Tharion, who’d been poring over the coroner’s files on Sofie at the desk by the far wall, said gently, “I’m sorry if I gave you false hope.”
“It kept her alive in my heart a little longer,” Cormac said, swallowing back his tears. He pressed her stiff hand against his brow. “My Sofie.”
Ruhn squeezed his shoulder.
Tharion asked carefully, “Do you know what this means, Cormac?” He rattled off a series of numbers and letters.
Cormac lifted his head. “No.”
Tharion held up a photo. “They were carved on her upper biceps. The coroner thinks she did it while she drowned, with some sort of pin or knife she might have had hidden on her.”
Cormac shot to his feet, and Bryce stepped into Hunt’s awaiting arms as the Fae Prince folded back the sheet. Nothing on the right arm he’d held, but the left—
The assortment of numbers and letters had been carved roughly an inch below her shoulder, left unhealed. Cut deep.
“Did she know someone was racing to save her?” Hunt asked.
Cormac shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“How did the mer know to pick her up?”
“She could have signaled them with her light,” Cormac mused. “Or maybe they saw Emile’s, like they did with Bryce’s. It lit up the whole sea taking down those Omegas. It must have signaled them somehow.”
Bryce made a note to ask Commander Sendes. She said to Hunt, “Do those numbers and letters mean anything to you?”
“No.” He stroked his thumb over Bryce’s hand, as if reassuring himself that she stood there, and wasn’t the one on that table.
Cormac covered Sofie with the sheet again. “Everything Sofie did, it was for a reason. You remind me of her in some ways.”
Ruhn said, “I’ll put Declan on the hunt as soon as we’re home.”
“What about the Ophion rebels and Pippa?” Bryce asked. “And the Hind?”
Hunt said, “We’re everyone’s enemy now.”
Cormac nodded. “We can only meet the challenge. But knowing for sure that Sofie is gone … I must redouble my efforts to find Emile.”
“Pippa seemed to know where he was lying low,” Tharion said. “No idea if that’s the safe place that Danika mentioned, though.”
Cormac’s eyes flashed. “I’m not letting him fall into your queen’s hands. Or Ophion’s control.”
“You ready to be a single dad?” Bryce drawled. “You’re just going to take the kid in and what … bring him to Avallen? That’ll be a really great place for him.”
Cormac stiffened. “I hadn’t planned that far. Are you suggesting I leave that child alone in the world?”
Bryce shrugged, studying her nails. Felt Hunt looking at her closely. “So do we warn our families?” Gods, if the Hind had already headed to her mom’s house—
“The Hind won’t go after them,” Cormac consoled her. Then amended, “Not yet. She’ll want you in her clutches first, so she can breathe in your suffering while you know she’s hunting them down.”
“So we go home and pretend nothing happened?” Ruhn asked. “What’s to stop the Hind from arresting us when we get back?”
“Do you think we could get away with convincing the Asteri that we were at the rebel base to stop Pippa and Ophion?” Bryce asked.
Hunt shrugged. “I blasted the shit out of that base, so the evidence is in our favor. Especially if Pippa is now hunting us.”
“The Hind won’t buy that,” Cormac challenged.
But Bryce said, smiling faintly, “Master of spinning bullshit, remember?”
He didn’t smile back. Just looked at Sofie, dead and gone before him.
So Bryce touched the prince’s hand. “We’ll make them all pay.”
The star on her chest glowed in promise.
The Depth Charger glided between the darkest canyons of the seafloor. In the glass-domed command center, Tharion hung back by the arching doorway into the bustling hall beyond and marveled at the array of tech and magic, the uniformed mer operating all of it.
Sendes lingered at his side, approval on her face as she monitored the team keeping the ship operational.
“How long have you guys had these ships?” Tharion asked, his first words in the minutes since Sendes had invited him down here, where only high-ranking mer officials were allowed. He supposed that being the River Queen’s Captain of Intelligence granted him access, but … he’d had no idea any of this existed. His title was a joke.
“Around two decades,” Sendes said, straightening the lapel of her uniform. “They took twice that to conceptualize and build, though.”
“They must have cost a fortune.”
“The ocean deeps are full of priceless resources. Our queen exploited them cleverly to fund this project.”
“Why?”
She faced him fully. She had a wonderfully curvy body, he’d noticed. With the sort of ass he’d like to sink his teeth into. But … the River Queen’s cold face rippled through his mind, and Tharion turned to the windows behind the commander.
Beyond the wall of glass, a bioluminescent cloud—some sort of jellyfish—bobbed by. Suitably unsexy.
Sendes asked, “Why does your queen involve herself with the rebels?”
“She’s not involving herself with them. I think she merely wants something that they want.” Or used to want, if Pippa was to be believed—though after they’d blown the suit to pieces, maybe Ophion would be back on the hunt for the kid. “I don’t think her motivations for wanting it are necessarily to help people, though.” He winced as he said it. Too bold, too reckless—
Sendes huffed a laugh. “Your opinion is safe here, don’t worry. The Ocean Queen is aware that her sister in the Blue River is … moody.”
Tharion blew out a breath. “Yeah.” He took in the control room again. “So all this … the ships, the rescuing of rebels … Is it because the Ocean Queen wants to overthrow the Asteri?”
“I’m not close enough to her to know whether that’s her true motive, but these ships have indeed aided the rebels. So I’d say yes.”
“And she intends to make herself ruler?” Tharion asked carefully.
Sendes blinked. “Why would she ever do that?”
“Why not? That’s what the River Queen would do.”
Sendes stilled, completely earnest as she said, “The Ocean Queen would not set herself up as a replacement for the Asteri. She remembers a time before the Asteri. When leaders were fairly elected. That is what she wishes to achieve once more.”
The dark ocean passed beyond the glass. Tharion couldn’t suppress his bitter laugh. “And you believe her?”
Sendes gave him a pitying look. “I’m sorry that the River Queen has abused your trust so much that you don’t.”
“I’m sorry that you’re naïve enough to believe everything your queen says,” he countered.
Sendes gave him that pitying look again, and Tharion tensed. He changed the subject, though. “What are the odds that either you guys or Cormac will release Sofie’s body to me?”