by Starla Night
“It is not only who you are,” Queen Elyssa murmured. “You’re also a gentle attendant to the Life Tree, a fierce guardian of your friends, and a clever wordsmith who enjoys teasing us into thinking differently.”
The warrior regarded his queen and dipped his head at the honor of her clear sight, then turned back to Nora. “You wish to take the burden of Pelan’s illness onto yourself because of the actions you did not take. Very well. Accept these burdens so you too may be free.”
Bella’s soul lightened, and Balim felt a strange shift in his own heart. Zoan was not a warrior he expected to have deep thoughts. But Queen Elyssa had described him accurately. More accurately than the rest of them had even noticed.
His words were as relevant to Bella and Nora as they were to Balim’s own history.
Zoan beamed at Nora. “And that, my future new queens, is my bid to have the inside of my head examined by our favorite healer once he has cured and restored—”
“Hey!” Nilun broke formation, something a warrior from Djullanar would never do, to swim toward the couple. “What are you doing, Zoan? Why does your soul resonate with Pelan’s bride?”
A taut silence spread through the sanctuary.
Zoan’s chest was glowing. And so was Nora’s. They matched. Like a warrior and his bride.
But she belonged to another.
Nilun shoved Zoan’s chest. “Do not steal Pelan’s bride when he is ill.”
“Wait, Nilun.” Queen Elyssa held up her hands. “Kadir, you have to stop them.”
King Kadir flew to her and pulled her back, away from the danger.
“I steal no one.” Zoan shoved Nilun off, the twinkle gone from his eyes. “Your senses deceive you. Nora does not resonate with me.”
“She does!” He glared at Nora. “You should have married Pelan when you arrived! Your indecision makes him sick!”
She hunched in on herself. “I already told you I’m sorry.”
Zoan touched her arm. “Do not be. You are—”
Nilun bashed his hand off and gripped the pommel of his dagger. “You must not touch another warrior’s bride!”
Zoan moved protectively in front of her. “Do not frighten this young bride.”
“Then do not resonate with her soul!”
“How can you accuse me? She descended as the bride of our friend.”
“She is the bride of our friend.” Nilun’s hand on the dagger pommel, still sheathed, shook and his chin wrinkled with fury mixed with betrayal. “How dare you lure her away, sickening Pelan for your own selfish wish?”
Zoan drew his dagger. “I would never—”
“Stand down!” Soren barked.
“Warrior Zoan. Warrior Nilun. Stop.” King Kadir released Queen Elyssa and kicked forward, a deep wrinkle on his brow as this new nightmare unfolded. “Warrior Zoan, anyone who has eyes can see you resonate with Queen Nora. Warrior Nilun, we do not resolve a bride dispute in Atlantis with single-warrior combat.”
Zoan frowned hard and rubbed his own chest.
“Then how do we resolve bride disputes in Atlantis?” Nilun demanded.
It had never been done. “The way…we will decide…is…”
“With death!”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“No.” King Kadir held up a hand, and Nilun checked, his blade half-withdrawn. “We decide our way now.”
But he looked lost.
Queen Elyssa murmured to him, “I know this is upsetting, but it’s real life. On the surface, we date. We change our minds.”
“Because you cannot see soul lights as we can,” he replied, guided by his queen.
“Dating is messy. Relationships are messy. Part of being human is figuring it out.”
“We are not humans. We are mer.”
“But we’re melding cultures. Atlantis has to change too. And the mess will only worsen after the finished platform entices more humans to join us.”
“No.” He rejected her because his warriors could not handle so much uncertainty. Not now. King Kadir swung to his most faithful warriors. “How are bride disputes handled in other cities?”
“Death to the bride stealer!” Nilun vibrated, shouting.
“Yes, in Djullanar, and I believe the same in Rusalka.” At Iyen’s nod, the king confirmed the common experience of open combat.
“In Sireno, the elders hear both cases and decide.” Warlord Torun’s astute observation rumbled across the crowd. He swam in with Queen Lucy.
