Elyssa screamed.

Kadir clutched at the sharp point. He was frozen. Confusion drew together his brows.

The man they thought was Zoan was not.

“Roa!” Elyssa cried.

He cut his yellow gaze to Elyssa. “My brother talked about me?”

She backed away. “You were the whole reason he came here. He’s been waiting for you all this time.”

“Our reunion at the old ruin lacked warmth.” He removed the knife and shoved Kadir forward.

Elyssa dove and caught Kadir’s shoulders. His eyes and mouth bugged. He couldn’t catch his breath.

“Probably it was because he did not want to give me this.” Roa held up the twin seed. He grinned with sharp teeth, and he raised the bloodied adamantium blade to the seam. “Let us part this unnatural growth.”

He sawed on the seed.

Kadir arched and fell forward, writhing with every cut.

Roa frowned and tapped the blade on the seed seam. “Tough little nut.”

She rolled Kadir onto his back and placed her hands over the blood seeping out of the cut. She focused. Her hands warmed and his chest glowed. It worked! She was summoning the Life Tree’s power and healing—

“Oh.” Roa pointed his knife tip at Elyssa and waved it for her to remove her hands and rise. “I cannot have you doing that. Back. Up.”

Adviser Creo hunched away. He knew what was happening. He deliberately chose not to look.

This was more than being a neutral third party.

“Help us,” she cried. “Please!”

He curled his back.

“He cannot help you.” Roa grinned wide and bounced at Elyssa. She scrambled away. “After all, he is the one who freed me from prison to come here and end this foolish city.”

The adviser flinched. The accusation was true.

Roa focused on Elyssa. “Now, you move away from your king while I end his life.”

“Kill me first!”

Roa tilted his head, considering her demand.

Then, he shrugged. “As you wish.” He started for her.

Kadir grabbed his ankle.

Roa tripped and flew. The adamantium knife and seed went flying. Kadir rolled into his attack, grappling Roa with a snarl. Roa dug his nails into the bullet hole in Kadir’s shoulder. Kadir screamed.

The Life Tree shuddered.

Elyssa flew for the knife.

Roa shoved Kadir aside and scooped the knife up first. He met her with the blade side raised. His dirty-gold, sunken eyes gleamed like Zoan’s. But where that mer warrior teased, his twin brother had tilted into crazy.

She scrambled to stop.

Do not stop. Only change direction.

She kicked harder and angled up, popping over the top of the Life Tree. Roa chased her around the other side. She darted the opposite direction. Roa had endless energy coiled up from his long months in prison and his laugh sounded almost like an animal’s scream.

The adviser walked on human feet across the dais and picked up the Life Tree twin seed.

“Help!” Elyssa cried.

Adviser Creo ignored her and carried the seed to Kadir. “How dare you show me a twin seed and then rule so recklessly you force me to destroy it?”

Kadir tried to crawl away from him. To help Elyssa somehow.

“I warned you over and over again. Treat your bride well. Treasure her. And then what is the last thing I hear? You will force her to give you five young fry.” Adviser Creo stomped Kadir’s bullet-injured shoulder. Kadir collapsed with a growl. Adviser Creo rolled him over and placed his foot on Kadir’s neck, crushing him into place. “I had already decided this could not go on. That was when I knew I had no choice but to end you.”

Roa flew over the Life Tree toward her. She dove and scrambled beneath it, keeping ahead of him. “Adviser Creo! Five kids was my idea!”

The adviser frowned deeply. “No. That is not possible. But it does not matter. Soon, you will also die.”

Elyssa landed in front of the burly adviser, keeping him as another shield from Roa. “I thought you worried about brides!”

“It pains me.” He looked much older as he regarded Kadir. “I once thought this city could be saved. Balim understands how dangerous your actions are. Iyen could become a disciplined leader. But they will not rise up and assume command. They have this strange loyalty.”

“True loyalty,” Kadir vibrated. The adviser crushed his throat but did not silence his chest-based voice. “Not neutral.”

“They do not realize this city is dangerous. It will cause upstarts. And what if the other cities decide to implement your same strategies, and torture their brides? Better one dead now than thousands. Roa, to me.”

Roa abandoned his chase and landed beside Adviser Creo.

What could Elyssa do?

“Kill him,” Adviser Creo said.

“No!”

Roa raised the knife.

Elyssa shrieked the first thing that came into her head. “If you destroy this city, your brother could be injured.”

Roa paused and tilted his head. “Injured? Or dead? You are right.”

Thank goodness.

His eyes glowed. Twinkling with a strange light. “He did not rescue me from prison for all this time. He enjoyed himself here. He deserves to die.” Roa started to bring down the knife.

