Mera's triumph shattered the second she stepped outside.
Tamara was already leaning casually against the porch railing. She had her arms crossed and a deceptively sweet, knowing smile on her face.
"Going somewhere?" Tamara asked.
Mera immediately dropped Daniel's arm, clamped a hand onto Tamara's shoulder, and marched her to the far corner of the porch.
"We had an agreement," Mera hissed, her voice a dangerous whisper. "One week. Exclusive. That was the treaty."
"I lied," Tamara replied cheerfully, completely unfazed by the sudden drop in barometric pressure.
"If I hadn't agreed to your little monopoly in front of Eve and the rest, they would have swarmed the door. I gave you a clean getaway. You're welcome. Now I'm coming with you."
"Where is your sense of sisterhood?" Mera demanded, her Atlantean composure finally cracking. "If the whole house follows us, it turns into a warzone. I can't even get five uninterrupted minutes to enjoy him."
"Which is exactly why I'm the only one tagging along," Tamara countered smoothly, laying out her terms like a seasoned tactician. "I'm doing you a favor. Four days for you, three for me. A perfectly equitable split."
Daniel leaned against the doorframe, hands shoved deep in his coat pockets. With his hearing, he was catching every single whispered threat and counter-offer.
He just shook his head. As exhausting as it was being negotiated over like a geopolitical asset, he had to admit—the two of them had become a dangerously coordinated team since their last trip to Atlantis.
"So?" Tamara asked, raising a delicate eyebrow. She took a deliberate half-step back toward the front door. "Do we have a deal on the four days? Or should I go back inside and get the rest of the gang so we can all go to Atlantis together?"
Mera's hand shot out with blinding speed, clamping onto Tamara's wrist before she could even reach for the doorknob.
Mera mentally weighed the absolute nightmare of bringing the entire house underwater against the annoyance of sharing her prize with just one person. It wasn't even a contest.
"Fine," Mera snapped through gritted teeth, dropping Tamara's wrist. "Four days for me, three for you. But you stay out of my way on my days."
Tamara beamed, her sweet, deceptively innocent smile returning in full force. "Deal."
She turned on her heel and walked back over to where Daniel was leaning against the doorframe. She looped her arm casually through his left side, while Mera immediately stepped up and claimed his right.
"So what exactly is the crisis in Atlantis that requires my personal attention in the middle of the night?" Daniel asked, letting them lead him off the porch.
"I don't have the full tactical report yet," Mera said, her tone dead serious. "But Trench creatures are breaching the borders of Atlantean waters. And they are appearing in massive numbers."
Daniel looked completely unimpressed. "The Trench? They're basically deep-sea cockroaches. They're photophobic. Just point a few high-yield floodlights at them and the problem solves itself."
"It's not that simple this time. You'll see when we get there," Mera shot back. "Now, are you going to open a portal, or are we swimming the entire way?"
"Portal it is," Daniel said.
He tapped his foot against the concrete. A pitch-black void ripped open directly beneath them, swallowing all three of them instantly.
A split second later, the cold, crushing pressure of the deep Atlantic Ocean slammed into them.
The moment the saltwater washed over Tamara, her human disguise dissolved. Her legs fused and elongated, shifting seamlessly into the shimmering, powerful tail of a siren.
Daniel hovered effortlessly in the water, entirely unaffected by the deep-sea pressure. He looked Tamara up and down, a faint smirk crossing his face. "Seeing you like that really brings back memories of how we first met."
Mera treaded water beside them, her Atlantean armor glowing faintly in the dark ocean. She looked between the two of them. "How exactly did you two meet?"
"It was basically love at first sight," Daniel said smoothly.
"No, it was incredibly bad luck," Tamara corrected him without missing a beat, her tail swishing lazily in the current.
"I tried to drag him to the bottom of the ocean to eat him alive. But the tables turned, he dragged me onto dry land instead, and forced me to do a lot of... things."
Mera just stared at them in the water. Her face slowly contorted into a mix of deep confusion and mild horror. That was absolutely not the romantic origin story she had been expecting.
Mera shook her head and swam ahead, leading them through the glowing, high-tech coral architecture of the Atlantean palace. They passed the royal guards and entered the massive, sweeping throne room.
Daniel floated down to the marble floor, looking around the empty hall. "Where is Arthur?"
Mera let out a long, heavy sigh. She pointed toward the dais. "Over there."
Daniel squinted at a large, unmoving heap slumped facedown across the bottom steps of the throne.
"That thing?" Daniel asked.
"Yes," Mera said flatly.
Daniel walked over to the steps and nudged the motionless pile of muscle and armor with the toe of his boot.
Arthur Curry groaned. He slowly lifted his head from the stone. His hair was a tangled mess, he had dark, bruised bags under his bloodshot eyes, and he looked entirely dead inside.
"Wow," Daniel said, staring down at him. "You look like crap."
"You piece of shit. You finally showed up," Arthur cursed, his voice a raspy, exhausted growl. He glared up at Daniel with pure malice. "Do you have any idea what you threw me into?"
Daniel raised an eyebrow, genuinely confused. "I didn't throw you into Hell, did I?"
Arthur let his head drop backward onto the cold stone steps with a heavy thud.
"No," Arthur muttered bitterly. "This is worse."
*****
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