Page 143 of A Taste of Bliss

“The only way to unmake what you are would be death. Is that what you want?”

No of course not,should be the words that come out, but I find I cannot speak them. I hate what I’ve been turned into. If death is the only way to not be a monster, I can’t deny the appeal.

Too slowly, too late, I reply, “No.”

The wraith looks unconvinced, his head cocked to the side. “I thought you had found meaning in life again,” he muses, starting to walk around me in a circle, until he’s behind me. I stay where I am. If he’s going to kill me, so be it. I don’t think I could stop him even if I wanted to fight. “Your music, it has helped people. I thought that’s what you do now. You help people through your music, or through your group of misfits taking in little Made orphans.”

I bristle at his word choice. Maybe I will fight after all. “Leave them out of it.”

“What if I could offer you another way to absolve your sins?”

He’s right behind me. His words too close to my ears. I whip around and he’s gone.

“Remember that night in the alley?” His voice comes from behind me. I turn again and he’s standing with his hands in his pockets, head still cocked to the side. “I told you that you could save her.”

“Not falling for that again,mate,”I say, snarling at him.

He smirks at me and lifts a shoulder casually. “I’m not asking you to. I want to give you something, like I said. In exchange, you would be helping people.”

“So there’s a catch.”

“Not really,” he replies. Something in his form almost seems to ripple. He can tell I’ve noticed. “I don’t have much time. I want to make a deal with you.”

“What’s the deal?” I’m wary of anything this wraith has to offer. I know I can’t trust him. But I do know wraiths are bound by their deals.

“You can feel emotions of those around you. Tell me, does it get more intense when you’re performing?”

I blanche. How does he know that? Without meaning to, I nod. Nothing in the books Shaun has given me has really explained that. I pick up on emotions, but when I’m singing, when I’m performing, I can feel myself take on the emotions of the crowd. The bigger the shows, the worse it’s been getting.

The wraith takes out a small pendant, attached to a thin gold chain. The pendant itself is the size of my pinkie and the color of a dark blue sky just after sunset.

“This allows the emotions you take on from the crowd to pass to me. It will be easier on you as well. The rate you’re going, you will burn out.”

His words strike a chord in me. I thought I just wasn’t feeding regularly enough. But maybe this is a different downside of being a siren that I haven’t considered. There really isn’t much information out there on fae like me.

“This is what you’re giving me?” I ask, eyeing the pendant as it swings innocuously from his hand.

“No, this is what I get in return. The power this pendant absorbs will flow to me. It’ll allow me to feed without harming others.”

I don’t really know what to say to that. Perhaps that’s enough reason to accept what he’s offering.

“If you wear this at each of your performances and you develop a following, a truly loyal following,” he continues, “I will deliver you an offering.”

“And what is that offering?”

“I will bring your love to you.”

Mylove?Leighton’s face appears before me. “You can do that?”

“Yes,” he says simply, spreading his hands as if to say why not?

“You can bring someone back from the dead, but you can’t undo what you’ve done to me?”

The wraith narrows his eyes at me. “Siren, I am growing tired of this conversation. I cannot change the type of fae someone is, nor can I unmake a Made fae. Moving people between realms is difficult but not impossible.” He swings the pendant closer to me. “Will you do as I asked? And in return I will bring her to you.”

I owe Leighton this.

In spite of everything we put each other through, I owe her a second chance.