Their young fry were secured in the castle with trustworthy guards, and he had returned from the ruins of the ancient city to face the multiple threats now striking Atlantis.
“But in practice, warriors fight. The current king, Jolan, lost his own father when the elders ordered the bride to return to her first husband and she would not. Good, honorable warriors died because the elders did not honor the bride’s choice.”
Queen Elyssa linked arms with King Kadir as Queen Lucy wrapped her arms around her husband, Warlord Torun.
“We journeyed to Atlantis because you honor the bride’s choice of husband.” Warlord Torun rested his hands across Queen Lucy’s. She snuggled in, and both of their soul lights shone as their shared resonance multiplied, increasing not ten or a hundred but a thousand times brighter than either could shine on their own. “Your resolution is obvious. Let the bride choose.”
“What of females who entwine with males on their descent?” another warrior muttered, and the grumble was taken up by others. “What of the coffee date? This is madness.”
The mutters grew louder. Someone in the back vibrated a shout. “What of the warriors without brides? How will we stop them from taking rightful brides from other warriors?”
King Kadir frowned.
Queen Aya spoke for the first time. “There are no ‘rightful brides.’ Banish that ridiculous thought from your heads.”
The mutters were shocked to silence, but it was mutinous. She had calmed them but not won them over.
“Aya is right.” Queen Elyssa placed a calming hand across King Kadir’s heart. “Can you imagine any situation in which it would be okay to force me away from you to be with another warrior?”
His chest blazed. “No. I would fight to the death.”
“Because I choose you. I am not with you because I got assigned. And I would not go to someone else. I am with you because we have this.”
She placed one palm over her own heart and closed her eyes. Their chests resonated, glowing brighter and brighter, until their souls were as powerful as Queen Lucy’s and Warlord Torun’s. The Life Tree tinkled with harmonious joy, cleansing the water and purifying the sanctuary.
Queen Elyssa opened her eyes and met King Kadir’s intense, devoted gaze. “We are together because we are soul mates.”
His taut shoulders lowered.
He looked over to Queen Lucy and Warlord Torun and then at Queen Aya and rugged First Lieutenant Soren, who would defy the ocean to be together, and over the waiting warriors.
Then, finally, to Nora. “Warrior Zoan is your choice?”
“What? No.” Nora hunched in making herself a smaller target. “You said Pelan was my soul mate.”
“But you resonate with Zoan.”
“How? I just met him a day ago.”
King Kadir frowned. He did not understand.
She turned to Zoan. “You seem nice. But I don’t think we’re meant to be.”
“No,” he agreed, floating to put a greater distance between them to lessen any more misunderstandings. “After I betrayed my brother, I swore never to pursue a bride. This includes you.”
“To be fair, you didn’t pursue me, so your vow is safe.”
“You are resonating again,” First Lieutenant Soren growled.
“No, we’re not,” Nora denied, even as the two kicked farther apart and Nora fluttered her hands in the water between them to swish away any more misunderstandings, as if their resonance was dirt motes or algae.
“You must marry Pelan right away
,” Nilun insisted. “Before you resonate with any other warriors. He is the warrior you vowed to be faithful to.”
“He can’t even say ‘I do,’” Nora snapped, brightening even more at Nilun than she had with Zoan moments ago. “And are you listening? You’re the ones who decided Pelan was it for me. I don’t understand why I’m resonating with anyone else any more than you do.”
Queen Elyssa floated forward to mediate. “Don’t you feel something extra for Pelan?”
“No more than I felt for Zoan. You’re both nice and friendly and I like you. Are you my soul mate? I have no idea.”
The calmed warriors rumbled again. Mutiny. The ones who had no brides might try to woo her, Nilun would fight off any who tried, and Nora’s seductive resonance enthralled all warriors.
“Perhaps Nora resonates with the sea,” Queen Lucy mentioned to Queen Aya. “Everyone wanted Kadir to marry you even though it was obvious you were destined for Soren.”
“Less obvious to him,” Queen Aya said, digging her elbow into the first lieutenant’s side.
