Chapter 29

29

T he scene in front of Kyree tore her heart into shredded pieces of seaweed. Blood seeped into the water and clouded her sight. It smelled disgusting. She’d been here before, she remembered the scent, but that didn’t stop her stomach from churning.

“They need all the help they can get,” Hudson’s voice was a calming balm in Kyree’s broken body.

“It takes it out of me.” Kyree hesitated. It didn’t matter if it took it out of her, she would sacrifice herself for all the lives she saw being threatened and broken in front of her. But would it even be enough?

“It’s okay.” Hudson scooped Kyree up in her strong arms. “I’ll keep you safe.”

“I know.” Kyree kissed Hudson’s lips even as her fingers wrapped around the soul stone at her throat. She didn’t really have a decision to make, did she? Everything about this moment had been calling to her and begging her to take action.

The power of the magic washed over Kyree, and her lungs stuttered at the enormity of what lay in front of her. This was so much more than before. This wasn’t only going to drain her—it was going to hurt like hell.

She could feel them. Not just the creatures who had answered her plea of danger when Hudson and Honour were there. There were so many more of them. It didn’t even feel as though she reached out at all. It was as though they had all been waiting, wanting nothing more than to assist in saving their homes. Their desire to save the lives of those who no longer remembered the connection of souls they used to share made Kyree’s eyes sting with unshed tears of gratitude and love.

“Oh.” Kyree’s arms fell at her sides, but the strength of Hudson’s arms wrapped around her and kept the hope radiating inside her chest. It burned bright and alive, a force against the darkest of soundings.

“You’re amazing, Kyree.” Hudson’s lips were a bright spark against her forehead. “The krakens are moving back. And the animals—the animals are following.” Hudson’s words were a whisper against Kyree’s skin.

“We have to as well. We have to give them no respite.” Kyree snuggled in tighter to Hudson’s arms, though her energy seemed to be refilling. Her soul felt more alive now than it ever had before, as if she was living and breathing her full self in a way she hadn’t ever before.

“You almost sound like Honour.”

“And here you are finding a way to win without fighting.” Kyree kept her eyes closed, seeing through the eyes of the creatures she was sharing a moment of existence with.

“Oh, I’m fighting.” Hudson chuckled. “Just turns out that there are more ways to fight than swinging a sword or slamming a fist.”

The silence of their words fell over them as they reached the next resting spot of the mechanical beasts.

“Shit.”

“What?” Kyree opened her eyes and lifted her head from Hudson’s shoulder.

“There were more waiting.”

“Shouldn’t you have expected that?” Kyree couldn’t help the small tease as she looked up into Hudson’s face.

“I should’ve.”

But the joy that sparked between them disappeared in an instant as Kyree felt the pain of a sea star being torn apart by the clutches of metal claws. Kyree tried to ignore the warmth of tears that brushed in front of her face as she wrapped her fingers tighter around the soul stone.

Her hand shook as the stone answered back to her grip. With her heart racing and her lungs working overtime, Kyree panicked, wondering if her fingers would ever be able to bend again, to remove themselves from the contact that all but burned with the touch of the soul stone.

“We have more coming. And they’re angry.” Kyree’s voice hitched.

“Anger used in the right way can be a power for good. I believe Honour would call it justice.”

Kyree couldn’t reply. She wanted to nod, but she wasn’t sure her body would answer the call of her mind. Her mind swam with all the life forces of the ocean. The fear seeped away as more lights filled her. New life just coming into this world, old life happily passing on love and safety to the next generations. Shared love and affection. Joy and happiness.

Even in the midst of this horrific scene and battle, there was love. Love brought the peaceful creatures from their homes. They had love and life and futures to fight for.

The humans were moving back again. Fewer krakens mimicked the flow and movement of those born to this world. They moved faster, no longer taking moments to stop and fend off the defenders of this world. They were retreating, not simply falling back to another line of fighters ready and waiting.

“Where is Honour?” Kyree’s body tingled as energy returned to her. It spread out into her limbs, and her fingers twitched around the stone. They weren’t fused, though ridges on the skin of her hands marked the places she had gripped the soul stone.

“I can’t see her.” Hudson’s panic seeped through her voice as her head thrashed back and forth in search of their missing piece.

“It’s okay.” Kyree placed a hand up to Hudson’s cheek. “I can find her.”

“Is she—” Hudson’s voice cracked, “—is she okay?”

“You know she is.” Their eyes met, and the panic in Hudson melted away.

Hudson nodded.

“Let’s go find Honour.”

Kyree could all but see the thread of energy from her and Hudson as they followed it to Honour. The call between the three of them was so strong it now seemed impossible to believe there was ever a time when they hadn’t been connected.

Kyree wriggled her way out of Hudson’s arms, and side by side they swam the last of the distance. Her fingers tingled as she laid them gently on Honour’s arms.

