the brilliance glowing in her chest. “We can do that. Humans get a milder infection so if we catch it, give therapy along with whatever treatment, we can heal—”

“No.” Behind them, the general growled. “No warrior survives Blue Ring. No one.”

She fixed on the general’s still-bloody dagger and lowered her voice. “We have to go. The Sons of Hercules are bombing this ship.”

Balim groaned as Bella helped him to his knees.

The general brandished his dagger. “You are still infected.”

“A queen could cure you,” Balim replied.

“I am an All-Council general. I will never accept a queen.”

Bella tried to reason with the general. “Your bride—”

“Never.”

“If she knew you were sick, she could return to you and—”

“Others have fond memories of their brides. I do not.”

“You were not soul mates.” Balim took a deep breath and leaned on Bella. She helped him stagger to his feet. “When you meet your soul mate, you will know.”

“Stop.” He lifted his dagger in threat. “I had my bride. That was more than many warriors receive. So, we die together.”

“But my son, Jonah, is—”

“I have nothing worth living for. No one will cure me. And nothing will change my mind.”

Bella had reached the end. She didn’t know how to reason with the general. Didn’t mer treasure their children? How could he wish death on her child?

The general was about to collapse. Could she attack him?

Balim held her tighter. Protectively.

They had no time. Something had to change the general’s mind.

“Bella?” Nora stuck her head in, squinting at the abrupt change from bright sun to the dull interior. She coughed up and spat a mouthful of seawater. “Are you in here?”

“Nora! Where’ve you been?”

“Oh, first I was following you, and then Octopus Kong and I had to keep a low profile, and then we had to chase off the warriors. I saw you run across the deck just now, and I didn’t see the dick who captured you, so…” Her eyes adjusted as her gaze fell on the general. “Uh….oh. It’s you.”

General Giru stared at her, dagger raised, obviously threatening them. He blinked as though he were the one who couldn’t see. “Who?”

“Great.” Nora touched her chest. “I’m great. I mean, I’m Nora. Who are you? Or, wait. Don’t I know you?”

“He broke into the hospital and infected Pelan with Blue Ring,” Bella explained as she reviewed their options for sneaking out of the room unstabbed.

“Oh, right. I yelled at you and you ran away. You were going to stab me?”

“I would never have infected a female with Blue Ring,” the general said nobly.

“Well, that’s great. Because it would be awkward if you had.”

“Awkward?”

“Yeah. Because…” She trailed off, shook her head, and waggled her index finger at Bella. “You were right. Totally right. I didn’t believe you, but the knowledge is like, ‘Bam!’ and there’s no mistaking it.” Nora turned back to the confused general. “I’m your soul mate.”

Wait.

What?

Balim made a startled noise. And the general looked the most shocked. Nora just nodded and laughed as if everything made sense.

“You are a human,” the general stated as if that made any difference.

“Queen,” Nora corrected. “And you’re a dick. As well as terminally ill. And commanding a lot of warriors who lost to a giant octopus. But also you’re my—”

“No.” He lowered his knife and turned to her, Bella and Balim forgotten as Nora became his entire world. “No, no.”

Bella edged Balim away from the arguing couple. Which direction was Jonah? Could she leave Balim near the railing while she investigated?

“Yes!” Nora laughed again. “Admit it. You feel the same.”

“I do not possess feelings.”

“Sure you do. And you feel you’re my—”

“I had a bride.” He raised a finger. “One. Taking a second defies the law of the ancient covenant.”

“Oh, well, laws are made to be broken.”

His mouth opened and closed. “But I am the second commander of the All-Council armies. I cannot speak with, much less claim, a modern rebel queen.”

“And yet here we are speaking. Claiming is right around the corner.”

“Then I cannot take that turn.”

“You can’t fight reality.”

“Yes, I can.” He held up his finger again, refusing Nora the same way he’d refused to succumb to his illness. With sheer willpower. “And I do. I make reality.”

“Look, you’re making yourself sick.” She started toward him. “I’ll heal you. I’ve got lots of practice, so I ought to be great at it.”

He jolted back and stepped around a desk to keep it between them. “I do not need healing.”

“You do. Look at you. I can’t believe you’re standing upright.”

“I do not need you. I refuse you.”

“What’s your name? I’m Nora.”

“No one. I have no name.”

“General Giru,” Bella offered, easing another step deeper into the hall.

Nora stopped and smiled. “Giru. I like it.”

“You do? Nora. It is simple, like a proper name of the mer.” He seemed to taste her name.

She smiled. “Yeah. But I have to warn you, that’s about the only ‘proper’ thing about me.”

He shook himself and backed away from her again. “I fought your people. Poisoned them. Stabbed your healer.”

“Looks like he got better.”

“We are enemies!”

Nora closed the distance between them.

