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L ight exploded from their hands. Seidon held tight to Arden’s fingers, even as it felt as though the light, so pure and dazzling, would tear him apart with its brilliance. He had no choice but to close his eyes, but those delicate lids offered little protection.

It seared. It surged. It billowed out around them like a mushroom cloud in the aftermath of an explosion. A cloud of light and glory.

The moment the light released him, he sagged against Arden, who sagged in turn against him, both too dazed to do anything like move or even look around. Time might as well have ceased entirely, as aware of it as he was.

Was it a second before he found the strength to move? An hour? He didn’t know. But it must not have been long, because when he opened his eyes, Jade still stood behind the altar with Librus, their hands pressed together and a look of intensity on each of their faces.

Arden’s fingers gripped his shoulder. “Si—look!”

He followed her gaze up, through the hole in the cathedral ceiling—to the shining dome beyond it. Not the one that had shattered and cracked and fallen, but one of…light. Blue, pulsing light hovering there between the water and the air.

He breathed a laugh. “We made a wall.” Not like the ones the Black Tails had made though, through which the water could still flow. Something new. Something different.

But then, that made sense. They hadn’t had Arden to help them.

They stood together, both of their gazes falling to Jade and Librus. He had no idea what his sister-in-law was doing, but whatever it was, Librus seemed enthralled. His sword arm sagged, lowering degree by degree until the tip scraped the stone floor.

Perhaps the sound of it broke whatever spell he’d been under. He jolted, shook his head, and pushed Jade away, fury on his face. “You traitorous sander!”

Jade stumbled back, but her face had no panic on it—just peace. “You gave me your nightmares, Librus. It’s only fair that I show you my dreams. The ones that once were, the ones that are now. The ones you can’t have a part in, not like this.”

Librus hefted the sword again, and Seidon reacted before he could even be sure he had any strength left, any connection to the water. For all he knew, he’d pushed all his magic into that dome and he’d never get it back.

If so, then praise the Triada that he’d been able to help save all the innocent lives within Margarita Civitas, their own included. But if it pleased the Triada, then he would use a bit more, to save one more.

The water answered, as quickly as ever. Wind surged from Arden at his side.

Librus’s sword went flying, the wind whipping it to somewhere in the pews. The water pushed him back, away from Jade.

The priest could fight the water, wrestle with Seidon for it. But every time he focused on that, the wind would catch him out, turn him, pummel him.

Jade scurried down the steps, away from him, circling Seidon to stand near her sister.

There were plenty of other metal items in the sanctuary, but hopefully none would be the conductor he needed. Even so, Seidon and Arden kept him well away from them, turning him this way and that.

“Electra! Help me!”

Seidon glanced away long enough to see Librus’s sister bend from her crouch just inside the doors of the cathedral. The sword in her hand. “Geysers!” he muttered. “Another one?”

“She’s not on his side,” Arden said, voice soft. “She brought us here. She was Kiyana’s contact—the one who got us the recording of the fake wind display. The one who told us where they were keeping Jade.”

So…what then? What did she mean to do?

He had his answer a moment later, when she strode forward as if the weight of the sea still rested on her shoulders, the blade dragging the ground beside her. When she held up her free palm toward Seidon, he felt the request. Let go, please. Let me.

There was something soft about the tug. Sorrowful. He released his grip.

Arden did too, and the sudden cessation made Librus fall. Electra stopped at his side. “How could you, brother?” Her voice barely reached them, a mournful lullaby. “How could you deceive us all? How could you work such destruction? You, who spoke always of unity and light and faith?”

Librus pushed up, but only onto his elbows—the sword his sister pointed at his chest no doubt kept him from doing more. “It was Mariana, Electra. In the moment the full power came upon her, she turned it on the dome—”

“Mariana never learned how to use that side of our power.” So sad, her voice. So low. “And Mariana is certainly not the one who destroyed every waystation between Usquerbis and Margarita Civitas. Why? Why did you do it? To hold us all captive? To promise obedience to you, or else death?”

Librus’s expression shifted this way and that, settling on pride. He tilted his chin up. “I made sure you were safe.”

“You sent me into the teeth of a hurricane to Awaken a new magic that could have ripped me to shreds if she had so chosen. You chose ambition over family. Over faith. Over all you taught me to hold dear.”

He raised himself a few more inches. “And now I am king. Think about that, sister. Think what it means for us, for you—”

Electra screamed, looking like she mustered her last ounce of strength—and with it, she drove the sword through her brother’s chest. Even from where he stood, Seidon could see the shock on Librus’s face. The bone-deep horror on Electra’s.

She let go of the sword and fell to her knees beside her brother, staring blankly at her own hands.

