For a few moments, time seemed to stand still as Sophie froze against the feeling of the weapon at her back.

“That’s right,” Jenny purred in her ear. “Don’t give me a reason to use this, because I actually think I might quite enjoy it.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Brooks,” Dr. Auldon spoke up. “But I hope you realize why we cannot simply allow you to wander freely anymore.”

The nose of the gun jabbed against Sophie’s spine and she winced. “Move,” Jenny ordered. “That chair is for you.”

She jabbed Sophie again and – not having another plan at the moment – Sophie reluctantly walked further into the room. Jenny kept pace with her as she made her way over to the two chairs in the room. When she reached them, she reached out and squeezed Lewis’ shoulder. She wasn’t sure what happened, but he looked horrified and defeated, and she needed to convey it wasn’t his fault.

She fixed Jenny with a glare as she turned to face the woman so she could sit down. As soon as she did, Jenny crouched down to tie her feet to the chair. Part of her wanted to strike the other woman, but with Dr. Auldon staring her down and all the different people she needed to protect currently in the room, she reluctantly waited for the woman to finish and then come around to secure her wrists behind the chair.

She used a zip tie, and it was tight against her flesh, but Sophie refused to give the malicious girl the satisfaction of knowing that it stung.

“Don’t worry too much, Miss Brooks,” Dr. Auldon said as he approached her. “As I told you, this is for the best. And I do promise to look into the future for you. Both of you.” His grin was wide and Sophie had never hated him more than she did in that moment. “You won’t be trapped here forever either. Just for now. But I will be needing your keys,” he insisted.

“Go to hell,” Sophie hissed.

“I’ll work on that, but first the keys, Miss Brooks. Unless you’re inclined to let the other two suffer without food or water? We’ll get the door open eventually, of course, but it will make things easier if you cooperate.”

Sophie growled in response.

“Such hostility,” Dr. Auldon scolded. “How about I rephrase it then…so long as you cooperate, I’ll make sure that everyone in this room – and the other two – are well cared for, perhaps almost even to standards you might approve of. Of course, you’re a very self-sacrificing individual, Miss Brooks, so if need be, I’ll take your lack of compliance out on them, you understand? Now, the keys?”

Sophie stared at him for a moment. She hated how backed into a corner she was, but she couldn’t tell if he was bluffing or not and couldn’t take the risk. “Pant pocket,” she sighed. Her shoulders slumped and she pulled at the ties as a clear indicator she couldn’t grab them herself.

Dr. Auldon grinned. “Good choice,” he praised. “Miss Barnes?”

Sophie gritted her teeth as the other woman shoved her fingers against Sophie’s hip into her pocket in order to pull out Sophie’s ring of keys. She tossed them to the scientist who caught them and pocketed them.

“We’ll give you some time to catch up, but I trust you know there will be consequences for any excessive noise, yes?”

Sophie looked away. Her fingers curled into fists behind her back as she fought to wrestle with her hatred and feelings of helplessness.

Dr. Auldon nodded as though her silence was answer enough for him. He turned to leave, and waved at Jenny who looked incredibly reluctant, but ultimately turned and walked through the door.

“Wait!” Sophie called just before Dr. Auldon left.

“Yes, Miss Brooks?”

“Riley…leave her with Katie, please? And don’t hurt her. I know she can be…stubborn, but she’s a good kid.”

Silence stretched after her request and Sophie’s heart squeezed with worry. Finally, Dr. Auldon turned to look at her. “I told you already that your compliance dictates my lenience with the animals we are holding here temporarily. So long as that continues, Miss Brooks, she will only face repercussions or measures that she forces us to take. But I see no harm in leaving them together; I imagine a familiar face will be soothing for Katherine, and I have no desire to hinder her recovery process with panic.”

Sophie sighed. It was the best she was going to get, she supposed. “Thank you.”

The doors swished shut behind them and Sophie sagged for a moment before finally looking around. There were five tanks with Mer in them, which confused Sophie as she had only been expecting Luna and her parents.

