by Starla Night
“Huh? Oh, no. It was…gosh, when Tulu was a baby.” Meg scratched at the sparkly plankton sticking to her cheek. “I used to hang out in the coral shallows while waiting for Itime to get back from a hunt. Old Lieutenant Figuara didn’t care when the warriors went out. He wanted the babies taken care of, so he always busied himself in another part of the island when he saw the warriors preparing to ‘sneak’ out.”
The plankton built up on her sparkling fingers like paint splatter under a black light.
“This one time, a big old tiger shark dove through the lattice. It grabbed Tulu right in front of me and shook him, and I—well, I screamed, you know, like you wouldn’t believe—and the shark let him go. Tulu fell like he was dead. Oh, God. He was hurt so bad.”
Meg shuddered.
“The shark veered back to get him again, and…and I don’t know, but suddenly, these clouds of squids surged up from seemingly everywhere. They flooded the reef, hiding us. I couldn’t even to swim to the shore in case the shark saw us. They can cut you down in knee-high water, did you know that? I just held Tulu in my arms, and I prayed and prayed and prayed.”
Her fingers glowed with the memory, even brighter than the plankton, shining with power.
And then Meg lowered her fingers and shrugged. “My little boy opened his eyes. He was fine. All that praying, and…totally fine. Even the scars healed. He barely had a scratch.” She lifted an index finger. “But the squids. The squids never went away.”
“They protected you.” Well, this was a news story for the night. Chalk one up for mermaid queens. “That’s amazing. Do you think they’re still trying to protect you?”
“Well, I don’t know. I’m not being attacked by tiger sharks anymore. I don’t even go in the shallows without a warrior.”
“Why not?”
“The shark moved so fast and I was so helpless.” Meg twitched, obviously still reliving it. “I never want to feel that way again.”
“But it sounds like you are feeling that way. You feel panic every time you go in the water.”
“Not that I can go in the water.”
“Ciran said affinity to sea creatures is a queen power, and yours is especially strong. You’re calling them to you.”
“I don’t know how.” Meg flicked her fingers. The plankton latched on, increasing her glitter. “Sticky little buggers. Oh, look at this, guys. I have a sparkle trail. Gosh, they’re aggressive today.”
“Because you’re feeling upset, probably.”
“Gee, reliving the worst day of my life, when I couldn’t do anything but cower and cry, is upsetting? Ha ha, I wonder why.”
This wasn’t getting anywhere.
“Okay, let’s reframe this.” Dannika mentally reviewed her checklist for reframing trauma. She was no licensed psychologist, and had no claims to be, but she’d had a lot of practice trying to help frustrated would-be daters get out of their own way. “You know, since your power is healing, maybe you really saved Tulu’s life that day.”
Meg flubbed her lips. Little bubbles emerged. “God, I wish.”
“But you did wish, didn’t you? You wished it so hard. And your power is healing.”
“Yeah, but…”
“You summoned the animals to hide you. We all know you did that. But your actual power is healing, which you did when you held baby Tulu in your arms and prayed. And he did get better. He came back to life. And now, even years later, these same animals want to help you because they know you channel the healing energy of the Life Tree.”
Meg’s gaze rose to fix on Dannika with new intensity. She stopped trying to brush the plankton away, and after a moment, the sparkles drifted off on their own, without her even trying.
“You did something very important that day,” Dannika emphasized. “You weren’t helpless. You saved your son’s life.”
Meg studied her fingertips with new eyes. “Do you really think so?”
“Yes.”
Meg looked at Angie, who shrugged as if it were possible, and then at Bex, who nodded like the answer was obvious.
“Okay. Say I did save Tulu.” Meg suddenly stopped and swallowed hard. Her eyes reddened, and she scrubbed her cheeks. “Ah, it was a traumatic time. Um, say that I did save him. Say I’m summoning the squidocalypse to this very day. How do I turn it off?”
Great, okay, now they were making progress.
