The instant the man, Blake, turned his weapon on Lucy, Torun slammed his palms against the glass.

It rattled but did not shatter. Steel threads held it too tightly.

Blake jumped and swung the weapon on Torun. “Settle down in there.”

He hated the man with the heat of a thousand undersea volcanoes. “Go on. Shoot me.”

“Ha.” Blake motioned for Lucy to sit again.

“No, thanks.” She stood firm, arms crossed. “Let Torun out, give me back my crew, and I’ll consider not prosecuting you.”

“Prosecute?” He shook his head, his soul black as the greasy engine. “Lucy, you’re dead. They held your funeral last Tuesday. Do you know how long you’ve been gone?”

Her eyes widened and her heart rate increased. Despite the syrupy, slow air and the thick glass, he could still hear that much. She worried about her parents and friends. Had she caused them to grieve?

“I could shoot the both of you, toss your bodies over the side, and nobody would be the smarter.” Blake tightened his grip on the spear weapon. “So sit.”

She hugged her chest. Although more difficult to see her soul shining in the air, her light increased as she faced down this evil man.

His own had to be darkening. “You will not harm her.”

Blake dismissed him. “I don’t have to. She knows I’m man enough to do it.”

A tense beat passed.

Lucy looked at Torun. He put all of his faith into her. She knew this enemy. He did not. He trusted her to assess the threat and fight well.

She hardened, taking strength in his silent faith. Lucy scooted the deck chair much closer to Torun and eased into the seat. She crossed her arms and her legs and faced their enemy. “What do you want?”

“I want you to show me where you found the Sea Opal.”

Her light flared. She raised a brow. “Things didn’t work out in the Keys?”

“Oh, they would have. But why argue with quick success?”

“I’m sure your investors are wondering that too.”

Blake’s brow darkened. “Enough chit chat. Where are they?”

“Directly below us,” she lied, without missing a beat. “They’re hidden in a reef. Let Torun go.”

“Gracie swam over that reef. She went all around the atoll looking for you.”

Lucy’s light flickered. She must feel guilty for the young woman. How desperate Gracie must have become when her employer didn’t surface and it became clear she had been lost at sea.

“That’s when she called me,” the man continued, and Lucy’s soul darkened even more; this time, in shock. “Surprised? Yes, I took out insurance. I heard you were going over our old hunting grounds, and there was no reason not to send in my own spies, who you eagerly hired.”

She gritted her teeth. “So, you really did believe in me all along.”

“Nah. I believe in taking precautions with my investments.”

“If that were true, we’d both be millionaires. You wouldn’t have lost all the money in stocks and gambling the first time.”

He blackened. “If you hadn’t been so afraid, I would have earned the money all back. It takes money to make money. You kept holding onto the capital when we needed to buy.”

“Because you kept losing it!”

He cut her off. “The point is, the Sea Opals are in a cave. And if you want your fish man to keep breathing, you will take me there.”

“Keep breathing?” She looked at the cage. “What do you mean?”

“Want to see a neat trick?” Blake removed a black remote device from the metal drawer and pressed a button. “This cage was made for pressurized living specimens, but it can also do this.”

The cage made a popping sound. Torun pressed his hands against the glass. “Lucy?”

His voice echoed.

She stood and pressed her hands against his on the opposite side. “Torun!” Her voice sounded farther away. She glared at her ex. The light burning brighter. “Are you actually threatening us?”

Blake lifted the spear gun. “You just made the connection? Not the brightest bulb in the tool shed.”

She stroked the glass. “The mer are coming. They expect him to be alive.”

“Maybe I’ll motor back to the Keys. I’d like to see them catch me.”

She opened her mouth and closed it. Her eyes fixed on Torun. Was it possible Blake could outrun the mer?

Torun didn’t know this boat or this engine. His warriors could catch her old trawler, but perhaps not a sleek, fast boat with a day and night’s head start. Not before the caged air would run out, and he would suffocate.

“Show him,” Torun said. “Take him to the church.”

Her lips tightened. “He’ll destroy it.”

No. He wouldn’t. Torun willed her to understand.

So long as Lucy carried his Sea Opal, she could pass by the cave guardian unmolested. Anyone without that jewel would be destroyed.

She fisted her expedition T-shirt at the collar, where she used to carry the Sea Opal in a pouch near to her heart. But she was not wearing the pouch.