She found Luna first. The young girl was curled up in a tight little ball despite her tank looking like it had just enough space at least for her to stretch out. She had her back to the room, so Sophie couldn’t see her expression. Beside her tank were two stacked on top of one another. The bottom one had who Sophie would guess was Luna’s mother, Rebecca. Her deep emerald scales sparkled in the light, and she was staring at Sophie with narrowed brown eyes. She didn’t quite look hostile, just wary. Sophie supposed she couldn’t blame her.

When she caught her looking, Rebecca looked away. In the tank stacked on top of hers was a male Mer Sophie assumed was the father, though she could not recall his name. He wasn’t paying much attention to any of them, instead slowly twisting around his tank with parted jaws as though searching for a way out. He continuously poked around the seams of the glass walls holding him in.

The two other Mer held Sophie’s attention longer. They were in two stacked tanks across from the others on the other side of the room. In the bottom tank was another male, though he was definitely much younger than Luna’s father. Strangely enough, they almost looked a bit alike. The boy had a slate tail that didn’t appear to have any scales, and thick red stripes curling around his waist. He looked like a shark with his thick, dark fin and large dorsal protruding from his back. There was fury blazing in his purple-gray gaze and he was anything but calm. His fangs were bared and he was making the most of what little space he’d been afforded to strike the glass around him with his tail. Each blow made a wet thudding sound that made Sophie wince.

The motion had to hurt, but the boy barely flinched before lashing out again. He was staring up at the tank above him, and seemed desperate to get to the girl within.

Sophie took a moment to examine her. She had soft brown eyes and bright sunny hair that was tangled around a spiked mane of fin crowning her head. Her scales were a vivid sunset orange and peach colored fins flicked in the water. She was curled up as well, with one arm curled around a swollen middle. Sophie also noted the strange, large translucent fins that sprouted from her sides along her ribs. They didn’t seem to match the rest of her and didn’t look anything like the other Mer fins she’d seen.

She didn’t pay that detail too much attention much, however. It was the way the girl was coddling her belly that concerned Sophie. Was she pregnant? It would certainly explain why the other Mer seemed so desperate to get to her. They were likely a mated pair.

Finally, Sophie twisted slightly in her seat to get a better look at Lewis. His hair was full of sand, as if there was a recent scuffle, and his eyes looked haunted and sunken in. Whatever happened looked like it maybe happened very recently, and Lewis didn’t appear to have gotten any rest. He looked away from her and wrenched at the ties around his wrists.

“Hey, it’s okay,” she murmured. She hated that he was blaming himself and the last thing she wanted to do was squeeze the details from him, but she needed to know. “Lewis, what happened?”

Lewis clenched his jaw and shook his head. “I should have seen it coming. But we were completely blindsided. It was before dawn. Riley had just gotten back the day prior and taken off, so Luna’s family stayed the night at the beach. They should have been in deeper waters, they might have been safer then, but Karina,” Lewis paused to jerk his head at the orange scaled Mer, “is pregnant. She was having a very hard time getting any rest because she’s terrified of us and that cabin isn’t exactly surrounded by ideal dwelling waters. I was worried about the baby, with how much stress she was under, so I brought her up onto the sand to use the weighted blanket.”

Sophie nodded. They’d given it to Luna a few times when her nightmares or panic attacks got particularly bad and she couldn’t seem to get them under control. It had always worked like magic, so she understood Lewis’ choice there.

“The boy’s name is Nero,” Lewis said. “He’s Luna’s brother.”

Sophie glanced once more at the dark, shark-like Mer and frowned. He was still beating at the glass and didn’t appear to be following their conversation at all. “I thought Riley said-”

“She didn’t know,” Lewis explained. “He returned to her pod after she’d left. She had no idea he was alive. But with Karina up on the shore, Nero stayed with her.”

“They are a pair then?”

“Yes.”

Sophie glanced back at the two Mer in question. Nero’s actions hadn’t changed, though there was a certain sag in his posture now, as though he was beginning to lose hope of shattering the glass holding him prisoner.

