“No one else competed together. We were partnered deliberately.”

“We both want to be Sparks. That must be why, right?”

Dane clenched his jaw. We were sitting outside the Medic tent, our wounds having been declared non-urgent. It was true. We’d escaped our Trials with only a few superficial cuts and bruises. Starla was still being treated.

“Something like that.”

I was still recovering from the shock of the day’s events. It was hard to decide which of the Trials had been harder. The first event had shaken me, but the second one had taken me completely off guard, particularly at the end. Our tails and gills had reappeared with the first splash of sea water. But I’d feared for my life for a moment.

So yeah, getting your fondest wish was pretty terrifying.

And then there was the first Trial.

It turns out, that had been real. Not only the giant squid, but Starla and Thalia had truly been there. And I hadn’t saved either of them fast enough to prevent injury, though neither was hurt too badly to continue in the competition. They were inside the tent now, getting fixed up. On the bright side, I didn’t have to worry about not finishing off the monster I’d left maimed. I’d already been told the giant squid had been magically healed and would continue to serve the Royals, though the phrase ‘obediently serve’ was conspicuously missing.

Her name was Morla. I shivered. Morla would haunt my dreams for a long time, I knew without a doubt. I wondered if the octopus from the opening race also had a name. I decided I preferred not to know. Morla was quite enough for me, thank you very much.

I just hoped she didn’t participate in any more of the Trials. Especially if she held a grudge. After all, I had attacked her egg sac. I’d simply been trying to save Starla and Thalia, but I doubted Morla knew the difference. It still rankled me that my half-sister had been included in my Trial. I hated that she knew that I cared about her, even though that familial emotion had been pushed way, way down, far below the surface.

Any love I felt for Thalia was basically deep in the trench of my soul. But apparently, it was there despite all the years of bad behavior and rejection. I supposed it made sense. I’d known her for almost all of my life. But I didn’t have to like it.

“So . . . Thalia? Really?”

I groaned.

“She’s my half-sister.”

He stared at me, a mottled bruise forming over his cheek. The truth was, it made his eyes sparkle. The Mer was pretty much too handsome for his own good.

“She’s from one of the wealthiest families in this region.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So how in Triton did you end up with no armor? Or supplies? Or food?”

I couldn’t look at him. The shame of being rejected by my so-called family was too great. I tried to sound nonchalant, when the truth was . . . I was mortified.

“After my father died, my stepmother didn’t want me in the house. So I was sent to the servants’ quarters. Servants don’t get special treatment, and neither did I.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. I stared at my tail, idly running my fingers over a sore spot. I was trying to imagine my pink sticky legs again.

“How old were you? When they forced you out?”

“Five.”

“You served your own sister from the age of five?”

His voice was quiet. I almost missed the thread of anger running through it. But I didn’t. For a moment, I found myself wondering why he was mad at me. And then I realized he wasn’t.

He was mad for me.

“Half-sister. It’s not like I like her. We didn’t have slumber parties or braid each other’s hair.” I snorted. “She has a designated hair servant for that.”

“I don’t understand why she was there.”

“Apparently, I don’t want her getting eaten by a giant squid, but that’s the extent of our family affection. Anyway, I doubt the feeling is mutual. If I’d appeared in the clutches of a creature during her Trials, it would have been during her fondest wish.”

“You are the child of a Royal Messenger, and yet you received no schooling or wealth, even though you were part of the Nobility. You wore rags and had to forage for food.”

I shrugged, trying not to take offense at the ‘rags’ comment. The tunic Lila had made me from my old clothes had its own charm. I thought so, anyway.

“That sounds about right. Not that it matters now. I am sure to get some sort of post, right? I won’t have to go back there again.”

I shuddered at the thought. Of all the possible outcomes, returning to serve my stepmother and half-sister was the most repugnant. I realized I would prefer death, which seemed a little overly dramatic, even to me.

“She should go to prison for what she has done to you.” Dane’s voice was raw with emotion. Anger and, I was horrified to recognize, pity. “You were just a child. A bright, talented child who could have accomplished anything.”

I frowned. I didn’t really want to think about things that way, and I certainly didn’t want to be pitied. It could drive a Mer insane to focus on the ‘could have beens.’ Besides, I didn’t like the implication that I hadn’t amounted to much.

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t matter now, does it?” I rose from the sand, deciding it was a good time to sneak back to my tent and lick my wounds. “I’ll see you around.”

“Katriana, wait.”

But I didn’t. I didn’t want him to see the tears that threatened to spill. Everyone in camp looked shell-shocked. It was no wonder. From what we had heard so far, the fear Trials had all been brutal. The first two official casualties had been announced, with at least one other Mer hovering near death’s door.

I expected that before the end of the day, there would be three.

* * *

“Don’t be too hard on him.”

“What? Who?”

Starla lay on her side, her long hair over one shoulder as she looked at me from her cot.

