Page 133 of The Secrets of Jane: Reborn

Michael’s energy comes rushing to me, full of something I do not want to feel. Why is someone likehimscared? Gutted? “Myliege,” he says before making his appearance, Bones slowlylowering his head to look at our brother in arms. Michael’s face is utterly crestfallen.

I don’t like this.

“You need to come. You need tosee.”

Bones is on his feet before any of us, our footsteps sinking into the sands. Ritter yells out for Donna and Rorge as Bones and I hurry, walking out and to the shore, for what seems like an impossibly long time?—

My heart rate picks up when there’s a beached siren, waiting in the water, up on her hands as the waves wash over her tail, her long, nearly white hair wet and silky.

“Melona!” Ritter yells out from behind us, and the siren’s wide eyes find him, only to drift sadly toward me.

Once close enough, it’s clear she isn’t alone. At least, not in the flesh. In front of her is a lifeless, naked woman’s body, her flesh so pale and waxen it looks like polished stone, a deep stab wound in her gut marring the flesh, and then, as the wave pushes against the body, the head rolls to face us.

Bones shrieks, something more dangerous and deeper than anger flooding his body. I stop in my tracks, staring at Anya’s neck wound, someone having slashed it?—

Nothingsurrounds Anya; her aura completely dissolved back into the ether.

The siren has a hand underneath Anya’s head. “I can’t move her further on land. But I know she belongs to you.”

Even Basilisk comes hurrying over, slowing on the sands, wearing only a thin tunic and pants, staring on in surprise.

I stand in a haze of slow moving time, staring at Anya’s body that is so devoid of anything human. All that history, all those years together, are completely gone. Not a single pulse of life is within her; her soul has been gone for some time.

Bones is the first one to kneel into the water, taking her body from Melona as Anya’s head unnaturally slumps back with the injury to her throat; Bones repositions to hold it safely.

Slowly, I step closer.

My eyes widen further in shock when I squat down to see her face better, her fire completely burned out.

Anya…

My heart is pulled into too many directions, the grief of what I see like an untouchable emotion, while I’m so very afraid for Jane. I touch her face, her eyelids partially open to reveal the most lifeless gaze up at the sky.Fuck. My emotions are slung around so violently, a deep wave of mourning chillingeverything.My vision even blurs without thinking. “Her necklace is gone...”

She filled a void when I was lost, a sisterly presence, even if clearly notmySerena. She was so fucking committed to each task, sointelligent. Her heartbreak at Amy’s death broke something in her that day that not evenshecould mend.

That confirms that Jane’s mourning is because she knows what has happened, here.

No.

This can’t be.

Bones breathes heavily, wiping at his face. “Oh, you cunt, you can’t die on me,” he says through a shaky voice, pulling her body closer. “Who did this to you? What exact bladedidthis to you? I’ll find it, Anya. I’ll use it to carve whoever did this intopiecesand make him eat his own flesh.“

“Melona,” Ritter commands. “Where is Jane? What is happening? Where have you been?”

“Jane is alive at Ashfire,” she quickly says, my gaze snapping up at her. “We were taken by Blackwell, and I left your mask in a safe place, just as I felt them take Moriganna. I knew I had to go with them. We were prisoners in there forweeks, slowly beingstarved and dried out. It was Jane that set us all free, she even got Anya out of her chains… who didn’t make it.”

A cold wave of shock too large to contain exits my body through a stupefied exhale—Jane? My breathing grows deeper, more unsteady. I stare the siren down, my eyes burning from not blinking. “Janedid that? Jane freed you?” I ask, my gritty voice steady. My blood pulses, my body breathing with purpose again;Jane needs us. She shouldn’t be fighting them alone. She’s trying. She’s fighting.

The siren nods, everyone watching her with bated breath, even Bones, who still holds Anya’s body. “Jane set us free, and then this woman here. We lulled the guard who carried her dead body with our songs and threatened him with our curse if he didn’t tell us what happened. They were going to torture Jane, right in the halls of their castle—” a rage so uncomfortably hot boils inside of me “—Jesper, in particular. Anya took the fall for Jane, claiming it washerthat freed us—Morvock wants our blood. He was to use the princess’s in particular, like how he wants Jane. The two of them were supposed to make him untouchable in all of the Balar Coasts. Jane ruinedeverything. I heard the one named Jesper is suffering incredible punishment, and I think Jane will, too, if she ever reaches Boneglass.”

I glare up at the direction of Ashfire, every pulse of blood from my enraged heart slowly changing as pure hatred seeps in, filling in every crevice within me. The images enter my mind of Jane in the castle, before everyone,alone,just as I feel her?—

My teeth clamp so suddenly I nearly bite my tongue.I’m going to burn that entire fucking place down.

Ritter’s concern is the loudest on this beach, the dread of a father facing that his child might endure something terrible screaming through his aura.

My heart can’t seem to understand what to feel.