Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Time Passes

Epilogue

Up Next…

About the Author

Also by Richard Amos

Copyright © 2019 Richard Amos

All Rights Reserved

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Cover by Vanessa Garkova

Chapter One

The golden autumnal light of the setting sun cut through the trees as I drove my dagger into the heart of the flower fairy.

Her green blood sprayed as I pulled out the blade, striking my face in gloopy spatters. She howled and staggered back.

The fairy was about six feet tall and green-skinned. Her hair was crimson vines, her eyes yellow, teeth rows of jagged stone, and she was completely naked aside from more red vines that were twisted around her body.

Amid her screams, I heard a wolf growl and the sound of a body hitting the grass.

The flower fairy pointed a gnarled finger at me as blood continue to gush from her wound.

“You’re done,” I told her. “So done.”

She was. She wavered, blinking at me, no longer able to hold onto the standard menacing snarl the flower fairies had at their disposal. As she went to speak, green blood drooled from between her teeth, and she fell down dead.

“That was the last one,” I said, staring down at the corpse.

The gray werewolf came to my left side, huge and powerful and reassuring. Then the fae man appeared on my right, the sunlight glimmering off his red-gold hair, his black leather jacket splattered with the messy death of a fairy.

“You okay?” Andy asked.

“Fine,” I replied to my fae boyfriend.

“Here.” He handed me a damp, grubby cloth, and I scrubbed away the fairy blood from my face.

Andy took the cloth back off me when I was done. “Needs burning. Stinks so bad.”

The stench of sweat and overuse of the cloth was lingering on my face. Gone were the days of facials and expensive moisturizers. This wasn’t the time or place for it.

The werewolf shifted, becoming the naked, brown-skinned mass of muscle that was Pranay—my other boyfriend. “Fuckers.”

Together, we stood under the falling sun, in a forest in the Autumn Lands of Faerie. We’d been here for six days, or so I believed. In Faerie, time passed differently, so who knew exactly how much time had passed back in the earthly realm. I would bet it wasn’t six days.

Chains jangled behind me. I looked over my shoulder. Seph, my kelpie companion, sat down on a log, fixing up the chains that wrapped around his body of hard-packed muscle. He didn’t look up at me, his head down, dark curls falling over his scarred face. I wanted him to look up at me, but he’d barely met my eyes since we’d arrived here. He was closed off, gone to the domains of grief.

Jason, his best friend, was dead.

Jason. Our beautiful clairvoyant and guide. Slain by Alexander—the Chair of the supernatural council.

Gone.

Just like that.

Inside Jason, apparently, had been a greater magic than any of us could ever comprehend. In his death, Alexander had released that hidden power to undo the the destruction I’d caused with my song of summoning, as well as that of the oil barons’ monster, Jilly’s Bane. He’d died for innocent lives, for people to carry on with their existence, memories cleansed of the horrors they’d witnessed.

He’d known it was going to happen.

He’d seen his own death.

I drew in a deep breath.

I wanted to hear his voice one more time, just to know he wasn’t gone. But that was ridiculous. He was gone, lost in places I couldn’t travel.

Tears ran down my cheeks as I thought about him, remembered the way that knife had slid so easily into his skinny chest.

Jason.

Andy put an arm around my waist, followed by Pranay. I felt terrible about it. Seph had been Jason’s friend for a long time. He should be at the heart of comfort, to be held when silent tears fell. But no tears had fallen, from what I’d seen. I wanted to go to him, to put my arms around him. Our relationship had been one of tension, and we’d once had sex in order for me to heal from my injuries. Yet none of that did any good for the here and now. He was frozen, and I didn’t know what to do.

My own grief was consuming. Guilt and sorrow made for a deadly cocktail. I was the star at the center of all this chaos, and Jason had been sucked out of the galaxy into a black hole.

Because of me.

All of this was because of me.

For the first time since I was a teenager, a suicidal thought had penetrated my mind. If I just went ahead and died, then no one would have to fight this fight with me anymore. It’d be over. All I had to do was find a good place to do it or give myself to the enemy’s weapons and let the lifeblood leave my body.

