Slowly, Mars turned his head and locked eyes with True.

“They will not take you from me.”

True drew breath into his nose.

And he repeated, “No.”

“I know she will be all right, True. But when she is away from me, I will always, always worry.”

“All right, my friend,” True whispered.

“Worry with me,” Mars invited on a murmur, then he bent his knees and fell to his arse in the sand.

True followed him.

They sat, wrists to their knees, and stared at the sea.

Two men who loved a woman.

Waiting for her return.

Queen Silence

THE DEEP

The swim was long, and this was good, for it took me quite some time to get used to the many, many Mer that swam at our backs, not all males, there were a good many females.

And they all carried tridents.

There were a great number of us.

My people.

With me.

I loved that.

However, the swim was long, and I worried, for Mars would worry after me.

These were my thoughts when I saw it.

A warm, blue glow that rose out of the depths.

Jorie, beside me, struck lower, swimming toward it, and as he had instructed, I remained close to his side.

But I could not stop myself from rearing back when, from where the glow emanated—what looked like the mouth of a cave—the beasts formed out of the shadows on either side of it.

Angmostros.

Two of them.

I had never seen one.

They were colossal.

And terrifying.

Jorie stopped with me and drifted close, his long tail coiling about mine.

This felt like a hug, a mermaid embrace, and it was a thing of beauty.

“Steady, my little sister,” he murmured, also winding his arms around me. “We are of royal blood. She will make them let us pass.”

“The others…the…the others won’t be coming with us?” I asked, ignoring my hair floating about my face, running along my neck, under my jaw.

He shook his head. “They have swum with us solely in case the Beasts that have risen on land could get to mischief in the depths.”

I nodded.

“I have gone to her,” he said comfortingly. “Our father has gone to her. His father before him. She is our benefactress. She is a friend to all Mer. But others could seek her for reasons she does not wish. So she guards herself. Regardless, you need not fear the beasts of the sea.”

I nodded slowly.

“Except sharks, but only because they’re rabble-rousers,” he muttered.

And this made me grin.

He grinned back, pressed a kiss to my forehead, and unwound himself from around me.

And then, my big brother, my Jorie, gave me one last, long look to ascertain I was all right, and I showed him that I was.

He then nodded and struck out toward the mouth of the cave.

I swam beside him.