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V ahly woke to a headache that could’ve broken the world. She blinked, vision blurry, only to remember where she was.

In the ocean.

Her scalp was numb, and her feet were missing their boots. Confused, she reached up. And felt large, finned fingers twined roughly into her hair.

Everything came rushing back.

Heart hammering, she touched her new gills, then struggled against the sea kynd, who held her by the hair, kicking and twisting and scratching at his flesh.

He didn’t seem to notice, and her nails took little away for their work.

His skin was thick and rough, impervious to any damage she might try to inflict.

Finally, she took hold of his hand with both of hers, kicked hard through the water, and jerked him off course.

He spun, yanking her hair and pulling her face to see his.

“If you won’t come quietly, I’ll simply have to render you less troublesome.” Wearing a flat look, he whipped his spear through the water, across her thigh.

Pain burst over her skin, and blood curled from a deep cut.

“You could die from this. But if I get you to where we’re going, we can heal you. Now, stop struggling or you’ll only speed your death and ruin your one chance to live.” He took off again, twice as fast this time, his grip now on her upper arm.

Stomach rolling, Vahly screamed a frustrated shout into the foggy expanse of waving seaweed and sparkling schools of fish. “Why heal me when you want me dead?”

“It is the queen’s choice now.”

He was an idiot. A scary idiot, but one just the same. “You make no sense, sea fool.” Her leg throbbed in rhythm with her pulse.

They swam over an empty stretch of sand that twisted up and into the water in great columns.

A sleek fish the size of her captor darted toward Vahly, then swam abruptly away only to circle back again.

Vahly’s nerves were raw, overworked, incapable of further horror, but she knew this thing was out for a meal.

It had the same twitching excitement she’d seen in younger dragons before a kill.

“You have competition, sea kynd,” she murmured, the world fading then clearing. “I think this one wants to rule my future. In his mouth.”

The sea kynd whirled and threw his spear. The bright color sped like lightning through the water and pierced the large fish through the side. Blood cascaded from the dying, falling fish as the spear flipped and soared back to the sea kynd’s outstretched hand.

“Ah. So that’s how you do it. I’ve always wondered.” Vahly’s words slurred as she drifted into unconsciousness.

Ryton gritted his teeth, thinking of how this creature had fought side by side with dragons and now he’d given her information. Why hadn’t he just killed her? She was right. He was a fool.

The blood from her wounded leg was a banner marking their progress northward. Unless she was very strong indeed, she would die from this wound, and he’d be spared the duty to kill a being his sister would’ve found so interesting, one he himself was curious about, even if he’d never admit it.

The outskirts of Tidehame appeared in the distance, a rock wall covered in pearly shells and undulating seaweed that marked the civilization’s boundary.

Ryton took the Earth Queen the long way around the border and headed for the far end of Scar Chasm, where not even the most daring of the nautili harvesters and rare fish seekers swam.

The ocean floor dropped steadily, fifty feet below, then one hundred, before it showed the deep line of darkness in the bedrock.

Ryton rushed into the Chasm. The walls rose to either side, and fish with glowing eyes flashed past. Cold as a corpse, the water here touched Ryton unlike a chill usually did.

And it tasted off, too metallic. The liquid was slick in his mouth and along his sensitive fins.

Once the Chasm swallowed them, in a place where even Ryton could barely see, he set the human against the western wall.

With a length of braided salt-twine, he bound each of her hands to a branch of petrified coral behind her, then set to work healing her leg.

Because he had clearly lost his mind.

Hating himself, painfully confused, he spoke the healing spell, whispering into the sudden bubbling of water and the roar of magic in his ears.

The Earth Queen’s eyes fluttered open. She looked down, but she only frowned. “Did you heal me? I can’t see, but…” Her head lolled to one side, and she blinked, obviously trying to wake from the stupor of blood loss. “Fool. Do me a final favor and just kill me. I’ll never make it out of here.”

She flexed her fingers as if she could work a spell.

The ocean suffocated her power, but she was quick, so he kept his focus on her.

She’d used the earthen objects in the sunken ruins of Bihotzetik to fight him and might have abilities he couldn’t comprehend.

Her talk was only meant to lull him into a false sense of security.

“Don’t play games with me.”

“But I love games,” she mumbled, her words still weak and running together. “Did you know I’m a fantastic gambler? No? Well, I’m betting on you this time, sea kynd.”

Ryton’s jaw ached, and his muscles twitched with tension. He longed to kill this beast. But he just…couldn’t. “If you die, your elf and your dragons die. Why would you goad me into slaying you before you’ve had a chance to escape?”

Her eyes squeezed shut, and her stomach tensed beneath her ripped clothing like she was in great pain. “Maybe not. Elves are a wily sort.”

“And why are we talking about the race I recently obliterated?” Astraea swam out of the darkness, four guards flanking her.

The human let out a small moan at Astraea’s announcement. “Arcturus,” she mumbled, head dropping and chest heaving.

Ryton went very still, his jaw tight. He should’ve gone straight to Astraea. “My queen.” He bowed, his heart punctuating his every word with a loud thump. How had she—his queen, his lover, his torturous addiction—found him here?

But Astraea only stared at the human, ignoring Ryton. She swam lazily, gaze locked on her nemesis, finally face to face.

To her merit, the Earth Queen didn’t look shaken. In fact, she’d gained some color in her cheeks and she managed to return Astraea’s glare in full force.

“So you’re the piece of work we’re all trying to deal with these days,” the Earth Queen said as she cocked her head and looked Astraea up and down. The human lifted her eyebrows and pursed her lips like she wasn’t impressed, but her shaking body told a different tale.

Astraea grinned, pearly teeth flashing in the dark. “I suppose I am. I’m so glad you’ve heard good things.” She swam closer and placed a finger above the human’s heart.

Ryton held his breath. This was it. Astraea would end this Earth Queen, and then they would flood the land, and eventually, his kynd would find peace.

But instead of delivering the killing blow, Astraea turned to Ryton, her finger still on the human’s chest.

“Ryton, darling. Why in all the waves did you decide to waste your time and mine by torturing this abomination and not simply offing her immediately?”

“That’s what I asked him,” the Earth Queen said, wearing an insanely cocky grin. She had definitely lost too much blood.

Astraea flicked the human’s new gills with a sharp fingernail. The Earth Queen flinched, swallowing convulsively. “And,” Astraea continued, “you’ve turned her into a sick mimic of one of us. I can’t say that I like this play, General Ryton.”

Ryton swallowed, his throat dry and his tongue bitter-tasting. “Forgive me, my queen, but you too are holding back, or the creature would already be dead.”

Astraea laughed, the sound bouncing off Scar Chasm’s walls and sending bubbles rushing toward the surface. She eyed her guards. “You see? This is why he is my favorite. Never dull, this one! So full of spice.”

Ryton exhaled, his body sagging with shameful relief. He should’ve been glad to die for his kynd, for this foolish move he’d made in preserving the Earth Queen with a spell that twisted what it meant to be sea kynd.