Karina was gazing at him with a tortured expression on her face, and her free hand was pressed against the glass floor of her tank with her fingers splayed.

After a moment, Nero looked up at her and his face scrunched with defeat. Sophie watched him raise his hand to spread his fingers against the roof where Karina’s was, and he pressed his forehead there too.

She looked away after that. It was breaking her heart to see the young couple so frightened and separated. When her attention returned to Lewis, he was still gazing at the two Mer as well. “Lewis?” she prompted.

He shook his head and turned back to her. “I spent the night out with them. It didn’t feel right to leave them all exposed at the shore while I was inside. Lemuria…they came with boats and vans. I don’t even know how they managed to sneak up on us quite so well, but the vehicle engines woke most of them and by that time, we were already surrounded by speedboats dropping nets in the water. They might have been able to jump them, but only Rebecca and Ixion were actually half in the water, and someone on that team is an impressive shot with a tranq gun, because it was over in seconds. Luna was already incapacitated, and Karina couldn’t fight or drag herself back to the water. And Nero fought before they sedated him too. There is a lackey out there missing a couple of fingers, and another with a broken arm, but he paid a price for it.”

Sophie glanced back at Nero. Now that he was still, she could see the long, jagged gash along his ribs and partway down his tail. It didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore, but it was likely going to scar. “How?”

“He attacked one of the goons trying to surround Karina. The guy panicked and pulled a blade. I don’t know which of them is more lucky that Nero wasn’t seriously hurt. But it gave them an opening to shoot him in the back. They didn’t sedate Karina. I think they weren’t sure if they could with her pregnancy, but it was almost worse for her. I tried to keep her calm, but she barely understands English and I wasn’t much use in the scuffle. Watching them box up the others, I think was hardest for her. I’m really worried about her health right now. We were kept where we were for a few days. They only loaded us all up and brought us here last night.”

Sophie nodded as she processed everything Lewis had told her. There were a few pieces that didn’t make sense. “What did you mean when you said Luna was already incapacitated?” she inquired. “Just that she was the first one they took out?”

Lewis shook his head. “No, they didn’t have to. She was already down for the count. When Riley left, Luna tried to follow her. She’s been having a really hard time being separated from Katie and apparently there’s a lot more there to unbox than we initially thought. It kind of blew up when we stopped her, and Lukshia sedated her.”

Sophie frowned. “Just like that? Why? Luna’s usually pretty reasonable if you just talk to her.”

“Usually,” Lewis agreed. “Not so much this time, she was really frantic and upset. But we had it mostly under control, I honestly feel Lukshia’s actions were entirely unnecessary and I wasn’t impressed. I don’t know what her plan was, keep her sedated until you and Katie came home or just didn’t?” He shook his head and Sophie frowned. She agreed it didn’t seem like the best resolution, and while she could understand the woman trying to neutralize a conflict, Luna was struggling so much with her identity that it was detrimental to keep removing her ability to choose or speak for herself. Sedating her rather than dealing with her left a sour taste in Sophie’s mouth.

“Where is Lukshia?” she asked finally.

Lewis shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean ‘you don’t know’?” Sophie pressed. Had the woman been captured and split up from them? It was concerning given Lukshia was technically the one responsible for ‘stealing’ Katie and Luna from Lemuria. She wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted revenge, and she hoped Lukshia was alright at least.

“We kind of got into it after she sedated Luna. She made a valid point that she’s only one person and we’re up against a massive corporation. I think Riley leaving really stressed her out, because it shattered the one already fragile solution we had to Katie’s condition. How is she, by the way?”

“On the mend,” Sophie replied. “Actually, Riley showing up saved her life. She would be dead by now if Riley hadn’t given her spinal fluid.”

“I’m glad that worked out, at the very least,” Lewis sighed.

“You were explaining about Lukshia?” Sophie reminded him.

