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H is blood was the current, racing, hurtling, darting, surging. For all the years he’d spent in the water, all the times he’d communed with it, and with the One who poured it into the seas, into him, Seidon had never moved like this. Never had to.

Before, when he’d visited the kingdom beneath the waves, he’d come with dignity. With fanfare. He’d come as they’d expected him to come, in full view and with open intentions.

Now he shot toward Margarita Civitas in solitude, nothing but shadows for company.

He knew that the fleet would be where he’d told them to be, in the positions he and his High Guardians had dubbed the wisest places to wait.

The Awakened among those High Guardians were stationed in the water at key intervals, ready to help however they could.

Master Lee would be pacing his flagship, hating that she hadn’t been able to follow him here, to have his back.

Ready to act if any mer followed him back to the surface.

Storm, he knew, and the one hundred Elite Guardians he commanded, would be en route already to the island Arden would drive Jade and her captors to with the hurricane. He’d be there, in position. Ready. Waiting. There to rescue the woman he loved. There to help his cousin.

But this part Seidon would do himself. The risk was too great to let any other take it.

He knew what no one else could from firsthand experience. He knew how much power one gained by ruling. He knew how it crashed over the recipient like a wave the moment the crown found its place upon one’s head.

In that moment—that one moment—Mariana would be stronger than she had ever been before, stronger than she would be again for years to come. In that one moment, her mother’s magic would join with hers, magnify her own, spill through her.

At his own coronation, he’d marveled, wondered.

And accepted the explanation his mother had given him—that it was a foretaste of what he’d become, as he learned to control it.

As he learned to welcome it. As he learned to exercise it.

A foretaste that plenty of monarchs had used in that first blinding moment with horrific intent.

Like the first Sea King, who had destroyed enemy fortifications within five minutes of being named ruler of Daryatla. Like Ralia herself, who had used that first burst of power to kill all remaining Awakened from the line she’d usurped.

Even when one gained the throne by force, as so many mer had already done, that power still came. It gathered, and it flashed, and it stormed.

Like the hurricane raging above.

He prayed as he shot through the water that he would weather the storm beneath the waves as well as he trusted Arden would do the one above.

He’d barely reached the amen of that particular prayer when he caught the first sight of the glowing dome of the largest of all the Sunken Cities. He slowed, dismissing the current before other Awakened could sense it, and halted here, still a fair distance away.

He took a hit from the small oxygen reserve he had built into his tail to eliminate the need to surface during the trip. And he watched.

He sensed.

His eyes told him that the city was crowded with people—no surprise for a coronation. But his water-sense told him more people were coming.

A lot of people.

Magical people.

People in possession of that same electrical power that had fueled the wall, which made his nerves tingle in awareness.

The Black Tails. He’d have recognized the feel of them even without that electricity. But today there were far more of them than there’d been on his birthday. Not just hundreds.

Thousands. He probably could have counted them individually, each signature being slightly different as they were, but that was time he didn’t want to take.

Estimation sufficed. It told him that there were enough to represent every Awakened mer.

Men and women, young and old. Every single mer that Mariana had labeled her enemy, on whose head she’d put a bounty, whose life she’d promised to extinguish.

They were close, hovering outside the city on the side opposite him. Gathered. Waiting.

He stretched out his own magic, subtly enough that he dared to hope it would go unnoticed. Felt for the familiar among them.

Frowned. No Coral or Shell, whose blood had mingled with his a few short months ago, whom he would have recognized immediately.

Where were they? He’d yet to hear a report that included them or Reg, the other brother—it had all been Finn, Librus, the priest’s sister Electra, and Mariana.

What had become of the other three royal siblings?

He observed a few minutes more, until his diver’s watch told him the ceremony had only an hour before it began.

Time to begin his part in all this. He sent a pulse of a current to where he sensed his fleet waiting—it would show itself as a twirling fountain of water, signaling to Rico and Lee that he was in position.