Giru lowered his knife to protect her from its blade. “I enforce the order. Tradition. I uphold the propriety of the mer.”

“Yeah, I got in trouble a lot as a kid, so I’m real familiar with authority.” She rested her hands on his bare chest just below a row of blue rings. “Let’s get this sickness off you.”

“I uphold the past to safeguard the future of our young fry.”

He did? All right, then!

“So help me find Jonah!” Bella raised her voice. “That’s what I keep trying to tell you. They’re sending fighter jets to bomb this boat, and my son, Jonah, is here!”

The two stopped and turned. Her words broke their private spell.

“Where?” Nora asked.

“Young fry Jonah?” General Giru frowned. “He is still here?”

So, General Giru knew Jonah. He was here. “Herc said so. And we have to find him before—”

“Mom?” Jonah stumbled out from a corridor. He yawned and shuffled in pajamas she didn’t recognize. In the crook of his elbow, he held his ragged bear. “Mom. Hi, Mom.”

Her heart exploded.

“Jonah!” She rushed to him and threw her arms around him, squeezing him tight.

He was here. Really here. Awake, in her arms, and here.

And he had hair. Inches of puffy red hair. She stroked it. “You’re awake. Are you all right? How long have you been awake?”

“Awhile.” He yawned again. “You’re naked.”

“Uh, yeah.” She hugged him. “I’ll, uh, find a towel.”

“You’re all naked. All of you.”

“It’s a long story.”

“The mer do not wear human fabrics in the sea,” Balim told Jonah, unselfconscious about his nudity. “We swim naturally and do not require these fabrics for staying warm.”

Jonah seemed to accept that explanation. “Where’s the doctor and everybody? Oh, General Giru.”

“Young fry Jonah.” The general frowned. “You did not exit the ship with the others.”

“They never let me out. I heard shouting, but I was playing the Switch, and then it got quiet, so I took another nap.”

She kept hugging Jonah, partially to shield her nakedness from him, and partially because she couldn’t let him go. “Has General Giru been kind to you?”

“Yeah, we’re friends.” He squeezed the bear. “The doctors said I’m cured because of all the gallons of Sea Opal elixir I drank last time, and you just didn’t realize it. I’ve been waiting to tell you a long time.”

“I came as soon as I could.” She swallowed and stood, still holding him. Had he always been so tall? All arms and legs and boy? “The doctors hid you away from me. They are not good men.”

“General Giru is good.”

The room grew silent.

Jonah looked at the general expectantly.

The general’s brow wrinkled as he finally understood that he was not standing on the side of right. Self-hatred flexed across his features. Horror crossed with denial.

“It is not too late to change,” Balim told the decorated warrior. “Save this mother and young fry.”

He frowned.

“General Giru?” Jonah asked.

“He’s made mistakes too.” Bella pulled Jonah to Balim’s side and took his hand. “We all have. And we’re getting out of here. If that’s okay with General Giru.”

Without a word, the general sheathed his dagger.

Balim let out a long breath and sagged against Bella. He was healing, but still terribly weak. She held him up, her own knees trembling, the single pillar of strength in their new family.

Jonah looked up at Balim. “Are you a general too?”

“No. I am an ordinary merman.”

“Balim’s a healer,” Bella reminded him as she squeezed Jonah. She would continue until the happy reality sank in. “And guess what? Faier has apparently been found, too.”

“Faier was cool.” Jonah studied Balim. “He had more scars on his face.”

“Scars are the marks of great heroes,” Balim told Jonah.

“Like your chest?”

Balim looked down at the healthy red scab. “Hmm.”

“Yes,” Bella said. “Like his chest.”

Jonah pulled up his shirt to display scars from his treatments. “I’ve got hero marks.”

“You do.” She hugged him. “I’m so proud of you.”

His skinny arms went around her back. “Um, Mom? Why is everyone here?”

“Ah.” She released him and covered her bare chest and lower. “Yes. About that—”

Starr’s voice crackled through one of the overhead speakers. “Bella, can you hear me? Bella, fighter jets are coming to bomb the boat. If you’re still on there, get off now.”

* * *

The voice of Bella’s Starr galvanized the group. Balim hobbled with Bella escorting Jonah out of the room.

Jonah’s eyes bugged. “Bomb?”

She ushered him across the deck following the general and Nora into the sunlight. Her words were for Balim. “Jonah’s still human. He can’t survive underwater like we can.”

“Then he must not submerge.”

General Giru’s voice rang out. “He will not suffer an injury while I am here. I will operate the platform for you. Back, beast!”

The general raised his trident against the flailing arms of a curious, semisubmerged Octopus Kong. He had crawled up the side of the boat like a massive, squishy, friendly Kraken.

“Whoa.” Nora forced the trident down. “That’s Octopus Kong. He’s our friend.”

“Mer are not ‘friends’ with deadly cave guardians.”