Jade flew by them again, hurtling herself toward the mermaid and wrapping her tight in her arms.

Slower, Seidon wrapped an arm around Arden and led her forward too.

“I had to,” Electra mumbled, gaze still locked, blank, on nothing. “He never would have stopped. He never…he would have…”

“I know,” Jade crooned, pulling Electra’s head down onto her shoulder, forcing that empty gaze to release.

“I know. I saw. I saw his every plan, his ambition, his rage. I’m sorry you had to do that, Electra—but you were right.

He never would have stopped. He would have put the first Sea King to shame, and all the tyrants in your own history after him. ”

Seidon and Arden climbed the stairs, his wife bending down to pick up the mer crown from where it had fallen from its short-lived king. She handed it to him, brows raised. “It’s lighter than yours.”

He snorted, weighing it in his hands. Perhaps by grams it was. But not by responsibility. “Let’s hope so—for her sake.” He crouched down beside Jade and Electra and parted them, urged the mer general upright with a gentle touch. He held out the crown.

Electra blinked at him. “Well. I suppose if you want to truly be Sea King—on land and beneath the waves—you’ve earned it.”

“I don’t.” He held the crown out a little closer. “One kingdom is plenty. Which I have a feeling you’ll agree with quite readily after a few years as queen.”

Her eyes went wide, the disbelief in them making peace settle around his heart. He wasn’t the one who had any authority down here, any right to bestow a crown. But he knew to whom it belonged. And she would too, once she got over the surprise of it.

Which she clearly wasn’t ready to do yet. She shook her head, even scooted back a step. “I don’t want the crown.”

“And that’s why you need to be the one to wear it.

” He looked beyond her, to where the High Priest was struggling back to his feet—he’d sensed the help from all the priests in holding up the water, clearly not realizing it was their leader who had done it—or else abandoning his ambitions when the lengths he would go to became clear.

But it had taken a greater toll on them than him, it seemed.

Most were still out cold where they’d fallen after the weight released them.

“Your excellency? I believe a coronation is still in everyone’s best interest, before any third parties emerge to grapple for the crown. ”

The priest nodded, stumbling forward. “I do agree, Your Majesty. Princess Electra, please kneel.”

“No! I can’t—”

Jade gripped her by the shoulders and pushed her into position. “Listen, you stubborn mer. You’ll do what you must, because it’s for the good of your people. You’ll be a good queen, and you’ll usher in a new era of peace. Understand?”

For a moment, Electra stared at Jade as hollowly as she’d looked at nothing. But then he felt the shift in her. The magic drawing up. Drawing her up. She gave one short nod and straightened her spine. “For them,” she whispered.

“As it should be.” The priest raised the crown. “Princess Electra of the house of Bruell, are you willing to take the Oath?”

Electra’s eyes slid closed. “I am willing.”

“Will you solemnly swear to govern the mer people, according to our laws and customs?”

“I will.”

“Will you in your power cause the good and the right, in mercy, to be executed in all your realm?”

Tears slipped out from her closed eyes. “I will.”

“Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain the laws of the One and the true profession of the Blessed News? Will you maintain the faith established by law? Will you reserve to the priesthood the right of discipline and worship? Will you preserve the rights and privileges of the faithful?”

She nodded, sniffed, and managed, “I will.”

“Then, Queen Electra, I bid thee rise.” The priest set the crown upon her head, and she stood.

Seidon braced himself, ready to call up a protective shell of water, knowing Arden would do the same with the wind if she had to.

But Electra made no move against them. As light cascaded down upon her, she raised up her arms…and made the water lift the cracked and broken pieces of the dome back into place. They melded in with the field he and Arden had created, forming a solid barrier again.

Seidon pulled his wife a little closer. Jade moved to her sister’s other side. And Electra, when she lowered her arms again, met his gaze.

“I hope to sign a new treaty of peace with you, Seidon,” she said. But then her gaze flicked out across the ruin of a cathedral, toward the streets where chaos still reigned. “But I have some work to do first.”

He smiled. “We’ll help however we can. I hope you know that. We are all the same, beneath the tails.”

A corner of her lip tugged up. “No. Thank the One, we’re not.

” She sent one glance at the fallen royals still littering the floor, illustrating her point.

“But to your point—thank you. I think perhaps we ought to show my people now what peace really looks like. And then, perhaps, someday…I can visit you in your world, and we can show it there too.”

He inclined his head in agreement, and Arden elbowed him in the side. “How long do you think cleanup efforts will take? Because it would be pretty amazing to have her there for the christening.”

“The…” Electra’s eyes went wide.

Jade squealed.

And Seidon hugged Arden closer to his side and laughed.