Blue high-fived me. “Fish down. I repeat. Fish down.”

  A low rock wall and a glowing glass castle appeared in the distance; it sparkled with different colors, as enticing as fairy lights. As we drew closer, it seemed like the water around us grew even darker, more shadowed. The air in our column grew colder. Goosebumps rose on my arms and I flexed my fingers to keep them from growing stiff.

  A shark burst into our air pocket with no warning, all rows of teeth snapping at my face. Blue yanked me to the floor as the knights ducked. All but Ryan, who kept his eyes on the shark and blasted it with yellow light. A second later, a bird flapped in its place, opening and shutting its beak, flapping its wings and squawking, getting used to this new body.

  “That poor shark,” Blue stared up, watching the bird fly up our column until it disappeared into the sky. “It stinks to be a bird.”

  After that, Connor went over and encased Ryan in pink light. My giant looked ready to fall over from exhaustion.

  I pushed a little peace magic into him, hoping that between Connor’s healing and my peace, he might feel a bit better.

  I had just wiped my bloody wrists onto my skirts when everything went to hell.

  “Sarding figures,” Declan kicked a crab out of his way. “Two seconds with my powers and you’re already better at controlling them than me. Two things at once, Ry? Really?” he shook his head.

  “That was a strange way to compliment him,” I peered at Declan, to see if he was feeling alright.

  He avoided my gaze. He didn’t apologize to Ryan, just shuffled along.

  Ryan just shook his head at me, mouthing, “Stress.”

  I didn’t push it. We were all stressed. And if we were feeling it, that meant Declan was drinking in our emotions, feeling them twice as much.

  I questioned dragging my knights into this for the millionth time. Had I made a mistake? Was this just a selfish choice? Was Queen Shenna right? Should I have closed up Evaness’ borders and simply retreated from the sea?

  My heart grew cold at the thought. I couldn’t stand to abandon Avia. Blood or not … she was family.

  We kept walking.

  As I worked, Quinn tried to coach Blue on sending out illusions. Declan became their guinea pig.

  Several times he stopped so quickly I ran into his back. “Damn snakes again! Cut that out.”

  “Are you okay, Dec? Are they sending you too much?”

  Declan just clenched his jaw and shook his head.

  I turned to Blue and thought, You’d better go easy on him.

  I have to practice, Blue’s inner voice snapped—sending his thoughts to all of us and making me cringe. Don’t coddle him. He’s a sarding man, for gods-sakes.

  “I’m not coddling—”

  “You’ve always coddled Declan!” The vitriol in Connor’s voice brought me to a dead halt.

  “What the sard?” I turned to stare at Connor. He was the peacemaker among us. Sweat beaded on his brow. The magic rage was taxing him.

  Connor spoke so everyone could hear. “You’ve always had a soft spot for him. Whenever a tutor railed on him, you always got so mad.”

  “So what? Our tutors were curdled shites.”

  “He’s jealous,” Declan cut in, drawing me to his side. “Jealousy tastes like cabbage. An edge of sweet, but mostly slimy and disgusting. Like everything else about Connor.”

  You’re jealous? Quinn scoffed. You got Bloss your whole sarding life! And then, I barely get her, and this asshole joins in—he gestured at Blue.

  “Guys!” Ryan bellowed.

  The guys didn’t listen.

  “Maybe you aren’t her favorite anymore,” Declan taunted Connor

  He had his turn, Quinn bellowed in our heads. Now it’s mine!

  Blue jumped into the fray, “At least she doesn’t think of you half the time as a sarding pet!” He spit out the words like they were sour.

  “Shut the sarding hell up!” Ryan’s yell finally got everyone’s attention.

  I sighed in relief. I had no idea what was wrong with the guys. Thank goodness Ryan still had his—

  “She’s mine!” Ryan yanked me out of Quinn’s grip and lifted me. His concentration on our air column slipped and the wall of water closed in, forcing everyone to stand shoulder to shoulder.

  “You selfish prick! I always knew you’d try to steal her for yourself!” Declan yanked on my foot, trying to pull me away from Ryan.

