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“Once both transformations have been completed, I will move you two onto the beach. But first, we must make it so you can breathe.” Milan turned back around, and the small clam shell was once again filled with the moving rainbow, similar to the one Kyree had ingested moments before her fluke turned into the legs Hudson kept sneaking looks at.

“Breathe?” Hudson asked, forgetting that breathing was the bigger issue, not just walking. She scrunched her nose, but Milan didn’t answer her or even respond to the question. Hudson tried again. “How exactly?”

“Bog magic of course.” Milan smirked.

The woman enjoyed Hudson’s discomfort a little too much. But she knew this was the only way to prove to Honour that killing the Talons would never be all she cared about. Freeing her people of their oppression would always matter, and she would never give up the fight to see her people free. But she didn’t need the praise and the throne of being their savior. She’d found a home and acceptance with Honour and Kyree, and she would happily stay in the shadows of this war, and her own war with the Talons. So long as Honour and Kyree were in those shadows with her.

The pain ripped through her fluke as she focused on Kyree’s hand in her own, and Hudson’s eyes filled with hope and trust.

“We’ve no time to lose,” Milan said quickly as she weaved her hands into an intricate pattern in front of herself and Kyree.

Hudson’s mind couldn’t keep up with the movements though they appeared to linger in the water between her and Milan.

Kyree squeezed her hand, keeping her focused on the task and off of the lingering pain in her fluke.

No.

She looked down to see a pair of her very own legs. Pain raced up to her chest. It moved rapidly in and out as the impossibility of it all overwhelmed her.

“Stay with me, Hudson.” Kyree’s hard voice made Hudson smile.

“Getting all controlling on me now.” Hudson meant it as a tease, but the pain overwhelmed her words and it was impossible to avoid it now.

“If that’s what it takes.”

Hudson turned her head toward Kyree. But the smile fell from her lips as she realized the space behind Kyree was no longer the bog witch’s grotto. Colors were muted, but everything sounded so loud and hard, with edges cutting in to her mind.

“Hudson.” Kyree snapped Hudson back to attention. “Let’s get Princess Soulara back.”

Hudson laughed and couldn’t believe how her life had changed, and just how much she now had to fight for.

“Let’s do this,” Hudson said, and then wondered how the hell they were actually going to get to the sky ship.

“Hold on.” Kyree slipped one hand back into Hudson’s, while her other hand wrapped around the soul stone that now lay on a thin string of braided seaweed around Kyree’s neck.

Hudson had just enough time to look at the sky ship and back to Kyree before the world shimmered around her, and she felt a hard tug behind her stomach, the place where her hardened fluke scales had taken over the softer touch of her upper body.

“Kyree?” A voice Hudson didn’t know asked on a gasp.

“We’re here to save you, Princess.” Hudson heard Kyree say before Kyree joined Hudson as they tumbled to the floor. The floor was cold and hard. Too hard to be coral or sand, and too inflexible to be anything else Hudson could think of.

“More mers?” Another voice Hudson didn’t recognize.

“Yes.” Soulara’s voice carried over to Hudson in a hard and sharp way, but she recognized the authority and power behind the simple word.

“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you getting our people together and ready to defend our home?” Soulara wanted all the information she hadn’t been privy to in an instant. Hudson could understand that, but this wasn’t her princess, and Soulara had no clue who she was. She left Kyree to do the talking for them.

“Honour’s taking care of it,” Kyree replied as they continued to balance each other as they pushed up from the ground, their bodies heavy and their legs fighting to go out from under them again.

“Honour?” Soulara’s voice softened, and Hudson understood the feeling all too well. “She didn’t come with you?”

“She had to lead the troops.”

“Of course she did.” Soulara smiled, a sadness filling her eyes.

“But she sent us to make sure you weren’t forgotten in the insanity and bloodshed of war.”

“She’s finally worthy of herself.”