Soren’s eyes snapped open and he stared at her in shock.

Aya could have bit her tongue. Was she completely nuts? I forgive you. Where the heck had that come from?

Soren wasn’t asking for her forgiveness. But the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like the only thing she could do. She didn’t have a time machine to change the past. Reason and logic only went so far. Soren needed a therapist. Or a support group. Or even a spiritual mentor.

Instead, there was only her.

“I mean it,” she said. “You made a mistake. You’ve shared your regrets. You’re trying to live by principles you agree with now. I forgive you.”

His eyes widened even farther. Bug-eyed, almost. He teetered on the edge of either losing it completely or actually beginning to believe her.

And as if he couldn’t take that thought, he leaped up, pushing her off — but ensuring she was safe and didn’t go flying, which proved that even in the hardest shock he still took care — and bolted.

Well.

This argument wasn’t over.

Aya grabbed the ledge, flung herself out, and kicked off, chasing Soren across her courtyard. “You’re still a good person.”

“I am bad!” he bellowed. His fury reverberated like a heavy bass in her chest and the castle walls shuddered. “A mad, bad, disreputable, terrifying, mindless, battle-lust-filled berserker. A monster!”

Well, sure, he was covered in terrifying tattoos, and technically, mermen were listed as fairytale monsters.

“But a good-hearted one,” she said.

“You worked to exhaustion and have become mentally deficient.” He slammed his index finger at her chest. “And that makes me fear for your safety. You are restricted to your castle. Not the city, not the Life Tree. You may not leave here. Your castle.”

He was trembling.

“Fine then.” She crossed her arms and turned up her nose. “I guess if I can’t leave here, we can’t get married.”

He blinked. Then frowned. Then frowned harder. “You…”

A sudden shaft of fear sliced into her. Shouldn’t he be happy she finally agreed to marry him? Now, he hesitated and seemed conflicted.

Had he changed his mind?

“Merman warrior!” Ciran flew into the courtyard. His eyes were white with panic. “Mer—megalodon. It is coming!”

Her heart stopped.

Ciran rushed to Soren, his salute lost in panic. “Behind me. The noise. You can hear it. It is not turning aside!”

“Get everyone out of the city!” Soren ordered. Ciran wheeled to obey. “Gather around the Life Tree. Make for the old ruin!”

Soren scooped Aya around the waist and flew out of the courtyard after Ciran. The tunnel zoomed by. Her heart raced and she could barely get her breath. Soren burst into the city.

A high-pitched noise, higher than at the trench, seemed to suck the air out of the oceanic sky. An unnatural current floated loose moss and fish in a direction it had never gone before. The castles and the Life Tree shifted on their anchors.

The other castle exploded with panicked mer. Warriors fumbled tridents and strapped on daggers as they swam.

Elyssa and the peach-tattooed warrior Zoan emerged from the Life Tree sanctuary, meeting with the gathering warriors. Soren kicked to the middle and shouted. “Form partners. Swim to the old ruin. Go!”

The warriors saluted and swam.

Zoan floated beside Elyssa, who was otherwise without her guards. Soon it was just the four of them. Soren’s head whipped from side to side, up and down, searching the ocean.

“Where are your guards?” he demanded.

“Faier and Tial are at the old ruin,” Elyssa answered. “Ciran and Gailen have just now gone to see the megalodon.”

“What!”

Aya felt sick. She’d liked both the warriors.

“They hope to learn more about who’s guiding it and why.” Elyssa cupped her elbow and stared to the distant horizon. Under the water, they could see for miles. Nothing was visible now. Only the eerie noise. “In case this is another false alarm.”

He growled. Fear and anger blackened his scowl. His grip on Aya tightened. “They are going to get themselves killed.”

“I think they felt like they had no other way to contribute.” Elyssa smiled. “Everyone wants to feel useful.”

“I would have given them another way! If the megalodon sees them, it may no longer be a false alarm, regardless of what our enemy wants. We must go to the ruin. Now.”

