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.