Grinding sounds suddenly shook the sanctuary, unbalancing all of them. Elyssa and Adviser Creo fell on their backs. Roa fell forward, burying his blade in the dais without touching Kadir.

The granite ceiling cracked and broke into pieces.

A Buick-sized submersible smashed into the holy sanctuary.

The adviser darted out of the way. “What is this madness?” The seed fell from his hand. It rolled across the dais.

Dirt formed a thick, impenetrable cloud. The submersible engine grated, horrendous and teeth-on-edge annoying. The cloud settled. Inside the window, the pilot was the evil, pasty man. Blake.

Madness was right. He had come for Sea Opals.

The adviser looked for the seed and found it at the same time Elyssa did. He roared. “Roa!”

Roa left the knife buried in the dais and kicked. He was faster than her but she had moved first. They both converged on the seed.

She grabbed it.

He changed the angle and closed on her throat.

She evaded and screamed. The seed in her hand vibrated hard. The Life Tree flashed hot and bright like a strobe. Roa stopped and pressed a startled hand to his chest.

Above, the submersible’s arm cleared debris. Whirring sounded as it dropped the pieces outside the sanctuary. Blake maneuvered the submersible in to grab another chunk.

Kadir crawled for the adamantium knife.

The adviser reached it first. He yanked the knife free of the dais and turned to Kadir.

Kadir rolled over, ready.

Adviser Creo raised his arm to bury the knife in Kadir’s heart.

No.

Elyssa flew to attack the adviser.

Roa darted in front and backhanded her.

Bright lights flashed in her eyes. Pain burst hot in her brain. It felt like she’d slammed her face into the wall. Like all those times she slipped and hit her head.

She’d been training her whole life for this moment.

Roa kicked forward, so quick, his hands brushed her closed fist holding the seed.

She flew backward, kicking quickly even though the world wavered and she struggled to make sense of it. He gained on her. She kicked up, through the new opening in the ceiling.

The submersible claw arm pushed the last chunk away. The Life Tree was laid bare to its pincers.

Beyond Blake, the city erupted in a battlefield. Mer fought mer. Chaos, screaming, and blood filled the city. No help would come.

Roa grabbed her throat. It hurt. He shook her hard. “Give up. It is over. You are all dead.”

A scuba diver kicked over the top of the submersible.

Elyssa would know that tall, slender, fearless shape in a dry suit anywhere.

Her scream vibrated deep in her chest. “Aya!”

Gigantic air tanks were strapped to her back. Bubbles erupted from a package on the back of the suit. Inside the tight, full-body neoprene, Aya was bundled up in a thick wool that just barely showed her features. She held a spear gun in one gloved hand and a large flashlight in the other.

The flashlight strangely flattened the glow of the Life Tree.

The submersible maneuvered behind her.

“Aya, watch out!”

Roa lifted Elyssa by the throat like a trophy. “Yes, watch out, human. Watch out as your loved one is crushed.”

Aya took in the whole situation in an instant. She lowered the gun and pulled the trigger.

The spear flew across the short distance and buried deep into Roa’s shoulder.

He screamed and released Elyssa, gripped the arrowhead, and yanked at it painfully. The barb would not come out. He fell back, along the outside of the sanctuary, struggling with the spear.

Only Aya would be a crack shot on the bottom of the ocean in the middle of a blinding battlefield.

Elyssa kicked down into the sanctuary. Aya dropped the used spear gun and paddled after her. Even with her plastic fins, she struggled to keep up.

Kadir scrambled in a life-and-death struggle for the knife. The adviser pummeled him in the bullet-hole and yanked the knife free. While Kadir writhed, he climbed onto Kadir’s back, rendering him immobile. He lifted the knife over his head.

Elyssa grabbed the adviser’s wrist with both hands.

He startled badly. “Do not touch another male, you filthy bride!”

She threw him off Kadir. He tumbled over and over, down the corridor toward the petaled entrance. Elyssa helped Kadir rise. Safe into his hands she thrust the twin seed.

They had all survived. Roa and the adviser fled. It was over.

The submersible engine whirred. The submersible flew forward and shoved Aya into the trunk. She jerked, pained, and tried to push free of the pincers. They closed down, crushing her to the tree.

The Life Tree screamed. It felt like a hand grabbing onto Elyssa’s aorta and yanking.

Aya struggled.

The pincer crushed the Life Tree against Aya’s tanks. They burst and crumpled. She clawed at her mask. Cracked glass filled with water.

Outside, visible behind the submersible, Soren roared. He shoved aside the warriors he was fighting and kicked toward the sanctuary. Invaders pinned him. He fought helplessly.

