The boys kept their heads above water and neared the island.

"Are you sure about this?" Kaerius thought when the first hunter saw them and pointed spears in their direction.

"I'm Rowan Solar," Rowan shouted, which answered Kaerius's question. The island slowly descended into the water, so when Rowan stood up, the sea settled by his waist. "If you hurt me with spears, you won't make it home tonight."

The hunters stared at Rowan while he scanned the faces, looking for anyone who looked like his dad, but older. A lot of the hunters had young faces, so the two older people standing in the middle of the group stood out like blood on a white cloth.

"You're no Solar," the older woman said in a shaky voice. "How dare you use our name."

Rowan linked his fingers and tried not to look too annoyed. "If you don't think of me as a Solar, why have you tried so hard to get rid of me?"

The older woman's lips curled down tightly. "Because you're one of them." Her sunken eyes flicked to Kaerius who watched with only his nose upwards exposed.

"Yes, I am one of them, but I'm also one of you. You don't have the right to hunt me or any supernatural creature; they live in this world too."

"You're an abomination."

"How?"

The woman looked to her husband, Michael's father. If the old man's hair wasn't so white and his face wasn't so wrinkly, Rowan might have seen some similarities.

"Humans and creatures are not equal. Humans are the superior race and will not live among the supernatural like we are the same. Humans need to be in charge."

"What makes you so superior?" Rowan asked, curling his fingers into a fist. By now, all the Thalassic Mortals had popped up to the surface to see what was going on. Rowan could feel his parents' eyes on him, though he didn't dare turn his back.

"Look at what we, as humans, have accomplished," Michael's dad said, pointing towards the lights in the distance. "While supernatural creatures are still hiding in abandoned warehouses and the Thalassic Mortals don't even know what pen and paper are."

"That's because you don't let them learn. As soon as they try and join in, humans shun them out. That's your fault."

Michael's mother gripped her spear and clenched her jaw. Rowan Kept a close eye on where Kaerius was, just in case they attacked.

"Why are you here? To argue?"

Rowan felt the water lapping at his lower back. "No, I've come to make an agreement."

"You mean, force us to make an agreement. You've stranded us on this island."

"Well, forcing you to make a peaceful agreement isn't so bad." Rowan wasn't sure they would really listen to him, but he had to try. Their views had made him angry. His patience was already wearing thin.

"You think we'll make peace with you? We've been hunters all our lives. A teenage boy isn't going to persuade us to give up our life's work," Michael's dad scoffed.

"Your life's-"

"You're just a kid. You have no idea what you're doing. It's a joke that-"

"After all you've done!" Rowan yelled, silencing the hunter. His voice boomed loud across the water, and Kaerius shivered. "After all you've done to my family and me, I'm still stood here asking for peace when I should just leave you to rot on this island!" His fingernails dug into his palm because he squeezed them so hard. "You took twelve years from my mum and broke my dad's heart. How could you do that to your own family?" Rowan didn't want to make the hunters irritated, but they had to know how they made him feel.

"Your dad broke our hearts when he chose that disgusting creature," Michael's mum said with sharp eyes.

Rowan's eyes dimmed. He could shout at them for the rest of the morning. He could rattle them and taunt their anger. He could yell and yell, but nothing would change. "I want peace. You're not leaving this island until we have it."

"Rowan, what's stopping them from giving you peace, returning home, then continuing to hunt us?" Kaerius thought.

"I'm going to scare them so much, they wouldn't dare come near this family again," Rowan replied without so much as a blink.

"You won't get peace from us," Michael's dad said and clashed the blunt end of his spear against the rocks. "We'll fight if that's what it takes."

"It doesn't have to be like that."

"Doesn't it? We're stranded on this island. The minute we go in that water, the Thalassic Mortals will drown us. You think this is fair?"

"What part of the last twelve years was fair?" Rowan asked. He stood in waist-deep icy water, but still, the rage made him hot to the core. "It's now our turn to speak, and you will listen." The ocean was getting rough as if it synced to Rowan's mood.

Michael's father glanced at his wife. His overgrown eyebrows twitched, and she muttered, "do it."

A young hunter next to them lifted a bow and pulled it tight. The spear wasn't pointed at Rowan. It was aimed a little to Rowan's right. The world slowed when the hunter released the weapon, and it whistled through the air.

Rowan followed the spear with his eyes. The last time he checked, Kaerius was to his right, exactly where the spear was headed.

Rowan felt it whip past his arm as he spun. "Kaerius!" he yelled, lifting his hands. The spear moved so fast that he didn't know how he managed to follow it.

Kaerius felt a sharp stab in between his eyes, and he drifted back a few feet from the impact. He covered the small cut on his head with his hand, staring directly at the sharp end of the spear that should have gone right through his skull.

