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S eidon could tell from the expressions on the cousins’ faces that his question was the last thing they’d expected to hear from him.

In a different situation, he would have smiled at the twin looks of confusion.

He would have laughed at its familiarity—he could see Rico in that look, and in the stony-faced masks they’d both worn as they delivered their terrible report.

He’d have exchanged an amused grin with Enoch over their instant discomfort.

Rico, through and through. In both his daughter and nephew. He’d bet, given the young man’s posture, that his old friend had trained this one up from a boy to be ready for the Elite Guard. Not a ballroom—the ranks outside it, keeping those within safe.

As for the young woman…she didn’t carry herself with the same military bearing. But her father’s influence was nevertheless clear. And she looked panicked enough to bolt right out the door and make a run for the Banks at Seidon’s question.

He leaned forward, hoping that by keeping his own face clear of any emotion beyond his desire to help in this crisis, she would see she had no reason to flit away.

“Allow me to explain. I received word this morning that my royal counterparts from the House of Sael have decided to accept my invitation to the Blue Ball.”

Arden frowned. “The mer royal family is coming?”

“Mm.” She was putting it together as he’d done a moment before. He could see it clicking into place in her eyes. “Odd timing, given that they haven’t seen fit to accept any of our invitations for the last two hundred years, since Queen Ralia killed my mother’s cousin and took the throne by force.”

Arden and Storm exchanged a glance. He couldn’t see everything it held, of course—they clearly knew each other well and had an unspoken language between them—but he could read the gist.

Seidon gave them a moment to digest it all, then went on. “I find it odd that some new branch of their military would have taken action so close to the capital city within twenty-four hours of their sovereign’s arrival here. It can’t be coincidence. The mer are planning something.”

He had to give Arden credit. She straightened to her rather impressive height even as she gripped the back of the chair she refused to sit in. “And what does that have to do with us attending the ball?”

Seidon leaned back. “I assume you’ve heard how difficult it can be for us to read the facial cues of the mer when they’re on land.”

The girl stiffened. “Of course. And?”

“And I’ve found it easiest to gauge their meanings when they’re taken by surprise.

So while they may be expecting me to mention something about a missing girl, they will not be expecting to come face-to-face with that girl’s sister and…

cousin?” Cousin didn’t seem to suit the look in young Storm’s eyes as he mentioned the missing Jade.

He would have been six or so when his uncle married Jade’s mother.

Old enough to know they weren’t related.

Storm’s nostrils flared. “Friend.”

“More than a friend,” Arden countered, sending her cousin a hard look. It didn’t soften any when she turned it on Seidon. “Every unmarried man on the Banks wants to win Jade’s attention. She’s only ever had eyes for Storm.”

“That’s a big exaggeration.” Storm delivered this in the same calm tone he’d used before, but Seidon thought he detected something else behind it. Hurt, maybe?

Relationships could be messy, especially among the young. Well, actually, to be fair, they could always be messy. But this was certainly another piece sliding into its place in the mosaic. If everyone sought Jade, it could only be for one reason. “She’s pretty?”

“Pretty?” Storm scoffed. “She’s beautiful. But it’s not her face, it’s—everything. Her spirit. Her heart. Her soul.”

Seidon glanced to Enoch, whose brows had inched upward. Magic follows beauty was one of the oldest adages they had, and it almost always proved true. Not that every beautiful person turned out to have power in their blood, but never had he met one with that power who wasn’t also beautiful.

And the mer had planted an Awakening Blade for her to find and try to salvage.

Not one like their own, but that’s what it was.

A mer Blade. He’d seen them before. She’d cut her finger, because the Blade was so sharp that it sliced anything it touched, and she wouldn’t have known where to grab it to keep that from happening.

He’d have been willing to bet that a priest had been among the kidnappers, or at the very least, a royal. Someone who could read the blood. Someone who would have seen that she possessed whatever they’d been looking for.

Her blood had been in the water. First the drop from the Awakening Blade, and then more from the black blade that was no doubt coated in the vile sleeping serum the mer so liked to use on unsuspecting land-dwellers.