The end.

No more pain.

It was a terrible, selfish thought that I’d quashed quickly. End it now and leave everyone else to suffer at the hands of the oil barons? For they were coming for Faerie, coming for Earth. My duty was to stop them, to restore my lost realm and die for the greater good.

The last siren, the third child of the last dynasty of the realm, is the boy with the third song. He is the end and the beginning. If he survives beyond the tests put in his path, it will be his sacrifice that will bring back the realm. His heart, his life, must be given when he claims his broken throne. He will call to life, summon it forth, and he will be the sea, the air, every grain of sand—all things will be him. His gift will bring back the light to where shadow has dwelled too long.

I hadn’t repeated those words of the prophecy Jason had told me. How could I tell Andy and Pranay, or Seph?

“You will in time,” Lucien said from within me.

“I don’t know how,” I replied to him on the inside as Andy entwined his fingers with mine. “I wish I could see your face.”

Lucien was a part of me now, no longer the merman, but a glorious water dragon—a weapon to break our way into the cut-off siren realm.

But I missed his face. I wanted to see the cute way he pushed his glasses up his nose.

“That form has gone, Dylan,” he responded.

“I know.”

A wave of warmth went through my body. “I am here, mon amour. I am with you.”

Fresh tears fell. In this moment, amid the bodies of the flower fairies who’d attacked our camp, there was an onslaught of emotion that ran down my face in silent tracks.

Speaking of corpses, the bodies started to curl up as if under extreme heat, crinkling away into nothing but gray husks.

Good riddance.

Kimberly was also lost to me.

Please, don’t be dead…

She’d been taken by Tarquin, the Overlord of the oil barons, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was doing to her. I had to get her back. If she died… I couldn’t lose my best friend, my manager, my companion from the dark days to the glorious pop star days, right back round to these dark times. She’d been there through it all, experienced every high, sorted out the dead bodies of the gnomes who’d constantly attacked my London apartment with her necromancer power.

Please, don’t be dead…

You’ll die anyway…

If I was going to die, I’d go down fighting. I would never give anyone the satisfaction of me taking my own life. The oil barons would fall. They weren’t having another fucking realm to destroy.

Not on my watch.

I drew a deep breath.

The temperature was rapidly cooling, the light dying quicker than I’d like. I hated the nights in these lands, where strange sounds came from within the trees, and I wondered what hell would come our way next.

The sound of flint being struck together. I turned to look at Seph again, who was busy getting our fire going, sending sparks into the pile of wood.

“I’ll sort the tents,” Pranay said.

In his ‘kindness,’ Alexander had provided us with provisions that included clothing, dried and tinned food, as well as two pop-up tents. They folded up super-small, probably running on some sort of magic that I couldn’t detect—the size being so convenient they slipped into a pocket. There were even sleeping blankets tucked within.

Pranay crouched down to his discarded clothes and retrieved a ball of brown material from his gray jacket pocket, then another from the other pocket. He tossed them onto grass, and the balls sprang open to a size that could fit four adults easily.

The council needed me to succeed, so they wouldn’t have to deal with Tarquin.

Pranay dressed while Andy and I went to sit on a log opposite Seph. My quiet tears were done. I wiped at my cheeks, my determination keeping me upright, not allowing me to completely fall apart.

This spot within the woods was a sort-of clearing. Trees bent overhead, forming a canopy of red and gold leaves, but their trunks angled away, pointed at a strange diagonal angle that created a wide circle. It was clear that this place had once been used before by travelers, given that it had the basics already set up—circle of logs around a space perfect for having a fire, a convenient grassy spot to set up sleeping arrangements. However, there was a no sign it’d been used recently and was far away from the main roads.

We had to keep off the beaten path, losing ourselves in the dense, seemingly endless, autumn woodland. Travelling the main roads to Autumn City would make us easy targets to our enemies. The woods provided better coverage, but also brought their own challenges—like the damn fairies.

