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Autumn rolled her eyes and shot Marshall a glare. Whatever possessed her to get stuck in a tin can with him was going to roll over and burn in hell with her. Autumn clenched her jaw, keeping her hands on the controls. She winced as she controlled the one arm she could and wrapped it around Soulara’s stomach.

Holding her breath, Autumn moved the arm away from the water collector. She slowly let its grip go, hoping that Soulara hadn’t been too injured by the metallic touch. But Autumn could only control so much without making it look like she was doing something she shouldn’t.

“Walton, make sure those thrusters are working at full capacity,” Marshall ordered.

“Yes, sir.” Autumn checked them. She pushed Soulara as far from her mind as possible.

Except that was impossible.

The rest of the dive to their retrieval location was easy. Autumn didn’t see any more of Soulara or any other mermaids for that matter. Had they all gone? They settled against the ocean floor, and Autumn turned on the water collectors. It would suck and filter and keep exactly what they wanted. This was one of their largest machines, designed for long term missions.

Autumn’s fingers trembled as they hovered over the switch.

What was she doing here?

“Any day now, Walton,” Marshall muttered under his breath.

Autumn hit the switch. The vibrations under her feet increased. Autumn could barely focus. Her stomach twisted into knots. The first punch against the glass was hard.

“What the hell was that?” Trent sounded afraid.

Autumn would snort if she had the time. She wasn’t the one who was afraid. Trent was a wuss. Never had she felt more conviction in her assessment than now. Chuckling quietly, Autumn focused on what little things she had control over.

Another mermaid shot by the glass. This was a mass attack. They were going to die soon. Autumn ripped the arm she had control over and shoved it into the sand, digging it down so it was stuck. “Marshall, I can’t get the arm to move.”

“Figure it out, Walton!” he sounded so stressed.

They should be. Yet Autumn knew exactly what was happening. And since Marshall and Trent seemed distracted, Autumn took the chance. She flicked a few switches and reached under the dash to pull some of the wires. The water collector sputtered, the arms holding them up against the floor went limp on one side, and they slid heavily.

Trent went flying.

His head collided with the dash, the joystick hitting his eye, and he collapsed against the floor in a ball. Autumn stared at him, about to jump down and help him up when Marshall’s loud booming voice hit her.

“Take over for him!”

Leaving Trent on the floor, probably where he deserved to be, Autumn climbed into his chair and strapped in like he should have been. When the belt clicked, Autumn shifted to get more comfortable and stared down at the controls. This wasn’t her station, but they were all trained to do each other’s jobs in case of emergencies.

Like this one.

One she had caused.

Autumn winced as she flicked a switch and twisted a handle. “The engines aren’t responding.”

“Make them,” Marshall growled out. “We’re sitting ducks for these fuckers.”

“What fuckers?” Autumn hit a few more buttons in an attempt to get the thrusters running again. What had Trent hit with his giant head on the way down? If they couldn’t get the thrusters going, then they wouldn’t be able to get out of there.

Autumn froze.

The point wasn’t to get out of there. Autumn held her breath, and it burned her lungs. She stared out, watching mermaids dash here and there. Were the other water collectors facing the same thing? Were they seeing this?

Mermaid after mermaid swarmed them.

Autumn refused to move the legs of the water collector to chase after them. Marshall tried to get everything back together, even out the tilt the water collector had taken, but Autumn was entranced with the way the mermaids moved together as one unit.

Was Honour here?

“Walton! Get those engines going!”