She lifted her chin. “Funny how you can be a merman your whole life and not know how friendly giant octopuses are.”

“You will not endanger young fry Jonah with this giant cave guardian.”

“Watch me.”

Bella passed the arguing couple. “Jonah, how well do you remember your swim lessons from last summer?”

“That was two summers ago, Mom.” He got onto the platform and settled, squinting in the sunlight and shivering as the sea sprayed him.

Bella noticed his physical reactions at the same time as Balim. “We have no life vests. Just keep your head above water. Oh, I need to grab a blanket.”

Balim stopped her. “No, Bella.”

“But he needs food and water. And I didn’t check the cabin. I might find a first aid kit. At least a flare.”

“We must go now, Bella.”

She made a worried noise.

He calmed her with reason. “I will enter the water first and catch Jonah. You come next. We will travel faster together.”

The platform reached the plunging waves, and Bella helped Balim jump.

Rough waves crashed over his head, shoving him into the safety of the deep.

He fought the shift from human to mer. His belly wound and chest laceration complained. He needed his healer tools.

Balim’s head broke the surface, and he sucked in a deep breath of air, keeping his lungs while his sight shifted to human. “Jonah—”

Octopus Kong’s tentacle wrapped around him and dragged him under once more.

He pushed on the giant cave guardian, releasing his air and shifting to vibrate. “No! I must catch Bella’s young fry. He is human and must breathe air!”

The giant cave guardian rotated his dark plus-shaped eye to focus on Balim as though to ask him, skeptically, if he was serious.

“Release me,” Balim insisted to the giant cave guardian. “We must escape from the boat. It will soon explode.”

Octopus Kong thrust him above the waves. Balim gasped and coughed as he shifted forms once more.

On the platform, Bella clutched Jonah to her chest. Her desperation eased as she saw him.

Above on the ship, Nora had to hold back the general from leaping in and attacking the giant cave guardian.

Jonah looked on with equal parts wonder and terror. “Wow. Did it try to eat you?”

“No,” Balim gasped, the tentacle still wrapped around his middle. “A misunderstanding. Take my hand.”

“Will it try to eat me?”

“No.”

Far above in the sky, tiny whining wasps flew toward the boat. Were these the fighter jets?

“Hurry.”

Bella moved smoothly despite her agitation. “Jonah, take Balim’s hand. Got it? Good.”

His hands were small and slick in Balim’s grip.

Jonah fumbled his bear. “Mom?”

“I’m right behind you.” She followed, sandwiching Jonah to the tentacle, trusting Octopus Kong as Balim did. She patted the giant cave guardian’s exposed rubbery skin. “Let’s go.”

The giant cave guardian flew them across the ocean’s surface, creating a monstrous ripple, while keeping chests and, most critically, heads above water.

Jonah shouted in surprise when they plunged through waves, and then he shivered.

Nora and the general disappeared from the platform into the water.

Octopus Kong slowed and then stopped.

“Is this far enough away?” Bella asked in concern.

Balim replied. “You know human weapons better than I.”

“Maybe we should flee a little—”

Ker-ka-BOOM! Ka-BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

The ship erupted in a flash of light.

Balim’s head rang.

Jonah clapped his hands over his ears. Bella winced and clapped her hands over Jonah’s so two pairs of hands were covering his young ears.

Balim covered hers.

The ocean cratered and surged. They dipped into a deadly wave. Octopus Kong shuddered.

The distant, whiny wasps sped away.

Jonah wiggled and Bella dropped her hands from his ears so Balim released hers. Jonah hugged his mother. She squeezed him back and threaded her fingers through Balim’s fingers.

The boat smoked a long, black tail into the sky. Bella’s worried face broke into a smile. “There’s our distress flare.”

They watched for some time.

Jonah cried suddenly. “Aw, no!”

Bella startled. “What is it?”

“I left behind my Switch.” He squinted at the fiery conflagration. “Can we go get it?”

“No,” Balim said.

“We’ll get another one,” Bella promised.

Jonah’s chin wrinkled, and he looked like he was trying very hard not to cry.

“It is disappointing to lose important tools.” Balim drew his attention with sympathy. “I lost my first trident when I was about your age. A fish dragged it away and nearly hooked me as well. My father healed my injuries, and we set about making a new one. I missed my first trident for a long time.”

Jonah’s brows drew together with sadness but he mastered himself and did not cry. “I was level seventeen in Street Warrior Twenty-Eleven.”

“I’m sorry.” Bella nudged his bear. “You still have this.”

“It has your rock inside.” He opened the bear to show her Balim’s offering. “I was always cold at that other hospital, and the rock felt warm. And it stinks like you.”

“Stinks?” Her lips quirked and tears shimmered in her eyes. “Is Mom stinky to you?”

“Maybe a little,” he admitted. “It’s Mom stink, so it’s okay.”

