Chapter 30
Soulara swam as fast as she could to their island. It wasn’t just her sanctuary anymore—it was theirs. Warmth filled her, giving Soulara a staying power as she continued to swim. They were so close to ending this war. Soulara could taste it.
“At least you gave me some warning this time.” Autumn chuckled once she had finished spluttering.
“I thought it was only fair to give you a chance to hold on tight. Easier for me to keep you from drowning.”
They looked into each other’s eyes, and the pressures of Soulara’s throne melted away.
Soulara’s smile stretched slowly across her face, and she stepped up to Autumn, her magic splitting her fluke into legs so easily now. With her hands on Autumn’s hips, she pulled her lover closer, her nipples hardening to pebbles the moment Autumn’s rough coverings brushed her skin.
“Hi.” Autumn smiled, a smattering of pink dusting over her nose and on her cheeks.
“Hello.” Soulara grinned in return before moving her head forward. Autumn met her halfway, and the kiss, while soft and gentle, exploded with love in Soulara’s mind and heart.
“Now that we aren’t being watched, what happened?” Soulara intertwined her fingers with Autumn’s.
“Marshall can be trusted,” Autumn said as they walked along the beach of their sanctuary. It felt so right, and so normal. They could have been nobodies. That idea in itself was intoxicating.
Soulara looked over at Autumn, waiting for her to continue. The idea of being a nobody might have been intoxicating, but being beside Autumn was a high Soulara hoped never to come down from.
“He found the plans to a machine that will incapacitate the collectors.”
“What do you mean?” Soulara stopped walking and faced Autumn.
“Well…” Autumn took a deep breath, and Soulara sensed more than saw any specific sign that she hesitated with the information.
“Do you not believe in these plans?” Soulara stopped Autumn from having to force anymore words out.
“Oh, that’s not it.” Autumn shook her head. “I know the plans will work, if we can figure out a way to build them quickly. We’ll need more than one, for sure. I just don’t want you to think I’m stupid because I can only explain it in words I know.”
“You’re far from stupid.” Soulara lifted a hand and cupped Autumn’s cheek in her palm. Autumn pushed her skin into Soulara’s touch, closing her eyes and breathing in with a happy little sound Soulara associated with the afterglow of their making love.
“Okay.” Autumn pulled away from Soulara’s touch and shook her head just a little, as though needing to force herself back to the topic at hand. “You said you were good at making things, yes?”
“Yes,” Soulara answered, raising an eyebrow, cautiously curious about these plans.
Autumn pulled out a cylindrical tube from inside her coverings. “These are the plans to make a pulse machine. When activated, it will short out the workings of all the collectors within a certain range.”
“Why would your people have something like this?” Soulara took the tube, the metal cold against her fingertips. She stared at it curiously, wondering just what she might find in there.
“Because General Chalmers doesn’t trust anyone or anything. He has backups for the backups. His fear is that one day a soldier will go rogue and turn on him. He made sure he had a way of neutralizing the collectors if they were ever turned against him. It also shorts out other technology, so if he needs to use it as a weapon against an enemy, then he can.” Autumn shrugged a little, shoving her hands back into her pockets.
“He’s a smart man.”
“He’s a murderous bastard.”
“Absolutely.” Soulara nodded. “But planning for inevitable betrayal, that is some forward thinking. Even if it seems like a truly horrible way to survive.”
“If he’s in constant tension, that just makes my day that much better.”
Soulara chuckled despite herself. “I think you might have a bit of a mean streak in you, Autumn Walton.”
“Only for those that truly deserve it.” Autumn snorted and ducked her chin, as if she was afraid admitting that would put her in a bad light. But Soulara understood it all. She reached forward and lifted Autumn’s chin gently.
Soulara looked deeply into Autumn’s eyes, finding a well of anger and pain. Now was not the time to ask Autumn about it, to let Autumn talk about the reasons he deserved anything that would make his life worse.
