Page 84 of Surface Pressure

Marshall hid himself along the tree line. While she couldn’t see him, her back prickled at the sensation of his eyes staring holes into her. He wouldn’t talk to her, wouldn’t let her explain. And she couldn’t really blame him.

It just showed in stark clarity how no one really knew her. Marshall had been the closest she had come to having a friend, a human friend. But for him to think she would do what Chalmers accused was unthinkable.

Taking another deep breath, Autumn closed her eyes and shoved her hand into her pocket. She had already opened the small pouch inside and now dipped her fingers in to touch the smooth surface of the soul stone.

Calm washed over her, a warmth that spread through her body and out to the tips of her fingers and down to her toes. She wanted it to wrap around her, protect her, and never let her go. Then she remembered the standoff with Soulara. Perhaps drowning wouldn’t be such a bad option after all.

She shook away the morbid thought and focused on the feelings washing through her from the stone.

In a flash that made her gasp, images of sea life, beautiful and bright, pressed into her mind. A building in the ocean. Not just a building, but a castle. It reminded her of stories the oldest of her people would tell the children. Stories passed down since before the water ran dry. Since before humans had destroyed their own planet and instead of changing their ways, decided they deserved to destroy as many planets as they could find.

Anger slammed into her where the warm calm had once been. She rocked on her feet, only just managing to keep her balance.

She took slow, deep breaths and reached out with her thoughts. Part of her didn’t want this to work, didn’t want to risk Soulara anymore. But the risks to her own people, to Marshall and his friends and family, couldn’t be ignored either.

“Please, Nylah. Please ask Soulara to come see me. I need to talk to her,” Autumn whispered, hoping that Marshall couldn’t hear her.

The anger lashed out at her like a whip, but the connection didn’t break. Autumn swam through the turns and dips of the castle all through Nylah’s eyes. A smile that she couldn’t hold back touched the corners of her mouth. The colors and the light were beautiful, not to mention the works of art the mermaids had made of the natural world around them. She never would have been able to imagine it on her own.

There was no separation between them and their environment. Autumn could see the pulse of life in everything there.

The smile disappeared from her lips, and by the time Nylah reached Soulara, tears ran down Autumn’s face. She had fallen into the sand. With her legs pulled to her chest, she sobbed into her knees and watched as Soulara excused herself from a room full of mers. Some of them looked so like Soulara while others might have been different species if she went solely by the differences between them.

Soulara looked directly at her.

Betrayal.

They were done.

She wasn’t coming.

27

“I’m not angry at you, Nylah,” Soulara whispered once Nylah’s connection with Autumn had vanished. Behind Soulara’s neck, Nylah’s physical form peeked out from between strands of her silver hair.

Hope had alighted within Soulara when she saw Nylah slip into the meeting room. By the time they swam out of the room, memories of Autumn’s choice crashed down on her. That choice smothered everything, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake.

The ray bumped her lightly on the cheek before floating back to settle behind Soulara’s hair. It had taken almost no time to get used to the small weight against her neck. So strange for it to feel so natural, as though they had always been this way, when she had never had a familiar or ever dreamed about having one.

Soulara shook her head and focused again on Nylah.

“Keep an eye on her please. I don’t want to see her, but I don’t want her harmed.” Soulara did want to see Autumn, with all her heart. Which was the problem. If she saw Autumn, she had no idea what jeopardy she would put her heart and her people in.

A warm shudder tickled her back, and she couldn’t be sure if Nylah was laughing at her, or scolding her. She didn’t want to reach up and find out.

“Soulara, will you be returning to the meeting?” Honour spoke behind her.

Soulara turned slowly, the weight of the world and more pressing upon her shoulders.

“No. I need to follow up on another matter.”

“Autumn?” Honour looked at Soulara as though she could read her thoughts. And maybe she could. Soulara’s training to be royal had its gaps. She’d always believed she had mastered the ability to hide her thoughts behind a neutral expression. It would seem she had not mastered the skill after all.

“You know what we need for this battle. You know better than I do.”

“No shit.” Honour pursed her lips, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

“Thank you,” Soulara said as she swam toward Honour. As she passed, she intentionally brushed their shoulders.

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