Chapter 28
28
“ B e still.” Honour’s order was instantly echoed down the chain of command until the whispering hush of moving water silenced in her ears and stilled against her scales.
She knew the name of every mer behind her. She knew their skills and their power, their strength both physical and mental. She was their commander, and she would do everything in her power to ensure each and every one of them returned to Reine.
But despite the responsibility that took up so much of her self-proclaimed identity, her mind had wandered as they drew nearer the organized rendezvous point. She had given Hudson and Kyree her trust and blessing to go find and rescue Soulara. The smirk on her face held far more concern than humor as she imagined her blessing if not given wouldn’t have affected the decision for the two of them to go.
And she sure as hell couldn’t leave the troops. Not now.
But Hudson and Kyree had come to her. They had asked permission instead of forgiveness afterward. They had sought her out to communicate.
That meant something.
Of course it meant something to Honour, but she knew it also meant something to both of them.
“General?” Zendalia’s voice filled her ears. The respect she had always demanded from her soldiers lay in the words, and she sensed a caring there as well. Especially when it came to Zendalia.
“They’re on their way.” Honour knew it without having confirmation. The water vibrated with the energy of mers barreling toward them.
“Are we certain?” Zendalia asked.
“Yes.” Honour’s life had been changed since she’d met Hudson and Kyree. The war wasn’t a surprise. Hudson and Kyree, however, were like a dream of someone else’s life. Even now, it would be so easy for her to think that she was living someone else’s life—someone who deserved a family.
She wished they were here with her—Hudson fighting beside her with that laugh that bordered on psychotic, and Kyree able to protect herself despite all assumptions Hudson had made of her. She hoped she hadn’t made a mistake. She needed them safe and in her arms again.
The water rippled over her body, and she pushed her shoulders back. She had to trust them. They were incredible and amazing, and they would keep each other safe and bring each other back home—a home she would help keep safe.
The Kwights came from the tide side while the Talons emerged from the darker depths of soundings. Three tribes coming together in ways no one could have ever anticipated or expected. They were the three always ready to battle each other. And here they were, side by side, saving their world.
As the three generals of each tribe stood and laid out their plans, Honour found herself less inclined to turn toward the Talons’ general.
Reine had never believed the Talons were an honorable tribe for their dominion over their female mers, so the resistance to anything Talon suggested didn’t surprise her. The strength of the anger in her chest, however, was fueled in ferocity in proportion to her affection for Hudson.
No, her love.
“They’re coming.”
Strong buffets of water pressed against her skin. The sea definitely vibrated now. Soulara had been correct about the timing, and that thought made Honour’s lips quirk up with satisfaction. Soulara never failed her—even in captivity.
Each general returned to their people, and after a few short commands, the three armies of troops shifted in precise movements. Combining their strengths and becoming one army, one defense, one savior of the world.
They didn’t move from their location. Honour had picked this specific spot for everyone to meet because it was exactly where the humans were supposed to come, where they’d enter the water, where the mers could have their dirty way with the enemy.
And nothing could possibly prepare her for seeing another one.
A silent stillness washed over all mers who floated in attention around her. They weren’t as prepared for this as she was. They hadn’t seen the krakens before. They hadn’t fought them time and time again like Honour had.
And she couldn’t have prepared them any more than they already were.
The wall of writhing metal that drew near reminded her of a cliff’s edge appearing out of nowhere as she turned a blind corner and swam too fast toward it. The kraken bore down on them. Metallic tentacles reached out, probing the water, barely missing the other searching limbs as they moved.
They’d already lost one mer. Blood tinged the water and an arm floated past the corner of Honour’s eye. One beat of silence was all she needed. The command to attack ripped out of Honour’s throat, and the world around her exploded into a blur of fins and flukes, metal and flesh.
The water churned and buffeted, and Honour dove and struck. Each clash of her sword against the metal monsters was a clang of power and control. As tentacles fell away from the krakens, floating down into the abyss of the deep soundings, she found herself completely engulfed in the next strike, in the next clash of enemy against enemy.
“More are coming.”
