He swam to Sara's room to see nothing changed. Her eyes were still closed like she was in a deep sleep. That only a kiss could wake her, but this wasn't a fairytale. Her hands laying at her sides, and breathing steady breaths. Mahdi felt like she could wake up any second. But it didn't happen.

Sera had a bandage covering her heart and shoulder. Other wounds were either covered to heal, or already healed.

Sera got lucky. Mahdi thought as he swam up to Sara's bedside.

The spear barely missed Sara's heart. Instead, the spear cut off Sara's lungs, stopping her breathing altogether. She lost a lot of blood which stopped her heart. Des was able to give some of his blood to help his little sister. The medics said Sera was lucky to be alive.

Mahdi began to stroke Sara's hair.

"We had another successful day, Sera. We reunited around fifty families today. I wish you could be here to see it," he whispered to Sera. "I know you would love it. I want you to come back. You have to. Your people need you."

Mahdi continued to stroke Sara's hair, when the door burst open. In swam Yazeed.

"Mahdi, the girls need us up in Becca's room," Yazeed said.

"Okay. I'll be up shortly."

"They were afraid you would say that. So they came down here."

Just as Yazeed said that, in swam Des and the girls.

"We knew you wouldn't want to leave Sera, so we came to you," Becca said.

Becca pulled up a chair and sat down on the other side of Sera. She pulled out a notebook, and flipped to an empty page. Mahdi took Sera's hand, and knelt down on the ground. Des, Yazeed, Neela, and Ling stayed at the bottom of Sera's bed.

"I was promised food," Yazeed said.

"No food. It was only to make you come," Becca said with a smug smile.

"Okay, no more back and forth. Let's get down to business," Ling said.

"I agree, what do we need to do?" Mahdi asked.

"Well first, we need to get in contact with Ava and Astrid," Becca said.

"I haven't heard from Ava in a long time. She should be okay though. We would know if she was in peril, wouldn't we?" Long asked Becca.

"I felt it when Sera," Neela started taking a breath, thinking on how to word this, "got injured."

"So Ava and Astrid should be alright, right?"

"Yes, I believe so."

Just then, an knock came at the door. Des swam over to answer it. There stood a guard.

"Your highness," the guard said with a bow, "there is a girl claiming to know these girls. Should I send her down?"

"Yes. Please," Ling said.

The guard bowed, and left the room. Des closed the door.

"I hope it's Ava or Astrid. We could use either one of them."

Another knock came at the door, and Des answered it again. There stood a mermaid. She was bruised, and her clothing was torn.

"Ola, minas. Como vas?"

"Ava!" The girls shouted in unison. They swam up to the dirty mermaid. 

"Finally some good news," Becca said.

Ava swam into the room. Turned her head around like she was looking around the room, and asked, "Where am I exactly, it's hard to see."

"The infirmary. But I think you'll be able to see this," Neela said guiding Ava to the edge of Sera's bed.

It took a minute for Ava to process what she was seeing before saying, "What happened?"

"Lucia happened. She shot a spear through Sera's chest. She's lucky she's alive right now," Becca said.

"Oh my Gods. Will she be awake in time to fight? I can't have two bad things happen to me within the same week."

"We don't know if she will be awake. We hope so."

"What do you mean two bad things happen to you?" Neela asked.

"Well, it's more like three. On my way back from the cave I was ambushed by Death Riders. I was locked up in a cage until a friend of mine found me and saved me. But Baby was just protecting me and," Ava took a breath to hold back tears. "and they killed him. He was only protecting me."

Then the four girls hear a voice. "Guys! Can you hear me?"