Instead, the spear lodged in a wall of water. The sea had risen to catch the weapon that would have killed their future ruler with a broken heart.

When Rowan got over the shock and made sure that Kaerius was okay, his head slowly turned back to the hunters. They stared at the wall of water with wide eyes. Rowan stared at them with green balls of fury.

"You tried to kill my soulmate," he said lowly.

The hunters nervously shuffled closer to each other as the wall of water fell back into the sea, taking the spear with it.

Rowan started moving closer, and the spears trembled in their grip. Step after step, Rowan's glare fixed on Michael's parents. No word could describe the storm erupting through his body.

"How dare you," Rowan growled, only stopping when the spears touched his bare chest.

"Soulmates are unnatural," Michael's dad muttered, hiding behind a wall of terrified hunters.

"Look at you, cowering behind your weapons. If you had a soulmate, you wouldn't be able to think something so horrible."

"We are soulmates, but the pure kind. The kind made by-"

"A god?" Rowan leaned harder against the spears. "I wouldn't make you."

The sea started splashing against the rocks, spraying the hunters with cold salty water.

"You're not a go-"

Rowan clenched his fists again. Wisps of the sea plummet through the hunters like vines with their own minds, coiling around every spear, knife, and bow. Weapon after weapon were yanked out of the hunters' hands. If any hunter resisted, they were knocked onto their backs.

When the water finished, the hunters were crying out, cowering together, soggy and scared. Rowan's lips curled when his dad's parents failed to hide their panic.

"Are you afraid of the sea?" Rowan asked and stepped closer. "You should be."

The hunters flashed torches in the rough waters. Dozens of shining eyes stared back, ready to pounce if anyone fell from the island.

"Imagine if you were hunted on land like you hunt these Thalassic Mortals in their own seas. Do you still want to talk about what's fair?" Rowan asked. Nobody answered him, not even Michael's parents. They underestimated his power.

The sea pounded into the side of the island, and Thalassic Mortals watched from every angle. The hunters were stripped of everything that could shield them; hate, weapons, violence. Rowan started seeing them as human beings. They were frightened of him, but at least they could still show emotion.

"You are monsters," a voice said to his left. Rowan glanced down to his parents, who had been closer than he realised. Michael was the one to speak up. He was soaked from being in the sea, but his eyes were particularly wet. "Calling yourselves real soulmates is a joke. You don't know the meaning of love."

Michael's parents looked down to the Thalassic Mortal in the water; their son.

"Michael," his father said with a wavering expression, looking him up and down as his face twisted into disgust. "I would rather have seen you dead than like this."

Rowan watched the flow of agony ripple through his dad's face.

Mandy covered her chest as though their words broke her heart too.

Michael's lips parted, then sealed. How could he reply to something so cruel?

Rowan chewed the inside of his lip, trying hard not to burst completely. The longer he stood on the island, the longer his dad's parents could tear them all down.

"We've come here for a peaceful agreement that you will leave the supernatural beings alone. Move away and never return. If you agree, then I won't leave you on this island." Rowan stepped a little closer. "If you don't agree, I'll leave and let the Thalassic Mortals decide what happens to you."

Rowan's last sentence didn't sit well with many of the hunters.

"Please, just make the agreement," one woman begged the old couple. "Your pride is not worth all of our lives."

"No!" Michael's mother snapped. "I have my beliefs, and I will never surrender to a Thalassic Mortal."

Rowan pinched the bridge of his nose, realising how cold his fingers were. "Well, for those who agree to stop hunting can leave, and the Thalassic Mortals won't touch you in the water." Rowan looked behind him at the glowing eyes. He scanned them all, and each Thalassic Mortal nodded, reluctantly.

"Well, I'm leaving then," the woman said, standing up straight and looking Rowan in the eye. "I don't know if I can swim that far."

"You should have thought about that before-"

"I help," a voice said from the water, interrupting Michael's father. Jaiker swam to the rocks. "I take humans back to land safely."

The hunters who wanted to leave looked uneasy. "How do we know you won't just drown us for revenge?"

"Because they're Thalassic Mortals. You have Jaiker's word that he'll keep you safe, and he will." Rowan smiled as Laiken signed up to help too. "We don't want revenge. We want peace."

The woman stared at Rowan until she decided to trust him. She stepped down onto the rocks and slowly moved into the water.

"If you struggle, I help. Ok?" Jaiker said, and she nodded, trying not to gasp from the cold. They swam side by side, which encouraged other hunters to leave too.

One by one, hunters slipped into the water, surrounded by Thalassic Mortals who were guiding them home. Rowan never thought he'd see the day. Working together was a massive step in the right direction.

The only hunters who didn't leave were Michael's parents. They stubbornly watched until they were the only ones left on the island. Now they were outnumbered, with no boats or weapons. Rowan crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side, trying not to look too amused.