He swam with Aya.

Elyssa didn’t move.

Zoan also remained. Mischief twinkled in his eyes, as though wondering how long it would take Soren to realize he was being disobeyed.

It was not long.

He returned to Elyssa in a new fury. “Leave.”

She patted his bulging bicep. Her smile took in Aya also. “You know I can’t.”

“You cannot fight a megalodon!”

They argued, Soren shouting and Elyssa holding her ground.

Aya understood a little how Ciran and Gailen felt. This problem was insurmountable. There was so much to do and not enough people to do it. She too had been angry to be denied going to the ruin. What else could she do?

The warriors of Atlantis had sacrificed so much already. Leaving behind their cities, forfeiting their futures. She had destroyed her family’s company, but these warriors had already given up their homes, their fathers, and their very heritage.

She had to help them. Not just for Elyssa or Soren. For all of them.

For herself.

She interrupted the helpless argument.

“Elyssa. Your ‘power’ is healing.” Aya considered the monstrous Life Tree, the size of a cathedral below her, and still asked the question. Because someone had to. “Is it possible to uproot the Life Tree and carry it with us to safety?”

Soren jolted.

Zoan also looked white.

Soren answered. “Uprooting the Life Tree is how a monarch is executed and a city is erased.”

But they didn’t have super power-wielding queens in those other cities.

Elyssa looked down, tracing the size of the Life Tree. Her answer was soft over the constant wind tunnel of the megalodon. “Severing a small part of the Life Tree almost killed Kadir. His body turned black and cold beneath my hands. There was nothing I could do.” She looked up at Aya with shining eyes. “I would rather fight the megalodon with my bare hands than go through that again.”

So, no then.

Soren sputtered about Elyssa’s answer. “Bare hands are useless.”

“You should cultivate a more offensive power,” Aya said.

“Maybe that’s your power,” Elyssa replied, ignoring Soren. “I’m surprised, Aya. You were a state champion swimmer, second in your graduating class at Harvard, and you harpooned a merman in the arm during an undersea battle with a submersible. These are not ordinary accomplishments. Yet you’ve been underwater for four times as long as I was and you still can’t make your fins. Are you sure you’re really trying?”

Heat washed over Aya. She struggled against Soren to face Elyssa completely. “I haven’t had time.”

Elyssa shook her head, tsking. “Would the old Aya have said that?”

“I don’t know which muscle to flex! Look, it’s not my fault.”

“Excuses, excuses.”

“I haven’t needed to go anywhere fast.” She turned in the direction of the wind. “Until now.”

Elyssa swam up to her and poked her in the back. “Making your fins is the first step in capturing your power. Because once you feel it in your fins, it’s the same feeling to use your powers. Only stronger.”

But she didn’t know. She was trying to plan a defeat of the megalodon and worry about the city and heal Soren and…

Excuses. After all.

“Well, no time like the present to learn,” Elyssa said.

“Good. You train her,” Soren said, “while we all swim to the old ruin.”

“I’m not going, Soren.”

He snarled to fight with her.

An excruciating shriek, as loud and terrifying as a bomb going off, sliced across the city. The old ruin trembled. Dust puffed. The water darkened.

“They did it,” Zoan said aloud.

Elyssa smiled. “Good job, Kadir.”

The current changed direction and the inhaling noise abated. The megalodon had turned aside. Tinkling stillness, the holy radiance of the Life Tree, blanketed the city like an answered prayer.

Elyssa let out a huge sigh. “I, uh, need to calm my heart. I’m going to meditate with the tree if that’s alright with all of you.” She descended into the Life Tree sanctuary.

Zoan saluted them, relief shivering in his face, and joined Elyssa. He apparently spent most of his time tending to it and guarding it anyway, and did well at both jobs.

No time like the present to learn.

Aya wiggled. “Let go.”

Soren growled. “You are going to your castle.”

“No, I’m going to the Life Tree sanctuary. I’ll meet you at the ruins — with my powers and my fins.”