Galen cringes on the inside. Paca shouldn’t be here. She might be Grom’s mate in a few hours, but this place is sacred. He sees his brother stiffen by his side. Then he feels Rayna’s pulse approaching. Jagen’s pulse is close behind her. Something feels off.

“Hello, Paca,” Galen says politely. “We were just about to come see you, weren’t we, Grom?” Paca is not ugly, but she’s not pretty either. Plain would be a good word to describe her. But not just plain. There’s something about the look in her eyes that makes her less innocent, less deserving than plain. Plain could be pitied. But Paca doesn’t incite pity from Galen.

“I hope you were going to come pry your sister off my back,” Paca clips as Rayna swims up. “She’s quite rude.”

Galen throws Rayna a look, to which she lifts her chin. “Paca and her pudgy father over there are full of whale dung,” Rayna informs her brothers.

“Rayna,” Grom barks. “Mind your manners.”

Rayna lifts her chin even higher. Here we go. “Paca is a fraud, Grom,” she says. “You can’t mate with her. Sorry to ruin your ceremony. Let’s go, Galen.”

Paca gasps as Jagen swims up to the party, almost stuttering in his fury. “You little … little stonefish! How dare you insult my daughter?”

Galen grabs Rayna’s arm. “What did you do?” he hisses.

She jerks her arm away and gives him a superior look. “If Paca has the Gift of Poseidon, I have the Gift of Triton. Don’t ask me what it is though, because I don’t have a clue.”

“Rayna, enough!” Grom says, grabbing her other arm. “Apologize. Right now.”

“Apologize for what? Telling the truth? Sorry, not feeling it.” She shrugs, but doesn’t struggle to free herself from Grom’s grasp.

“How can you say she’s a fraud? She just showed you her Gift!” Jagen says, slicing a hand through the water in frustration.

Rayna snorts. “She didn’t show Galen the Gift. Galen, have you seen her demonstrate the Gift? Let her show you the Gift.” She turns to Paca. “Did you hear what I said, Princess Cheater-Cheater-Whale-Dung-Eater? Show my brother your pathetic Gift.”

Paca’s eyes are full of murder. She looks at Grom. “Do something about your sister. You’re going to let her insult me right in front of you? Is this how I can expect to be treated when I’m mated to you?”

Rayna laughs. “You bet your sweet—”

“Rayna!” Galen says. “Enough!”

She rolls her eyes but doesn’t say anything else. Galen turns to Paca. Trying to sound apologetic, he says, “Please excuse my sister’s lack of…”

“Sanity?” Paca offers icily.

Galen smiles. Sort of. “Paca, of course, I would love to see you demonstrate the Gift of Poseidon. Would you be so kind as to show me? We’ve heard such amazing things about it already from Toraf.”

This seems to placate Paca and Jagen. A little. Grom even loosens his grip on Rayna.

Paca bows low, a sign of deep respect for Galen. It takes all he has not to roll his eyes. “Of course, young prince. Please follow me.” She leads them a considerable distance from the minefield, which surprises Galen.

They pass all sorts of fish she could have demonstrated the Gift on. After each one they pass, Rayna’s expression gets smugger and smugger, if that’s even possible.

“What’s gotten into you?” Galen whispers for her ears only.

She winks at him, of all things. “You’ll see,” she mouths back.

They swim far enough to reach the shelf that leads to shallow water. This all seems like a lot of trouble for just a tiny demonstration, but Galen goes along with it because it doesn’t seem fair that Grom should frown on the day of his mating ceremony.

“Paca, maybe we could stop here for the demonstration. We’ll need to get back soon; you don’t want to keep everyone waiting for the ceremony,” Galen says.

“We’re almost there,” she calls over her shoulder. Galen looks at Rayna, but she’s not saying anything. She’s just smiling like she really has misplaced her sanity.

When they pass the shelf into shallow water, she stops. Finally. “Just a moment,” she says. “I’m going to call them.”

She shoots up to the surface.

Galen looks at Jagen. “Call who?”

Jagen smiles. “The dolphins, young prince.”

Rayna still won’t make eye contact with Galen, so he’s forced to wait—impatiently—for Paca to return with her pod. After a few minutes, she comes back, three dolphins flanking her.

“I can make them jump out of the water, swim in circles, or swim at each other,” she says to Galen. “Take your pick.”

What? He throws an incredulous glare at Rayna, who returns a rare, humongous smile full of teeth.

“Grom likes to see them swim in circles, my dear,” Jagen says. “Why don’t you make them do that? Our young prince obviously can’t make up his mind.”

Paca turns to her dolphin friends and says, “Circles!” Then she draws a huge circle with her hands, over and over. The dolphins comply.

Galen gasps. Oh, no. Hand signals. She’s using hand signals like the trainers at the Gulfarium. Rayna must have recognized it.

Jagen apparently mistakes Galen’s gasp for awe. “It’s quite astonishing, isn’t it, my prince?” he says with a knowing smile.