Cassius did not smile back.

He looked to Mac and answered his unasked question.

“As you can see, we will not be calling the dragons, not yet. For we’ll be using the Zees.”

He glanced to Silvanus and caught a bloody sparkle in the man’s eye before he turned back to Mac and finished.

“And Fern’s army.”

115

The Mer

Queen Ha-Lah

Nautilus Beach, Strait of Medusa

MAR-EL

“I do not like this,” my husband shared something that I was in no doubt about, considering his expression and the way he held his body.

We stood in the sand on the empty beach, the pre-dawn wind whipping about us, and we did this holding hands.

“I will be fine,” I assured.

“You could catch a chill,” he returned. “It is coming on winter and that water—”

I squeezed his hand. “Aramus, I am Mer, my darling. I do not feel it.”

He glowered down at me.

I leaned into him and gave him a reassuring smile.

“We are here while all are still abed. No one can see us. I will go, then I will return, hopefully with new allies in the seas.”

Close to the end of my words, I noted I was losing his attention as his gaze drifted to the ocean.

It was then I felt it, so intent on assuring my king, its coming did not register with me.

Thus, I whirled and but only glanced at the waters before my hand tightened in his and I shouted, “Run!”

Aramus did not need me to share this warning, he was already bracing to drag me up the beach.

Thus, together, we bolted up the shore.

His boots sunk in the sand, and I lost a slipper before I’d taken two steps, the other one on the third, but the both of us knew it was useless as the roar of the water filled our ears.

This was why Aramus tossed me to the sand. And I had barely hit before he was throwing himself bodily over me.

He wrapped his arms around me tightly, just as the tidal landed on his back.

Being dragged uncontrollably into the sea, I wrapped an arm around him too, cupping the back of his head with my other hand and pulling his mouth to mine.

I opened my lips, he opened his, thus our lips were sealed, and we held to each other tightly as the power of the seas drug us deep.

I felt my legs knitting, the scales pressing through the skin as they formed, my gills opening, while the water twisted us and towed us, flipped us and twirled us.

I knew only one thing in the tumult, I had to keep hold of my husband, and I had to keep his mouth to mine, breathing air into him, until it was over.

For if I did this, no matter how deep it swept us out to sea, I could take him with me as I swam back.