  Quinn grabbed my dress and yanked, trying to get me away from Ryan. But all he did was tear my sleeve.

  “I haven’t even gotten a chance—” Blue punched Quinn in the face.

  They’d gone mad. Angry. Like some kind of spell…

  Shite!

  “Stop! Stop it all of you!” I shot out a burst of peace, stunning all of them. I struggled down from Ryan’s arms, ignoring the gashes in my arms. The peace made them complacent. But who knew how long it would last? What was happening? What kind of spell was this? I went from knight to knight, standing on tip-toe so I could stroke their cheeks. We couldn’t go into battle like this. Not jealous. Not divided. “We’re a family,” I whispered. “You all are like brothers.”

  “Not me,” Blue muttered.

  I grabbed his hand and shot another bolt of peace into him, until I saw his eyes relax.

  Then, with my men temporarily pacified, my eyes scanned the dark water. My skin tingled. I felt certain someone was watching us. But where were they?

  In the distance, I saw figures. And I thought I heard a faint sound. A song.

  Shite. We hadn’t put wax or cloth in our ears.

  Idiot, Bloss! I raged at myself.

  I turned to General Enderson and screamed, “Sirens!”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  But the undead had ripped off their ears. General Enderson didn’t turn toward me until I shot a wavering jet of green peace power at him. Even then, I think he might only have turned because of the light.

  “Sirens!” I yelled again.

  I ended up reverting to jumping frantically and pointing. That did the trick. The general sent a line of soldiers marching after the sirens, who fled.

  They’d better run, I thought bitterly. Those awful creatures almost made my knights attack one another.

  I watched with satisfaction as the troops calmly followed their prey, even after the sirens had disappeared from sight. The undead army didn’t stop when the sirens retreated. They kept marching, until they too faded into the black abyss of the ocean. It didn’t matter if it took ten days or ten years, those sirens would be hunted down.

  I felt a bit of bittersweet satisfaction over that.

  Once the sirens were gone, my knights settled down, confusion etching their faces.

  “They must be able to put you under their siren’s spell even from a distance.”

  “I’ve read that sounds underwater are different,” Declan said. “There’s a mer-written text on it.”

  “Why didn’t it affect you?” Connor stared at me.

  I shrugged. “Based on what happened, it looked like they targeted you with the song, not me.”

  We didn’t have a chance to discuss it further, because just then, a contingent of mermen riding sharks appeared. The mermen each held a monster’s dorsal fin in one hand and glowing orange tridents in the other. They wore chest plates of glowing green armor, and clear helmets that looked like crystal.

  The first one of them to arrive was the largest, easily twice Ryan’s size. And the smile he gave us was as sharp as the blade in his hands.

  I reached back and wrapped my fingers around the closest knight.

  It’s okay, Bloss, Blue tried to reassure me.

  I squeezed his hand. The giant merman speared three of the undead with one throw. Their bodies glowed orange as the sea magic sizzled through them. Their faces turned black and charred. When the merman swam forward and yanked his trident back, those three undead soldiers dissipated into swirling black flecks that settled on the sea floor. His trident had a disintegration spell in it.

  That sight made me seize up. It made me wish we’d brought the death amulets with us. We’d only lucked out defeating the giants. How could we fight monstrous magical people in water? I hadn’t thought this through.

  The adrenaline pumping through my veins shouted my thoughts to Blue and Quinn. I shouldn’t have brought you. This is a death trap.

  Blue was quick to protest. Nowhere I’d rather be.

  Quinn didn’t respond. And I felt a quick brush at my side. Suddenly, the water in front of our column wavered. And the undead were shoved aside as a current rushed past them.

  The giant merman’s trident yanked backward and then shoved up—right through his jaw into his face. One of the spears poked out through his eye. He floated down in the water.

  I hardly had time to process what I was seeing. I had to blink to be certain it was real through the waves, because the currents were making everything a bit of a blur.

  Suddenly, a spray of water burst through Ryan’s column of air, soaking my face and the front of my dress in freezing wet droplets. Quinn stood before me, sodden, panting, victorious. He held a wicked-looking dagger he’d stolen off the merman in his hands. He tucked it into his belt.