“So, let’s reframe the squidocalypse into help. They’re all just trying so hard, in their little squid ways, to help you. And maybe you can just thank them for caring, like you did the plankton, and calmly tell them to go.”
“Just tell them things are cool? Just…tell them?”
“You have to believe it. You know. Because of the mind-body connection.”
“Right. Cool and calm. Channel my inner Itime.” Meg dropped her hands again. “If I really saved my son…” She shook her head, her black hair waving under the water. “All this time I’ve concentrated on how he almost died while I was watching him, and how Itime should never trust me with any of our kids again. If I actually healed him…”
“You healed him,” Bex said.
“You have always been a very sweet, caring child,” Angie said.
Meg smiled, a little wobbly, and her eyes reddened. “Thanks, you guys. It means a lot. Oh!” She pointed down.
Her toes unfurled into fins.
“It’s happening!” she squealed, and flutter-kicked with her mini fins in a somersault, fists waving. “You guys. You guys! I didn’t even think about it that time. I’m a mermaid superhero. Oh, my God. My heart is overfilling right now. The drama. Oh my God.”
Bex grinned.
Angie smiled, close-mouthed, beaming with pride. But her happiness for her daughter was also tinged with sadness.
Did old fears also hold back Angie?
Angie noticed Dannika’s eye and composed herself. “Yes? Oh, don’t look at me. I’m not the one you should concentrate on.”
“Why not?” Dannika asked.
“Because I told you already, I have no interest in storming any city.” Angie waved her fingers in dismissal. “I don’t know what it’s like to be a warrior, and honestly, I don’t want to know. I have no opinion on how they posture and shout.”
Posture and shout? “That sounds like a strong opinion, actually.”
“Well, it’s not.” Angie kept her pleasant smile in place but pressed her lips together like a crease cut by a knife. “Konomelu keeps us safe, and I make Sanctuary into a pleasant home.”
“Mom, you’re not really happy here.” Meg stopped kicking. “I mean, you joke about skincare, but you also lamented that none of the kids will ever receive my education.”
“Yes, but the solution isn’t more violence. If it were up to me, I would forget this war. People will get hurt, and maybe even killed.” Ange shook her head and backpedaled. “But what do I know? I’ve got no opinion. I’ll stay home.”
The tinkling sounds of the Life Tree punctuated the silence.
“That sounds like a really strong opinion,” Dannika said.
Meg and Bex chuckled. It dispelled the tension.
Angie’s lips curved into a self-deprecating smile. “Oh, I suppose. But it doesn’t matter what I think.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know.” Angie gazed up at the Life Tree, then shook her head. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but when Prince Ankena took Luk to that echo point, Konomelu and I had a huge argument. I knew they shouldn’t go, or at least not alone. ‘You do not understand,’ Konomelu said. ‘It is one of the tests. A trainee must fight at the side of his father.’ And then they never came back.” She shook her head again and hugged her elbows. “I got so mad.”
“Because they didn’t listen to you?” Dannika asked softly.
“Yes!” She threw up her hands. “And someone did get hurt. I’m sorry, Bex. You think Prince Ankena is still alive. I want him to be alive too, but I don’t think Konomelu will ever forgive himself for not finding hi
m the first time.”
“You don’t think this is one time Konomelu would prefer to be wrong?” Dannika asked.
“Yes, I suppose. Oh.” Angie pressed her hands to her chest. “This can’t be right. I feel worse now than before we started this talk. I’m sorry, ladies. I need to check on the boys and you know that underwater time dilation is tricky. It seems like we just entered the lagoon, but I have a feeling it’s already past dinner.”
What a letdown.
Dannika swam after the other women and they all emerged on the lagoon where Ciran was waiting for her—and it was just dinner time after all.
But worry seeped into her.
Bex was ready to storm Lusca. Meg knew what she had to do to control the animals and her powers, and now she needed to do it. But Angie…
Dannika had less than a week to connect with Angie.