In the city, we could plan our next move. We had to get our hands on some form of transport, a bustling city being the best place to find such a thing. The only problem was that land vehicles couldn’t move beyond the walls of their respective city. According to Andy and Seph, they would just shut down upon passing the city borders. Horseback or sea was the most common form of travel, air extremely rare and for a privileged few.

“Need some help?” Andy asked the kelpie.

“Got it covered,” Seph answered, sparks flickering to life as he brought his flints to the kindling.

We were all dressed in darkish colors, the clothes we’d worn when cast into Faerie by the council too mucky to wear now, stuffed into a supply bag Pranay carried on his back. These current garments were already well on their way to following suit.

I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my council-issued, charcoal gilet. Goodness, the bite in the air was getting worse.

“My jumper itches,” I said aloud, not really knowing why I said it. A pathetic attempt to spark up a conversation with Seph? Why would he care about my jumper itching? His would too, though. The material was nasty.

“You do not need to make such efforts,” Lucien said. “It isn’t necessary.”

I chose not to answer him. I already knew I was an idiot.

Seph got the fire going.

“So,” Andy chimed in, “what does everyone want for dinner tonight? I’m angling for the tinned tomatoes and crackers.”

“What’s the choice?” I asked. Oh, to be able to have one of his magnificent quiches. Andy was highly skilled in the art of quiche, whipping up some truly amazing flavors.

“Beans, carrots.”

“Not beans again,” Pranay said, sitting on his own log. “It’s called the musical fruit for a reason.”

“Yeah, we heard,” Andy answered.

Pranay chuckled. It was a lovely sound, but not a full chuckle. The clouds of sorrow were too thick.

One of Andy’s quiches and a bottle of champagne would go down wonderfully right now. Maybe a joint too, to block out some of the pain.

Damn.

“Tomatoes,” I said, putting my hand in the air. “Please.”

“Cool. A vote.” Pranay stuck his big arm in the air too.

Andy followed. “Just to be clear, this is the vote for tomatoes and crackers.”

Seph, his elbows resting on his muscular thighs, lifted his head. His aquamarine eyes met mine, locking with me, pulling at me. They were magnificent, sparkling orbs, despite his sadness. He was darkness and grief, a powerful, deadly force I wanted to hold, to—

His hand went up slowly. “Fuck beans. I never wanna see a bean again.”

To that, Pranay laughed. “Me too, man.”

Seph looked down, watching the fire grow. “Except for beans on toast. Can’t give that up.”

“No way,” Pranay replied, playing with a blade of grass in his hand. “That’s a delicacy.”

“Really?” I questioned.

“Hell yeah, baby. You don’t like a good old bit of beans on toast? White bread, a shit load of butter, and the beans smothering all of it.” He kissed his fingers. “Mag-fucking-nifico!”

I smiled at him. “I can’t say it’s something I’ve ever ‘bean’ into.”

“Is that a pun, baby?”

“I guess it is. Look at me with my hidden punning skills.”

“Not really,” Pranay retorted, “you just got lucky.”

Andy chuckled from beside me. “Salty.”

The fire continued to grow as Seph sat up straighter. “Bit of grated cheese on top,” he said.

“Not for me, mate,” Pranay replied. “Ruins the balance.”

“Adds to it.” The kelpie poked at the fire with a long stick.

I looked over into the woods. Aside from the birdsong, all was still. I didn’t like it. Those flower fairies would be back. They’d attacked us almost every day.

“You okay?” Andy asked.

“I’m fine.” I turned to him.

He rubbed my back in that soothing way he did. “We should reach Autumn City tomorrow.”

“Shit hole,” Seph added.

“Not my favorite place to visit,” the fae answered.

“Fucking hate all the fae cities,” Seph continued. “Full of wankers.”

Andy didn’t say anything.

I’d never been to the four fae cities of Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Autumn City was where the Fairy King’s palace sat. I didn’t want to think about him. He made my skin crawl. There was just something about him that unnerved me.

