Page 21 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)

Lai

Lai checked his surroundings and made the dash across the gravel drive, hiding behind a magnolia bush.

He could see the large windows of the conservatory, the glass from a few of the panels blown out in Eleanore’s attack.

Carefully stepping over the shards, he pulled himself over a wooden pane and into a dark room filled with plants and a few display cases with some of the curiosities the family had accumulated over the years, holding nothing of any real value; sun-faded tapestries, rare plants that had outgrown their pots years ago surviving out of pure spite, and shoddily made taxidermies of strange, alien creatures.

Across the room, on a marble pedestal, was Lai’s prize, a simple amphora with ocher and gold patterns painted over every inch. Its delicate lid was secured with twine on top of its narrow neck.

The jar was within his reach when Lai was startled by a sudden, menacing hiss. Dread flooded him.

Barbara.

The damned bird was swollen with lust for revenge against Lai, his tail trembling in gleeful anticipation. Lai held his breath as he faced his nemesis.

“Now, let’s not do anything too hasty,”Lai whispered, hands held up as he slowly backed away. “You know, I bet we can work this out. My father and I did; it was very cathartic. I can apologize. I can even make it sound sincere.”He smiled nervously. “I’m sorry.”

It really did sound sincere. Lai was desperate to placate the bird. It was the worse possible moment he could think of to fall victim to a glorified chicken.

The peacock narrowed his eyes, tail unfurling like a signed and stamped warrant for Lai’s death. The bird’s chest ballooned with air before he released a piercing cry.

KA-KWEEEEHH!

Urgent and disrespectful, the call summoned the guards, loud footsteps rushing towards the noise.

Lai’s hand shot out, seizing the jar and stuffing it into his jacket pocket. The leather would have to be enough to protect him from its magic; there was no time left to be careful. There was only one way out, and Lai turned his back to the bird with a hiss, making a desperate bid for escape.

It was too late. By the time he’d vaulted over the rotten window frame, a dozen men were waiting for him.

A dozen. Is that all?

Butthe dozen weren’t just any old underpaid guards.

Cornered, Lai reached into his boot and seized a dagger with an enameled handle decorated with the same bird that might have just cost him his life.

He didn’t bother trying to bargain with the men.

He lunged at the closest, his dagger kissing the guards throat.

It took the man a moment to realize what had happened, both hands clapping over his neck, trying to stop the blood as it spurted out in a crimson arc.

Another guard collapsed right after him.

Then another. Lethal flashes of silver opened their veins to wet the thirsty ground beneath them.

No matter how fast Lai killed, the fight never seemed to end. More soldiers joined the ranks, alerted by the commotion. Their training and numbers proved a match for the cornered assassin.

Lai could feel his movements weakening as exhaustion sank in, grim determination fueling his attacks.

Suddenly, he was seized from behind in a ferocious bear hug.

Lai could smell strong drink on the man’s breath.

He recognized the spiced rum from his father’s cellar, the good rum that Lai had stolen most of already.

He felt an absurd pang of outrage at the theft, angry that Eleanore’s guards had managed to contaminate the memory of cheating Aris out of his favorite drink.

The grip shifted from his arms to his throat, tightening, crushing his windpipe.

What an idiot .

“Fuck, you’re gonna make me cum,”Lai rasped as he stabbed wildly behind him.

He felt the dampness of blood as he landed lethal wounds, but the grip around his neck didn’t weaken.

His vision was starting to fade. Summoning the last of his strength, Lai flicked his head back, aiming to break a nose, but he didn’t connect with anything at all. The steel-like grip holding him relaxed, and Lai seized the chance to drop and roll to a safe distance, glancing back at his attacker.

No wonder his hit hadn’t connected. The powerful guard’s head had been torn clean off. Behind the limply collapsing body stood Aris, the offending head clutched tight in his hand.

“Dad,”Lai whispered, barely able to believe what he was seeing. His father’s eyes glowed like hellfire, a snarl curling his lip. He looked invincible, ready to turn the tide. Lai felt his strength rush back at the sight, jumping to his feet just as a deafening gunshot ripped through the air.

“Bad dog.”