  He gave me a wink. What was that you said about death trap?

  My knights cheered. “Sarding yes!”

  They punched the air. They smacked Quinn on the back. Even I couldn’t help how my heart did a little dance.

  But what came out of my mouth was, “You could have drowned!”

  Quinn turned to Blue but projected his thought to all of us. This speed shite isn’t half bad.

  Posey stuck her head into our column of air, her purple petals damp and drooping from the water. “The general asks that you all stand back. He doesn’t want you to interfere again.”

  “Interfere?” Declan pointed. “Did you see that? He took down a beast!”

  “Yes, I did see.” Posey didn’t sound impressed. “Now we have to spend time converting him to an undead, which will slow us down. We prefer permanent injury over death. Or complete disintegration,” Posey said dryly as she stepped all the way into our column. “Now, I’ve been assigned to prevent you all from ‘helping’ again. Move this way, please. “She pointed off to the left away from the battle and sighed.

  My knights protested but when the back of Posey’s head grew teeth like Dini’s, they closed their mouths and started moving. None of us had forgotten the number of soldiers that Dini had swallowed whole.

  Posey leaned over to me and smiled. “No man wants to go down in history as being killed by a flower. The men I’ve taken out who’ve become undead, they get a bit of a rash from the others. Apparently, it’s better to be taken out by a bear in the woods. Much more manly ending.”

  I laughed, slightly giddy. “Yes. Well, you know, I do have a disembowelment preference list.”

  She rolled her eyes and her teeth clenched like she was smiling. With her lips rotted off, it was hard to tell.

  As she ushered us backward, another group of sharks circled around the flank of the undead and tried to come after us.

  Pony, attack! I mentally yelled. Our little group of gargoyles leapt up—or tried to at least. But they couldn’t float in the water. Instead, they extended their wings to knock the sharks back.

  They ended up surrounding our column of air and doing just that. In between wing shots, I tried to shoot jets of peace at the sharks. I didn’t have much luck. Connor ended up having to heal me, since I seemed to do more damage to my wrists than the sea creatures.

  The undead army filled in the spaces around us, leaving a wide circle for us in the middle, in case Ryan needed to move our column of air to avoid anything. They set up slowly and calmly, as if they knew exactly what to do, though I suspected slowly was the only speed for the undead.

  General Enderson had them build human pyramids, stacking soldiers on top of one another until they’d made a barricade of bodies around us. They launched spears from behind the barricade. Several undead hedgewitches created bright red, boiling jets of water and shot them at the sharks, who turned tail. I watched several of the mermen collapse in pain as burns blossomed on their skin.

  Another group of part fae undead used their wings like fins to propel themselves through the water. The fae absorbed the magical blasts that the mermen tried to send through their tridents. The undead fae repurposed the magic in the way only fae can—creating nature. They made jellyfish appear right on top of the mermen, stinging them until they howled.

  Posey sat down on the ground and began to draw in the dirt. “Ugh. This is beyond boring.”

  I knelt next to her. I had rather the opposite opinion. “We’re well protected here and very unable to help, since we’re surrounded by undead. Don’t you want to join the fight?”

  “Can’t. I’m not allowed to join in magical fights,” she made a horrific gargling sound in her throat. It took me a moment to realize it might be the undead, lipless version of blowing a raspberry.

  "Why can’t you fight with magic?"

  Posey shook her head as her hand smoothed over the scribbles she’d made on the ocean floor. “It would be too dangerous for me to use magic."

  "I don't understand,” I sat next to her.

  Declan joined us.

  "My mother isn't human. Her race isn't even close to human. In order to access her powers, I have to give up my humanity."

  I let the meaning of her words sink into me. "You have to lose your humanity." Something about that phrase reminded me of Donaloo. Something, but I wasn't quite sure what. That memory hovered just out of reach. "What's that mean, exactly?"

  Posey gave me her standard flat look. "It means that I stopped caring about anyone or anything around me. I didn’t even care who I killed after I ripped out the piece of myself that makes me compassionate."