“Tomatoes it is,” Andy said, getting up off the log.

I watched the flames, picturing Darius’s death by fire, wishing the same on his father as I removed Kimberly from his clutches.

“My jumper itches,” Seph said in a hushed baritone.

I looked up. “Sorry?”

“The jumper. It’s shit, right?”

“Incredibly.” I offered him a smile. “No care went into making these.”

“Nope.”

Silence fell between us once again, but those words had been…I don’t know. They filled me up with the same sensation I’d experienced when we’d held one another that frozen night in the flooded city while a fire burned at the foot of our bed.

A time when Jason was alive, when Kimberly was safe.

I went back to watching the flames.

* * *

The rain began to fall as we retreated to our tents, pattering on the brown shelters. Seph was alone in his while Pranay, Andy, and I were in the other.

I was sandwiched between my boyfriends, the two pieces of my heart. God, how I loved them and loved being locked between their bodies, feeling their breath on my skin, the solidity of them.

“Gonna be fun walking tomorrow,” Pranay said. “Fucking mud.”

“Indeed,” I agreed.

These moments with them were a solace I grabbed by the horns. Even though we were getting smelly, in need of a lake or river to have a proper wash in, it didn’t matter. We were together.

Soon, I’d have to break the news of my impending death to them.

Within the words of the prophecy were echoes of my childhood. My mother had hinted at things when I was younger about threads of my siren song.

“When you are a man, your song will open up into three waves. The power to enchant, like you can now; the power to call the energy of others to heal you—I’ll explain that another day; and the rarest of them all—the song of summoning.”

That part of my power had called to destruction, but also to Lucien, and was apparently going to call life back to the siren realm.

The memory of my mother’s words made me shiver and I snuggled into Pranay’s chest, reaching round and pulling Andy closer, so I was properly sandwiched in flesh.

It was so warm between them, and I began to doze off, enjoying this little moment before the regular nightmares came to afflict my sleep.

Pranay shot up, pulling me out of my daze. Andy did too.

“What’s wrong?” the fae asked.

I sat up. “Pranay?”

His forehead contorted with concentration, and he sniffed the air. “There’s something coming.”

Oh, God.

The werewolf crawled forward, reaching the zip on the tent door.

I didn’t make a sound as he listened. I couldn’t hear anything, but then I didn’t have acute werewolf senses.

“It’s close,” he whispered. “One thing.”

“You’re sure?” Andy asked.

“Yeah. One thing. Big.”

I heard a twig break, the rustle of leaves.

Pranay sniffed the air again. “The rain’s hiding most of the scent, but it’s flowery.”

The flower fairies hadn’t attacked at night before, only coming for us when the sun was up.

Oh, dear.

Slowly, Pranay unzipped the door and peeled back the flap. He reached into his sleeping bag without looking away and pulled out an ax.

I readied my dagger as Andy went to the door, the two of them putting themselves between me and whatever was coming. Bodyguards, no matter what.

But I wasn’t about to hide in the tent like some precious cargo while people fought for me. I would be right behind them, rolling up my sleeves to get down and dirty and bloody. I never shied away from a fight if I could help it. Plus, I was quite nifty in the ways of battle and could be a brutal bastard when I needed to be.

The werewolf stuck his head out of the door, nodded in the direction of Seph’s tent, then brought it back in, raindrops running down his face. “Seph’s ready.”

My grip on the dagger’s hilt tightened. This wasn’t my old dagger from the days of gnome slaying. No, this was one of the weapons the council had provided. It did the job well enough even if it did feel dirty in my hand because of its origins.

“Get ready,” Pranay said. “It’s almost here.”

I leaned closer, looking out into the darkness and rain, faint moonlight painted over the sodden grass.

It came out of the trees, a creature shaped like a woman, skin a brilliant violet, hair bright yellow with eyes to match. Just like the other flower fairies, she was completely naked. But she was much bigger, looking to be about ten feet tall, maybe taller than that, and she had four arms.

Interesting.

