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“She was always worthy.” Hudson snapped, and Kyree chuckled beside her, even as they balanced on their strange snapped tailfins.

“Yes. But she’s finally starting to believe it.” Soulara smiled, and Hudson saw the beauty of the princess. The one mers talked about. At least the mers who had little worry or dealings in the grittier life of battle and war.

“We need to get you out of here and back into the water,” Kyree said as she followed Soulara’s directions to find a key and open the cage that had kept Soulara inside of it.

“No.” Soulara shook her head as she stepped out from behind the bars. “I’m not going anywhere without Autumn.”

“Autumn?” Kyree tilted her head and blinked at Soulara.

“That would be me.” A human, an actual human, not a mer with a split fluke, stepped out from behind Soulara as she spoke.

“We don’t have time to worry about humans. We need to leave before they realize we’ve been here. And before they discover you’re no longer their prisoner.” Hudson wasn’t going to let love get in the way of a rescue. She would take Soulara by force if she had to. Her mission was to save Soulara, not Autumn.

“Not without Autumn.” Soulara’s voice was hard and authoritative once more. Hudson watched as Soulara interlocked her fingers with Autumn’s and both squeezed, turning their pink skin pale for a moment.

“All right,” Hudson took charge as Kyree continued to shake her head back and forth. “Autumn comes too. But we don’t have time to argue.”

“We can’t take humans with us,” Kyree argued.

“This one we can.” Hudson insisted, jerking her head toward the pair clutching hands. Autumn would die in the water anyway, so it didn’t really matter, did it?

“But I only have enough connection to get us into the water. She’ll drown.”

“She comes with us,” Hudson spoke with an edge. Her voice in this open air was too hard, harder than she had intended her words to come out. But the point remained, and she didn’t have the time to make Kyree understand. It didn’t matter if Autumn died in the water, so long as Soulara was safe. Even as she thought that, it didn’t settle right in her belly.

“How do the humans get in and out?” Hudson turned to Soulara. She could try to explain later to Kyree. Right now, getting out was the most important part she had to focus on.

“There’s a ladder. It drops down from the bottom,” Autumn answered, and Hudson nodded, curious about how Soulara and Autumn had gotten mixed up together and in the position so similar to her own unexpected one.

“See. We need her with us,” Hudson insisted before Kyree could argue anymore.

“Humans will be guarding every corridor,” Soulara answered.

“Good.” Hudson was itching to try out what these legs could do. “I’m no stranger to getting out of guarded places.”

“I have no doubt of that.” Soulara chuckled as she spoke, running her eyes up and down first Kyree’s and then Hudson’s body. “But if you go out there naked, we’ll have to kill everyone. Clothes will keep us from getting noticed more than we want to be.”

“Naked?” Hudson blinked and finally took note of the coverings that were over both the human and the princess. “Humans are such strange creatures.”

“You’re not wrong.” Autumn surprised her by being the one to respond. “We’ll get you some clothes on our way out. Whoever we kill first.”

“Fine.” Kyree huffed out.

“The things we do for love.” Soulara chuckled.

Kyree’s and Hudson’s eyes met and for a heartbeat, Hudson’s chest tightened until Kyree smiled and gave a small slow nod.

“Time to go save the fucking world?” Hudson asked with a smirk on her lips.

“Absolutely,” Soulara responded with a glance over her shoulder.

With a bark of laughter that was quickly hushed by Autumn and Soulara simultaneously, the four unlikely companions stepped out of the room, prepared to do whatever it took.

28

“Be still.” Honour’s order was instantly echoed down the chain of command until the whispering hush of moving water silenced in her ears and stilled against her scales.

She knew the name of every mer behind her. She knew their skills and their power, their strength both physical and mental. She was their commander, and she would do everything in her power to ensure each and every one of them returned to Reine.