“We will not tolerate these incursions into our territories!” The Lady of Seals slammed one fist down onto the shell-inlaid surface of the Sea Council table, her liquid brown eyes blazing with anger. “If you will not control your kin, honorable Lord Orca, then we shall control them for you!”

“I will not allow the wild whales to be starved.” The killer whale shifter’s bared teeth were white as his hair, a stark contrast to his jet-black skin. “What would you have me do, tell the non-shifter orcas to eat krill? Seals are their natural prey. You have no right to protect your kin at the expense of mine!”

“Lady Seal, Lord Orca, peace.” The Pearl Empress rubbed her forehead, looking weary. “We have been at this for hours, and you are still simply going in circles. Master Shark? What are your thoughts?”

Warm fur and laughing eyes. Sunlight and sand.

All his thoughts were only for her. But his Empress had called on him. With an effort, he forced himself to focus on the quarreling lords, though he had no heart for it.

He had no heart at all, anymore.

He rose. “My people shall claim the contested territory. And both your kinds are our natural prey.”

The Empress blinked across the table at him, as the council chamber erupted.

“You can’t do that-“

“Utterly unacceptable-“

The Lady Seal and the Lord Orca were finally united in agreement about one thing, at least. Their overlapping voices rose in outrage.

“Continue speaking,” he said flatly, his harsh voice cutting through the babble, “and I shall eat you.”

The Lord Orca’s mouth closed with an audible click. The Lady of Seals, younger and less experienced, looked mortally affronted.

“How dare you-“ she began.

He looked at her. She fell silent, shrinking back into her seat.

The Empress stood, causing a mass scraping of chairs as every other member of the Sea Council hastened to rise as well. “We will take a short recess. Master Shark, a word.”

The rest of the Sea Council gratefully fled. The Empress motioned the on-duty guards out as well, though the Royal Consort stayed by her side, as ever.

The Empress waited until the three of them were alone, then whirled to face him, her hands on her hips. “What on earth was that?”

“You wished me to resolve their dispute, Your Majesty.”

“Not with your teeth!”

“I am a shark. How did you expect me to resolve it?”

She raked her hand through her curly hair, knocking her crown askew. “With tact and subtlety and just the barest hint of threat, the way that you have always done. Master Shark, what is wrong with you?”

He stared at her, impassive. She knew full well what was wrong. He’d been forced to tell her, in the bare minimum of words, when he’d unexpectedly returned to Atlantis.

The Empress winced, biting her lip. “I’m sorry, Master Shark. That was thoughtless of me. Look, are you sure you don’t want to take some time off?”

“I took one vacation at your bidding, Your Majesty,” he said stiffly. “I will not take another. Now allow me to return to my duty.”

“No.”

Both he and the Empress looked around at the Royal Consort. The towering sea dragon met their stares steadily, his indigo eyes cool and unreadable.

“When last I checked, Royal Consort,” the Master Shark gritted out through clenched teeth, “‘Emperor’ was not among your many titles.”

“But I am still the Imperial Champion, responsible for the Empress’s well-being.” The sea dragon folded his arms across his broad chest, armored vambraces catching the light. “And you have become a liability.”

Blind fury filled him, the first emotion he’d felt since his mate had walked away. “You are the one who insisted I was needed here!”

“The Empress needs the Master Shark!” The sea dragon’s own voice rose, scornful harmonics scratching around his words. “Not some hollow, hungering husk. What good are you to her like this, coward?”

His control snapped. If he’d had his sword, it would already have been in the sea dragon’s heart. He lunged for the Royal Consort bare-handed, murderous with rage.

The sea dragon was less than half his age, and the finest swordsman in the sea—but he was the Master Shark. He barely felt the blow the Royal Consort landed on his face, returning one of his own that sent the younger man staggering.

“STOP!” The Empress’s shout stopped them both in their tracks—quite literally.

Her magic froze the blood in his veins, holding him motionless. All the seas were hers to command, and he was as much a part of her domain as the waves or the tides. Darkness encroached on the edge of his vision as his heart stuttered.

The Empress held them for a moment longer before releasing them. Both he and the Royal Consort fell to their knees, fight forgotten as they gasped for breath.

“Have you lost your mind, John?” the Empress demanded of her mate. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“What I wish someone had done for me,” the sea dragon knight panted. Despite the blood running down his chin, his mouth crooked in a wry smile. “Knocking some sense into his thick skull.”

“Men,” the Empress muttered under her breath. “Get up, the pair of you. Master Shark, much as I disagree with John’s methods, he’s right. You’re destroying yourself. You have to go to your mate.”

The Royal Consort leaped to his feet with the smooth agility of youth. A rather challenging gleam still in his eyes, he leaned down to offer his hand. The Master Shark stared at it for a second…and then clasped it. He allowed the sea dragon to pull him to his feet.

The brief fight had ripped away the numbness in his soul. The Royal Consort was right. He was a coward. He had fled from his mate, out of fear of being hurt further.

But nothing could hurt more than her absence.

Nonetheless, he hesitated. “But I am needed here.”

“Would you like me to strike you again?” the Royal Consort inquired, in tones of utmost politeness.

The Empress elbowed her mate, though a smile tugged at her full lips. “I think we’ve already established that you’re not entirely yourself at the moment, Master Shark. And Martha will be feeling the same way. What sort of pain do you think she’s in right now?”

Her words struck him harder than the Royal Consort’s fist had. The mere thought of Martha feeling even a fraction of this agony…

“She has the comfort of her pack,” he said, trying to convince himself. “They are enough for her. And…and she did not want me to follow.”

The Royal Consort’s eyebrows rose. “Does it truly take so little to turn aside a shark?”

“What does your heart tell you, Master Shark?” the Empress said softly.

He reached out for his mate’s blood-scent…and knew that no matter what she had said then, she was calling to him now.

“My Empress.” He went to both knees before her, bowing his head in the full formal show of respect, as befitted someone seeking a great boon. “I cannot be myself again without my mate. But she will not come here.”

“Then we will have to learn to do without you.” The Empress put a hand on his face, lifting his chin so he met her gaze. “Master Shark, if the Pearl Empire demands that we sacrifice our souls to it, then it does not deserve to exist. It has to be bigger than any one of us. Even you. Even me.”

He looked up at her for a long, long moment.

His oath-brother’s daughter. Human and sea dragon, the child of two worlds.

“Your father,” he said, “would be very proud of you.”

Tears brimmed in her eyes. Leaning down, she kissed his cheek.

“Go to your mate, Master Shark,” she whispered.

“Finn,” he replied, rising. “My name is Finn.”