He had to find her, now.

Keefe and Kealan stayed with him, and they held the breather and the bracelet out in front.

Duncan whispered words and waved his wand at Cara's things. The green magic burst, surrounded the two items, and was off. Stronger than it had been when he tried before, this spell glowed like a beacon.

And it took off faster than Duncan could keep up.

"Here." Keefe grabbed his arm, and the merrow's powerful tail slammed against the water, rocketing them after the spell.

They shot back toward the palace and the surrounding buildings. The light zipped side to side, like Cara had traveled in a zigzag pattern through the water.

"That's avoiding patrols," Keefe said. "Look!"

Sure enough, the pattern moved right around the Brothers, who remained on patrol around the main buildings. Up, down, left right, it went, but continued on.

They swam fast, with Kealan following Duncan and Keefe. Duncan kicked his legs to try and help speed them along, and with his wand out, and he knew he must look like a drunk mix of Superman and Harry Potter.

As they zoomed past merrow going the other way, Kealan froze and twisted to the side.

"Norton!" Kealan said.

Keefe froze. "Where?"

Kealan gestured to a slender merrow zipping into the lines.

"Go," Duncan said. "I can get Cara." Almost to the palace, he could still see the beacon light as it dodged over the outer wall.

Thank you, Your Majesty, Duncan thought. This time, the spell didn't slam into any walls-however, it headed eerily close to the path the last spell he'd tried to conjure.

Now he had to get to Cara. He dove toward the light as it dipped and dodged around the ante-buildings next to the palace proper.

The brothers took off after Norton, the cousin that wasn't supposed to be down here at all. A flicker of blue-green light flashed over his shoulder, and he glanced back, seeing another fairy appear in the middle of the waters between the entrance and the royal palace walls. From the quick glance, he recognized the uniform as FID, but he didn't take the time to figure out who had come.

Just glad that he had some backup. They could get Norton for questioning. Or whatever else needed to be done.

He gritted his teeth and swam as hard as he could. Duncan fought the currents as he worked his way toward the light. The shimmery green glow finally slowed and slammed into the side of a small building just outside the palace's main structure.

He twisted and turned, swimming around the semi-square stone structure, trying to find the entrance. But it seemed like it was solid, with no particular- Wait, there.

A small red glow on a little perch of rock. It flashed in a soft blink, and he saw the little box underneath it.

Duncan reached for the box. As soon as he touched it, the little thing shocked him and a hard wall of water wrapped around the building.

He jerked his hand back.

It was a bomb. A crudely made fairy bomb, small, but enough to cause a decent amount of damage. He hadn't seen one in years-probably decades-because the Fairy Realm had outlawed their production.

And, of course, it was wired into the only entrance to the room.

Damn.

"Cara!" He reached out with his telepathy, hoping she was still inside. That she was conscious.

"Duncan! Duncan I'm here! Help! Help me!" Thumping sounded on the walls.

"I'm coming, Cara." He zapped the bomb on the door, and the water wall repelled his attack, ricocheting the blast onto an adjacent building.

"Hurry! I can't hold it much longer!" Cara thought back.

The neighboring structure's door burst open. The Merrow King swam out, followed by his wife and a younger merrow-his daughter. "What is this?"

Duncan glanced at him. Then at the building. "Move away! Bomb! Get away, Majesty!"

The king turned to his wife. "Away. Now!" The queen and his daughter headed back inside the structure.

"No, wait." Duncan stopped them from going back inside. "Too close. Get away now!"

The queen stared at him, then glanced at her husband. If they communicated, Duncan didn't hear any of it. The king merely nodded, and off the queen and her daughter swam, toward the top of the wall, and then over and gone.

The king raised his small trident and aimed it at the bomb.

Duncan surged forward, slamming into the trident before the blast hit, sending him and the king into the other building.

"No, don't. It's shielded."

"We have to collapse the bomb," the king said as he shoved himself off Duncan.

The king fired another spell; this one illuminated the water wall's framework around it. The defenses were strong and encompassed the entire structure. The bomb itself might have been crudely constructed, but it certainly was wired intently to the building. The tech to create this water shield was a merrow creation-Duncan had seen a similar tech back in the palace.

"If it's water, then someone has to be able to turn it off or block it or something."

The king's trident only illuminated the bomb and its connections, though he tried a second blast. This one bounced off and nearly took off Duncan's ear.

"Majesty, please," Duncan said.

"Guessing the missing banshee in there?" the king asked.

Duncan nodded. "The shielding has blocked the entire structure."

"There must be a way in." The king got a little closer, and the king's cohuleen druith's red tentacles reached for the wall. He inched toward the stone. The tentacles brushed against the water shield, and then slipped through to the building, like Kealan's had when he'd entered the cave to get to the kingdom.

