Soren didn’t want her.

Aya’s gut clenched.

He stared at her hard. Rejecting her with his full body. He released her at the tunnel entrance to her castle. “Await your guard.”

Then he turned and kicked back to King Kadir’s castle.

Her whole body felt numb.

She swam down the tunnel. It took forever to cross the short distance on her fins. She entered the barren, empty castle.

A flash of purple darted at her face.

She shrieked and threw up her hands. White light flashed. A bubble pulsed outward, slammed into her tiny purple octopus like a car windshield hitting a bug.

Oh!

She dropped her hands. The light faded. Her little octopus floated, dazed.

Oh no, she hadn’t meant to harm it. She’d just been distracted and startled and—

It jolted and flew away. If it were a dog, it would have been yelping with its tail between its legs.

Her heart squeezed. She rubbed her chest. The feeling only increased.

Look at how useless she was. She could use her super power to fend off a tiny octopus, but she couldn’t use it on command to fend off a megalodon.

Aya fell to the barren floor of the empty castle like a chunk of cast off debris. Resting on her palms on her thighs, she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

There was nowhere for her to go. What could she do in an attack? The army came from one direction. The megalodons came from the other. Atlantis was crushed in the middle.

Helplessness shivered like a cold fire in her veins, trembling her hands on her empty lap.

Soren didn’t want her.

For the first time, she had tried. Really tried. She had bared her soul. She had begged him to marry her. He threw it back in her face.

A sharp pain settled in her chest.

It would have been better to have died in Blake’s submersible claw than to face this.

A hint of purple crept along the ledge and crawled down the wall.

She traced the octopus’s movement with her eyes, not moving a muscle.

The castle shuddered. A cold shaft of fear sliced up her spine. The only mystery was why the All-Council had waited so long to unleash the megalodons.

The purple octopus slunk across the floor.

This must be how it kept appearing nearby, startling her. It must always be doing this. Creeping forward, terrified of being discovered, but somehow also compelled to be close.

Elyssa’s octopus Benji was bright, fierce, and loving. Just like her kind, generous, open heart. Aya’s octopus was like her own heart. Frightened, nameless, skittish, and always prepared for the worst.

Her octopus stopped almost within arm’s reach. But outside it. Just to be safe.

Heh.

Well, then, how would she talk to her own heart?

“I’m sorry,” she said. Aloud. Never mind that it was utterly bizarre.

The octopus remained still, as though it believed it were hidden, so she continued.

“I didn’t mean to use my power on you. I don’t have control over it. Soren’s been disgusted about that since he transformed me. I’m supposed to be good at healing and protective barriers, like Elyssa and Lucy. Instead, the only thing I’m any good at is pushing things away.”

Its plus-sign eyes tracked on her.

The octopus was listening. That was kind of nice.

“I’d like to make peace with you, if you don’t mind. I think we got off on the wrong foot. Hiding all the time is unsettling. It makes me question whether I even have a house guardian.”

Her octopus did not move. It was still hiding.

How would she reach out? She was no good at this kind of thing. She tried anyway. “I appreciate your hard work. Watching over the castle all day is a big responsibility and I entrust it to you.”

The color shifted from camouflage green to a ripple of honest purple. It liked her tone, maybe. No way it could understand her words.

“I’m not affectionate like other people are, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you,” she explained. “Okay? So I’d like to take you with me when I leave here. I think the megalodon will eat this castle and I’d feel terrible if you were inside.”

It shimmered.

She leaned forward until she was flat on the ground next to it. The octopus watched her the whole time, silent and unmoving.

“You know, maybe the problem isn’t that Soren doesn’t like me.” She traced one of his tattoo symbols she’d memorized, a six-pointed swirl over his right pectoral, on the bare ground. “He’s hard headed. Maybe the problem is whether I like him.”

The octopus watched her swirls. Its little tentacles curled curiously. As though all this time, it had only been waiting for Aya to reach out to it. It wanted to reach back. It just needed her to make the first move.

“Desperation isn’t attractive.” She lifted her brows. “Let’s try being exceptional instead.”

She closed her eyes and pressed her hands to the castle floor. Picturing Soren in front of her looking as he had last. Beautiful, dark, and deeply wounded.

Was she using him to unlock her powers? Only because she had been blindly grasping for his hands, believing that if she held onto him tightly the way Elyssa held onto King Kadir and Lucy held onto Torun, she’d mystically get her powers. That was blind faith.

Aya didn’t do blind faith.

She did executables.

Aya pictured Soren being wrong, wrong, wrong and herself right, right, right.

Tentacles curled on her back as though her octopus had taken a chance and gotten on top of her. Hah, was it in for a surprise.

Just like the image of Soren in her fantasies. When it felt satisfying, she imagined shoving Soren away.

Light exploded from her fingers in front of her so bright she saw it through her closed lids. She opened her eyes.

Aya was zooming upward. The floor dropped away like gravity reversed. The octopus startled and grabbed onto her hard. Hooray!

Uh oh, she was flying so hard she was about to slam into the ceiling.

She turned and shifted into human feet, landing hard enough to make her knees crunch and her shins rattle.

Her heart raced so hard it almost leapt out of her throat. “Hah! How’s that for power?”

The octopus trembled.

Maybe the next test could be gentler.

Aya pushed off, shaking out her knees and ankles, and kicked for the tunnel. Her fins unfurled naturally — as they should. She flexed her power to propel her even faster than before, and she flew so fast she skimmed the walls. Aya burst to the outside.

Ciran and Faier were flying toward the castle. They jolted. Tridents out, they raced to her against the hard current.

“Queen Aya! Is everything alright?” Faier shouted over the inhaling noise.

“Is the army here?”

He pointed. The army was the opposite direction from the megalodon. “Units from all major cities. The biggest force since the Seventy Years War.”

This was the definition of overkill. She shook her head. “The All-Council needs to study efficient use of resources.”

Her two faithful guards eyed each other. They probably thought she’d gone nuts with stress.

Well, let them.

Ciran pointed behind him. “Soren wants you to raise the final tier of the old city.”

She removed her octopus and whispered for it to go to the Life Tree with Elyssa. It flew from her hands, fast as a bullet.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”

They turned, fighting the eerie current.

“Not you, Faier.”

He pulled up short. Hurt and concern darkened his brow.

She kicked to remain even with him. “If we get cut off, you could get stuck outside the city.”

“I am not afraid.”

Of course not. “But who will defend the Life Tree within the very belly of the megalodon?”

His brows lifted. Honor fought with respect. He’d wished to stay behind but his duty was to protect her.

“It’s okay. I found my power.” She lifted her fingers. Crackling like trapped lightning emerged with a satisfying arc.

Both warriors regarded her with new hope.

“I will remain and defend the Life Tree.” Faier rested his trident against his side and saluted.

She returned the salute. “Good. Because I’ll be back. And I expect everything in perfect order.”

Aya kicked for the ruin. Ciran flanked her. They were just going to make it past the edges of the gathering army.

She had a plan.