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CHAPTER FORTY

“That can’t be,” Celeste said, looking up from the trident and meeting Nerissa’s gaze.

“No, this isn’t possible,” Nerissa agreed. “The trident can only be removed by a siren touched by the Goddess.”

Then only Sephone should have been able to move it . Celeste turned the trident in her hands. It was surprisingly light and perfectly balanced. Familiar. If she closed her eyes, she could almost believe it was the spear she had lost. This wasn’t meant for me , she reminded herself. Sunlight glinted off its golden prongs. Celeste looked to her sister, whose Song had turned frantic. Sephone moved as though in a trance, her head rolling from side to side.

From the corner of her eye, Celeste saw one of the king’s men barrel past Torben, sword held aloft, eyes trained on Sephone .

Celeste’s body leaped of its own accord. Her feet slammed into the temple floor, knees buckling. And then she was running around the pool. But it was too large, and he was almost at the edge. Sephone, roped in light and still entranced, did not notice as his sword swung.

Kicking off the side of the pool, Celeste launched herself at him. Time slowed as she flew across the water, his blade cutting the air toward Sephone’s neck. And then the teeth of the trident sank into his chest. Blood sprayed across Celeste’s face as the man’s body tipped backward. He slammed onto the temple’s white floor with a smack, and Celeste landed over him, graceful as a dancer. For a moment, she watched as the color drained from his face. She felt no regret—no shame in taking this human’s life. With a tug, she wrenched the trident free from his body. Three perfect holes were left in his chest, a red stain blossoming from them. With a flourish, Celeste brought the base of the trident down on the floor beside her. Its prongs dripped. Her wild eyes scanned the room, daring anyone to make a move.

No one did. Her gaze fell upon Raiden. She no longer felt like the lost little princess. Raiden looked from the body on the ground to Celeste. He took in her torn, dirty clothes and the blood splatter across her face and corset. And he saw it too. The change in her. Or maybe she was seeing what she wanted to see. Emotions warred in his expression. Fear, anger, and perhaps sorrow?

“Look at you,” he said. “The bloodthirsty siren.”

Tears pricked her eyes, but she did not falter. “And you, the backstabbing prince.”

“How does the story end?”

“It’s a tragedy,” Celeste said. “It ends in death.”

“Shame.” A sad smile played on his face. “I do love a wedding.” He took a step toward the pool but stopped as Celeste lifted the trident and pointed it to his chest.

“Leave,” she said.

She didn’t know what stayed her hand—why even now she could not bring herself to kill him, after everything he’d done. The pirate had betrayed her, manipulated her, locked her up in a cage. And yet her hands shook as she aimed the trident true. She still found him the most beautiful male she had ever seen. His brown eyes were on her face, a war raging within them.

“You know I can’t,” he said.

Grief ripped through her as she closed the distance between them. They crashed together like gravity. Inevitable. Celeste thrust the trident toward him. Raiden met it with his sword. The impact echoed across the room. And then they were dancing. A terrible, horrible dance of death. And for once they were evenly matched. He may have trained with a sword since he was a boy, but Celeste had trained with a spear for just as long. Somehow the trident felt right in her hands. Like an extension of herself. She lunged, and he retreated, losing ground. And when his sword tangled between the trident’s teeth, she knew she had him. With a flick of her weapon, the sword was out of his hands. She pressed the trident’s prongs against his chest, his heart. Eyes wide, the captain raised his hands above his head. Her tears came unbidden, running down her cheeks as she prepared at last to finish her mission. She wondered if it would matter now.

A piercing cry filled the room.

She turned to see a sword sinking into Kiyami’s side.

“No!” the scream ripped from Celeste’s throat.

Celeste watched in horror as her friend fell to her knees. Color faded from her face. Beside her, Bastian’s body lay on the floor, his limbs pointing at odd angles. To the right, Nasir and Torben raised their weapons, surrounded.

Raiden froze, his expression stricken. The crew he promised to protect.

It was Celeste who moved first. Raising the trident, she charged. A cry escaped her lips as she rushed to her friend’s aid. But the Song of her sister and Gala had grown too loud to hear it. The two voices rose together, reaching the climax of their Song, which, at any second, would fall to its inevitable end. The king’s man pulled his sword from Kiyami’s side. Her body slumped, blood pouring from the wound across the white stone floor.