Honour heard the scream, and the thrill of the battle she had been reveling in fell from her shoulders. Another wave of metal. Another wall of writhing limbs drew closer, revealed by their falling comrades. The clumps of metal that had broken and fallen away weren’t nearly as large or as many as Honour had believed.
With a silent apology to Hudson and Kyree, Honour resolved herself to using her last strength and breath to take as many of these bastards down with her.
Another rallying scream ripped through her. It roared from her mouth, making her throat raw as she gave in to the pure instinct of the battle and the blood lust of ensuring the pain that cracked her heart would be felt by all those responsible for it. And she would keep breathing, keep fighting, until she knew Hudson and Kyree at least were safe.
Her body ached, and the cuts on her arms stung as she moved without slowing, diving in and out of the waving limbs of the enemy.
The first cry she heard blended in with the sounds of the battle. But soon, more strange sounds filled the spaces around her.
Blinking, she shook her head and turned in a circle as the metal monstrosities disappeared from view. They weren’t retreating and parts were being cut and left to drift down to the deep soundings.
Honour blinked again, trying to get her eyes and brain to meet in understanding of what she saw happening in front of her.
Creatures of the sea. All manner of creatures had come and joined in the battle. They swarmed over the krakens, and for a moment, the battling mers were frozen into confusion.
No one had expected this.
Kyree had never mentioned it as a possibility.
Did that mean…?
Honour stopped and flipped toward her troops.
“They’re for the world. Join them and fight our enemies!” Honour screamed as the truth of the situation registered in all its power within her. The hope she had held bloomed again in a strength she didn’t know she still possessed. It overflowed her, and she drove directly toward an open space of metal shining through the beautiful colors of her home creatures.
“Don’t kill our own.” She screamed out even as she slashed her sword down toward another tentacle that had wormed its way free of the squid that had wrapped around the kraken.
The cries were taken up. Echoes of her words. And tones of hope in the war cries that continued to ripple on the waves of the water.
The krakens fell. Not the parts that had been sliced and beat off of the whole, but the creatures themselves. Some were still wrapped up in the deadly embrace of sea creatures, while others were let go. The sea creatures moving onto the next one who dared to come into their home and destroy the lives they lived and the ones they cared about.
“They’re falling back.” The call came down the lines.
Honour watched as the the call gained momentum, and the cheers roared into her ears, a wonderful change from the clashing and clanging of metal.
“The war isn’t over!” She screamed over the crowd.
The call of winning died down as her own words rippled through the mers that remained. Floating bodies were stark reminders of the cost. They drifted between debris of the metal enemy.
“Collect the dead. They deserve the respect and honor of their sacrifice. Those still able will follow me. We’ll follow these monsters until they’re gone from our waters and our world.”
“Yes, Honour!” The call came up, and while several mers peeled away to take care of the dead, the majority lined up at attention waiting Honour’s orders.
As a formidable force, they followed the ripples of the fleeing kraken.
Twice they were stopped as the krakens attempted another line of battle. But each time, creatures of Honour’s world came in and showed these aliens the price of attacking their home.
Mers and creatures fought side by side.
Each time the krakens retreated, their forces became fewer.
Exhaustion weighed upon Honour’s shoulders.
But the war wasn’t over.
She watched as a tentacle faded into the distance. A mechanical nightmare that would haunt the rest of her life. The touch on her arm made her spin, sword ready to dispatch whatever fool approached a general in the middle of battle with a touch and not a word.
“Honour,” Kyree squeaked out.
Honour’s blade stopped mere ripples from Kyree’s body.
“Kyree.” Honour’s blade dropped from her hands, and she wrapped her arms around Kyree’s back.
“Hey now, do I get some of that?” Hudson fake-whined and drew closer.
“Hudson.” Honour’s arms were now around Hudson’s tight body.
The exhaustion and the fear washed over her, and tears pricked at her eyes as Hudson held onto her just as tightly back, while Kyree’s arms wrapped around them both. Kyree’s body at Honour’s back, her fluke scooping their tails up in an encompassing embrace.
“I love you.”