She paused some feet away from the tents, looking down at us.

“My children have been slaughtered by your cruel hands,” she said. Her voice was husky, almost soothingly deep. “There will be payment for their spilled blood.”

I couldn’t help myself. I called out, “Then maybe you should tell them to stop attacking us. We don’t—”

“Silence, siren! These difficult times are of your doing. We all now remember the tales of the siren prince who broke a realm for love.”

“I wouldn’t call it love.”

The creature tilted her head.

“The Nightshade,” Andy whispered. “That’s what she is.”

“Correct,” the creature responded. “I am glad to see you know my name. You will also know my reputation for loyalty to the throne.”

What did that mean?

“You are a traitor, Andy.” She said his name in a terrible whisper. “Your parents are deeply ashamed of you. They beg the king to show them mercy, disassociating themselves from their wayward son.”

Andy visibly tensed. “What’re you talking about?”

“The king knows all about you, Andy. You were there when Aine fell, and you did nothing.”

The fae representative on the council, and Princess of the West, had been killed by Darius in the council building during my escape.

“He had nothing to do with this,” I cut in. “Darius Thomas—”

“Do not address me, siren.”

Lucien stirred within me.

“I have come for the fae. The king desires to speak with him.”

Aine had mentioned iron pits as a punishment for Andy not following the king.

“With war about to break out, shouldn’t the king be more concerned with the oil barons and how he’s going to protect his borders?” I asked.

“The king has no fear of Tarquin and his ilk.”

“Then your king is a fool.”

Her yellow eyes flashed like sparks in the dark. “Hold your tongue.”

“Never!” I shot back. “So, this is why your children have been attacking us? To take Andy?”

“And to kill you,” she replied. “By order of the king. He is well aware of your presence here, and your attempts to stop the threat of the barons. He is appalled. His Majesty is more than capable of defeating the threat. You, siren, are the cause, not the end. Your help is not required. It is a shame you were not slain by the gnomes years ago.”

“Fuck you!” Pranay barked.

“Gnomes that work for the barons,” I added, “creatures that would have no qualms about sticking a sword in your guts.”

She laughed, a boom like thunder. It made her look taller somehow. “They will be swept away, siren. This is the end for you now. The rumors that you are the savior are false and arrogant. You are a fallen prince from a fallen race. The time of the siren is over. Why hang onto the frayed threads that tie you to this empty life of yours? The king is our savior. He is true royalty, blessed by the sun and moon and stars to rule, to defend this realm against the forces of evil. He is chosen, not you. Now, hand over the traitorous fae and accept your fate.”

A yellow flower opened on each palm of her four hands.

Pranay launched himself out of the tent as Seph’s chains flew. They struck The Nightshade in the face, sending her staggering back. A yellow cut was on her cheek where the kelpie’s deadly chains had sliced, leaking yellow ooze.

She roared, and the yellow flowers quivered. Blonde barbs shot out, missing Pranay by inches as he dove out of the way of a kick.

Andy was out of the tent, me hot on his heels. He let one of his throwing stars loose, catching her in the chest.

The Nightshade let the barbs fly once again as Seph came at her with his snaky weapons of steel, the chains wrapping around her legs. He growled and pulled hard, locking her legs together.

Instead of toppling, she laughed. “How easy. How simple. How strong you men must think you all are.”

I had options here. I could unleash my song of enchantment or my song of summoning. Better yet, I could unleash the water dragon.

Seph’s chains were making their way around her arms now, snapping around her chest. With graceful speed, Andy’s throwing stars took out each of the yellow flowers.

It did seem too easy, but she was all bound up.

She was smiling.

I could see Seph pulling on his chains as if to tear her apart. He’d done that before. There were cuts forming were they squeezed, but I couldn’t see the metal going any deeper.

“I’m gonna cut you down,” Pranay said, brandishing the ax. “Chop-fucking-chop.”

The Nightshade laughed again. “I have dwelled within the woodlands of the night for many centuries. Do you think a werewolf, a kelpie, a siren, and a traitor fae are enough to frighten me? Look how hard he pulls on the chains to no avail. It will take more than that to cause me harm.”