And then they’d find out if it had been worthwhile.
Because this time, Dannika would float beside Ciran, the other warriors, and her fellow women.
And if anything happened to them—if anything happened to Ciran—she would never forgive herself.
Never.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Six days passed.
Dannika tried her best, and everyone made great progress—except Angie. The night before their big test on the coral she could barely eat dinner.
But they had to rush. Hazel was still in danger. Everyone thought she and Ciran were dead. Stevie might be sailing into a Luscan trap.
And closer, Val looked worse and worse. Her leg swelled and turned purple, and her face puffed unrecognizably. They elevated her leg, wrapped it in compresses, and tried to set the obviously broken bone, but she seemed so fragile.
Despite her suffering, her attitude never flagged.
“I wish I had a camera.” Val tapped her waterlogged, broken cell phone against the table at dinner. “Then I could take an amazing ‘before’ picture for my future memoir, Crashed and Burned: How One Plucky Jet Pilot Survived on a Hidden Island with Ticklish Tarantulas, Murderous Mermen, and Very Agitated Squids.”
“That sounds amazing,” Meg said.
“I’ll send you an autographed copy. Watch for me on Oprah. I’ll get you all new cars.”
Meg snorted. “Because that’s practical on a no-road island.”
“Sanctuary.” Angie tipped her small wine glass at Val. “And thank you. I look forward to reading your novel. We’ll start an island book club.”
Meg rolled her eyes. “Yeah, if I ever get my hands on literature, a tome about being stranded on this island is the last thing I’ll want to read.”
Angie sighed. “And you call me dramatic.”
“Well, you are.”
A few kids raced up to Val and offered her a wiggly, fuzzy tarantula.
“Oh, another one?” Val only recoiled a little. “Good job, my environmental biologists. Carve it on the survey stick. You are going to impress my wife and her colleagues so much.”
They dropped it on the table and scampered off.
“Ooh, you, uh, forgot the specimen,” she called.
Tulu picked it up and carried it away from the table for her.
She let out a sigh. “Thank you, hon.”
He nodded.
Beside him, Nuno blinked heavily into his cup of non-alcoholic tea, and Hadali drooled with his head on the table. While the women practiced their powers, the warriors upped their routines with the older boys. Val had miraculously taken over the younger ones, and despite her terrible injury, had done an Oscar-worthy performance of keeping them occupied.
They all turned in early.
Dannika followed Ciran into the lagoon. As she shifted back to mer and floated into the familiar water, her veins buzzed.
She needed tomorrow to go well.
She needed to let her powers flow through her, she needed to trust the warriors and her fellow women, and she needed to trust herself. For so long, she’d been living a half-life. To free Prince Ankena and Lukiyo and everyone, she needed to be more than she’d ever been before.
She’d really have to turn back the storm.
Ciran swam beside her. “Your soul light is very fragile tonight.”
“I am so nervous about tomorrow.”
He stroked her cheek. “Show me your power.”
She stretched and her fins unfurled. That part was easy now. She lifted her fingers and believed. A shield of white light glowed around Ciran.
“Also shield yourself.”
She tried to, but the moment she stretched, the shield dropped away from both of them. “I haven’t mastered it.”
“Can you not make it bigger? Big enough to encompass both of us?”
She closed her eyes and focused. Believe. You can shield everyone. You can shield everyone. Your shield is big and bright and you can shield everyone.
Except what about Ciran? If I’m covering myself, doesn’t that make him uncovered?
“Ah, again it dropped.” He floated over her. “I tried to stay close. You are an expert at shielding others, but you will not shield yourself.”
She rolled on her back to gaze at the rippling surface of the lagoon. “I’m working on it.”
“How?”
She told him about her affirmations and the negative echo.
He chuckled softly and drew her against his body. “Queen power is not like a human bed covering where if you pull the one side, it uncovers the other. You can shelter everyone.”
“I know.”
“Ah.” He nuzzled her. “You know it in your mind but not in your soul.”
