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Librus flashed a grin. “You’re clever too, clearly. But you needn’t fear, my friend. Even if we did ever move against Seidon, we would ensure that your family is safe. That’s your real concern, isn’t it? Your parents, your sister?”

And Storm—but telling him that she yearned for the arms of a man who was no doubt even now part of the king’s Elite Guard probably wouldn’t go over well. Jade lifted her chin. “My concern has never been only for my own family.”

A strange glint shone in his eyes. “And that’s what will make you a fine queen.

Too fine a queen to ever think that you owe allegiance to a place simply because it’s where you were born.

Fine enough that you’ll serve the cause that is most just and work for the good of all, for the will of the One. ”

“For the Triada.”

He chuckled and circled that thumb over her neck again.

“We serve the same God, Jade. We use the same Holy Writ. You land-dwellers focus on the divisions, the ‘tri,’ the three persons in one—we mer focus on the unity of those same persons. But that’s the whole point, don’t you see?

It’s time all humanity is unified again.

” His fingers tightened on her neck a bit, and he pulled her closer again.

“And you’re the one who will unite us. You’re the one who will be able to tap into the thing even more primal to us than water—the very air we breathe. ”

Her nostrils flared. “And what—use it as a weapon?”

He chuckled and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“For thousands of years we’ve been trapped beneath the waves, Jade.

For a thousand years, whoever wears the Tidal crown has refused us more than monthly trade passes.

If we step foot on land without an invitation, we can be arrested as spies. Is that right? Is that fair?”

She forced a swallow. Many of the laws still on the books were from an era of war and chaos, when the clash between mer and land-dwellers demanded caution and wisdom above grace and mercy. But King Seidon didn’t actually enforce most of those laws, not that she’d seen.

But then, he hadn’t changed them, either, any more than his mother had, or her father before her.

“You have the power to set us free,” Librus whispered against her forehead.

“How could you possibly refuse? Are the children born in the sea any less human than the ones born on land? Are we any less deserving of soil to grow grain for ourselves, of air that doesn’t have to be rationed and pumped down to us?

Are we any less worthy of the One’s favor? ”

Her fingers curled into her palms. “It isn’t the rights I take issue with—it’s the fact that the prince seems to think the way to get them is through violence and duplicity.”

His smile made him look at once like the man she’d seen every day for the last month, who had treated her with kindness and done his best to teach her things impossible for her to know, and like a stranger who held more power in his fingertips than she did in her whole body.

“He is a Sael. It is his first language. It doesn’t mean he cannot learn another.

But then, it’s easy to preach peace when no one has ever attacked you, when no one has ever threatened to suffocate your children if you step out of line.

Perhaps you are the one who will learn a new language, after you see what it really means to live as a mer. ”

Another stroke of his thumb. His gaze dropped from her eyes to her mouth. And then he took a step away. “Your sister and friends will have their Awakening Ceremony this weekend, will they not?”

He might as well have punched her in the stomach.

She knew the date, of course. She knew they were only days away from discovering who they were, what paths were open to them.

But she hadn’t let herself think about it, because the pain was too raw, especially on the heels of the birthday she’d missed.

She should be there with them. Cajoling Arden into a pretty dress.

Assuring their friends that they would stay friends forever, no matter what.

Kissing Storm again and promising him, as she hadn’t done that night before the Black Tails kidnapped her, that she loved him more than she did this dream of an underwater kingdom, that he was worth sacrificing for.

What a fool she’d been. She’d wanted so badly, all her life, to be right where she now was. And now, when she was here, when these people were offering her a kingdom…it wasn’t worth the cost.

Librus gave her an enigmatic smile. “Soon, amatus . Soon we’ll take you above and awaken you. Soon you’ll be able to wield your true gifts, not just mine. Soon you’ll know what you were created for.”

From somewhere far above, something exploded with force enough to shake the whole palace. She heard screams from the direction of the throne room that echoed her own spike of terror—but Librus only smiled. “Not quite yet though, I daresay. There’s the signal that Mariana is on the move again.”

He dropped his hand and strode away quickly enough that she knew he didn’t mean for her to follow.

Seconds later, Electra took her arm—far more roughly than her brother had—and shoved her forward.

She had clearly been waiting just around the corner, and the tic in her jaw said she hadn’t liked what she overheard.

She was dressed today as a princess instead of a general, in a gown as ornate as Jade’s, her hair hanging loose down her back.

Jade tried without success to pull her arm free. “Why are you angry with me?”

Electra flashed sparking eyes down to her. “Because you’re going to ruin everything.”

Was she? Geysers, she prayed so. “How? I can’t even do anything.”

The laugh that came out of Electra’s mouth sounded choked, dry, unamused.

“You really don’t see it, do you?” She shook her head, sending her mass of dark hair swaying, and jerked Jade around another corner, toward their rooms. “Well, allow me to elucidate a few things so that you can guard against them. Amatus means ‘love.’ My brother seems to have decided that he’d rather keep you for himself than turn you over to Finn.

So as he tries to win your heart in the next weeks, I’d advise you to remain disentangled. ”

Win her heart? Jade’s feet tried to come to a halt, but Electra wouldn’t have it, which meant she stumbled, would have fallen but for those biting fingers in her arm. “But—no. He’s…he’s a priest.”

Electra shot her a confused look. Then barked out another dry laugh. “Sands, Jade, you still have so much to learn. Priests of the One don’t take vows of celibacy like your own do. He’s free to marry whenever he wants.”

She could almost imagine a world where that news would make something other than dread coil in her stomach.

A world where she didn’t love Storm, or where she’d been here so many years that she’d forgotten him—in a world like that, the thought of Librus instead of Finn would have been a welcome thought.

Skies knew she preferred the priest’s company over the prince’s.

Except that she had no desire to put herself in the crosshairs of that prince, who was helping sway the tides to hold at bay his sister’s Unawakened army while he heard petitions from his throne.

“He wouldn’t.” She whispered the words like a prayer. “He wouldn’t cross Finn. The prince is the most powerful mer aside from his sister—”

This time Electra’s laugh sounded nearly real.

Nearly. But still far too condescending.

She steered Jade toward her door and keyed it open with her crystal.

“Vents, sander, how can you still be so na?ve? Who do you think trained Finn while his mother was pouring all her attention into Mariana? Who do you think discovered how to use water to generate electricity? Who do you think figured out how an Awakened could communicate with someone by mere touch, who called up the Black Tails, who decided Finn was the most likely figurehead to rally an army behind him?”

Jade’s frown felt strong enough to cross her eyes. “You can’t mean to imply—”

“I’m not implying anything. I’m telling you outright, because you need to be aware—Finn is not and has never been the most powerful merman in the seas.” She slammed the door shut and threw the lock again, fury all but sizzling the air around her. “My brother is.”