“Right. She got pretty agitated and left after that. I assumed it was just to cool off and maybe do surveillance; you know how she is. But she didn’t come back, not that night, and not at all in the days following.”

“You don’t think she betrayed you? After all the work she’s put in?” Sophie queried with a sinking feeling taking root in her gut. Lewis didn’t answer, and the feeling solidified. “Lewis?”

Lewis shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t know if she sold us out to save her own skin or if she bailed because it was too risky, and it’s just coincidence, but I don’t think we can hedge our bets on her coming to our rescue.”

Sophie chewed her lip. She didn’t want to believe it. Lukshia was rough around the edges, but she seemed like a good person. But she also really didn’t know anymore. If this last year or so had taught her anything, it was that the world was so much more screwed up than she’d ever imagined. “Is it possible she’s just biding her time? I mean, it wouldn’t have made much sense for her to rush in and get captured too if she saw what was happening.”

“Maybe,” Lewis agreed. “But how did they find us, Sophie? And so quickly? That cabin was off the grid, surrounded by uninhabited beaches and brush, and it’s far from any fishing zones. It’s treacherous to get to when you know what you’re looking for. I can’t see them finding us on accident.”

“And it would have penned you in with only one real exit route to block off,” Sophie sighed in agreement.

“What do you think?”

At first, Sophie thought Lewis had directed the question at her, but when she looked up, she saw him staring at Luna’s mother, who seemed to be the only one of the Mer watching them and listening in.

The Mer’s eyes narrowed, and she shook her head. Her lips parted in a hiss. Sophie winced. Rebecca certainly didn’t seem to have a lot of faith.

“Lukshia brought them to me,” Lewis added. “She used Riley’s chip, tracked them down and brought them back. I had no idea she was doing it, but she radioed me to help calm Riley down because…well, it’s Riley, you know.”

“I do,” Sophie agreed. The willful teen was far from complacent when she felt threatened or didn’t trust someone. If Lukshia showed up without either Lewis or herself to reassure Riley, Sophie wasn’t surprised there was some hostility.

“Well, Riley said something when I was explaining to her. That she didn’t like an ominous vibe or something that she was getting from Lukshia. I thought maybe it was just because Lukshia has that really elusive and confident way about her, and I told Riley just to trust me. Now I’m wondering if maybe I should have trusted her instead. She’s always been really intuitive and I shouldn’t have brushed it off if she told me she sensed something off about her. Maybe this could have been avoided.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Sophie assured him. “We don’t know for sure if Lukshia was involved, but even if she was, there was nothing more you could have done.”

“Maybe,” Lewis muttered. He yanked on his restraints again. “This sucks.”

Sophie hummed her agreement. She glanced around at the Mer in the room again. Karina and Nero hadn’t really moved from as close to one another as they could get. Nero’s lips were moving, and Sophie assumed he was talking to his mate, but other than a few high-pitched clicks, she could barely hear him. Ixion seemed to have given up looking for a weakness in his tank and had sunk to the floor.

Rebecca was staring at them, and Sophie offered her a grim smile. She had been looking forward to meeting Luna’s mother, and this wasn’t exactly how she’d hoped to do it. The Mer cocked her head in response, but her eyes were hardened with distrust.

Sophie didn’t blame her after everything that had happened, and she probably didn’t even really know who Sophie was. She would have loved to have a proper conversation with the Mer, but since she could barely hear Nero speaking through his tank in a dolphin language, she figured it would be impossible to hear Rebecca speak English; if she even did.

For now, she chose to check in on Luna. The girl was still curled into a ball and was visibly shaking. “Luna,” Sophie called in hopes of attracting her attention. The girl didn’t move or otherwise indicate that she’d heard, so Sophie called her name again, just a little louder. Both her parents were now looking at her too, and both of them looked concerned.

Sophie sighed. “Luna, I know you can hear me. Come on, honey, look at me please,” she begged.

Finally, Luna shifted a little from the corner of her tank, and Sophie saw one puffy, bloodshot eye peering at her from through her long, free waving locks.