Eleanore watched from the half-ruined balcony above them as Aris stumbled forward, blood soaking his shirt from just under his ribcage.

Lai rushed to his father’s side, catching him, cursing.

Eleanore was smart. She hadn’t shot to kill.

He glared up at her, the rifle barrel trained on him.

Aris couldn’t fight, and Lai was exhausted. The battle was lost.

The woman smirked.

“You brought knives to a gunfight? I always said you weren’t very bright.”

◆◆◆

A single guard held his gun loosely trained on Aris. Even that small measure seemed like overkill. The man was slouched over the table, weak from blood loss. Lai, on the other hand, was held by three soldiers and a sturdy rope. Eleanore wasn’t taking any chances.

“I’m glad you two decided to come back.”She smiled at Lai, relaxed in Aris’s comfortable old armchair, only lightly toasted in the attack.

The rest of the study hadn’t been so lucky, the books reduced to blackened husks on sagging shelves.

“I have a message to send to Lucy, and here you are, messenger and hostage. Exactly what I need.”

“What more could you possibly want?”Aris demanded, exhausted by the effort, his face gray and ashen.

“I want her.”

“Lucy? Why?”Lai wasn’t entirely surprised–if he was in Eleanore’s shoes, he’d certainly want revenge– but the request was strangely out of character. Eleanore wasn’t one to waste her time on vengeance, not when there were bigger fish to fry.

“Shush. The adults are talking.”Eleanore didn’t so much as spare Lai a glance, her hungry gaze locked on his father.

“You know, I didn’t take her seriously at first. Life-draining powers aren’t uncommon; I’ve seen magic like hers countless times.”She sat next to Aris, her fingers playing with his dark curls. He growled in protest, too weak to fend her off.

“Magic like that can be countered with a bullet. It’s why technology is spreading rapidly across the worlds while magic is running dry. Just look at Gaia; it handles the junk magic you hoard here without so much as batting an eye.

“But Lucy managed to stop Gaia dead with her power, and that ? That is something I have never seen before. Imagine it: I show up to the most technologically advanced worlds in existence, ones unclaimed for centuries because no one can hope to stand up to their tech. And just like that–!”She snapped her fingers.

“I take everything from them. I want what she’s got ; power over life and death, done right. ”

“She thinks she’s a god!”Lai laughed, shifting against his restraints. “She’s fucking delusional, Eleanore. You don’t have a fucking hope of controlling her, and she’s the kind of stupid noble that would never, ever agree to help you.”

“Yes, dear, I know she won’t help me willingly.

Not unless I have something that she wants to save.

”Eleanore’s smile widened as she pressed a finger into Aris’s wound.

The man bucked and writhed in pain, the veins on his throat bulging as he fought to keep from screaming.

She released him, sucking the blood off her hand and looking over to Lai.

“I want to know where you found that girl.”She settled back into her seat, comfortable and at ease, but Lai could see the hunger in her eyes.

She wanted Lucy more than she wanted to kill Aris, and she would do anything to get her hands on her.

It made Lai nervous. If Lucy knew he or Aris was in danger, she would march right into the jaws of a trap, and she was brave and fierce, but she wasn’t prepared for just how cunning and cruel Eleanore could truly be.

“It was just dumb luck.”Aris shook his head, looking just as confused and concerned as Lai.

“Oh, no.”Eleanore grabbed his face, twisting him to look at her. “You and I both know that’s not true. It wasn’t dumb luck that brought me to your doorstep before her, was it?”Aris growled in warning, and she smirked.

Lai made a mental note to ask about that later, if they survived.

She let go of the man, getting up to pace the room.

“I don’t buy that she’s an actual God. You smelled her magic, didn’t you, Aris?

With that delightfully sensitive nose of yours?

It wasn’t pure, and it wasn’t divine. No, I think that magic of hers might have been divine once, but it was spoiled when it was implanted into her.

She’s artificial, lab-made. I want to find who made her.

I want them to make more of her. An army of her. ”

Lai sucked in a breath. He had no idea how close Eleanore had come to the truth, but just the idea of an army of pseudo-gods at her command was terrifying.

“You’re mad,”Aris replied between labored breaths. “Even if any of that was remotely true, you can’t even control one little girl. An army of her? You’re dreaming.”

