There’s a knock on the door. Castor and I stare at each other.

  “Did you tell anyone you were coming down here?” Castor asks.

  “I didn’t know this was where I was heading until I was in the elevator.”

  The second knock is louder. “I’m looking for Castor.” The voice is deep and sounds like . . .

  “Is that Atlas?” Castor cocks his head at me and back to the door.

  “For cod’s sake, open the damn door,” the king shouts.

  “That’s Atlas.” I yank the door open, and our king stumbles into the room.

  “Fuck, Holter.” He dusts off his knees as he rights himself.

  I give him a shrug before I pull him into a hug. “It’s good to see you.”

  “You too.” He slaps me hard on the back, like he’s trying to play the drums or test if I can take it. Hell, there aren’t many who can take a back slap from our king. Atlas is taller than me. His shoulders are broader. Moreover, his charismatic smile makes most fall over backwards to his will. He’s Diamont by birth, but his father was Glyden. Atlas spent a good portion of his childhood being doted on by his grandmother here, two floors above Muster and Alder’s pod apartment. When the Diamont Dome announced the king, all of Glyden was momentarily shocked. I swear there were a few who thought Atlas Zennon was Glyden and one of our own.

  I’m glad he’s back. The power play amongst the governors hasn’t been able to tolerate a king who wants to go lead his troops in war. We need him here controlling the likes of Tinom, Stele, and Vitrom.

  “When did the Polaris get back?” I ask.

  “A few hours ago. I didn’t want a formal docking, not when our nation is falling apart.”

  “Falling apart?” Castor raises his eyebrows.

  “Yes, when we let a hero bleed out on the floor, I call that falling apart. We were scheduled for a private docking tomorrow, but I had the commander of the Polaris accelerate our arrival. I was hoping to be here before Nico was sent out to the chasm, but that wasn’t possible.”

  “Have you been up to see him?”

  “Yes, and I was sent away. Even Muster wasn’t allowed in. Your mother is being quite the overprotective duchess.”

  Castor shrugs; there’s no denying it. We’ve had quite a few governors over the years, but Ophelia Drakos runs our dome. With a golden glove.

  “Where is my father now?” I ask.

  “Muster’s gone to his apartment, I imagine. We’ll have his retirement ceremony when Alder gets better.”

  “Retirement ceremony?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, you didn’t know? He told everyone on the Polaris. I figured his family would be aware.”

  “No, but that’s not uncommon for Father.”

  “I can see that.” Atlas stands just inside our doorway, Belle’s doorway. “Love what you’ve done with the place. The boxes add to the mystique of living on the seafloor.” He turns his head sharply to Castor. “Why in the hell is Nico living on the seafloor?”

  “It’s the only thing available right now.” Castor touches the kitchen counter. “It’s not a bad apartment.”

  “I see,” Atlas says, clearly not believing it. I suppose I don’t either. But Belle liked it, and that’s all I care about. Atlas cranes his neck around the room. “Where is this mate of his? I want to meet her.”

  “She’s not here right now,” Castor says, his voice as calm as if he’s waving off a second drink from a server at the Crystal Snail, a favorite place of older mermaids.

  “Okay then.” He walks around me. “Oh, coffee. How human. I would like a cup.”

  I look at Castor and then go over to the machine. I know Belle is coming home. I suspect I know where she is, and I know I’m going to go get her the second Castor and Atlas are out of the way.

  But then I remember the violence at the Glyden entrance. Maybe her staying with Eros right now isn’t too bad. And if we’re having that much trouble tracking her down, she’s definitely safer there than here. At least until Nico is healthy enough to help protect her.

  I set myself up to make the strongest cup of coffee I’ve ever made. Atlas’s mother is one of the politest people on the planet. Is it wrong that I’m tricking her son, who is home from battle—a battlefield that I know personally? A place I never want to see again, perhaps? But I need them gone.

  Atlas has settled himself into the sofa. He’s all but taken his shoes off.

  “You’re going to stay?” Castor’s glare penetrates my senses.

