Page 82

The general held her arms wider. “I’ve done what I could to protect your sister, my lady. To keep your king informed. I don’t know King Seidon, but from what I’ve seen of him, I’ve been struck by his…” She frowned, seeming to search for the right word.

“Goodness,” Arden provided. “His respect for all life. His desire to preserve the sanctity of it, regardless of whether the lives in question are his subjects or his supposed enemies.”

Electra nodded. Jade pursed her lips. Though Papa had always spoken of the king with the highest of praise and familiarity, Arden had always cringed away from any mention of him.

Clearly things had changed in her absence. “Wait. So…you’ve been flying on a hawk—seriously? To meet a mer, presumably somewhere on this side of the wall. And then reporting to the king with the information? And—did you get married?” She held the ringed finger up again.

Arden’s gaze slashed her way, something akin to apology in her eyes.

Electra took a step forward, arms still out. “I knew that if Seidon could find a way over the wall, it would force a cease-fire. I don’t want to be killed by Mariana—but Finn will be no better.”

Jade let her sister’s hand go, that ring suddenly not mattering. Not really. “Finn will never be king. Not if your brother has his way.”

“Librus.” Arden spun to face her more fully, giving her profile to Electra. “Si suspected he was the one behind it all.”

Did her sister just call the king Si ? Never mind.

“Of course he is.” Electra gave up all pretense of keeping them easy now and strode to meet them. “Librus never intended to use Finn as anything but a figurehead.”

Jade shook her head. “He doesn’t even intend to use him for that.” At the frown Electra sent her, she winced. “I’ve been… slipping in, when he pushes thoughts to me. He hasn’t realized I’ve done it.”

Electra gaped. Arden laughed. “That’s my sister. Always able to get past people’s defenses.”

Jade sent her a tight smile. But it couldn’t last long, not given the images she carried in her mind. “He has some sort of alliance with Mariana. I couldn’t quite see what it was—but there was a clear image in his mind the other day of killing Finn.”

Electra hissed out a breath, her eyes going distant. “Librus. What have you done?”

“Probably nothing quite yet—but he means to be king, Electra.”

But Electra was shaking her head, looking from Jade to Arden.

“That was his game, then. Make himself king, and convince you all this time that he was the one you should trust, so that he could compel you to join your power to his when you were Awakened. That was why he gave me the instructions he did.”

Jade’s chest went tight. “What instructions were those?”

“To bring you to Margarita Civitas the moment we’d finished the Ceremony. To use whatever magic we needed to get there by the coronation. He didn’t tell me why, but it must have something to do with this.”

“Not happening.” Arden turned toward the trees.

“They should be here any moment. They landed on the opposite side of the island so you wouldn’t see them and were making their way through the trees when I flew over.

” She flashed them a smile. “Hope you didn’t mind my diverting you to this island.

This was the only one they’d be able to reach on our timetable. ”

They? Jade spun, half-expecting a fleet of birds to come flapping out.

But no. They were humans that emerged, dressed in the familiar blue uniforms of the king’s Elite Guardians. Led by a form so familiar, Jade took off before she was aware of giving her feet the message. “Storm!”

He was running too, and in a few more moments he was swooping her up, holding her close, spinning them both in a circle to dispel their combined momentum.

“Jade.” His voice was a hoarse whisper, beautiful and taut with emotions.

His arms were warm around her, solid and sure.

She buried her face in his neck and told herself not to cry.

It was stupid to cry now, when they were together again.

“I knew we’d find you,” he murmured into her hair. “I couldn’t let myself even consider anything less.”

She sensed the other Guardians swarming but didn’t open her eyes to see them. Didn’t let herself wonder what it would mean, that he’d already been sworn in.

Electra and Arden must have drawn closer too, because Jade had no trouble hearing Electra ask, “But where are your boats? I didn’t sense—”

“Seidon disguised them. They’re to the north. We knew you would be bringing her from the southeast.” The way her sister said the king’s name with such familiarity was nearly enough to make Jade look away from Storm.