It would have kept her unconscious for hours.

Numbed her. And would fog her brain and memory at seemingly random times for the next week.

Perfect for keeping a kidnapping victim disoriented and unable to plan an escape.

As if anyone could escape from the Sunken Cities.

Seidon pinched the bridge of his nose. Was this the one he’d felt yesterday? This Jade? Or one of her kidnappers? Arden had said there was a female mer among the captors, and that Jade had drawn blood with her defense too.

Geysers. Neither option was good. Because they’d know. The mer would know that he wasn’t just interested in righting a wrong, solving a crime, or seeking justice for a family.

They’d know that he came seeking the same magic they likely were. The eternal power struggle between their people.

Magic only came in the meeting. But all too often, that meeting was forced by violence rather than won by love.

His family had always prided themselves on not stooping to coercion…

but what if Jade was the one he’d felt, yet she was already in love with the young man across from him? What was Seidon supposed to do then?

Questions for another day. First, they had to get her back.

He stood, taking their surprise and balking at his question as their answer.

“I’ll call for the tailors. I need you both there tonight, looking like any other guest. You will not be introduced with your true surname—they’ve clearly planned this kidnapping carefully, so they’ll know your family name. ”

“How?” Storm leaned forward, fist clenched. “How would they have learned that?”

If Seidon had ever been so na?ve, it had been too many centuries ago for him to remember.

“You think you would know it if a mer moved among you?” At the blank horror on the younger two’s faces, he shook his head.

“When they take off their tails, they’re just people.

Like you and me. There are always mer spies among us. ”

Arden stepped around the chair, fury in her eyes.

For half a second, he thought she’d fly at him.

He saw Master Lee stiffen at the door to the corridor, obviously reading the same intent in her posture.

Seidon waved Lee down with a single twitch of his finger.

He had nothing to fear from a twenty-year-old girl, even if she had been trained by Jericho Bleu.

And he trusted himself to stop her without hurting her more than he trusted the Master of the Guard to do the same.

But she only advanced a step before she halted, quivering with rage. “There are spies among us, and you know this, and you let them stay ?”

If he hadn’t known well it would infuriate her more, he would have grinned. He didn’t remember the last time a stranger had dared to challenge him. Question him. And approach him with a complete lack of fear.

He kind of liked it. Liked her , which he’d always assumed he would. How could he not like anyone Jericho Bleu loved? But Rico hadn’t been the one to give her that unrestrained spirit—that must be from her mother. Rico had always been more like Storm—tight control.

Seidon neither stood to assert his superiority nor bothered to calm the stir of her blood—mostly water, after all.

“You seem to think that I give the mer free rein here on land, my lady. I assure you, I do not. But they come and go, slipping between the Guardians at our weak points. They steal onto land, blend into the bigger cities, collect their intelligence, and leave again the way they came. Once in a while, someone catches one and they are detained. But they’re slippery.

And our Guardians are too few, our shoreline too long.

I cannot track every creature in the sea as it comes to land, not with all the fishing I’d have to sift through, at least. I suppose if I banned that industry, then perhaps… ”

“Sorry.” Her gaze dropped, as did her shoulders, and a great breath heaved out. “I did not mean to question your wisdom or authority, Your Majesty.”

Now he did chuckle. He couldn’t help it.

“Of course you did. But that’s understandable.

You’re reeling from a personal loss, and in the face of personal loss, national policy means little.

Not when it’s failed you.” He leaned forward, noting not the features that reminded him of her parents, but instead how they’d coalesced.

Noting, above all, how deeply she felt. “The Banks, of course, are not a large city into which the mer could easily blend. But I assume the ports are as bustling as ever with shipping trade, and that strangers move among you daily.”

She nodded. “Of course. That makes sense.”

“I’m glad you agree. Now to my more immediate point. They’ll know your family name, and if you were announced, they would avoid you. But I think we can surprise them if you slip in un announced and I then introduce you with a few pointed questions and observations. If you consent?”

She hesitated a split second more and then nodded. “If it’s our best hope of finding Jade.”