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Nothing. He was dead.

Mer screamed again, the expanse of the empty ocean eating up her pain and frustration.

She cursed and pulled her hands away from his clammy skin. Mer turned her back to the body, staring sightlessly out at the calm sea but for a dark fin slicing through the water before disappearing beneath the surface. Of course, he’d been equipped with poison. How could she have been so stupid? She yelled wordlessly, the frustration making her throat ache. Mer tossed her hands in the air before sinking them into her silvery wet hair.

This wasn’t working.

She couldn’t keep abducting Scythian criminals and interrogating them. Someone was bound to notice. Especially since their bodies were never found. She nudged a clam clinging to the black rock with her big toe as tears blinded her eyes. While Mer hadn’t killed them herself, she’d let the ocean decide, and the ocean was a cruel mistress.

Just how much further are you willing to go?

The answer scared her.

Angrily, Mer wiped the tears from her cheeks, hating how sticky they felt. The monster didn’t deserve her tears. She lifted the key to the manacles from the long chain around her neckand knelt to unclip the chains around the dead man’s ankles first. Next, she reached across his chest to unlock his left hand, holding her breath when her face neared his own. No one knew what the Scythians did in their laboratories, and she was taking no chances.

The warrior’s heavy body sagged toward her, hanging by one arm. She quickly undid the last manacle, and the Scythian dropped into the water. Mer swallowed hard as his body sank beneath the surface, his black hair floating around his face.

The leviathans’ haunting song rose into a crescendo a moment before a dark shadow slammed into the warrior.

The feeding frenzy had begun.

Mer backed away and moved to the other side. She got to her hands and knees, thankful that the moon was out. While her sight was better than most humans, the depths always proved tricky in the dark. She dipped her face into the water and opened her eyes. A large female leviathan to her left noticed the movement and swam Mer’s way. Mer dove into the water, the moonlight causing streams of light to ripple like dancing ribbons. Mer’s gills flared, forcing the air out and the water in. It burned as her body adjusted to the seawater. She reached out a gentle hand to the beastie’s snout and redirected the leviathan. Her fingers drifted along the scaled side of the massive predator, making sure that it didn’t decide to investigate Mer again.

She glanced above, noting how high the moon was.

Blast it. She was late.

Mer spared the frenzy behind her one more look before darting forward.

She was going to miss her meeting with Sin.

That couldn’t happen.

Too much counted on what he was smuggling.

Chapter Two

RAZIEL

“We need to speak.”

Ever since the queen had passed the crown down to him, he’d been buried in paperwork. Raziel glanced over the top of the latest trade proposals from the new Aermian king, Tehl, and locked eyes with his mother.

She’d always been dramatic when entering a room. Her taffeta dress rustled as she stomped through his personal study and library before placing her hands on the top of his mahogany desk.

He inwardly groaned and set the trade agreement down. Just what had set her off? “When have I ever denied you, Mum?”

She narrowed her silvery eyes—the same ones he’d inherited from her. Well, the gray, at least. Surviving the Mirror Plague had given them both a metallic sheen to their gaze. The dowager queen clicked her long red nails against his desk. “Don’t you ‘Mum’ me. You constantly defy me.”

“Isn’t that what you want in a king?” he teased with a smile.

“What I want is for you to stop shooting down every eligible woman that comes your way.”

So that’s what this was about.

Raz leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, feeling prickly. This was a constant sore subject for them. She wanted heirs for the throne and a cure for the plague, and he wanted to make Methi more secure by trade agreements.

They were at an impasse.