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created a few scattered patches of light below. Enough that I could make out figures moving silently around the perimeter. My Dark Gift didn’t work nearly as well in air as it did subsea, but I sent out a series of clicks and waited for its echo to bounce back to me. The picture it formed sent an icy shiver down my spine. Those were surfs slipping along the walls, surrounding my parents. I doubted that Ma and Pa even knew they were there.
    The lurkers were bare chested, which rebounded as a much sharper echo than clothing did, and gripping tridents of all sizes—some short and clubbed on one end, others long and wickedly spiked. Tridents were a common surf tool, but these men were wielding them like weapons. Looked primed for bloodshed. Would Pa be shaking hands with Hadal now if he knew? Not a chance.
    Not daring to breathe, I unholstered my speargun and edged forward. As I lifted the tip, movement in the holebelow caught my eye—a rising sub, which must have entered through the breached hull. Too big to be the Slicky.
    “Pa!” I hollered as I took aim at Hadal. “They’ve got you surrounded!”
    As my parents whirled, looking for me, the surfs dashed into the light. The shock on my parents’ faces confirmed my suspicion: They hadn’t known there were more surfs in the atrium. Before they could react, Hadal leapt behind my mother and twisted her arm up her back. A move that turned my panic into rage.
    Loping forward, a sun-fried surf hurled his trident at me. I dropped into a crouch just as the weapon whistled past my head and smashed into the wall. I popped up again in time to see another surf sprint for the stairs, while the rest closed in on my parents. Would skewering a couple of them make things worse? My trigger finger itched to let a spear fly. I wouldn’t aim to kill. Still, I nixed the idea. There was no way to disable them all before one did serious damage to my parents.
    “Ty!” Pa yelled. “Take off!”
    Behind him, the submarine surfaced in the break in the floor. Green and wicked looking, with a prow that ended in a spiraled drill bit.
    “Ty, go!” Ma shouted as Hadal hauled her toward the waiting sub.
    I followed the crust-skinned savages with the tip ofmy speargun as they forced my parents aboard. Footsteps pounded up the stairs beside me. Trying to fight off the horde by myself was sure failure. But if I followed their submarine in the cruiser, I could radio their coordinates to the Seaguard and get my parents back that way.
    Just as the footsteps reached the top of the stairs, I took off.

CHAPTER
SIX
    Feeling sick and fighting back paralyzing fear, I raced back to the cabin and locked the door. It wouldn’t keep the surf out forever, only slow him down. The sun was up now and from the balcony, I spotted Gemma in the thinning fog. When she waved, I shouted, “It’s a trap!” and hoped my words weren’t lost in the wind.
    The door banged open behind me as I studied the churning sea below. Climbing down would take longer than I had, but the two-story jump was a risk. Aside from the undertow, who knew if rocks or wreckage lay hidden beneath the waves? Wishing I hadn’t left my helmet in the sub, I felt for a handhold in the rusted hull.
    “Move and I’ll spill your guts,” said a harsh voice behind me. I turned to see a surf with blisters erupting across his bare chest. “Inside.” When he jerked his trident toward the door, sunlight gleamed off its dagger-sharp tines.
    Watching Gemma drop into the cockpit, I considered my options. She had the cruiser primed to go. The jump might be worth the risk now.
    “Inside!” the surf repeated. “Or I’ll—” His threat ended in a yelp that turned into a scream, while his trident clattered to the floor.
    Baffled, I watched him sink until he lay sprawled in the doorway, howling and clutching at his naked back. Behind him stood a messy-haired little girl in a diveskin. Zoe.
    “What did you do?!”
    She held up a slender spike. “Rockfish