“I thought you were dead. Lucia…she said she’d killed you,” he said, his voice raw with emotion.
“We found your dagger and jacket in the Darktide Shallows. We were sure Vallerio had kidnapped you,” Neela said, hugging the two of them. Desiderio, Becca, Yazeed, and Ling joined in. The other Black Fin fighters cheered.
Sera, wiping tears off her cheeks, laughed and said, “Vallerio didn’t kidnap me; Lucia did. I’m so happy to see you all, and there’s nothing I want to do more than hug you forever, but we’ve got to find her, and her parents.”
A dragon’s roar carried through the water.
Sera grimaced. “More Blackclaws,” she said, turning to the spider. “Alítheia, can you take care of them?”
The spider nodded, then scuttled across the stateroom and disappeared through the hole the first dragon had ripped in the wall.
“Sera, how did you—” Neela started to ask.
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when we’re done. Everyone armed and ready?”
Her friends raised their weapons.
“Come on,” Sera said, heading for the exit. “Let’s finish this.”
THE BLACK FINS swam out of the stateroom and down a wide corridor, weapons at the ready.
They turned a corner and were fired upon immediately. A spear grazed Sera’s arm. Her blood swirled through the water. She ducked another spear, hit the floor, and returned fire, aiming at a black uniform.
“Fall back! Guard the commander!” a harsh voice shouted.
Sera knew that voice. It was Traho’s.
“Fall back, I said—uhh!”
Her arrow hit home. The force of its impact sent Traho hurtling into a wall. As he sank, his blood billowing in the water, his comrades disappeared down the hallway. Ten Black Fins raced after them.
Sera was up off the floor and on Traho instantly, sending his weapon skittering away from him with a flip of her tail.
The arrow was sticking out of the merman’s chest. Blood was pouring from the wound and dripping from his mouth, but he still tried to get to the dagger in his belt. Sera slapped it out of his hand.
Traho’s eyes met hers. “You’re a killer,” he said cruelly, struggling to speak. “Just like your uncle. You must be happy to see me die.”
Once, these words would have pierced Sera’s soul, but no longer.
“I’m not a killer; I’m a soldier,” she told him. “And I’m not happy. Even about your death. Which means I’m nothing like my uncle.”
Traho lunged for her, but she easily avoided him.
“Stop it. It’s over, Traho,” she said.
His lips twitched into a blood-smeared grin. “It’s not over, it’s only beginning. Good luck…Your Grace,” he said mockingly. “You’ll need it.”
He gave one last groan, and his chest sank. He was gone.
“Come on,” Sera said, continuing down the hallway, motioning to her troops to follow. Mahdi, Yaz, Neela, Des, Ling, and Becca, and about a dozen more fighters were still with her.
As they turned the corner to the Regina’s Loggia, another gruesome sight greeted them: the ten Black Fins who’d raced ahead after Traho, all mermen, lay dead on the floor.
There was a mermaid among them, too.
Sera recognized her immediately: Portia. A bloodstain bloomed across her chest like petals of a crimson sea flower. A hole over her heart was the flower’s dark center.
Vallerio was by her side, holding one of her hands in his. The Black Fins didn’t have long to absorb the scene, though, for the death riders who’d survived the skirmish started firing on them.
A spear hit a pillar next to Sera, showering her with debris.
“Take cover!” she yelled, waving everyone behind her.
When her fighters were safe, she called to her uncle.
“Call them off, Vallerio. It’s over. Give yourself up!”
Another spear, fired at her head, was his answer.
Sera turned to Yazeed. He was an excellent shot. “Yaz—”
“Got this.”
“I want him alive.”
“He will be.”
“It’s hopeless, Vallerio. You know it is!” Sera shouted, keeping the death riders’ attention on her. “Give yourselves up! No one else has to die!”
As Sera spoke, she picked up a chunk of stone that had fallen from the ceiling. Yazeed bent low, then leaned out from the pillar ever so slightly. He aimed his speargun, took a breath, and held it.
Sera threw the stone high up in the water. The death riders fired at it, leaving Vallerio undefended for a split second. It was all Yazeed needed. He squeezed his trigger. His spear sank into Vallerio’s right shoulder. Vallerio screamed, dropped his gun, and tried to pull the arrow out with his left hand, but it was buried too deeply.
Desiderio, Ling, and Becca all got shots off. Within seconds, the death riders defending Vallerio were dead.
Vallerio surrendered, raising his hands.
Desiderio raced to him, his own hands clenched into fists, his eyes wild. Mahdi was right behind him. And then he was in front of Des, trying to hold him off.
“Des, no,” he said. “Not like this. It’s done. He surrendered.”