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Or maybe…he would.

I know what it’s like to love her. I’d never crush Juniper, let someone she loves die, no matter how much I detested him.

But now…now I also know what it’s like to be a father. My kid isn’t born yet, but already the vision of someone doing to them what I once did to Juniper brings savage thoughts into my head. The sort of thoughts that involve putting a hundred arrows into my victim, after I’ve cheese-grated the flesh from their body. Without a second thought, I’d do it.

Why wouldn’t Juniper’s father have the same reflex? Why wouldn’t he want me, Cerulean, and Elixir dead?

My jaw locks, suppressing any outward reaction. “How much did you see?”

“All of it,” Scorpio gripes. “Your adversary woodland kin sent word to The Deep. First, there’d been a raid in the wilderness between Fae opponents. One side lost, according to the faded souls whose essences still lurked in that spot after they fell. Solitaries patrolling that region caught wind of it before those essences had time to vanish completely. Your work, I assume?”

“They pounced. We reacted.”

“It happens, especially if you cross into enemy turf. Must have been important, whatever you were doing.”

I don’t answer that because this bloodhound isn’t stupid. Both attacks in and out of Faerie had taken place in range of the Evermore Blossom. But since we’ve got no plan of using the petals on our fauna like he’s done, Scorpio’s fishing for a motivation. He can’t guess why we’d go there otherwise, and he doesn’t know about Juniper.

Scorpio sighs. “That’s right. I can’t be trusted.”

“What can I say?” I hitch my good shoulder. “I’m picky about the mermen I share secrets with.”

“Are youconsideringsharing secrets?”

“Depends on how much my back keeps hurting.”

My reply comes out like a purr. His eyes alight. Satyrs have a particular knack for seduction of all forms. I’ve laid it on thick enough to entice him, to make him think he might have a chance of parting my ass later and pounding into me.

Ultimately, my brother and I can’t stay locked up. That we’re still alive means the mortals aren’t done with us yet, and they’ve got lots of iron in their toy collection. If fooling Scorpio will get us out of this cage, I’ll do what I have to, including flirt my balls off with this motherfucker.

Like well-behaved prey, the water Fae creeps nearer. “As for the whipping, a brownie traversing along the borderline witnessed an outbreak between your band and three mortals, which escalated into more. Those tidings came to me a lot quicker than the first, so I manifested into town.”

“Oh, the benefits of glamour. Between all that spent magic, you must be exhausted.”

“I’ll live. But will you?” A rabid hiss slides from his lips, the sound evoking his river origins. “Join us, and I’ll set you free.”

“Two problems. How? And what about my brother? He’s not awake to make the decision for himself.”

“To the first, it’s called a mortal key. From what I hear, the blacksmith keeps a duplicate in his forge.”

“Being mortal doesn’t make them idiots,” I drawl. “That key would be forged from iron.”

“I’ll find a way around that, like I found a way around you three. To the second, convince Cerulean later. Satyrs are legendary tempters, are they not? Recruit him or speak for yourself, and he can rot into a corpse here.”

The blithe suggestion raises the hairs along my arms. “Your devotion is touching.”

I’m clever as fuck, but sometimes my mouth gets in the way of my brain and ends up going in the opposite direction. I might have sounded a little too insulted, a little too dedicated to a Fae who’s not actually related to me by blood. Basically, I’d sounded a little too much like a human, or a brother, or both.

Scorpio’s brows furrow. “My devotion is to my world. Yours is the one in question. We all saw them butcher our kin. I’m fighting for the wild because that’s the vow I gave, and nothing will sever that.”

And my mouth keeps talking. “Come to think of it, you never answered Cove’s question.”

He twitches, his scales throwing embers of light across the grass. At our meeting, Cove had asked the merman who broke him. I’m starting to think she was onto something.

Scorpio’s gaze trips toward the illuminated flecks that splatter the ground. “No one broke me,” he says. “I broke them.”

Huh. I wasn’t expecting him to answer.

Then again: water Fae.