He understood her so well. “Yeah.”
“Then let us practice. You will shield us.” He kissed and teased her, heating the water with a sizzling caress. “I will increase our resonance.”
She melted into his kiss.
He delved and teased, filled her with his tongue, and made her beg. Her nipples hardened into points and her pussy squeezed, anticipating his delicious domination. But he refused to progress and withstood her seduction even though his cock encouragingly hardened in her gentle hands. “Shield us.”
“Right now?” Her mind whirled with desire, sex, hunger, need. “I don’t know if I can make it right now.”
“You can.”
He was serious. Okay. “Say, ‘I believe in you, Dannika.’”
His chest rumbled with heat. “I believe in you, Dannika.”
The water tingled as if his vibrations sparked fire.
Her body heated and she pushed that warmth out her fingertips into light. The shield swirled around them, cinching them together, small and tight.
“Bigger.” Ciran turned her, twisting her away from him and pinning her in place. The water flushed over her tingling breasts. “Expand outward to fill this lagoon.”
Her derriere brushed his hard cock. His arms caged her. His hands cupped her full breasts, teased the nipples. Pleasure surged in her brain, fighting the fear, and awoke a deep ache in her core.
She moaned with need.
“More power.” He nuzzled her ear, tugged the lobe. “Yes, like that. Feel me even when I am not in front of you.”
His hand lowered to her feminine curls. He cupped her mons, embraced her, and caressed her slick folds. The ache intensified and she liquefied for his possession.
She arched to reach him.
He stilled, holding himself taut. “Not yet. You are capable of more than this.”
Sure, she was capable…
She closed her eyes and drew a shield around them.
“Ah. Your powers.”
The shield shrank in. His cock pressed against her cheeks, and she wiggled him into the proper place against her aching entrance.
He chuckled dangerously. “You are playing with me.”
“You asked me to shield us.” She undulated her hips in invitation. “I’m shielding us.”
“Yes.” He nipped her nape, imprinting her with lust. “Feel my reward.”
His cock slid betwe
en her legs, teasing her with frustratingly close pleasure.
“Ciran.” On the surface, she’d pant. She squeezed her thighs together, trapping his hard cock. “Don’t ever leave me.”
“I will always be with you,” he vibrated. “Near or far, our souls are linked. Let me pleasure you a little longer. You are too selfless, and you deserve much more than you take.”
She arched her back again. His cock, nestled against her channel, inched in.
He grew taut. “Dannika. Do not…”
She entwined their thighs and eased him deeper.
He shuddered. “Do not rush me.”
She trapped his legs, drawing him in until he filled her. Connection ensnared their souls. He held her tight, enfolding her in his embrace, and loved her.
Hard.
His fingers dug into her hips, and he levered his cock in, driving and thrusting, chasing her pleasure. She accepted, rolled with him, took. He thrust faster and faster, and a deep vibration of pleasure strung through her body, tightening like a string to just the right pitch.
His vibrations changed to unsteady. “You are capable of anything.”
“Fill me,” she commanded and rocked him all the way to the hilt. Her body contracted, channel clenching his cock, and she felt him shudder all the way through her. “Take me, Ciran.”
He lunged, losing control, and plucked that string. A stunning orgasm shattered her to pieces and melted her into a new woman.
Ciran held her tight. They floated, her back to his front. And what started out as a sweet, comforting, protective hug changed as the cooler water seeped between them into cracks where their bodies didn’t quite mesh as one.
You will turn back the storm.
Could she, though?
Tomorrow would be the test.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The energy at the beach was so kinetic it was almost visible even in the air. Ciran took a deep breath and let it out. Today, the queens demonstrated their powers.
Val sat beneath a sunshade and kept Meg’s youngest occupied.
Itime stood in the shallow waves with the trainees.
Ciran reviewed the plan.
Once Meg showed that she could enter the water without causing a surge of squids, the younger trainees would conduct their usual exercises.