  “As soon as I go to the government center or over to Diamont Dome, my time is no longer my own. Right now, no one knows where I am. Well, no one but your sister, who told me to check down here.”

  I need him out of the apartment. Castor too. So I can do what I need to do. I set the cup down in front of Atlas on the table. He’s staring at it like a teenage podlet looks at his first cup of seaweed gin.

  Castor takes the last sip of his coffee, which he’s tempered with sweetener and almond milk.

  Altas picks up his cup. “It’s warm like tea. Good, it’s cold down here.” He lifts it to his mouth, taking a long pull, then puts it down with a click on the table. His face twists at the bitterness. “That’s interesting.” He gives the mug a little push to the center.

  Castor shakes his head at me.

  “When did you say Nico’s mate was returning?” Atlas puts his feet up on the coffee table and leans back, his large arms crossed over his chest. He makes Castor sitting across from him look small.

  “We didn’t,” I say.

  “Are you threatened by my meeting her?”

  “No.” I purse my lips. But no one knows we are mated. Atlas certainly doesn’t.

  “Are you planning on mating with her?” Atlas reaches for the coffee cup but then doesn’t take any. He’s not talking to me, but Castor. Because why should he ask me? My scent block is firmly in place. I’ve got vials of it stored up.

  20

  NICO

  Dr. Pertusio stands over my bed. Or rather, Castor’s childhood bed. “Nico, I know you’re tired of lying here. But you need to be as still as you can. We want the Arg-leth to work itself out slowly.” The Arg-leth in my blood is causing my muscles to twitch and spasm at odd times. When they do, my stomach flips and a metallic taste fills my mouth.

  “How about the cod fish government doesn’t use Arg-leth anymore? It’s barbaric. They were just trying to kill Nikolaos without killing him.” Dad is leaning up on his elbows.

  “Alder, I’ve told you this more than once. You need to stay calm, or I’m going to have to separate you from Nico.”

  “I know.” Dad sounds like a scolded podlet, and I shoot a glare at Pertusio.

  “He does, Nico. Both of you need to stay calm and talk about cheerful things. Or rest in silence.” The doctor leans over Alder’s bed. He steps over my trident. “Mind if I move this?”

  “That’s fine.” Cheerful things, he said. I scoff.

  “It’s heavy.” The doctor moves it out of his way.

  “Any chance you can take the straps off my wrists and neck?” I’m confident he won’t. But I’m awake, and I don’t intend on sleeping again anytime soon.

  “Any chance you can not move around and let the medication I gave you do the work it needs to?” He glares at me. “Yeah, I didn’t think so. Give it two days, maybe one. I’ll run another series of tests tomorrow. I might up the medication. Then I can remove the straps and some of the bandages.”

  “Yes, good.” I don’t know what I’m agreeing to. I’ll do anything he wants, but only because I want to be alive when we bring Annabelle home.

  Pertusio nods to the guard. I’m strapped to the bed, and the guards they’ve put on me have been instructed to not talk, which leaves napping and talking to Dad. Something I’ve had enough of for now. The only person I want to talk to I have to retrieve from the other side of the ocean.

  The door opens. The usual rustle of Kai’s skirts is replaced with the zipping of stiff trousers. She’s in full nursemaid mode. She’d make a good doctor. One of her mates is with her, Ari or Dar—I can’t tell them apart. And no, they’re not twins or geminae, they’re just not interesting. Kai smiles and opens her mouth to say something, and Ari—no, Dar—touches her arm and shakes his head.

  “Are you serious?” Kai and I speak at the same time.

  He nods.

  “Right, well, you’re not stopping me from talking,” I growl. “Tell Castor to stop the sea witch.”

  Kai’s eyes go wide.

  “Do you understand?”

  She nods and proceeds to change Alder’s bandages. “You’re looking so much better.”

  Dar touches her arm.

  “I can talk to Alder,” Kai quips. “Being quiet and calm doesn’t mean never speaking.” She gives Dar a look.

  “Of course you can, Kai.” Dad pushes up on his elbows. He’s got a soft spot for Kai. She’s the daughter he never had.