“We’ll do our fucking best,” Andy retorted.

“You will be answering to His Majesty.”

“Andy hasn’t done anything but fight for the good fight,” I said. “He isn’t a traitor. He wants to stop the barons. How does that make him a traitor? He is a good man, he is mine. You can’t have him.”

More fucking chuckling from her. “A fae who would fight for a siren is full of betrayal. He should be on his knees before the king, begging forgiveness for not coming to the side of his monarch at the first sign of war. But no, he remained with you, gave his love to you. This is a travesty. Andy is a fine warrior and should have granted the king those skills.”

“I thought the king was the chosen one to stop all of this?” I questioned.

That made her stupid smile waiver a little. “Poor Aine.”

“What about her? She wasn’t by the king’s side.”

“Her work was with the council, to be a diplomat. But they failed to keep her safe, and they will pay once the war is won.”

“Right. Okay.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Do not throw that petulant attitude at me, siren. Tonight, you die.”

“I think we’re at a stalemate, though,” I threw back. “You’re helpless. We’ve got you in a corner.” I took some steps closer. “Big flower fairy in a trap. You can talk all you want, make all the threats that make you feel better. But the truth is, we’ve won.”

“Is that so?”

Of my available options, I decided that the song of enchantment would work best in this situation. With all her shit-talking about my boyfriend, I wanted to have some fun in ending her.

“Yes,” I retorted.

I called upon the song, the melody rising. Tendrils of golden light came to life in my hands, twisting up my arms, spreading all over my body.

I loved this melody, this power. I’d happily enjoy the hangover-like sensation that would follow from usage. It would be so worth it.

Before I could sing another note, her head split open, transforming into a huge yellow flower within the blink of an eye.

Barbs flew, one striking me in the neck.

No.

Instantly, I felt something cold enter my bloodstream, then flood my veins. The world began to spin, my song silenced abruptly.

The Nightshade laughed as the chains that’d held her dropped away. “You were saying, siren?”

Chapter Two

My eyes were wide open but my body froze. Nothing functioned, not even my mouth.

Poison was in my blood, as cold as ice, paralyzing me.

No.

This couldn’t be the end.

The tickle of the water spirits was all over me, though. Whenever that happened, it meant I was still heading in the right trajectory to fulfill my destiny. It was nothing short of irritating because they often appeared during the direst of moments.

Still, at least it gave me hope that I was going to survive this.

But what about the others?

I had to get up, to move.

“Lucien?”

He didn’t answer.

What was this toxin?

“Take him,” I heard The Nightshade say. A rustling in the trees followed.

Her face loomed into view, back to normal. “So much pain, so much suffering you have endured. In all my long life, I never once thought I would see the sirens fall into extinction. Your kind was the greatest of races, full of power, of beauty. Untouchable. But along came the rotten apple to destroy all the others and burden the realms at your borders with the consequences of your actions.” She tilted her head. “You speak of the gnomes with such disdain, but they are the way they are now because of you.”

Fuck you!

“I feel for them.”

They’re as cruel as you!

God, did I want my tongue to work so badly!

She reached for me with her large, purple hands and scooped me up. I couldn’t feel anything, only experience the sensation of being hauled up into the chest of a four-armed monster.

The Nightshade twisted me around so I was facing downward, hanging forward so I could see my companions.

Pranay and Seph were flat on their backs, their eyes wide open.

Oh, God.

No.

Please.

Andy was nowhere to be seen.

Two male flower fairies had appeared in the clearing, green and pink and naked, standing above the kelpie and the wolf.

No.

“Remember the kelpie’s attempts to tear me apart?” The Nightshade said. “Well, consider this to be poetic justice for him. My children will do unto him what he wished upon me—what you long for too. He is the first to die, the first step at clearing your debt.”

