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The stillness settled over her as she let the adrenaline of the impending battle wash over her. One more flick of her eyes over to Honour and all the calm and power she had harnessed flew away.

Something was wrong.

Honour stared, too still over where Kyree was.

Fear radiated up and down Hudson’s body. Wanting nothing more than to save herself from the sight of Kyree’s lifeless body while simultaneously being unable to stop herself, Hudson turned her head.

The kraken hadn’t moved closer, and for a moment Hudson couldn’t understand what had moved Honour to pure stillness.

She blinked and then she noticed the look of serene calm that had washed over Kyree. She should be terrified, but there wasn’t a single hint of fear in her eyes or the way she held her beautiful body. In fact, instead of continuing to slowly ease herself backward, Kyree’s fluke undulations pushed her closer toward the kraken.

What was happening?

Hudson had never been one to hesitate in the heat of battle, but it didn’t make sense and she was being torn inside. She flicked her gaze back to Honour.

Honour’s eyes met her own, wide and filled with something strange. Not fear. Hudson had seen that in the eyes of others more times than she could count. She’d seen it in her men and her enemies in equal measure.

Slowly, as she looked, Honour’s face cracked and a smile spread across her face.

Had Hudson been so blind, so wrong?

Was it all an elaborate set up?

What the hell was going on?

Movement where the kraken still loomed in the water pulled her attention. It wasn’t the movement of the mechanical beast. At least, not that she had seen before. It was fluid and rippled too naturally to be part of the kraken. Even its tentacles didn’t slice the water with such effortless ease.

“Holy fuck.” Hudson barely puffed out the words with force enough to move the water in front of her mouth.

Her eyes moved faster as she looked between all the players.

Honour had started swimming again, following the sporadic motions of the kraken. But Hudson was still trying to piece together all that she saw.

Sea creatures swarmed. Eels and jellyfish to octopus and sharks—and they didn’t just swarm. They were attacking.

Hudson laughed, unsure if it carried her battle mania or hysteria of an entirely different sort.

She moved. The relief in her muscles held a stinging pleasure.

Was the sea itself finally coming together to beat these bastard aliens?

No, it had to be something else. Something that had triggered them into action, into fighting for their homes.

“Kyree!” Honour called out, but it wasn’t a sound filled with horror or fear. It rang like a command in Hudson’s ears.

She continued to move, awareness fixed almost entirely on the flailing mechanical limbs of the kraken.

“More are coming.” Kyree’s voice was raised louder than Hudson was used to. It pulled Hudson’s attention for just a moment. But a moment was all she needed.

Kyree all but glowed as she vibrated, rising through the water until she was level with the top of the kraken.

The glow shone through her fingers, and she parted them slightly, enough for Hudson to see a working soul stone. Was it the cracked one they had seen or a different one? Had she found more?

“Oh gods.” Hudson didn’t pray. She hadn’t prayed in any sort of true earnest in her life. But the sight made her question the existence of far more than she had ever seen or believed in.

“She has a working soul stone. And she knows how to use it,” Honour said.

Hudson jerked with surprise as Honour’s voice radiated beside her. It was hard and spiked, like the spines of a blowfish.