“Dane. He told me what happened.”

“Oh.”

I rolled to face the ceiling.

“He didn’t mean anything bad. He was upset about what your stepmother did.”

I groaned, laying an arm over my eyes. I was bone-weary down to my fins. Beazil was snoring contentedly across the tent, not at all minding the restrictions imposed on him. After all, the shark loved to nap.

And he certainly didn’t mind our bringing him food. Of course, he needed to eat a lot more than we could smuggle in to him, so I made sure he went out once a day, usually early in the morning. He grumbled about that but did as I asked.

The rest of the day and night, he spent lazing about. As my familiar, he needed to be here. For what reason, I had no idea. We hadn’t been instructed to bring our familiars to any of the Trials as of yet. I hoped to avoid it altogether.

I was actually afraid to find out if he would be included in the final battle. Beazil was so lazy and so good-natured that I prayed we didn’t need to go through a Trial together. That would be an unmitigated disaster. I’d end up protecting my familiar, not the other way around.

Honestly, I almost envied Starla her starfish. Dane’s familiar remained hidden most of the time. I realized I actually had no idea what it was.

“What is Dane’s familiar? Do you know?”

“Stingray, I think. A big one.”

“Like the Prince?”

“Yeah.”

I raised my brows, instantly impressed. The Crown Prince had a stingray. It was famous. I’d never seen it, though, but Thalia had.

“Is his stingray lazy?”

Starla giggled at the grumpy sound of my voice.

“I don’t think so.”

I sighed, finally opening my eyes.

“I’m not mad at him. He just has a habit of bringing things up that I’d rather not think about.”

“He cares about you.”

“So you’ve said.”

“Well, he does!”

“Of course he does. We are friends. Friends care about each other, right?”

Starla let out a loud sigh of annoyance. I cracked a smile. It took a lot to annoy Starla, so I must be getting somewhere.

“So quiet. Well, other than the snores,” I said pointedly, giving my sleeping shark the stink eye from across the tent.

“It is.”

“Bet you didn’t expect to make it this far, did you?”

“I didn’t know what to expect.”

“Right. We still don’t. Not really.”

“I wonder what tomorrow’s Trial will be.”

“Hopefully, something that won’t try to eat us.”

She giggled softly, the sound reminding me how young she was. I was silent for a moment.

“It might be the final. It seems like we’ve been here only a few days, but I can’t imagine what else they would put us through.”

“Don’t worry. You are good at this. You’ll make it.”

“If you say so.”

“Try and get some rest.”

“Okay.” I rolled to my side to face her. “Sleep well, Starla.”

“You too.”

* * *

The next morning, we found out what the day’s test would be. It wasn’t the final, though I suspected we were nearly there. Today, we would take part in a massive scavenger hunt. We could use teams of up to seven people. Of course, Starla and Dane were on my team.

“Should we ask anyone else?”

I looked around, sizing up the clusters of young Mers gathered outside the arena. I noticed them sizing us up as well.

“I don’t know.”

“A bigger group would help us win faster.”

I raised a brow at that.

“A bigger group would lose a lot of the glory.”

I saw Thalia waiting with a group of young, wealthy Mers from our region. There were seven of them. They were sneering at me, though a few of the females were giving Dane a far friendlier look. Not that he seemed to notice.

But Thalia’s bright gold eyes were less readable.

I exhaled, looking away.

“Plus, who could we trust?”

Dane tipped his head to the side with a meaningful look.

“We don’t have to trust them. We just have to win.”

I was pondering that when Rip approached us, with Juno and Jaynelle.

“Hey. You guys want to team up?”

I looked at Rip and his friends. They were all top competitors, even if Jaynelle and Juno gave me the creeps. I glanced at Starla and Dane, the question in my eyes.

To my surprise, Starla nodded first. Dane raised his eyebrows and nodded. I knew what he was saying.

Yes, let’s work together. But don’t take your eyes off them for a second.

Well, I didn’t have to be told that twice.

“Okay.”

I eyed the two large Mers behind Rip. Not that he wasn’t a big guy. But Jaynelle was unusually tall, and Juno was the size of an underwater mountain. His bottom half looked more like a whale fin than a regular Mer’s tail.

“You two related?”

Jaynelle narrowed her eyes at me, while Juno barely reacted at all. Rip, on the other hand, burst into laughter. Dane and Starla exchanged a worried glance.

This was off to a great start.

“We should work in teams of two,” Dane proposed. I nodded, about to claim Starla as my partner. At least that way, I could keep her safe from Spiky and the MountainMer.

“You’re with me, Tri,” Rip said.

I glanced at Dane. His jaw was tight but he nodded.

“Fine. I’m with Starla.”

We all looked at the remaining two Mers. As usual, we got almost no reaction. Wow. I wondered if they ever spoke or if they were just shy.

Yeah, right.

“Well, come on. It’s time for the first clue.”