He captured her elbow and placed a quelling kiss on her forehead.
“How could you kiss Pelan if your feelings were a lie?” Nilun demanded, furious with Nora and edging closer to her.
“He kissed me,” Nora pointed out.
“You drank the elixir. You accepted his mating jewel.”
“Actually I never did. It’s still in a pressurized vat in your hospital. And I only kissed Pelan because Balim told me to.”
Everyone swung to him.
He faced their attention, heating as the mistake pierced his chest. Had he caused this danger on top of an already volatile situation?
“Balim.” King Kadir focused. “Did you force a female to kiss a male who was not her husband?”
He stiffened. “Her resonance calmed and restored Pelan when he was dying from the chest wound. Perhaps healing is her primary queen power.”
King Kadir accepted his answer, but the furrow on his brow filled Balim with another pang of unease. If King Kadir knew the darkness in his past as Bella did, then how would he look at Balim?
Nora snorted.
“You find this funny?” Nilun demanded. “Torturing and now failing to heal Pelan is a joke?”
“Healing’s my power. Your doc just said so.” She stared down Nilun, unyielding, her soul light bright once more. “I’d kiss anyone if I could heal them the way I helped Pelan after he got shot.”
Nilun’s chest flared as if she had just offered to kiss him.
Truly, she had a dangerous resonance.
Zoan pulled Nilun back. “Calm yourself, Nilun, before you injure the inside of your head. Healer Balim is busy with Pelan.”
“How can you brag of your infidelity?” Nilun shouted at Nora, taking no heed of her boiling rage.
Before she could shred him to pieces, the other warriors erupted into disagreement.
“What is the point of surface matchmaking if you do not meet your bride?” a warrior grumbled.
“If you are not a bride, do not shine your bright light on Zoan or Pelan. They are not yours!”
The Life Tree sanctuary chimed a warning.
Pelan spasmed.
Balim held him down, watching the blue rings track across his chest. He had succumbed to this sickness because he was injured. Because he had no bride. Because Balim had made a mistake.
Was Pelan to be the first patient he lost?
King Kadir bellowed for silence. His vibration echoed. The warriors stiffened, and the sanctuary quieted once more.
A mistake. Balim had made a mistake…
“Everyone leave here.” King Kadir motioned to the warriors to exit. His judgment rested on Balim. “Even you.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Bella wiggled out of the sanctuary after Balim.
She couldn’t read soul lights the way the mermen could, but his shoulders drooped. He was devastated. All mer respected their kings. He’d just been disciplined by his. And he had to feel bad.
“Balim.” She wiggled, irritated that her fins wouldn’t work, but he was swimming slowly enough that she reached him and clasped his chiseled forearm. “I’m here.”
He tugged her into his arms and buried his face in her neck.
They rotated in the opening to the sanctuary. Light shone out through the battered holes in the petals. Bedraggled, the tree, and even the sanctuary, was stronger because it had survived the long-ago attacks. Because now two seeds twined together instead of spinning on alone.
She rubbed his shoulders. “You will figure this out.”
“Nora resonated with Pelan once. She was his bride.” He vibrated, chest to chest, as he mused over his error.
Bella had meant that he would figure out how Blue Ring spread from a cursed battlefield to the tank at his makeshift hospital, but this also must bother him. “What changed?”
“Perhaps outside the ambulance, I, like other warriors here, mistook the strength of Nora’s own resonance to synchronize with Pelan’s. Perhaps even Pelan mistook this and reacted. But he did heal at our hospital. His soul glowed with the nearness of his bride. He did synchronize with someone…”
“So now you believe me?” Nora floated outside the sanctuary. Soren and Aya were escorting her out.
Balim rested Bella’s shoulder against his and faced the others. “I believe you are not Pelan’s bride. Forgive my mistake.”
She shrugged. “Sure. Fine. Whatever.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s fine. I mean, I can understand how it happened. Soren just told me I have a ‘dangerous’ resonance because I’m not guarded like Aya.”