Nearly. But not quite. She did pull away a bit, but only so that she could look up at him, into his gorgeous face.

She let her fingers trace over the curve of his cheek, down to his jaw.

“I love you,” she whispered, quietly enough that he would know it was for his ears alone, though she didn’t much care who overheard them.

She had already lost her chance to say it once. She wouldn’t let another day pass without speaking those words. Not another hour, not another minute.

Storm’s eyes slid shut, and he rested his forehead on hers. “My Jade. I didn’t know how I would live each day, when my heart was beneath the waves, with you. I love you more than anything.”

“Get her back to Daryatlean territory as quickly as you can.” Electra sounded like the general she was. “And you with her, Wind Rider. Keep your magic far away from my brother, or he’ll try to take you in her place.”

Jade tore her eyes from Storm long enough to look over her shoulder at her sister’s breath of laughter.

That was when it really struck her—how different Arden looked.

The same, but not. Clearly her sister, but…

there was something more there. In her eyes, in her posture, in the clothes that had clearly been tailored to fit her tall, lithe form.

In the very way her customary braid hung over her shoulder.

The way she stood, feet shoulder-width apart—a stance Papa had taught her but which she’d never adopted naturally.

Yet she stood in it now with comfort and confidence and—that was it. The confidence.

Arden lifted her brows. “I’m not inclined to be ‘taken.’ Though I dare him to try.”

“I admire your assurance—but there is no need to test your strength against his. Take your sister home, set up what protections your king has granted you.” Electra nodded toward the Guardians.

“If my brother manages to steal the crown today, you can bet his first order of business will be to find her again. Move quickly, go somewhere far inland, where he can’t track you. Go now.”

“I appreciate your desire to see us safe.” Arden tilted her head, gaze as focused as a hawk’s on Electra.

“But we have our own plan. One that does not involve cowering for the rest of our lives, afraid of another kidnapping attempt.” Her eyes flicked to Storm.

“Do get her to safety though, of course. As per the plan.”

Storm saluted. And though Jade was inclined to think it more a joke than ceremonial, her brows knit when the rest of the Guardians mirrored him. When, in one voice, they said, “Yes, Your Majesty,” and then formed a barricade around Jade with their bodies, moving them forward en masse.

Jade matched her strides to Storm’s because it was that or be marched over. But she looked up at him, the question more frantic now. “What did I miss?”

Storm’s smile was reassuringly calm. “Just her Awakening—followed rather quickly by a wedding to the king.”

“What?” She halted, pulling out of his arms solely because she couldn’t let herself be bustled to the boats appearing now on the horizon after getting that news. She spun back toward Arden.

The Guardians didn’t really try to stop her anyway, just let her cut a path through them, Storm chuckling his way up behind her.

“Before you have the chance to jump to any conclusions—it wasn’t a power play, not like this Librus character sounds like he was planning.

They fell in love about two seconds after they met, I think.

When he thought it was you who had this new magic. ”

Arden cut a glance to them, amusement on her lips. “Did not. It took two days, thank you. At least for me.”

Jade reached her side again and grabbed once more for her hand.

Her sister—not only married, but married to the king?

Jade examined the ring once more, then pulled her in for another hug.

“You deserve it,” she whispered fiercely into her ear—because she knew Arden.

She knew that no amount of magic, no quick-hit of love would be enough to shake loose all the old insecurities.

Not yet, anyway. “I’m only sorry I wasn’t there to see it. ”

“I wish we could have waited for you. But—”

“Don’t.” Jade pulled back, smiled up into her sister’s face. “Don’t apologize for anything. I know you, Ar. I know you made the best decision. And you’re here.”

“I am.” She gave Jade another squeeze but then looked back to Electra. “But Seidon isn’t. He went to the coronation. I’m not leaving mer territory until he does. So if you know anything about what your brother has planned…”

Electra’s face twisted. “He hasn’t told me anything. I don’t even know as much as Jade, apparently—I certainly had no idea he’d made some sort of alliance with Mariana. But he can’t mean to keep it. He’ll double cross her, that I can guess.”