Raiden, his face tight with determination, raced the other way, toward the pool.

No...

There was no time. She had to choose: save her friend or her sister.

Her heart breaking inside her chest, Celeste turned her back on her crew. On Kiyami, lying still on the floor. On Nasir and Torben as they dropped their weapons in surrender. Celeste dove at Raiden. They collided, tumbling to the floor, a tangle of limbs. Celeste pinned the prince, trident pressed against his neck.

The final note rang around the temple. Sephone’s voice sang alone, then stopped. Blinding white light exploded through the room in waves. Celeste buried her head in Raiden’s chest, shielding her eyes.

When she looked up, Gala floated in the pool face down. Dead.

Behind the body, Sephone sat on the edge of the pool, a knife pressed to her throat.

A knife held by the Sea Witch.

“Kill him if you’d like,” Nerissa said with a devilish grin. “His daddy won’t mind.”

Ice-cold dread crept down Celeste’s spine as she gazed upon her sister. Slowly, Celeste pushed herself off Raiden and stood. But she kept the trident trained on him. She wasn’t sure who her enemies were. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

“Nerissa,” she breathed. “What are you doing?”

“You poor child,” the Sea Witch cooed. “So naive .”

Celeste’s grip tightened on the trident’s neck. “I knew you couldn’t be trusted.”

“And yet you did everything as I planned.” Nerissa smiled.

All color drained from Celeste’s face. “What are you talking about?”

“Why do you think I left you at Port Romsey when you left your prince in Velluno?”

No... no, this can’t be right. This can’t be...

“How do you think the humans got on the island?” Nerissa’s free hand idly pulled at Sephone’s soft rose hair. Beneath the knife, Sephone stared unblinkingly at the dead body of her mentor. “When the Pirate King made a deal with me to retrieve the Voice of the Ocean,” Nerissa continued, “I searched high and low for any sign of where she would be. When I learned she was in hiding on this sacred island, I knew I would never find it. Only a descendant of the Goddess herself could... or her lover .” Nerissa winked at Raiden.

Celeste looked between them. How had she not recognized it before? The way he’d looked at Nerissa when he first arrived—not with confusion or surprise. He’d known her. But the expression on his face now made it clear he did not know this story.

“Don’t you know what this island is? It is where the Princess of the Moon and the Prince of the Sun consorted with each other.”

“Stop it,” Celeste said, her voice a low warning.

Nerissa ignored her. “The king never thought Raiden would actually find it. It’s why he came looking for me—tortured my location out of one of your pathetic Chorus scouts, and I was only too happy to help. Raiden always was a disappointment to him—a liability, in fact. And a costly one. Do you know what will happen when his father possesses the Voice of the Ocean? With the unification of the power of God and Goddess, the king will be immortal. And what need does an immortal have of an heir? Raiden was easy to sacrifice—useful if he could reach the island, but not for anything more.”

Celeste’s head spun. She had been a pawn in a much larger game. They both had been. Raiden stared blankly at the Sea Witch, a shell of the man she once knew.

“I have to thank you, Celeste.” Nerissa drew Sephone’s chin up with a turn of the knife. “If it wasn’t for your information about the current, we never would have reached the island in time. Do you know, I almost thought you’d catch on that night I came to the ship to deliver instructions to Raiden from his father. But I shouldn’t have worried. You were much too in love to suspect anything.”

Sephone’s gaze slid to Celeste, fear in her eyes. And defeat.

It was all her fault.

But this time tears did not come. Instead, something cracked within her. And pure, unadulterated rage blinded Celeste. Rage at Nerissa. At Raiden. At herself.

The room plunged into darkness deeper than a starless night. Screams and shouts filled the temple. As red anger rolled down her spine, Celeste looked at her hands and saw them glowing. It was as though moonbeams shone out from her fingers. Her eyes widened. Siren magic didn’t work this way. This was something else. Something she had never heard of before.

A dull thud came from the darkness before her.

“Sephone!” Celeste cried, diving into the blackness. As she moved, the shadows parted, creating a path before her. Her sister lay unconscious in the Sea Witch’s arms, a knife still pressed to her neck.

“Sephone,” Celeste gasped.

“Stay back, or I’ll cut her pretty little neck.”