“Can I see them?” Soulara’s skin vibrated with the idea and hope of what these plans might be able to offer her and her people.
“Or course.” Autumn moved out of the foam of the water and knelt on the dry sand closer to the trees.
Soulara knelt in front of her, watching closely as Autumn unscrewed one end of the tube and removed thin white sheets of something that looked like dried seaweed without the colors or the wrinkles.
Slowly Autumn flattened them out, and Soulara’s eyes grew wide as she looked closely at the lines and drawings that covered the pages.
“Oh!” Soulara danced her fingers over the instructions. This was so unlike the black box that Zendalia and Kaelin had brought her. That had been sophisticated with technology, but this was basic. Rudimentary even.
She skimmed her gaze over them, looking at the lines and the words. The words she didn’t quite understand, but the lines and details of the drawing she did. Squinting, Soulara clenched her jaw. This was a complicated piece of tech, especially for them to make underwater where harnessing electricity was not as easy as it was on the surface.
“Does it make sense?” Autumn’s voice thrummed with concern.
“This is perfect. And I’m certain we could make them. Many of them and quite easily.” Soulara didn’t want to burst Autumn’s bubble of excitement. She could easily make several, but how many would they need in total? “How long do we have?”
“Only four days,” Autumn replied swiftly, looking out over the water as if she caught something out of the corner of her eye.
“I thought they would attack sooner.” Soulara worked the numbers in her head quickly, where she could move troops to and from.
“They would have if Chalmers hadn’t decided this would be the last attack.”
“The last?” Soulara cocked her head to the side and pulled her eyebrows together in confusion.
“Yes.” Autumn took a deep breath. “He’s sending all of the collectors down together. Every single one of them.”
“All of your people?”
“No.” Autumn shook her head. “But most of the soldiers.”
“What about Chalmers?” Soulara’s mind flooded with plans, while her fingers buzzed in anticipation of creating these machines. She could already imagine them in her mind. They would need a lot of them, but if she could get the range large enough, one burst should be able to disable several at once, if they were close enough together.
“No.” Autumn scoffed at the question. “Of course not. He wouldn’t dare to get his hands messy over his own massacres.”
“So he’ll stay at the place with the non-soldier humans?”
“With the civilians, yes.”
“Hmmm.” Soulara’s mind continued to buzz.
“So, do you think this could actually work?” Autumn chewed on her bottom lip.
“This is going to work, Autumn. It’s perfect.” Soulara rolled up the paper and handed it back to Autumn.
As soon as the lid was put back on the end of the tube, Soulara pulled Autumn into her arms and kissed her hard.
Autumn returned the kiss with a fiery urgency that caused a flood of warmth to pool at Soulara’s core. That was a sensation she was still having to get used to.
“Soulara!” The call came from the water.
Autumn and Soulara jumped back from each other, both instantly planting themselves into fight positions.
Honour drew closer in the water until her torso was visible above the surface.
“Why did you follow me?” Soulara stepped into the water. She kept going until she was face to face with Honour. Anger burned inside her.
For a moment, Honour simply stared at Soulara, mouth open and eyes bulging. It wasn’t until that moment that Soulara realized what had made her general balk.
“Honour,” Soulara softened her voice and lifted her hands slowly.
“They’ve changed you—used magic on you.” Honour found her voice, but the incredulity in her tone was nothing like the friend or the warrior Soulara had known her entire life. Her eyes darted around, as though searching for a way to understand Soulara’s form.
“I am me, Honour.”
“Did you do this to her?” Honour turned her eyes away from Soulara and screamed over at Autumn.
“What? I didn’t do anything,” Autumn answered, confusion filling her words, as she splashed her way through the water to meet them.
“Honour. Please.” Soulara didn’t enjoy the tone of begging in her voice, but she needed Honour to get it together quickly.
“I’ll kill her if she doesn’t let you come back to our people. This is all part of their plan.”
“No.” Soulara placed a gentle hand on Honour’s forearm. The touch seemed to bring Honour back to herself. Mostly.