What had happened to it? Had it been lost in his village during the attack by the Council?

No. She had not worn it then. Wait. When was the last time she had worn it?

Blake raised his voice. “Let’s move before I change my mind and use the more direct method.”

Her eyes narrowed and her light shone.

She whipped from Torun to glare at her ex-husband. “That’s murder.”

“To harpoon a fish?” He cocked a darkly amused brow. “No law against it.”

“He’s no fish.”

“He’s no man, either.”

Lucy stalked to her ex. Her voice receded and her words sounded sharper in his chest than in his ears, stopped up by the glass.

“What happened to you? You used to be normal. We were satisfied with nothing but the open ocean and the next dive.”

“Well, that’s it.” He looked down on her. “You were satisfied. I discovered there was more to life than beds infested with cockroaches and street cart tacos, and I deserved it. And so now I’m taking it. With, or without you.”

She stalked to the stairwell. “I need gear and tanks.”

“You’ll find them on the bow under a tarp.”

With one final look at Torun, promising to return to free him after kicking Blake’s ass, she left.

Blake changed into a black, skin-tight suit, mask, and fins. He removed a small, white packet from his pocket, spread a line of powder, and snorted it up his nose. His soul light went out entirely. He sniffed several times, tidied away the packet, licked his fingers, and stood. He stared at Torun.

“You will regret this,” Torun growled.

A loose smile manipulated his lips, and he laughed with an edge. He crept to the cage and tapped the glass with two fingers. “Fishy fishy fish—”

Torun slammed against it with all his might.

The cage rattled. Blake leaped back, fear jerking his limbs. He blinked and started to smile again. “Bad fishy. Stupid, dumb, idiot fishy who boinked my wife and deserves to die.”

“Open the door,” Torun said, “and harpoon me then.”

“You know why you’re really stupid?”

“Come in and tell me.”

Blake stepped back, reacting to the deadly intent in Torun’s echoing voice.

Yes. If the man opened this door, he would be made dead. Not sterilized, as was the custom of the mer. This human had dimmed Lucy’s light deliberately and threatened her now. Torun would make him dead.

“Your buddies told me you stole Lucy to have children.” Blake laughed. “You’re so stupid. You stole the one person in Mexico who can’t have kids.”

“Not with you.”

“Oh, believe me. We tried. I hit that booty so many times. It didn’t use to be fat.” He leered at Torun. “Her baby-making batter is dead. You screwed up big time.”

Torun paced in front of Blake. The man with a black soul studied him with dead eyes, and his smile was empty.

Darkening a soul for too long injured the body. Blake’s body was already beginning to fail. His heart lugged in his chest and his teeth loosened in his head.

Torun’s lip curled at this sick man. “Losing Lucy will become your greatest regret.”

“No way!” Blake laughed. “Getting back together with her would be. Maybe if she lost fifty pounds. Oh hey, maybe when you’re gone.” His grin loosened. “Yeah, we’ll hook out. I mean, hang up. You know what I mean.”

The idea of Lucy ever letting this damaged man into her heart made something tear free in Torun’s chest. He slammed the glass again. “You will not survive this journey.”

Blake flinched but continued smiling. “Why’s that? Because some ‘cave guardian’ is going to stop me?”

The warriors had told him everything. But it was fine. This man did not possess a Sea Opal.

“This journey will be your doom.”

“Yeah. About that.”

Blake reached into his pocket and held up Lucy’s jewel. The one Torun had given her. It still radiated their linked energies, their resonance. The man grinned wider, fed by Torun’s realization and helplessness.

He tapped it against the glass. “See you after I spend a few quality hours together with my old ball and chain. Try not to breathe too hard. It would be tragic if you died before I got back. But hey, maybe I could sell your carcass to science.”

Torun released his full anger. Without him touching it, the glass itself vibrated. “You are an enemy of the mer. You will meet your doom. I swear it.”

Blake widened his eyes and backed up, laughing. “Alright, freak. Here, enjoy some TV.” He pocketed the jewel and the key, and clicked on the moving picture box. “Oh yeah, about that secrecy thing. Someone else already spilled the beans. See what the rest of the world thinks of the ‘mer’.”

On the TV, pictures of the ocean interspersed with photos of mermen.

They had been discovered! What? How?

Now what would happen?

“Have fun.” Blake shouldered the gun and disappeared up the stairs after Lucy.