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“On it.” Autumn pushed more buttons, reset the wires, tried everything she knew and had been trained for.

Trent moaned on the floor, blood pooling below his head. Maybe he would be the first casualty of this war Autumn had brought on her own people. That thought sank hard in her stomach, eating her away from the inside out. She’d always be remembered as the traitor, as the one who sold her people for nothing.

No.

Not for nothing.

But Autumn wasn’t about to even think out loud what that something was.

“Got it!” She shouted and pushed the lever hard.

Marshall spoke rapidly into the microphone at his lips. Autumn half listened as she watched the mermaids continue to hit and throw spears at their vessel. They really wouldn’t stand a chance without help, would they? Soulara’s people were massively outnumbered and outgunned.

Autumn slammed her fist onto the large red button, and the vessel immediately started to piston up out of the water. The air pressure changed rapidly, popping her ears every few seconds until sharp pain seared through her head and right behind her eyes. Autumn cried out, her stomach roiling with nausea.

A loud ringing echoed in her ears, and no matter what, Autumn couldn’t hear anything Marshall said. She was going to pass out. No amount of training had prepared her for this. Autumn turned to the side, vomiting up everything in her stomach all over Trent’s torso.

Her eyesight went dark, then light, then dark again. Her head spun.

What the hell was this?

Her heart was in her throat.

She was going to puke again.

Autumn pried her eyes open and stared straight ahead.

Stunning. Beautiful. Silvery locks that faded into navy blue. Bright, silver, concerned eyes stared widely back at her.

“Soulara.”

Everything went dark.

20

“What happened?” Soulara’s voice boomed along the beach as she pulled herself from the water, her tail splitting and forming into legs.

Autumn shook her head, her dark hair moving wildly around her face. “We were recalled.”

“Recalled?” Soulara didn’t understand what that meant. The Talons and the Kwights took out the other two krakens, but Autumn’s had escaped straight upward.

“There was a malfunction with our water collector, and we surfaced immediately to return to base.” Autumn’s voice cracked. “I didn’t… You shouldn’t…”

Autumn’s face scrunched up, her nose and cheeks reddened, and her eyes watered.

“I expected to drown,” Autumn whispered.

Soulara choked back her own sob. She raced forward and wrapped her arms around Autumn’s shoulders and pulled her in tight. “I told you I wouldn’t let you drown.”

“I didn’t believe you.” Autumn pressed her face into Soulara’s neck, breathing heavily. “I didn’t believe you could stop it from happening,” Autumn whispered softer.

Soulara raked her fingers gently through Autumn’s hair. She held Autumn close, cradling her. “I don’t understand why you stay.”

“I have nowhere to go,” Autumn murmured. “I’m a commissioned officer. I have to follow orders.” Autumn pulled back slightly, tears streaking down her cheeks. “I can’t tell them no.”

Soulara kissed Autumn’s cheek, then the other one, then her lips. Putting as much feeling as possible into that moment, Soulara held Autumn close. They wrapped around each other, lips and tongues soothing and inciting. Soulara pulled back with a gasp.

“We lost twenty-one soldiers today.” Soulara’s heart ached, deep in her chest. Twenty-one mermaids from Reine perished in the deep soundings. The number of grieving ceremonies that would happen in the next few days would be overwhelming. “Talon lost nineteen, and Kwight lost twenty-eight.”