I’d come to hate that word. Debt. It was thrown around a lot, and I was sick of it. The only debt I was paying was the one I intended to pay—the one to right a terrible wrong. I couldn’t care less about The Nightshade and her flowery family. I wanted them dead husks. They’d come for me and mine and would pay.

Now, I just had to figure a way out of this before she could win.

I tried my songs again. They were there on the fringes, too far out for me to reach. Even though Lucien was silent, he was there. I could feel him just the same as the other parts of the siren magic.

That wasn’t good enough.

The Nightshade was still waffling on about vengeance or some rubbish. I was lost on my inside, trying to find a way. Well, there were two ways—death or survival.

I was the last siren, a prince, part of a prophecy, and the water spirits were still indicating this was the right direction.

Hopefully, I was right to assume that.

Think!

One of the flower fairies had its hands on Seph’s legs while the other fingered his chains.

Lucien. I focused on him, on the notes of the melody to call him. No looking down, no looking up, no looking at anything in the world around me. I had to look inside, deep inside, go down into the cold dark that the poison had created, push my way through the haze and the numbness.

“Lucien.”

He was down there, trying to reach me.

“Lucien.”

I upped the call, taking each note one by one, rolling them, caressing them, fighting the ice that smothered them.

Damn it!

Come on! Come on!

“Lucien!”

“I…” His voice was so faint, a robin’s footstep.

“Come to me.”

“Co…”

“Lucien!”

“Cold…”

“Please, Lucien! We can do this.”

“So cold…”

“Be the dragon—be the fire that is water. Please…”

“Cold.”

“We’re going to lose them, Lucien. They’re going to die and then me. It’ll be over, all of this for nothing!”

Every time I communicated with him was like a million shards of ice in my brain.

“Lucien!”

“Cold.”

“No! No! This can’t end like this! Why would the spirits be here? Lucien!”

“Cold.”

“Lucien! Please!”

With all the energy I could muster, I sang those notes to him on the inside. Despite the force I was attempting to put behind the melody, it was weak, pathetic, barely even there.

“Warmth.”

“Lucien?” I continued to sing.

“Warmer.”

“Come to me, Lucien.”

“Warmer still. I-I-I’m here.”

I wasn’t done with the pouring out of my energy. I wouldn’t stop until it was all spent.

“I’m here, Dylan.”

His strength was growing as mine waivered. The kick-back from this was going to be a bitch.

Bring it all on.

The last notes were sung, and the golden light burst forth, coiling around me. The cold world of rain and suffering came rushing back

“What is this?” The Nightshade roared.

Seph’s right jacket sleeve was torn away, his olive skin exposed and bloodied from where the flower fairy was tearing into him. The creatures both looked up at their mother, the one holding the chains having some of the metal in his mouth as if he’d been chewing on it.

The Nightshade lifted me up to face her. I was still paralyzed, but flooding with power that was warm yet had the coolness of the sea.

I looked into her awful yellow eyes.

“Siren!” she spat. “What trickery is this? Do you think you will escape me?” Her face transformed into that yellow flower again. “It seems you need many doses to keep you in line. This may kill you early, but—”

My body erupted in blue fire that was both flame and ocean waves. In a panic, The Nightshade dropped me.

I didn’t hit the ground, instead falling into a hover, turning upright, floating in the blue.

Lucien curled into life before me, attached to me, a dragon of white scales and violet spines. No wings or limbs, but a serpentine creature with eyes that blazed with pearlescent radiance.

The barbs from the flower fired, and the watery fire roared from the dragon’s mouth in many jets, taking out each one of the poison-laced instruments.

The Nightshade howled. “Siren! You will die now!”

I lifted further into the air with Lucien as his form swelled to a greater size. More barbs were fired and taken down. The flower fairies were screaming for their mother.

Lucien had burned away the toxin within me and given me enough energy to speak. “No, I think you’ll find the one dying is you.”

The dragon let rip, the jet of fire sending her onto her back with a heavy crash. Blue flame ignited on her indigo skin, quickly engulfing every inch of her body.

“Siren!”

“Mother!” the two fairies cried.