The bomb disengaged. The water shield dissipated.

The king pulled back and picked up the small device. "Coded to royal blood, I take it," he muttered as he twisted the box left and right, revealing markings that indicated exactly what he'd said.

Duncan waved his wand over the bomb, teleporting the device back to the Fairy Realm for disposal.

The king pressed the now-revealed entry panel.

The door slid open.

There, tied up, was Cara in a SCUBA mask.

Duncan darted inside and grabbed her around the waist.

"Release your scream," he told her.

"I can't. It won't come out."

The king had swam in behind him. "Enchanted seaweed," he whispered and pointed his trident at Cara's arms and legs. Soft, aqua-colored magic burst from the three tips, converging on her binds and disintegrating them.

For a brief second, she rubbed her wrists, before doubling over in pain, the loose oxygen tank bumbling around her back. She winced and shook her head.

"Come on," Duncan said. "Release it now..."

She tipped her head back, aiming toward the ceiling, and tossed the SCUBA mouthpiece aside. Her mouth opened but nothing came out. She grabbed Duncan's arms and arched away from him and the king, the mouthpiece dangling at her side, and she tried again.

She started to struggle, and Duncan shoved the mouthpiece back in so she could breathe.

Cara glanced at him, her eyes huge in the diving mask and she wrapped her arms around him, the SCUBA mask pushed into his chest as she shook.

"Who did this?" the king demanded.

"Now is not the-"

Duncan's answer was cut off by Cara.

"Norton Lynch... Wanted to..." She couldn't articulate it and instead Duncan was telepathically inundated with the full description of everything Cara had been through, and what Norton had planned.

And after glancing at the king, evidently, he got the entire thing as well. Duncan might have added something to it, but Cara started shaking in his arms.

He stroked her brow. "It's going to be okay, Cara. Stay with me." He turned to the king. "Keefe and Kealan are apprehending Norton. Majesty, I have to get-"

"Go! Get her out of here!" The king spun around. "I will deal with the traitors here."

Duncan held tight to Cara. "We're going for a ride."

She nodded, and he waved his wand.

In a burst of green light, they were gone.

Chapter Eleven.

Cara jerked as Duncan pulled the SCUBA mask off her face. She inhaled a breath of real air. Real, arid air. Duncan lowered her feet to the-the sand?

"Where are we?" She spun around, realizing they stood in the middle of the desert.

Seriously. In the middle of a desert. The sun beat down on them both, and already Cara's wetsuit was almost dry. But it was air. Dry air. With the sun warming her all the way to her toes. The wetsuit felt too restricting, and she just wanted to peel the fabric off and let the sunshine warm her. She reached for the zipper and tugged part of it down.

The sun caressed her neck, and she pulled her hair away, letting the sun's heat dry her neck.

There was nothing around for as far as she could see-just sand dunes spread out in all directions. Not even any little oasis or rock formations to break up the endless sea.

"Wow, it really does look like waves made of sand."

"Rub al-Khali. The largest desert in the world," Duncan said. The sunshine was slowly creeping down the sky, creating monster shadows along the golden sand and making some spots look almost copper. The sand stretched for miles all around them.

"This is one way to get me off the island," Cara mused as the torrential scream spun and grew with power by the second in her gut.

She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Still. Shouldn't that have been worked out if she wasn't there? If they'd found Norton and everything, wouldn't the scream be null? Her head pounded and she felt her whole body getting weak.

What she wouldn't give for some of that healing Fairy Tea right now. Or a jug of it. Or an IV.

Her feet squished in the sand, and it felt warm on her aching, cold toes.

"You brought me to a desert?"

"It seemed the safest place to bring you," Duncan replied, gesturing out into the great expanse of sand. "No one around for miles..."

She put her hand on his arm for balance, because the exhaustion was starting to kick in. Granted, the scream still remained deep in her chest, but at least she wasn't under water.

Where she could hurt someone. She brought her hand to her throat. "I still can't speak."

He touched her face, raised her chin, and turned her head from side to side. "Nothing?"

She shook her head.

He materialized his wand and waved it around her face. Her cheeks started to tingle, and she rubbed her throat to brush the tickly feelings away.

"I can see the magic from the gag," Duncan whispered. He wiped at her face like a mother would wipe dirt off her child's face-not soft, but not exactly gentle. "Try now."

She opened her mouth.

Nothing came out.

She took a deep breath, relaxing her body as she pulled away from Duncan. Closing her eyes, she felt the scream in her chest, swirling around, and outstretched her arms. She arched forward, and opened her mouth and throat.

Nothing.

"What the hell?"