Sophie smiled softly. “Hey kiddo. I’m so sorry; things have gotten all twisted up. Are you hurt?”

Luna shook her head, but her shaking didn’t abate. If anything, it worsened.

“Katie’s going to be okay,” Sophie continued. “She hasn’t woken up yet, but she’s getting better.”

It was the right thing to say, because a small glimmer of hope sparked in her gaze and she uncurled just a little bit further. ‘Really?’

It took Sophie a moment for recognition to spark in her brain. She’d forgotten that Katie and Luna had used sign language to speak to one another when they’d first met. It had been a while since Sophie herself had used it, but it was quickly coming back to her. She nodded her head to answer the question. “Yes. She’s in a different room, but Riley is with her.”

Luna’s head dipped and she chewed her lip. ‘Miss her,’ she admitted.

“I know, sweetheart. It’s okay. I know things are bad right now, but we’re not giving up. We’ll figure something out, I just need you to be brave, okay?”

Luna hesitated and then nodded again.

“I’m proud of you, honey. Can you speak?” she asked. Luna’s silence had been mental and inflicted due to the trauma of her time in captivity. Sophie hoped that she wasn’t relapsing now.

Luna’s lips moved and she nodded her head, but Sophie heard nothing, confirming her suspicions she would be unable to hear any of them. “Luna, I’m going to assume your family doesn’t know sign language. Can you be my go between, because I can’t hear you all; the glass is too thick.”

Again, Sophie got a nod and she smiled. Then she gazed around to address all the others. “Is anyone injured?” she asked. It was her first priority, to take stock of injuries and other concerns. She wasn’t sure when anyone from Lemuria would be back or if she had any pull at all, but at least she could report anything rather than it simply going unnoticed.

She could see Luna looking back and forth, and hear a little bit of the chatter for a few moments before everything went silent.

‘My brother is injured,’ Luna reported. ‘But he says that the wound is not severe. He is worried about his mate though,’ Luna said. She shrugged. Sophie nodded. Names had to be spelled and while Luna was getting much better with her reading and writing, Sophie wasn’t surprised she wasn’t sure how to spell Karina’s name. They probably didn’t even have an exact spelling for most of their names. ‘She has been too stressed, and none of us have eaten much. She is getting weak.’

Sophie chewed her lip and shook her head. It was typical that they would forget to feed the Mer they’d captured, including the noticeably pregnant one. “Karina, right?” she inquired as she addressed the sunset Mer directly.

The girl’s shoulders hunched up close to her chin and she shrank back, but after a moment, she nodded slowly.

“My name is Sophie. I know you don’t know me and that a lot of this has been overwhelming, but you need to try to relax okay? Calm down, breathe deep, and hang in there for your baby’s sake. We’ll do what we can to get you taken care of, alright?”

Karina had cocked her head at one point as Sophie was speaking, and she made to repeat herself before she noticed Nero filling her in. Finally, she nodded and seemed to take a deep breath. She sunk to the floor of her tank and curled up, but her gaze was still fixed on Nero.

It broke Sophie’s heart to see the two that way. They should be together, especially now. Sophie had never experienced one, but she knew a pregnancy was hard and that it was easy for feelings of loneliness and self-doubt to creep in. Karina looked so young, she’d need her mate by her side more than ever, and with the stressful situation…Sophie shook her head. She’d point that out too when the time came.

Feeling lost and overwhelmed herself, she leaned sideways in her seat until her shoulder bumped Lewis’. He shifted to lean against her too. “It’ll be alright,” he whispered.

She pursed her lips and nodded, but it was more for his benefit than hers. She wasn’t so sure she believed it. She had before, but now that things had fallen apart so spectacularly, she wasn’t sure. She just knew they couldn’t quit because several lives quite literally depended on it.

They sat in silence for a while, and it was the closest thing to peace Sophie figured she was going to get. And it all shattered in seconds when both doors swung open and several people wearing elbow length gloves, long coats, and face masks walked into the room.