Aya elbowed Soren for the second time. “That’s not necessarily a strength.”
“Yeah, well, it must make it a heck of a lot easier to figure out who your actual soul mate is if you don’t have guys throwing themselves at you.”
Aya straightened. “Yes, that was never my problem.”
“To tell you the truth, I was excited to meet my soul mate, and it’s disappointing it turns out I haven’t.” Nora jerked her chin over her shoulder. “I’m sure he’s worse off because of it than I am. But I get that no one set us up.”
Balim stiffened. He did not tolerate mistakes well, and he needed to concentrate. He had to heal Pelan and prevent mass hysteria against mermen—or worse, hysteria accompanied by a deadly health crisis.
Bella smoothed a hand over his taut shoulders, enjoying the muscle. “Don’t give up hope. You’re not here for your health.”
Nora cocked a brow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that not just anyone can transform into a mer. Everyone told me I couldn’t just give Jonah elixir and expect him to transform. I had to resonate with Balim before I could transform.”
Nora’s gaze fixed on the open ocean. “So there’s still hope…”
“For you to find your soul mate? Of course. It’s possible you’ve met in passing without realizing it.”
Her lips puckered in thought. “Sure, they say that a one-in-a-million chance happens eight times a day in New York, right? So how do you know your soul mate if you resonate with everyone?”
“You’ll know.”
“But these guys are certain—”
“No, Nora. You’ll know.”
Her natural skepticism faded to grudging belief. “I guess you’re right. I knew I wasn’t Pelan’s soul mate, right? So I’ll know it when I meet my soul mate. Somehow…”
Balim focused on Nora as if she’d said the missing piece of the puzzle he needed. “When did you know you were not Pelan’s soul mate?”
“I’ve kind of felt that way ever since Pelan went to that tank in your hospital,” she said. “That week he had to be out of the water, I spent a lot of time organizing my life in between times sleeping on the bunk next to him, and every time I left the room I’d come back and find Roxanne in there comforting him.”
“Roxanne?” Balim repeated. A new urgency filled his tone. “Our hos
pital coordinator?”
She nodded. “If I centered him during the operation to remove the bullet even though I wasn’t his bride, maybe Roxanne could help him through this illness even if she’s also not his bride.”
“Or maybe she is his bride.” Balim turned to Soren. “Summon her to Atlantis.”
The massive first lieutenant raised a brow, but he respected Balim’s expertise. “Zoan. Swim to the ancient city and send our request.”
Zoan kicked past.
“I’d be a great relief if his bride was Roxanne.” Nora wiggled her stubby feet as she tried to keep up with Aya. “Then maybe I could master these fins.”
“Oh, sure, I’ll show you a little trick.” Aya took Nora’s hand and flew toward her castle. The other warriors cleared out, and soon, only Balim and Bella floated in the sanctuary's mouth. King Kadir and Elyssa tended Pelan, while the other warriors clustered in groups nearby, but they had a pocket of privacy.
Bella felt the fire in Balim, and a tendril of hope curled around her heart. She rubbed his shoulders, encouraging him. “One mystery solved. You’ll figure out the rest. Like, how long can Nora avoid drinking the nectar before she collapses?”
“Perhaps a long time,” Balim mused and fixed Bella with a hard stare. “She is not conflicted like you.”
His accusation slashed into her heart.
She could barely suck in a breath—no, a mouthful—of water. “Because I can’t—that vial, Balim.”
“Not the vial.”
“Yes. My conflict is all about the—”
“Your conflict is about me.” He spat the words, bitter and hurt, as if he’d looked into a well and found only brackish water and it left him reeling. “Are we soul mates?”
She swallowed. “I can’t deny the compulsion.”
“But we do not resonate as the others do. We do not reflect each other’s souls with the strength of a thousand.”
“How can I help that? You know I can’t see soul lights like the mer.”
“But you can feel when we are not in harmony.” He glared. “All this time, I accepted that you could not reflect my soul because your son is first in your heart.”