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“What in the skies were you doing?” He didn’t stop until he was a foot before her, his hands batting hers aside then framing her face. Dropping to her shoulders. Then he pulled her to his chest. “You took a decade off my life.”

Ora let out a kak that sounded like an admonition and repositioned herself to better watch them. Papa released Arden from the embrace and shoved her behind him, putting himself between her and the hawk.

Arden rolled her eyes, trying not to notice the way Seidon grinned. “Papa. Seriously. She’s not dangerous.”

“It’s a hawk twice the size of a man, a hunter, a predator.”

“It’s Jade’s hawk.” She let that sink in for a second and eased to Papa’s side, grateful when Seidon moved to flank her on her other side. “She caught me last night. When I was cliff-diving, during the evacuation.”

“You should have seen it, Rico.” Seidon sounded unabashedly excited. “It was the most amazing sight I’ve ever seen. The hawk matched her dive, then caught her up and took her on a surveillance run.”

Papa spun, his eyes shooting daggers right past Arden and into the king. “You were there? And you let it happen?”

Seidon snorted a laugh. “And I could have done what, exactly? I mean, if a dolphin had come to her supposed rescue, I could have intervened, but you know the only thing I can affect in the sky is rain. Sending a sudden squall upon the bird flying with your daughter on its back didn’t seem like a wise idea. ”

“And Ora had no cruel intentions,” Arden insisted, nodding toward the hawk still watching them like…well, like a hawk.

Seidon chuckled again. “Named her, have you?”

“Seemed appropriate. I don’t want to keep calling her ‘it’ and ‘the hawk’ in my mind all the time.”

Papa passed a hand over his short-cropped hair then rubbed it down his face.

“So you mean to tell me you were flying all night? Since the alarms went off?” His eyes narrowed.

“No. You were here this morning. And you were in the uniform from the stores at the lagoon.” He turned those narrowed eyes on Seidon again.

Seidon sighed and rolled his shoulders back.

“All right, Rico, look. As her father, your distress is understandable. I get it. And I was more than a little terrified last night until the—until Ora brought her directly to us in the lagoon after their scouting mission. But as a High Guardian, I need you to put your paternal instincts aside for a minute and listen to what we’re telling you.

Your daughter can ride a hawk. She was able to see what the mer were doing last night.

She reported activity I could only sense in vague terms and put words to it.

And that hawk, she came back to her this morning when Arden called.

Ora listens to her. She takes Arden where she asks to go.

Can you please grant the miracle of this for a moment and set aside the fear? Can you think what this means?”

Papa dragged a massive breath into his lungs, heaved it out, and moved his gaze—softer now—from Seidon back to Arden…

and then to Ora. With cautious movements, he eased closer to the hawk, hands held out to show he meant no harm.

“You…?” Arden could tell from the tightness of his voice, and the way he had to pause and clear it, that talking to the giant bird felt both ridiculous and intimidating to him.

But he did it. Because he was Papa, and his fear never ruled him for long.

“You’re on our side? Trying to help my girl find her sister? ”

Ora tilted her head, blinked, and shuffled a few feet closer.

“She tried to save Jade that afternoon. Remember?” They’d told him the story—or Storm had, anyway. “How can you be surprised that she’d help now too? She’s—they’re connected somehow.”

Papa nodded, his shoulders relaxing. He lifted one of his arms and held it out toward Ora. After studying him for a moment, the hawk bumped her head into his hand, and he chuckled.

“All right,” he said, stroking his hand down the golden feathers and seeming to take the same comfort from it that Arden had. “Thank you. Just…take care of her—Arden, I mean. Don’t put her at risk in your quest to find Jade. I can’t lose her too. Can you understand that?”

Ora bobbed her head. Seidon let out a low breath beside her. “It’s like she understands us. That’s weird, right? She’s a hawk.”

“Or an angel?” Arden shrugged. “Perhaps the old stories have something to them. And no one was ever surprised when angels spoke to men.”

Seidon granted that with a tilt of his head. “How did it go this morning?”

All the tension came back in a rush, and she turned to face the king head-on, knowing well the anxiety was on her face.

“Something happened. Right in front of us, along what we guessed was the Daryatlean border. It was—I don’t even know how to describe it.

It was as if every wreck and ruin on the ocean floor had been put into a row, joined by some strange, electrified net, and then raised all at once. ”

Seidon hissed out his next breath, looking past her, toward her father. “When? About twenty-two minutes ago?”

She looked from one man to the other. “Something like that.”

Papa patted Ora one last time and moved back to their little knot. “When you had that strange sensation.”

“A disturbance,” he said, clearly for Arden’s sake. “Like nothing I’ve ever sensed before. Huge, all along the coast of Daryatla. Along the border of our territorial waters.”

“That must have been it.”

He nodded, king again rather than Seidon. “I need to see it firsthand. Can you take me there? Ora, do you have another such flight with Arden in you?”

The hawk spread her wings in answer and repositioned herself toward the sea.

Maybe she hadn’t been tired earlier. Maybe she’d just sensed that electricity and not wanted to get any closer to it. After all, the hawks soared nearly all day without resting.

Though at the look on Papa’s face, Arden found herself saying, “You really can’t miss it if you head due east.”

The king sent her a sharp look. “If my suspicions are right about this, I need you there, Arden. On Ora.” Not waiting for the agreement, he turned back to Papa. “What can I ride on? Did any solar-sailed boats escape the attack? Or boards? Unless, of course, you have a tail lying around.”

Papa’s grin was only a flash, there and gone, but it was something. “The mer didn’t venture onto land. My racing skiff was in dry dock. Untouched.”

“That’ll do.” Clearly not needing to ask where said racer was stored, Seidon took off toward the house and its outbuildings.

Ten minutes later, Papa and Seidon had the old racing skiff at the water’s edge, Arden had taken care of a few personal needs, including checking on Mama and whispering that she’d find Jade soon, and they’d gathered again at the water’s edge.

She listened only halfway as the men exchanged quick words, using tactical phrases that she’d learned right along with her animal sounds as a tot, but which she couldn’t focus on now.

Because it wasn’t about distance or maneuvers or politics. It was about Jade. It had to be, somehow. All of this.

And it was all Arden’s fault. She’d seen the flash of that black tail—the Black Tail.

She should have known it was no fish. She should have known that a blade so clean and shining didn’t belong on the rooftop of a ruin as old as the one they’d been sweeping.

She should have known that Jade was in danger—sensed it.

She should have fought harder to keep her safe.

“Ready?” Seidon touched a hand to her back, returning her to the here and now.

Arden nodded and hurriedly climbed onto Ora. Her gaze tangled with her father’s. “I’ll find her, Papa.”

Papa shook his head, though she knew it wasn’t an argument with her statement, even before he said, “Arden girl—please. Not at the cost of yourself. Promise me you’ll be safe. Promise me.”

She could have offered a flip, quick response. But he wouldn’t have believed her. He knew her too well. He knew that if she had the opportunity to trade herself for Jade, she’d do it in a heartbeat. How could she not?

The world needed Jade. She was the one with the magic in her veins so strong that the Black Tails would kidnap her for it. She was the one on whom everything hinged.

Papa sighed and turned to Seidon instead. “Bring her back to me, Si, or I swear I’ll—”

“I will.” His old friend smiled, clapped a hand to his shoulder, and squeezed. “You know I will.”

Papa nodded and backed away. “Triada go with you.”

In the next moment, Ora had spread her wings and hoisted them back into the air, and Seidon had called the water up and under the skiff, unfurled the solar sail. They both shot forward, their faces set toward open water.