“No?” Honour asked.
“She didn’t do anything to me. I can change my fluke to legs and back again.” Soulara hated that she was having to explain this. She hadn’t wanted anyone to find out. She would be ostracized exactly like her mother had.
“You’re a witch?” The horror in Honour’s words was palpable.
“No, not like the stories. Magic isn’t something to fear.”
“And yet you’ve hidden it from me.” The hurt in Honour’s eyes was almost worse than the horror.
“I’m sorry. The witches have been cursed unfairly for far too long. Magic’s a gift. And I couldn’t let it become who I am.” Soulara sucked in a sharp breath. “It’s why you can breathe above the water. It’s why I can walk. But I’m not my magic. I am Princess Soulara of Reine, heir to the throne, friend to Honour.”
Honour paused, skimming her gaze over Soulara’s body and back up again. “And you’re sure this is your doing and not the invaders?”
“Trust me.” Soulara laughed, her friend’s the relief washing away her initial fear. “No one has done this to me. It’s something I learned about myself not very long ago.”
“You trust her?” Honour asked, jerking her head toward Autumn, who now crossed her arms over her chest, her stance obviously suggesting her lack of pleasure in the conversation so far.
“She’s brought us the answer.”
“To what question?”
Soulara laughed. The sound echoed throughout the open air around them.
“All right.” But Honour turned her gaze on Autumn, her eyes narrowing as she did. “I’ll trust you for now. But if you even think about fucking with my people, or my princess, I will hunt you down and rip you limb from limb. I’ll eat your flesh—”
“Honour!” Soulara snapped, her voice now carrying all the authority of her title. “You won’t threaten my beloved. She’s my true love, and she’s worthy to fight alongside us. She’s worthy of being my partner. My father wasn’t strong enough to fight to keep my mother at his side. I won’t bow down like him. You’ll accept her, or you’ll find yourself banished.”
Honour stayed silent and stunned, almost as shocked as when she had seen Soulara’s legs for the first time.
Soulara waited, shoulders back and head held high.
“Of course, Princess. You have my loyalty and my dedication to you and your partner.”
“Thank you.” Soulara held the authority in her tone, but the edges were colored with relief as they carried the hint of the friendship she cherished.
“Now.” Soulara let her shoulders drop and a smile to spread across her features. “Take these to my lab and get the tinkers started working on them. I’ll follow shortly and make sure we’re going to have enough of them with enough power to win this war. Oh, and I’ve enchanted it already. It’ll open in a bubble so that the instructions inside won’t disintegrate in the water.”
“Of course,” Honour said though she hesitated.
“It’s all right. We’re going to win this war, and we’re going to be okay.”
Soulara wrapped her arm around Autumn’s waist, holding onto her. She tilted her head onto Autumn’s shoulders. This was idyllic, wasn’t it? A moment when they were coming together, when the answers were finally proving fruitful. Soulara pressed her lips to Autumn’s cheek, knowing she’d have to take Autumn back soon, though they’d have to find some solution for how she could live after this war.
Honour stared at the cylinder in her hands as if it was now the enemy. Soulara’s lips quirked up. Would Honour ever stop seeing everyone as suspicious? Would she perhaps be willing and able to find love of her own? Whoever was going to take on that mantle would have to be someone with patience to spare. Loads of it.
Nylah swam circles around Honour, as if happy that they were all finally there. The ray had taken on new life since Soulara had found their physical form. Soulara’s heart jolted, and she glanced up to meet Honour’s eyes. “You should remind me to thank Kyree for bringing Nylah with her.”
“Nylah?” Honour frowned.
“My ray.” Soulara held out her hand.
Nylah flipped up out of the water and splashed Honour. Soulara laughed, the trill of her voice easing into her chest and lessening the tension that had taken up residence there lately. This was exactly what she’d needed. If Honour could accept Autumn, then all of Reine would eventually.
They had to.
Soulara wouldn’t stand for it any other way.