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He stretched out an arm, pointing toward one of the doors.

“You’ll have a safe escape down that corridor.

It will deliver you directly to your Guard.

I suggest you return quickly to the sea.

And when you’re in the water and realize I’m right, you can decide whether to uphold your end of the treaty or declare war.

” He spun, searching for any familiar face. “Alexei! See the mer to their exit.”

Seidon pivoted, ready to take the next step in his plan and leave the visiting royals to the Guards. But Coral blocked his path. She stood only inches away, an intention he couldn’t name on her face.

She reached for his hand, lifted it, and pressed her palm to his.

Heat seared the white Awakening mark on his palm, hot and bright and…loud. He frowned as thoughts not his own—no, impressions, images—stampeded through his veins and toward his mind, coalescing into horror.

He hissed out a breath. “Where did you learn to do that?”

She pressed harder, clearly not wanting to waste time on such trivialities, such as how she was doing something that wasn’t supposed to be possible.

He let the impressions settle into coherency. Horrible, deadly coherency. If she were right—if she were being truthful… But how could her blood, her magic lie to his?

Genocide . That was the message she forced into his mind. He shook his head.

She pulled her hand from his. “We have two months. Two months before she’s coronated.

Two months before she kills us all.” With those quiet, desperate words, she slipped into the row of evacuees, where the sister she apparently feared led the way from the room, not even pausing to look back and ensure her siblings were with her.

He watched Coral go, everything he knew twisting up inside him. His palm still burned.

“What was that? What did she do?” Storm edged into view, his silver gaze flicking down to Seidon’s palm.

“Something that shouldn’t have been possible. To tell me something that never should be. Come.” He motioned them to follow him—they didn’t have another minute to waste. “I’ll update you when we’ve reached my headquarters.”

“Uh.” Storm jogged to keep up, but consternation still knit his brows. “Shouldn’t we go back to our suite like the Guards are saying?”

“No. This is no coincidence. It can’t be. It has to be linked to Jade’s kidnapping, and I’m not letting the two of you out of my sight until I know how.”

“Where are your headquarters?” Arden asked.

He wasn’t about to answer here, with hundreds of people streaming past. Instead, he led them out his private entrance, down the corridor, and outside, where Master Lee and a handful of her most elite Guardians fell into formation around them.

The sun was setting in a blaze of glory—pinks and oranges and purples that ordinarily would have made him pause in awe and wonder.

With a signal to the Guards to keep pace, he broke into a run. Neither of the Bleus had trouble keeping up, even though Arden’s shoes couldn’t possibly be made for it. Once they were on the garden path, the Bleu cousins on his right, he asked, “How are you both at cliff diving?”

Arden’s lips pressed together. Storm frowned. “I’m good. Arden—”

“Also good.”

Her cousin scowled. “Ar, this isn’t time for pride. It’s not your fault you can’t go deep without weights—”

“Trust me, the beads on this dress will be as effective as my dive suit’s weights. I’ll be fine.” Her gaze dared Seidon to question her.

Storm’s begged him to intervene. He even gave a miniscule shake of his head.

Seidon glanced from one to the other then focused his attention on the path before him. He would dive last. That way, he could make certain everyone made it through the opening, into the cave, and to the lagoon.

“Who are they? Friars?” she asked a moment later.

“Their evacuation path meets my own.” Even as he answered Arden’s question, he squinted, trying to make them out in the gloam. He couldn’t. “How…?”

“She can see better unaided than the rest of us can with a spyglass,” Storm said. “But she can’t dive.”

“I dive perfectly. Just not very deep.”

Somehow, the bickering of the cousins brought a measure of peace. Not much, but a few degrees. Enough to lessen the bite of betrayal. To focus on why he really had alarms blazing all through the capital. Not because of the mer, not because of an impending attack.

Because of the people who needed protection. That was, had always been, and always needed to be his purpose. Never the enemy. Always the friends.

As they exited the palace grounds, the sound of the alarms grew distant, and a new sound filled their ears. The hawks were out, their calls different than usual, and they were circling in strange patterns.

“That’s odd.” Arden must have put on speed when he slowed to observe, because she was at his side as she said it, nodding toward the majestic creatures.

He nodded too. “I was thinking the same—must be the alarms. None of these particular animals ever would have heard it. It’s been two hundred and fifty-two years since the last invasion, and that was at the Southern Palace, not this one.”

“That’s a precise number.” Her voice, somehow, had a note of amusement in it that he appreciated. Then she let out a sharp breath. “Never mind. I’m an idiot. That was the night…”

“My first wife died.” He could see the friars now, but he frowned.

There were only a dozen of them. When last he was at the palace here, they’d had at least sixty in attendance at any time, either in training or doing the training or enjoying a respite.

“No need to avoid saying it. It’s been a long time. ”

He still remembered loving Zella. Remembered the stabbing pain of losing her unexpectedly. Remembered the guilt, both at the reason for her premature death and another lie-of-assumption he’d been instructed to tell.

Two hundred fifty-two years past, and it still tasted bitter on his tongue.

Reflections for other times. Other places. Heaven knew he’d grieved her a thousand times over—right now, he had to focus on the people still alive…and keeping them that way.

The friars were already diving off the cliff by the time he arrived with Storm and Arden and his Guard.

Seidon gave quick instructions to them all on how to reach the lagoon, even as he promised to come last and make certain they reached it without any problem.

Enoch was the last of the priests to go over the side, then the Guards.

Storm followed after them with perfect form.

When he looked to Lee, she shook her head. “I follow you, Your Majesty.”

He bit back an argument, knowing it was what she was trained to do. Seidon stepped to Arden’s side. She was looking not at the cliff, not at the waters beneath it, but toward the Barrier Banks. Toward the circling hawks.

How far could she see?

He touched a hand lightly to the small of her back. “Your turn.”

She didn’t so much as shift. “You have an unsurpassed view from up here. I can see all the way down the channel.”

Impossible. But then, once upon a time people would have said the same about his own talents. “And what do you see? Mer?”

He could sense them, filling the channel, fighting off Jericho’s forces and plunging ahead, toward the city. He pushed against them, slowing them, but he needed to be in the water to make it count.

“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “Or…not quite. But something is off about the water beside Crystal Point. A strange distortion.”

Exactly where they were. “They’re using magic to camouflage themselves.”

Her face turned toward his, brows drawn. “They have someone strong enough to do that?”

“They have many someones. Ralia has encouraged the proliferation of Awakened blood over the centuries. They must have been training in ways we’ve yet to discover.”

She looked up when one of the hawks circled close. Something shifted on her face. “Jade’s hawk.”

He didn’t ask how she knew. If it had been circling every day of her sister’s life, no doubt she’d learned its unique features. He nodded. “We need to go. I need to be in the water to best control it.”

She jolted. “Sorry. Of course.” Without another word, she surveyed the drop, sucked in a long breath, and dove.

She never hit the water.