  “Right.” She throws a look at her mate. “You’re looking a lot better. I wouldn’t be surprised if the doctor lets you up and about soon.”

  “I hope so. Not that I mind staying here. But I’m anxious to get back to my own bed,” Dad says.

  “I bet you are. I have this for you.” Kai takes something out of a basket, and Dad greedily stuffs it under his pillow. I’m sure it’s one of my mother’s shirts. For a long time, I thought about how unhealthy it was, the way he always has a piece of her old musty clothing under his pillow. But now I understand. “All right then, you two. Be good and get some more rest.” She pulls my blanket up.

  Now I want to roll my eyes, and I never roll my eyes. “I don’t need any more rest. What I need is to talk to your brother.”

  “I’ll give him your message.” She holds her finger up to her mate to keep him from scolding her. The door shuts behind her, and it’s Dad, me, and some unnamed unlucky hunk of meat guarding me.

  “You can take a break and get some food. If he falls asleep, I’ll come get you,” Alder says.

  “I’m not going to fall asleep. I might never sleep again.” I glare at the beefy merman.

  He stands and stretches his legs. The wooden chair he’s been sitting in creaks in relief. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he grunts. He’s had enough of us. I don’t blame the poor soul.

  “She’s a nice female, isn’t she?”

  “Kai? I suppose.”

  “No, your mate. She must put up with you.”

  I grunt and almost smile. “Yes, Dad.”

  “Don’t you ‘yes, Dad’ me. You know you’ve always been this way, even back in school. When you were on the team.” Then he goes through every team I ever played on, as well as most of the scores to the more important games. He follows that up with the ones that Holter played on. “The big game, Holter’s last year. The final was eight to five.” He nods at me like he’s solved the puzzle to the Dorian population issue.

  “It was ten to eight. I came home from the academy to watch it.”

  “So you did. Yes, you’re right. You were wearing that old school scarf you wore the first time in middle school for the Vividaria pageant.”

  “Yes.” I wore it because Holter had made it.

  “Holter made it. Right?” Dad says at the same time I think it.

  “Yes.”

  “You’re a good brother.”

  I’m not sure what to say to that. “I could be better.”

  “We could all be better, but you do the best you can. I know you do. You know how proud I am of you?”

  I have no answer.

  “Well, I’m damn proud, and not just because of the chasm thing. I mean, I’m happy as an uneaten clam over that. Not dead always beats dead. No, I’m proud of you for loving your brother and letting him take care of you. I know that’s hard for you.”

  I think about what I did to my brother. How I suggested—no, told him—to mate her and then let her go. That was the shittiest thing I have ever done. And I’ve done some shit, most of which I don’t regret.

  There’s a loud knock on the door.

  “Come in,” my dad says.

  I’ve been glaring between dad and the door for the last day. No one who’s come into the room has been anyone I want to actually talk to. Ophelia is controlling the flow, and now she’s here in person.

  Her perfume floats in the air in front of her. “Alder, Nico.” She smiles, smoothing the blankets at the bases of our beds.

  I decide to embrace the no talking thing. Ophelia means well, and I’m sure Pertusio wants us to be quiet, but the dome of silence is her idea.

  “Pertusio stopped me in the hall. He said there was a special aide coming by in a little while to get Alder up. Where is your attendant?” Attendant is Ophelia’s term for the guard who will knock me out if I fall asleep and start to sleepwalk.

  “I’m awake. We gave him a bathroom break.”

  Ophelia straightens her tunic. “I see. Well, you do have several visitors in the great hall who want to see you. Pertusio said if you stay calm, they can come in for short visits.”

  “Castor.” I glare at her.

  “Actually, I believe the first up is Muster.”

  “The battle-ax is back,” says Alder. “Excellent. Send that––”

  “Send my father in.” While Ophelia has heard it all, she doesn’t need to hear what the two of them call each other.

  “Alder.” She gives him the same scolding look Kai gave her mate.