“Honour,” Kyree squeaked out, freezing in place. Honour was so very close to cutting her neck, to killing her, to not knowing who was friend and who was foe in this war. She stilled.

Honour’s blade halted. She froze.

In a blur of touches and words, the three of them found their place in the world once more, wrapped around each other, finally complete and whole.

“Soulara?”

“Safe. Home.” Kyree’s chest rose and fell rapidly. “I promised you.”

“You did.” Honour relaxed even more than she had before. This was who Honour needed to be, the strength and the compassion—the hardness and the softness.

“They’re retreating.” Kyree finally spoke after she had tasted the joy and salt on the lips of her lovers.

“Yes. But it’s not over yet.” Honour sighed, running her hands over Kyree and Hudson’s heads, as though the idea of ever not touching them again was unthinkable.

“It is.” Kyree reached up and plucked Honour’s hand from her hair and brought it to her lips.

“You were amazing, Kyree. They all love you so much that they fought against their own natures.” Honour stared directly into Kyree’s eyes, never breaking the connection they had found again.

“They love our home, they love our life, and they love feeling connected to us again.” Kyree had never felt more sure of something than this. The deep sounding mers had longed for this connection again, and to have it, even if it was just with her, was beyond comprehension. The stories didn’t do justice to what she was experiencing right now, to what they could do together.

“They love you, Kyree,” Hudson jumped into the conversation.

“All of us.” Kyree’s cheeks burned at such overwhelming praise and affection.

“We must keep following them.” Honour’s face filled with anguish, and Kyree could read the distress in her eyes. “We can’t allow them any place to recover, to believe that this home of ours will be taken by their greed. Not again. I want them gone forever.”

“They are leaving.” Kyree let out a small chuckle of laughter. “Not just retreating. They’re leaving. The water, and the planet. They’re leaving our home.”

“What?” Honour blinked and looked again into Kyree’s eyes. “How do you know?”

“Oh, she’s been incredible, Honour.” Hudson swam closer, and Honour’s arm slipped easily around Hudson’s waist.

“I can feel it.” Kyree’s entire body filled with such light that she wondered if she might burst apart from the happiness that overtook every one of her senses. “The animals—they’re all talking to me and sharing what they see.”

“You can see through their eyes?” Honour’s voice had a hushed reverence Kyree knew she would both never get used to and luxuriate in.

“Yes. They’re showing me everything.” Kyree chuckled again. “They’re wanting to show me absolutely everything.”

In time, my souls. In time. But for now, we must be sure the world is safe.

The warmth that returned in answer to her thoughts made Kyree’s entire body feel weightless.

“They’re truly gone.” Honour’s words punctuated a truth she didn’t know but believe because of Kyree’s words alone.

“They’re gone. And our home is defended.”

Honour nodded and ran a finger down her neck. Sparks of magic flared into existence.

“Troops,” Honour whispered the word, but it echoed on vibrations away from them, like a force to be reckoned.

“Magic?” Kyree and Hudson both asked, wide eyed and mouthed.

“Turns out to be quite helpful in certain moments.” Honour slipped her free hand, the one not still pressed against Hudson’s hip, into Kyree’s. “It’s time for you to tell of your great victory.”

“What?” Kyree’s eyebrows knitted together, as Honour lifted their combined hands over their heads.

The gathering troops buzzed with energy as they continued to grip onto the last of their reserves, determined to go down fighting until the last swish and strike of their flukes.

“Kyree has something to say.”

“No.” Kyree mouthed and shook her head back and forth.

“Yes.” Hudson and Honour both smiled and nodded.

“This is your victory,” Honour continued while Hudson smiled and nodded her agreement. “The lives of all of those in front of you now are granted because of your actions. You’ve taught each of us how to fight another way. How to find the power our people had thrown away so carelessly in the past. This is yours.”

Kyree turned to the sea of faces all looking at her.

Exhaustion and determination filled the eyes and set lips of each face. Shoulders pushed back despite the muscles flexing as they tried to drag them forward and let them rest.

“The humans…” Kyree began. Her words were the soft lull on the waves of water that moved eternally in her home. “They’re no longer a threat. We’ve won our home and our freedom, and they’ll know that our planet is defended.”

The cheer filled the space and swelled Kyree’s heart. She had no idea she could feel so full.

“They’ve left the water.”

Another cheer and with each word she spoke, her voice lifted louder.

“And they’re leaving our world entirely.”

Looking over at Hudson and Honour, she met their smiles with one of her own.

“The war is WON!”

Kyree couldn’t imagine she would ever hear again, but this moment, this day, would be worth any damage to her hearing.

Swimming back into Honour and Hudson’s open arms, Kyree buried herself into their chests. Her body relaxed in ways it never had before. A complete sense of safety wrapped around her soul as surely as the strong arms of her lovers wrapped around her body.

She was home.