Page 33

W e stood with our toes at the water’s edge. Silent. Staring across the channel at the unmoving figure. Storm clouds clotted the sky beyond, like towering, stony peaks. They reminded me of Nemea’s mountains.

Beside me, Theodore’s breaths came tight, shallow.

If I laid my hand over his heart, I was certain I’d feel it strike with the force of a forge hammer.

I was wet and cold but the heat of him, the pressure of his fingers, the softness of his lips, still clung to my body.

Haunting me. I prayed that the severing ritual would excise that too.

The figure on the rocks raised her arm. The motion was inhuman, both jerking and strangely fluid at once, as if she were moved by something other than her own muscle and sinew.

With the flick of her wrist, the water in the channel slid away from our toes as if it was a cloth being pulled slowly across a tabletop.

“She’s a Siren.”

Theodore nodded beside me. “Her father was Varian.”

“But she’s not a Goddess, is she? How can she command the water without touching it?”

“That’s her magic. Her spell work,” he said, grimly. “If a Mage Seer has any Gods’ power, they can amplify it with magic. But where it costs us nothing to use our power, the cost of magic is great.”

The water had receded enough for us to cross, revealing the rocks and shells speckling the seafloor.

Neither of us moved. I glanced up at him.

At the beautiful, defined line of his profile.

His eyes had glazed, his look remote. I wondered if he was thinking of the last time he’d been here.

If he and his father had stood side by side like this before crossing, rough salt wind making their eyes water.

Worry swarmed me like beetles over a corpse. I’d rather eat the sand I stood upon than force him to do such a thing again. I took a reluctant step forward. Then another. Finally, Theodore’s boot crunched over the wet sand behind me, only to stop a moment later.

I spun. “You all right?”

He nodded too quickly. His features were drawn, hands fisted at his sides.

I stepped back and lifted one of his fists.

He tried to pull it back, but I held tight.

Gently, I worked his fingers open and ran my hand over his.

He watched me with a look that was both wonderous and bereft.

“We may have muddied things for ourselves up there,” I said, “but it—you gave me comfort.” I wove our fingers together.

“I would like to do the same for you now.”

Hard fingers squeezed around mine and he raised my hand to his lips. He placed a kiss on my knuckle. We started across the seafloor, hand in hand.

“You are picturing a woman like you,” he said when we were halfway across. “She’s not. She is ancient and time hardened. Emotion doesn’t rule her, only her poisons do—only her magic.” He tugged on my hand, made me look at him. “Do not make the mistake of thinking she will do right by you.”

I gulped. “I won’t.”

When we reached the edge of the holm, the sea slowly trickled back in behind us, nipping at our heels. The rocks were slick and steep, and our wet boots slid over bright green algae, over pebbles and sand, until finally we stood in the little clearing before her door.

It was warped and hung crooked. The large gaps between its slats had been filled with dried plants and pitch, the metal sashes had long been corrupted by rust, but it was sturdy still. I reached for the rough latch, then stopped.

Anticipation and fear had turned my stomach sick, but I was mere days away from being free.

Days away from being rid of all the virulent ties to my old life—of my bond to Eusia.

Days away from starting a new life that was all my own.

I’d be rid of the deception of a blood bond that made me want a man I could never have.

Slowly, I turned toward Theodore and reached up to touch his stubbled cheek. He leaned into my palm. The edges of his eyes were strained, his full lips collapsed into a firm line.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. Then I flung the door of the hut wide open, slipped behind it, and slammed it firmly shut. I felt for a bolt, slid it into place. I pressed my back against the damp wood.

Theodore punched the door. “Imogen.”

It was black as night within.

“Imogen. Gods damn it. ” He hit the door again. “Open it now.”

A voice came from the nothingness. A young woman’s, deep and melodic and lovely. Her croon was so encompassing it seemed to vibrate through my chest. “There you are, dearest. I have waited so long.”

Terror fell through me like a jagged stone.

Theodore redoubled his pounding at the sound of her voice. The wood rattled against my back.

“Imogen, open the fucking door.” His shoulder must have slammed into it next, deep voice cracking. “ Imogen. ”

“He’ll break my door,” said the maiden.

“Then let’s be quick.”