Perhaps it was the food and water hitting her system.

Perhaps it was having Storm on one side of her, Arden on the other—just like always.

Perhaps it was a whisper from the Triada himself.

Whatever the reason, the scene from the waystation flashed into Jade’s mind…

and combined with other images. Images she’d pulled from Librus’s thoughts but hadn’t known what to do with.

Images of destruction. Images of threat. She’d pushed them aside as random fears or even nightmares—they’d seemed like it, like many she’d had. Images of the domes cracking, electric-blue seams appearing in them, fracturing them, the sea crashing in. Air belching out.

She’d confessed one of those nightmares to Librus her first morning there. And what had his assurance been?

That there were waystations, there to make sure the mer could escape if ever the domes failed.

“Electra.” Jade’s hand shot out to grip the mermaid’s toned arm. Her eyes felt wide, panicked.

Maybe that was what made the general go still, her gaze hard and demanding on Jade’s face. “What?”

“The waystations. Librus was bringing up the rear. He had to have been the one to destroy them.”

Electra’s brows knit. “Why would he do that?”

“Because…” She nearly stumbled over the words.

They didn’t make sense. And yet the images were there, in her head.

Not her nightmare—and not his, either. They were his plan.

She knew it as surely as she knew her own name.

“Without the waystations, there’s no reasonable escape from the dome if it were to collapse.

Not for everyone. Not for those without magic to help them. ”

She could tell the moment it clicked into place for Electra. Her eyes flashed, and her face paled. “No.” She breathed it more like a prayer than a claim.

Arden shifted. “Explain.”

It was Electra who spoke, rolling back her shoulders and meeting Arden’s gaze.

“A huge number of mer have gathered in Margarita Civitas today, for one reason or another—either obeying Mariana’s order or his.

If he brings down the dome, if there’s no hope of escape…

maybe he’ll use it as a threat, to make him king or die.

Or maybe he’ll make it look like Mariana did it and he’s the savior who should be king. ”

Storm sucked in a breath. “Thousands would die if he did that.”

“Hundreds of thousands.” Electra shook her head, eyes gleaming with tears—something Jade had never thought to see.

“But you said he gave you orders to bring Jade there immediately after Awakening her. Why would he do that if he means to bring down such destruction?”

Electra muttered a curse and dashed at her eyes.

“Because he knows very well she wouldn’t grant him her full allegiance without having to.

Don’t you see? It’s air that the city needs to survive down there.

And he knows very well Jade would never let the entire population of mer die.

He’ll make it look like it’s someone else’s fault that the dome cracks, probably Mariana or Finn—and then force her to help him save them.

He’s that convinced he’s right and she’s the one.

That convinced she’ll do what he demands. ”

“I would.” Another truth, so crystalline. So wrong. “But I can’t.”

“I can.” Arden was already running backwards, sending up a whistle.

“Arden, no.” Storm surged forward, hand outstretched.

He ran straight into a wall of wind. Arden stood still while the hawk landed behind her, looking every inch the queen as she regarded them through the wall she’d built around herself. “My husband is down there, Storm. Along with hundreds of thousands of innocents.”

“You’ll be playing straight into his hand.”

Jade stepped forward, as close to the strange wind as she could. “You need me to come with you, Arden. To distract him.”

“Jade!” Storm’s hand tangled with hers. “No. Don’t go back down there—”

“I’ll come back.” She cupped his cheek in her hand and stretched up to kiss him. Just once, softly. “I promise. I’ll come back. But it’ll give her the edge she needs. He’ll be focused on me, convinced he was right. It’ll let her do what she needs to do.”

Arden must have been convinced, at least. The wind stilled, and she nodded to Jade. Then to Electra. “You in, general?”

Electra was already reaching for the diving gear. “How fast can you fly, Sky Queen?”

Her sister’s lips curled up. “I’d say about as fast as you can swim on a magic-aided current.”

Jade smiled too. “Then what are we waiting for?”