She snuggled him so hard. “I’m getting my mom sink on you.”

He pushed away, wiggling but also laughing, and his chest glowed bright.

Jonah might never be a merman because there was now only one mermaid of the sea, Queen Lucy’s young fry Tory. But the elixir in his body had reacted with Bella’s jewel. Balim resonated with Bella. Bella loved Jonah and Jonah loved her. She was the nexus between them. The Life Tree had healed Jonah after all.

Nora popped up suddenly, startling them. “That explosion socked me right in the chest.”

“The general survived?” Bella asked.

“For now. He wouldn’t let me cure him.” Nora pouted. “I think, and I could be wrong about this, that he’s on the side of the All-Council because he’s bitter about an ex and he never wants her to rejoin the mer.”

“You are right,” Balim said.

“No. I refuse to believe it. That would be too childish. He’s second-in-command of the armies!” She shook her head. “Anyway, he said land is close, and if we drift this direction, we’ll hit the shore. I’m going to nap in Octopus Kong’s shadow for now. It feels like I’ve been awake for six months. I’m just exhausted.”

“We will let you know when we arrive.”

“Great. After you get rescued, Octopus Kong and I will hunt down that general and clarify that he needs to be cured, and that he’s an adult and my soul mate.”

Bella’s lips curved. “He’s your one, huh?”

“Yes, definitely.”

“How ironic that you have to convince him.”

“Ironic? Or interesting?” She smiled and steepled her fingers. “Yes. I can’t wait.”

Balim was also exhausted but content, a feeling he never expected to feel while clutched in the tentacle of a giant cave guardian. Queen Elyssa was right to gift Octopus Kong with a special treat of rare food. He should join her next offering.

Oh. His contented glow faded. He could never return to Atlantis.

Bella squeezed his fingers, somehow divining his thoughts. “We’ll go back someday.”

“You may.”

“We both will.” She kissed their entwined fingers. “The mer and human worlds are only beginning to change. You’ve cured an incurable disease. Mitch and every other innocent person who’s been hurt by this disease will be healed. You said you would atone, and I believe you. I’ll be right there with you. Someday, you’ll win a medal for that.”

“For curing a disease my own twisted genius unleashed?” He shook his head. “I need no honors for stopping what my revenge started. Especially since the queens of Atlantis will star in the cure.”

“Good.” She smiled. “It will put a curveball into the Sons of Hercules destroy-all-mer pitch if the mer queens are curing everything. Of course, we have to stop the Sons of Hercules from recruiting another person. ‘Hate is the great unifier’ indeed.”

“You will stop them,” Balim assured her.

She grinned. “My marketing campaign of hope versus their smear campaign of fear.”

“But you will not spread lies. Only truth.”

“You have the utmost confidence in my marketing skills.”

“Yes, Bella. You are exceptional in all you do.”

Months before Balim surfaced…

Ciran led his warriors to the docks to meet the human leader of MerMatch.

He squared himself.

Climbing out and exposing himself to humans still felt wrong, no matter how many times he had done it, and he knew the other struggled as well. So, as they approached, he took the lead. “I will surface and request permission for us to arise. Remain vigilant for my summons.”

The other warriors, eager and hopeful and nervous, tensely watched.

They had stashed their weapons to be in compliance with the human leaders of New York. So they were all rising, nude and empty-handed, to meet the females who might be their brides.

Ciran didn’t know if he would meet his bride right away. Even though it was said there were more human females on the surface than grains of sand on a beach, he would not be impatient. He would model restraint.

He’d spent much of the swim from Atlantis recalling his study of surface protocols. How to greet humans politely, wait his turn, allow their touch. Now was the moment he demonstrated all he had learned.

“Await my command,” he vibrated, and kicked.

He surged out of the water, gripped the edge of the dock, and swung onto the wood. Seawater drained from his body through the slats. 

Two bright-souled females ranged in front of him. So bright, they must be brides. Especially the one further back, with long black hair.

He must remember the proper greetings. Remember the greetings.

“Welcome to New York!” the close one cried. “I’m Hazel. I...uh...”

He cleared his throat and held out his hand. “I am Ciran.”

“Oh wait.” She blinked rapidly and backed away. “Ha ha, sorry. I forgot. Towel, towel.”

As she turned away, the second female floated forward. Every motion was grace and her calm, beautiful demeanor glowed more brightly than the sun. Her voice was musical and her fingers soft as she slid them into his lax hand. “Hello, Ciran. I’m the head of MerMatch, Dannika, and I promise I’ll find you a wonderful bride.”

His fingers tightened. “No.”

A delicate blush touched her cheeks. She seemed flustered, and her soul brightened even more. “No?”

He pulled her forward and claimed her mouth with his kiss.

She went still with shock.

He pulled back and told her his truth fiercely. “You are my bride.”