  The memory smacked me across the face. Compassion. Love. Donaloo had said, "A buzzing brain is but dung and flies, the heart is where humanity lies."

  My own heart pounded in my chest and my fist rose automatically to cover it. "Your heart," I said just as Posey said —

  "I have to rip my heart from my chest. Then I can access my powers.”

  Part of my mind was a wise old woman, sitting calmly in her chair by the fire as she processed this knowledge. The other half of me was a child who'd seen her first execution. That half of me was sick and disgusted; that part was traumatized shaking and unable to contain it. Posey would have to rip out her own heart? If that was what a half-flower sprite had to do, what would a part sea sprite have to do?

  "How similar are sea sprites and flower sprites?"

  Posey shook her head, her purple petals waving back and forth. "I'm not sure."

  I turned to Declan. My scholar knew exactly what I was thinking.

  Declan spoke slowly, thinking aloud. "If you have to take your heart outside your body to access your magic, does that mean you can live without your heart? For how long? If someone took your heart would it destroy you? Does it still function? Or is it merely an extraneous body part? Like an extra limb?"

  Posey’s petals fluttered and, for a moment, I was reminded of Dini. "My heart must remain alive. In order for me to access my magic it has to be safe and protected. And like any heart, it still needs blood to live and function. If I were to access my powers and lose my heart, I'd want to find a trustworthy host."

  I stared up at Declan. “Didn’t Queen Shenna say she found the sea sprite ripping open her brother’s chest?”

  He nodded. “She said he was a sailor before he met your mother.”

  I started to rock on the ocean floor, scared and horrified. But I nodded. We were on the right track then. Sea sprites and flower sprites couldn’t be that different.

  Ryan ducked as a shark careened through our air tunnel. It might have crushed us if the undead hadn’t sent a harpoon on a rope flying at us. The spear gutted the fish, raining down blood on our heads as an entire line of troops dragged the jagged-toothed monster back into the water.

  I stared at my knights for a moment. And then I looked back at Posey.

  As much as I feared her answers, I had to know. We couldn’t stay down here much longer. Unlike the undead, we weren’t trained to battle underwater.

  I took a deep, shuddering breath before I asked my final question. “What happens if you and your heart’s host are separated?”

  Posey shrugged, nonplussed, unaware of how all of us breathlessly awaited her answer. “Well, now, there’s the rub, isn’t it? You have to find a trustworthy host. The irony of this shite price is that you can’t have your heart, but it can’t be too far away, either.”

  “Why?”

  “Why does magic have any price at all?” Posey shrugged.

  “But what happens if the host is too far away?”

  “Did you rip your ears off, too?” she asked. “You can’t use your magic.”

  I felt like I'd been swept away by one of the undertows. I felt like I was the seawall around Sedara, battered by the tsunami and cracking in half. I was horrified.

  I turned to Declan. “What if you’d tried to give your heart to a prince, but found out he was an unworthy host?” I whispered.

  Declan pressed his lips together and his eyes filled with tears as he said, “Then you’d search for another host, one who could never betray you.”

  The awful truth pulled me down like an anchor.

  Declan and I clasped hands.

  “Excuse me,” Blue interjected. “I can see you all are having a moment. But care to clue us newbies in?”

  Declan and I stood, still facing one another.

  “Who’s the one person in the world that will never betray you?” I asked. “Whose loyalty is utter, complete, undisputed?”

  “No one,” Blue said. “In my house, not a single, sarding person.”

  I turned and looked at Blue as tears blurred my vision. “Your child.”

  Shocked silence met my answer.

  “The sea witch was controlled because my mother stole Avia. And Avia has the sea witch’s heart.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The undead slowly lead us toward the castle, fighting the entire way. They cut down sirens, mermen and mermaids, jellyfish, and so many sharks that I thought the sea might be empty of that predator. The castle gleamed in the distance, a bright peridot green. It was shaped like a conch shell and appeared to be made of green sea glass. I didn’t know where the glow came from—sea creatures or some sort of waterproof torches. But the dancing light was beautiful, entrancing. It drew your eye and made you want to draw near.

 

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