  “Yes, Ophelia. I will be on my best parent-patient behavior.” Dad tucks his chin to his chest. He looks like one of Annabelle’s sharks when she scolds them for eating too many sticks.

  Ophelia’s lips thin, and she smiles. She’s gone, and a minute later, Muster, Father, is here. He has light blond hair with a touch of gray at his temples. His eyes are dark, and other than that, he looks a heck of a lot like Holter.

  “You’re not dead.” Father grimaces. It’s almost a grin. Not really. More like a barracuda mouth.

  “Neither are you,” Dad says to Father.

  “But you keep trying.” Muster hasn’t come close to either of our beds.

  “The same can be said for you.”

  Muster shakes his head. “Nico. I’m glad you’re alive.” Father sits in the guard’s chair, his elbows resting on his knees, his hands clasped together. He almost appears like he’s going to say something of great importance. Instead, he looks between the two of us. “Where’s Holter?”

  “Our gatekeeper hasn’t let anyone in but you.” Alder sits up even more. I’m not telling him he can’t. They’re keeping him here for me. It’s easier because the second he’s back on his own, he’s going to refuse to have anyone come and help him. I’m off my game.

  “Polaris is back.” Obviously it is, or Muster wouldn’t be sitting here.

  “The king,” Alder says. “Oh, that’s going to put the governors in a tizzy.” And Dad isn’t wrong. King Atlas being back in the Veiled City is going to shake things up.

  Kai walks in, her mate trailing her. “The doctor said to keep it brief.”

  “I’ll see you two when I get back.” Muster grips Alder’s leg.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Alder replies.

  “I am. The Polaris is leaving again tomorrow.” But there’s something in the way he says it that tells me it’s not true.

  “No,” Alder says.

  My fathers are glaring at each other in a silent battle. Muster shakes his head and storms out of the room.

  Kai’s eyes are wide. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m better than a caught-and-released fish. The blubber fish isn’t going back out.”

  “But he didn’t say . . .” Kai stares at the closed door and back to Alder.

  “When you’ve been in a pod long enough, you don’t have to say.” Dad folds his hands over his blanket and closes his eyes.

  Kai straightens Dad’s already straight blanket. Then she nods at me. “Castor would like to come in. The doctor said to space visitors out, but Castor’s being rather insistent. So is Holter. He’s waiting out in the hall.”

  “Send Castor in,” Dad answers for me. “Nico will rest better after he sees your brother.”

  I glance over at Dad. He’s not wrong. He’s not wrong about a lot of things.

  Kai nods, and Castor comes in as she leaves. His hair is ruffled and his face creased. “Damn you.”

  “I thought I already was.” It hurts to smile.

  “Right. You look like shit.”

  “You look like shit, and you didn’t get a bite taken out of your neck by a viperfish.” It also hurts to raise my eyebrows.

  “Fuck.”

  “Exactly.” I nod.

  “You’re looking better.”

  “Sure.” Now I’m holding my hands over the top of the blanket like Dad. “Did Kai give you my message?”

  “Yes.”

  “And did you call off the hagissa?”

  “So, good news.” Castor turns away from me, and I know something is up.

  “This isn’t good news.” Alder sits up straighter. Castor’s head snaps to him, and he clears his throat. He runs his thumb through his fingers like he always does when he’s nervous.

  “We are . . . I have . . .” Castor stops. I’ve never seen him at a loss for words. He’s always the perfect politician and CEO. Able to tell anyone anything.

  The answer snaps into my thoughts. “You don’t know where Annabelle is.” I clench my fists, and my stomach sours from the Arg-leth rolling around my blood.

  The tendons on Castor’s neck stretch, and his eyes widen. “We believe we have a lead. She didn’t get on the plane.”

  Castor isn’t one of my crewmen. I can’t order him to get to the point. “What do you know?” Slow, cleansing breaths are what I need. The doctors are not wrong. I could hurt myself. I can feel the toxin moving around my body.

  “The bodyguard I hired to meet her says she didn’t get on the plane. They have a European office, and when I last talked to them, they were reviewing the human security footage. I’ve got people working on it too.”