Then he sent away the concealing cocoon of water he’d been holding in place around himself, to keep his own unique magic from being sensed by all those other Awakened. He let that magic permeate the water.

Planting a flag. Shining a beacon. I am here.

Immediately, a reaction from the Black Tails—their own walls of water going up.

Seidon smirked. Little late for that, friends .

It would take longer for the news of his arrival to reach Mariana and Ralia, inside their dome.

But he had no doubt it would precede his arrival.

He swam toward the main entrance, his pace normal, unhurried, despite the urgency in his chest that made him want to burst into their plans like a missile.

A line of mer awaited entrance, and he took his place at the back…and started counting. He’d reached one minute and twelve seconds when guards approached, decked out in full Sael regalia.

Now he knew how long it took to get a message from out here to the throne room and back again. He sent that, too, in a coded spurt of water to his fleet, and greeted the guards with a smile.

They bowed, clicked a greeting, and held out their hands toward the entrance. Allow us to escort you in, Your Majesty , they said in their clicks.

He clicked a thank-you in reply and let them lead him.

The older of the two glanced around them, brows furrowed. Have you no attendants? he asked.

Seidon smiled. I don’t need them.

He let it sink in, saw the look the two exchanged.

Mariana wouldn’t dare go anywhere without a full contingent of guards, nor had Ralia. Finn, Librus, and the rest of the Black Tails traveled in numbers too.

Wise. Hence why he had his own fleet so close, special shields of water like the one he’d been using himself during the swim camouflaging the hull of each ship. They were there, for when he needed them.

But he had to make a statement. And no statement could be stronger than striding out of the water, into one of their domes, alone.

Broadcasting not just to the House of Sael but to all the mer that he needed no one else to protect him, even now.

Inside a dome, at a coronation, when Mariana would be at her peak strength.

He didn’t honestly know that he’d be stronger than her in that moment. But he trusted. Trusted that the Triada would protect him, if it was his will. Trusted that today would not end in the shed blood of thousands.

He paused at the entrance, looking out into the water not with his eyes but with his magic.

Another familiar signature, breaking off from the Black Tail group and moving toward another entrance of the dome.

Two, together. It had been years since he’d felt that first signature, but he placed it soon enough.

Librus. And given the strength of the second signature, he’d wager that one to be Finn.

Praise the Triada—they were here, both of them, which meant they weren’t with Jade. They wouldn’t be there to challenge Arden.

One of the guards motioned him forward. Seidon paused a moment more, to remind the guard that he would move at his own pace.

And then he swam up through the entryway and broke the surface, into Margarita Civitas.

He called the water up with him, so that he could step easily onto the platform instead of having to haul himself up one of the ladders as everyone else was doing.

He could hear Arden in his head, laughing and accusing him of showing off. But she’d approve of it here, he knew, as she would approve of the way he called all the water off him and sent it back into the passage with a flourish.

Small shows that could keep him safe.

He turned his tail back into trousers with a flick and strode ahead of the two guards, who were still gaining the platform.

He wasn’t wearing his royal regalia. He wasn’t wearing his crown. But he employed that presence Arden accused him of not realizing he had to part the crowds, striding through the opening with a gracious smile for all and a nod here and there.

Word spread faster than he walked, so that by the time he reached the cathedral where the coronation would take place, all faces were turned toward him, whispers and wide eyes abounding.

He was a bit surprised to find that the royal family were not in the cathedral, but only arranged at the top of the stairs leading to the massive front doors.

Ralia glared down at him as he approached, looking old and haggard—far more than she should have aged in the two months since he last saw her.

Mariana’s face was impassive, but her twitching fingers belied her unease.

Ralia’s consort looked at Seidon with flaring nostrils and something that looked strangely like a plea in his eyes.

Seidon could hear the guards he’d left straggling behind him running to catch up, no doubt to detain him before he could march straight up the stairs and upstage the House of Sael.

He had no intention of doing so. He stopped at the base of the stairs and bent slightly at the waist, keeping his eyes locked on the royal trio. “Felicitations from Daryatla on this momentous day, Your Majesty. Your Highness.”