The submersible reversed. Branches separated from the Life Tree stem with a heart-squeezing rip. The submersible backed out of the sanctuary carrying the struggling Aya and the upper branches of the Life Tree in its metal grip.

Black poison raced down the remaining stump of the Life Tree.

Kadir collapsed. His face and chest turned a matching black. He clawed at his chest. His skin cracked into pieces, his body shattering like blackening glass.

He was dying. Right in front of her.

She had to do something. Anything.

He clawed at his throat as though an invisible hand squeezed him.

He was the Life Tree.

She grabbed the adamantium knife from the loam beside his spasming hand. An injury causes the Life Tree to get poisoned. Only the knife can purify the wound. She traced the blackness down the trunk, spreading like gangrene.

She sliced the upper half of the trunk completely off.

The adamantium knife sliced through the wood like slicing through a thick apple. The upper chunk dropped away. It turned into a blackened char.

Half a trunk remained. The blackness stopped spreading.

Okay. She had stopped the poison—

Kadir screamed.

It slammed into her like a second backhand. She bucked as the world turned red. Pain surged through her body as though it had overflowed Kadir’s and seared down their connection. On his chest, blackness receded, but his eyes bulged. It was not natural. Every muscle in his body tightened.

“Don’t give up.” She tried to gather him in her arms. “Fight!”

He stopped shaking and exhaled. His body deflated and lay still. The twin seed rolled out of his lax hands and heat leached to cold.

She rubbed his skin, his body, his cheeks. It was too late. In mere moments, his body grew pale and bloodless.

Balim appeared at the edge of the shattered ceiling. Long scars marred his torso and his face was bloodied from battling. He vaulted the rubble and fell into the broken sanctuary.

“You have to save Kadir,” Elyssa cried through clenched teeth and tears.

“I cannot.”

“You’re a doctor!”

“His injury is too much. His Life Tree is too damaged. They cannot survive.”

“Try.”

He curled up in a ball.

No one would help her. Kadir was dying. The Life Tree was nearly dead.

“Try!” she screamed.

“There is nothing to try.” Balim rocked. “It is over. The dream of Atlantis is dead.”

“No.” She refused to hear it. “No!”

The Life Tree glowed low in the trunk. There was still life in the trunk, and still in Kadir also.

“His heart cannot survive. The shock is too great.”

She had faced down Chastity Angel. She had gained the respect of Soren. She had yelled at the adviser and unmasked the hidden traitor.

All for nothing?

Then this wouldn’t matter.

She plunged the adamantium knife directly into the Life Tree trunk, stabbing deep into its heart.

Kadir elevated from the loam. Pain wrung his body like a wet rag.

She removed the knife and pushed the twin seed deep into the purified hole.

Nothing happened.

“What are you doing?” Balim shouted. He tried to support the thrashing, red-faced, mouth-gaping Kadir.

“I’m feeding the seed into the Life Tree to strengthen it.”

“It cannot grow. This is unheard of. Impossible.”

“It’s not impossible!” The trunk glowed again with her conviction.

“The seed casings are too hard to crack using ordinary force. You put them in without even trying.”

“They will so grow!” She placed her palms on the trunk and willed it. Just like back on the platform, when she willed the flower back to life.

A lot of times, she had wanted something really hard and it had not come true. She’d failed the college placement test, she’d been left behind while Aya progressed, she’d been passed over for promotion. But that was okay. Those failures were nothing. She had saved up her good fortune to right now.

The Life Tree would regrow. Kadir would be saved. She was a queen.

Have faith.

The trunk of the Life Tree glowed impossible bright. Inside it, the seeds cracked. New life glowed brilliantly within its trunk. The light shone in her, and in Kadir. It glowed from their chests.

Balim stopped struggling. His eyes widened.

“New life for new life,” she said.

Kadir’s eyes opened.

“My king,” Balim whispered. His own chest glowed. His expression opened with faith and tears. He turned to Elyssa, made the more-kiss salute, and bowed so low his face kissed the dais. “My queen.”

Kadir rose.

The tracking bullet from his back fell out and landed on the dais among the ruined petals. His wounds closed and his body pushed out the foreign matter. Like the Life Tree sprouting before their eyes, he emerged with his full strength.

He turned to Elyssa and held out his arms.

She rushed into them and hugged him.

Their hearts beat in tandem. The pulsing glowed with the same rhythm in the new Life Tree, and in the chests of the returning warriors. Faith, identity, unity. They had fought to defend their city. They had refused betrayal and tainted power offered by the adviser, and instead, banded together in great harmony.

They had won.

She counted the number of missing. At what cost?