Eleanore only smiled. Lai knew how she planned to control Lucy. All she had to do was dangle Aris in front of her, pinching him and poking him to make him yelp.

Stupid-noble.

“You think I’m going to deliver that message to Lucy?”Lai laughed. “You have truly lost your damned mind. You might as well just kill my old man now; I’m not throwing countless worlds under the bus to save him .”

“Maybe not. But there are plenty of others in your little family,”the woman purred. “Will you be as confident in saying that about Klein? Ryan? My little Louis?”

He felt sick as she used his two younger brothers, her own sons, as leverage against him.

He felt sick that she didn’t need to go that far anymore. He would let countless worlds fall to save his father. If she had caught them any other day, before they had made their awkward, clumsy peace not even an hour ago, she would have nothing on him!

She was clever. Too clever by far.

“That’s what I thought,”she smiled before shaking her head.

“I really don’t know why you’re bothering to protect her, Lai.

Look at it this way. If she was made in a lab, then someone is pulling her strings.

No one makes something like that and then just lets it go.

So if it isn’t me, then who’s in control? ”

Lai knew what she was doing. She was planting a seed, a corrupting seed that would poison his thoughts.

“Better the devil you know...”She trailed off, letting Lai fill in the blanks.

It was a textbook manipulation technique. He’d used the exact same one on countless victims over the course of his life, tricking them into thinking his ideas were their own. A thought you repeated in your own mind would quickly taint your beliefs.

Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

Eleanore was many things. Cunning. Cruel. Wickedly intelligent. But she wasn’t wrong.

He allowed it to take root.

“Eleanore.”The guard standing above Aris called for her attention. “He’s going to bleed out.”

“Gods, I hope so.”She grinned at the guard. “Get the collar on him and take him to my room.”She didn’t bother to watch as the bleeding man was dragged away, busy rummaging in the drawers of the burnt desk.

“Were you written by a man or something?”Lai sniggered, watching as Eleanore dramatically scrawled on a charred page torn from a book with the sharpened point of her lipstick. He didn’t want her to think he was ready to obey just yet. “Who actually does that?”

The woman pursed her lips, admiring her work.

“Lai, dear, I would have thought you, of all people, would appreciate the theatrics, and we both know that writing notes in blood doesn’t work.

By the time it reaches its destination, it’s all brown and flaky; it loses all the desired effect. No one’s scared of coffee stains.”

“You need to spend more time with Klein if you think that.”

She waved the note in the air, letting the waxy writing set into the parchment. “I know how to send a message. Don’t give me that look. In your heart of hearts, youknow I’m not the villain here.”

“Monologuing like one, though.”He grinned, but his smile slipped as she picked up his dagger.

Eleanore flipped the blade, examining the colorful inlaid handle as she slowly strolled up to Lai. She raised an eyebrow at the peacock on the hilt.

He had never hated peacocks more in his life than he did in that moment.

“Now, before I let you go, there is the matter of your outstanding debt. You need to pay for what you did to my men. I’ll be honest; I don’t really want to do this.

I hate destroying beautiful things.”She brought the dagger to his cheek.

He could see the blade fogging as his breath grew sharp and panicked, composure slipping.

“Unfortunately for you, if I let you walk out completely unharmed, well. My men won’t be too happy.

And there’s so little that you actually value.

What do you have left that would be equal to their lives?

Your dignity’s long gone; you’ve traded your soul away, andyou’ve sold your body to the lowest bidder. You’ve really left me no other choice.”

Her grip on the dagger shifted. Her free hand seized Lai’s hair, lifting it over his head as the blade sliced clean through, cutting his newly dyed locks to a fraction of their length.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Hair would grow back.

Then, the knife was pushed into his mouth.

Lai pressed his lips together until they were almost white, but she jammed the sharp edge of the blade between them, forcing his teeth apart.

He felt the metal grind against his molars, chipping the enamel as the slender blade was forced upwards into his cheek, filling his mouth with blood, the sharp point exiting just under his right eyelid.

“Look on the bright side, Lai. No one will ever want to use you again, not now that you’ve lost your pretty, pretty face.”