The two women both inclined their heads. “How glad we are,” Ralia said, “that you are able to join us, King Seidon.”

He smirked—they all knew he’d not been given an invitation, even before the wall prohibited it. “I wouldn’t miss it. No doubt the princess has quite a show planned, and I for one am eager to see it.” He shifted his gaze to Mariana.

A dare. A challenge. I will hold you accountable , that look said. I do not fear you .

“I am grateful to have our strongest ally here for the occasion.” Mariana’s voice projected out over the crowd.

He lifted his brows. “You know as well as I do that our alliance was severed the moment you pronounced death to all Awakened.”

Mariana’s face remained blank. “I cannot think of to what you are referring, Your Majesty.”

He snorted a laugh. “You may have had trouble getting messages through the wall, Your Highness. But I assure you, I had no such trouble. It proved…interesting, though, did it not? To see what would happen here as long as I let the Black Tails’ wall remain intact? To see the true colors of all the mer?”

Ralia’s fingers curled into her palm. She didn’t miss those key words, of course. Let the wall remain . As if he could have brought it down the very moment it went up, but he had chosen not to, to test them.

The queen stepped forward. “Perhaps you would like to adjourn with us into the cathedral for a few moments, Your Majesty? We can discuss—”

“There’s nothing to discuss. And I have no desire to postpone the ceremony.” He bent again at the waist, though he had a feeling no one mistook the gesture, the flourish of his hand, as anything but mocking. “Please, continue. Unless of course you’re waiting for the arrival of Finn and Librus?”

He turned toward the path he’d made through the crowd, happy to see his math had been correct. The two men were striding forward, both looking formidable in their black military garb.

Finn barely glanced at Seidon, his hard gaze going straight to his eldest sister. “Where are they, Mariana?”

“Who?” If the princess was going for innocence, she missed her mark. Her voice dripped disdain.

Finn practically growled. “Our siblings. The ones you’ve been keeping imprisoned.”

“Imprisoned?” Her laugh grated. “I have kept them safe, brother. From you.”

“I am not the one who promised— promised —death to all other Awakened.”

“And I am not the one who organized an army of revolutionaries! You stand accused of treason, brother.”

“Enough!” Ralia sliced a shaking hand through the air.

The two men reached Seidon and stopped beside him. Finn continued glaring, this time at his mother, but Librus nodded to Seidon with an easy smile. “Your Majesty. Good of you to come.”

The way he said it made it sound like he’d issued the invitation personally. Seidon had to give him credit for that—the crowd around them noted it, and whispers started up again.

Seidon chuckled. “Well played, Librus. Though whether you’ll be glad of my presence or not remains to be seen.” He flicked a glance to the trident. “Fun toy. Thanks for the lesson, by the way. I’ve found it to be most entertaining to add to my repertoire.”

Time for one more show, though it would cost him.

He raised a hand, let his senses focus on the water in the air, on the electricity in the tridents—largely useless without water surrounding them—and replicated what he’d been practicing every moment he could find.

He pulled the power from that nearly-dormant weapon, lined up the water particles just so, and sent a bolt of blue lightning from the priest’s trident to the tallest spire of the cathedral.

It didn’t do any harm—just sent sparks flying. And, the whole point, shouts and screams and exclamations zinging through the crowd.

Librus’s eyes flashed. “Always happy to share knowledge, my friend.”

Seidon grinned through the effort it had taken, careful not to let the priest see how much the display had cost him. “Clearly. I quite enjoyed that show with Jade. So clever of you. I daresay no one in the crowd suspected for a moment that you were faking the whole thing from behind her.”

Turning from the fury mounting in Librus’s eyes, Seidon motioned toward the royals. “I believe it’s time for the ceremony to begin?” He stepped deliberately away from Librus, to the front of the crowd, and folded his arms over his chest.

In part, yes, to make sure they didn’t tremble from the energy he’d expended. But also to project an air of insolent amusement. To goad them all.

And oh, did it work.