“Quick?” Her voice hummed like a song. “Oh, my girl, what you require is a slow business.”

“How do you know what I require?”

“You do not know me, do you?” She tutted.

“I can feel your power through the sea. Just like you can feel the water that has seeped through the soles of your boots. I can nearly taste the God’s blood that flows beneath your supple, young skin in the air.

” A faint rustling sound sent a shiver through me.

“Your blood has spread through the sea for decades. I can only assume you are here because you want it back.”

“I am the daughter of the Great Goddess Ligea. I need to know what… happened. Where she went. And how.” I tried to swallow, but my mouth had gone dry. “And I hold two blood bonds. I need them severed.”

A loud bang came from the door at my back. Another and another.

“Two bonds! Two is one too many, did no one ever tell you?” Her amusement was caustic.

“Has it made you sick?” Another scraping, rustling sound came from the darkness.

The quiet clinking of glass against glass.

“I need your blood first, sweeting. To give you the answers you seek. And to know just what kind of severing draught to give you.”

Theodore’s next assault on the door sounded with a splintering crack. “Open the door, Imogen. Do not give her your blood without me beside you.”

She gave a gentle, melodic laugh. “You’re certain he wants a severance?”

“Of course he does. That’s why he came here with me.” She gave a simpering hum at my answer. “The blood bond is confusing us both.”

“ Confusing is not what I’d call a Siren’s blood bond. The bond is clear as clean water… to protect . That is all it commands.”

I shook my head, trying not to lose my nerve. This was the only way I could protect him. By keeping him out of her hut, away from her smoke and its memories. More rustling, and then the maiden’s lovely voice fell low. “Your blood.”

“ Imogen. ” Theodore’s voice turned begging, broken.

“Making a draught will take hours at the very least. A severance will take days. I’m afraid my door won’t hold that long.”

My breath raced as I scowled into the black.

“Now, now,” she said condescendingly, as though she could see me.

The dark was impenetrable, my eyes never seeming to adjust. Somewhere in the middle of the space three orbs began to glow.

It was not like the spill of golden candlelight but a dampened brightness, like when a lantern cuts through the webbing between a finger and thumb.

They filled the room with a sickly aura, illuminating a figure at their center.

She sat upon a mound of vines. The lines of her body were straight and youthful, unlike the hunched figure I’d seen on the rocks.

But as the light grew brighter, I could make out the vines that snaked around her torso, shoulders, and neck, forcing her straight.

The jaundiced light snagged on the hanging skin of her bare arms. It gleamed over a taut bald head and cast grotesque shadows over the sacks of loose flesh that hung beneath her eyes.

Blank, still eyes the color of goat’s milk, and yet I knew without a doubt she could see me clear as day.

My fingers twitched to unbolt the door.

“Cruel,” she chided. “I know time and magic have made me monstrous, but there is no need to look at me like that. Open the door, Imogen.” Her lovely voice turned sultry—covetous, possessive. “I’d like to see my king.”

My own possessiveness seized me. The blood bond scalded me from the inside out. Without taking my eyes from her, I reached behind me and searched for the latch. I slid the bolt, and the hut flooded with gray morning light.

“Hello, Theodore.” She spoke to him like a lover, her voice laced with the memory of shared private moments. The tips of my fingers burned as my nails stretched into talons. “Look how you’ve grown. From a sweet-faced boy to a hardened man in so few years. And still just as beautiful.”

Theodore didn’t look at me. Didn’t touch me. Instead, he placed his body between mine and the Mage Seer’s. His voice was knife-edge sharp. “Hello, Rohana.”

“Oh no. You can’t still be angry. After all this time?

” Rohana hummed, eerie and low. The notes curled through the air like perfumed incense, intoxicating, stifling.

A Siren’s song. Panicked at the sound, at what it could do to Theodore, I gripped his shirt.

As if that small restraint could stop him from being pulled toward her.

He didn’t budge. “Not this time,” he said.

Fury beat through me. What had she done to him?

Her song broke into a tittering laugh. “Of course not. Not now that you have her protection. Are you certain you want to give that up?” Rohana’s smile was beastly and snarling, her mouth studded with sharp, blue-tinged teeth.

There was a long pause before he finally spoke. “Yes. I do.”