When the princess did not retreat, Nerissa pressed the knife into the soft skin below Sephone’s chin. A line of blood trickled down her sister’s neck.

Celeste retreated a step.

A smile curled the witch’s lips as she took in Celeste’s shining frame.

“You won’t kill her,” Celeste said, voice firm. “You need her. If she dies, all the power of the Goddess is lost.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Nerissa purred, running the blade of the knife along Sephone’s chin. “She is clearly not the only one with the power of the Goddess.”

A chill crawled down Celeste’s spine. There were no stories about a siren with the power to create darkness, to put others to sleep with one note, to call the aid of the Hippokamp. It could be another trick. Nerissa had done nothing but lie to her. But the trident in her hands told a different story.

“I... How could I have the power of the Goddess?” Celeste stammered.

“You sirens think only of the Goddess’s gift of Song, because that’s what she gave to you. How to Isla, she gave her own Voice. But you’ve hidden away in your caves so long that you forget where you came from. Sirens are daughters of the moon, and your Goddess was also the Ruler of Night.”

The Ruler of Night . Celeste’s heart shuddered at the words. Just as the Land God ruled the day.

“I thought that power was lost. How...?”

“Even I don’t know that, Princess,” Nerissa said with a smile. “But you know, it’s funny ... after all this time, the Moon Princess and the Sun Prince fell in love all over again.”

“But they weren’t in love,” Celeste said. “The Sun Prince killed her.”

“No.” The witch’s voice turned melodic, sinister. “The human did not kill the fourth daughter. They fell in love. Hid themselves upon this island. A place where water and land met. She stole from her sisters to be with him forever in the human lands. Gave up her siren form. Betrayed her mother. Her Goddess .”

Celeste felt sick. “You’re lying.” But in her heart, she knew this was no lie. “This war between sirens and humans—it started when he murdered the daughter of the Goddess. That’s the foundation of everything we believe. If she didn’t die by his hand, then... But the Goddess gave us the Song to protect us from humans, because of what he did to her.”

“Did she?”

If the youngest daughter wasn’t murdered; if she fell in love and was loved in return; if she betrayed her sisters, her mother, to be with him, then why did the Goddess give them the Song? If it wasn’t to protect them from humans, then what was it for?

It hit her all at once. Revenge . Revenge for what the Sun Prince stole from her. Everything Celeste believed swirled, twisting into a new form. What was the truth? She couldn’t tell anymore. She didn’t know who to trust or what to believe.

“And it looks like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as the humans say.” Nerissa’s eyes lingered on Celeste’s bare legs. “I’m not one to believe in reincarnation, but the mind reels.”

Reincarnation? The Sun Prince. Raiden? But that would make...

“You said, ‘With the unification of the power of God and Goddess, the king will be immortal.’ King Leonidas—he’s not just any human; he’s the heir of the Sun God, isn’t he?”

The Sea Witch laughed. “Very good. Got there all on your own, did you?”

The darkness around them wavered. Celeste tried to maintain focus, to force herself to hold it there. But she did not know how. The light radiating from her body dimmed. The darkness shuddered, then fell away.

“I’m afraid our story time is at an end,” Nerissa said, inky-black eyes sliding to behind Celeste. “Take our Voice to the king. The rest of you... kill the sister.”

Celeste spun to find the remaining men moving toward her and Sephone, leaving behind the battered bodies of her crew, motionless and scattered across the blood-smeared floor. Trident raised, she leaped into their path.

“Oh! I almost forgot,” the Sea Witch said. “ I’d like to call in my favor .”

Celeste’s hands slipped on the trident’s neck. A sudden heat bloomed from the crescent moon on her arm. It coiled around her, moving upward and out until the feeling encircled her body in a viselike grip.

“ Don’t fight ,” Nerissa said simply.

“No!” Celeste cried.

But it was done. Her knees buckled beneath her as the promise pulled her down, forcing her into submission. The trident fell from her hands, clattering to the floor.

“No, please!” One man continued past, and there was nothing she could do to stop him as he pulled Sephone’s limp body into his arms. The other four surrounded Celeste.

She looked up and found Raiden still there. His dark eyes met hers, and she saw anger—a burning hatred she could not understand. He pulled his pistol from his hip.

“No one is going anywhere,” he growled. “And if any of you touch her, I’ll kill you .”