The fire was beautiful but strange. Though it covered her like a regular fire would, it wasn’t burning her to a crisp. No, it was…drowning her. It was as if The Nightshade was trapped inside a deadly bubble. She kicked and thrashed, but there was no way out. Her children tried to help her, but there was nothing they could do.

“Mother!” they cried together again and turned their attention to me. “Stop this! Stop this!”

God, that was so annoying. “Can’t just one of you speak?”

Lucien doused them too. The force of the jet ricocheted through my bones, and it took off one of the fairy brothers’ heads. It was that intense. The remaining brother’s screams were cut off as the fire that was water drowned him.

Minutes later, the bodies of our enemies stopped moving. Then they shriveled and dried up into husks.

Lucien was sucked back inside me, the dragon song crashing out.

I fell hard to my knees, collapsing forward, my face landing in the grass that was now soupy with mud. With that tiny fragment of strength I had left, I managed to roll onto my back, getting a face-load of rain.

Sucking in the air, I waited to hear the sound of Seph or Pranay or even Andy.

My fae boyfriend had been taken.

Another one taken.

No sounds but the rain and the forest.

More flower fairies would come, looking for revenge. Falling into unconsciousness wasn’t an option. To hell with the pain in my bones and muscles, to hell with the extreme exhaustion that was just as paralyzing as the poison that’d coursed through me.

I was stronger than this. I’d fought the affliction and brought Lucien out. I could do anything. I could stand up and fight these millions of hands trying to drag me down into the dark. I wanted to be awake, to know Seph and Pranay were okay, to charge into the woods and get Andy back.

My body had other ideas.

Chapter Three

“Dylan?”

Lightning flashed behind my eyelids.

The rain was harder than before, coming down in a heavy cascade. I was so wet and cold I could have been convinced I was submerged in a sea somewhere. Yet there was mud beneath me, even the movement of overjoyed worms wriggling in the wet night.

At least I could feel things again.

“Dylan?”

Thunder cracked from above.

“Dylan, baby?”

Those two voices were above me too.

The werewolf.

The kelpie.

“Dylan?”

There were arms around me, big and safe, and they lifted me up.

Slowly, my eyes opened, timid against the rainfall. Open a little, close tight, the motion like the recoil of a sea anemone.

A cool hand on my face. “Come on, baby,” Pranay said, his breath on my lips. “You need to wake up.”

I buried my face into his big chest, nuzzling into his wet jacket.

Lucien was asleep deep down in his cave within me. My siren song as a whole was all used up. My head was pounding, even the weak moonlight too much for it to bear. I wanted to keep my eyes closed and sleep for hours.

“Time to go,” the kelpie said.

There were other sounds on the air along with the thunder and the unrelenting rain. Shrieking? Was that shrieking?

“You good?” Pranay asked him.

“Yeah.”

Seph was hurt. I tried opening my eyes again but failed. Two cocktail sticks were needed, or even two cocktails. What could I have? Cosmopolitan? Sex on the Beach? Gin Fizz? Mojito? God! My mouth was so dry. Oh, the irony when the heavens were throwing down so much water.

My stomach churned at the thought of alcohol. No. Water. Lots and lots of ice-cold water. I slowly tilted my head and parted my lips for the bountiful gift raining down.

Seph was hurt.

Though my mouth was open to welcome in some much-needed moisture, I couldn’t manage to bring words to my lips. That would take effort, would mean making a sound. To make a sound meant using my vocal cords and even the thought of exercising them set an acidic burning in my throat.

“Looks like he’s stirring,” Seph said. Was that a wobble in his baritone?

I just wanted to sleep.

“Let’s find some shelter.”

Where were our tents? We already had shelter.

Lost. They must be lost.

“Shit,” Pranay said. “Andy.”

Andy. Andy. Andy.

No.

Not him.

No.

I had to get him back, away from that fucking king.

Andy.

“We’ll get him back,” Seph replied. “But we gotta find some shelter and wait this shit out.”

The storm?

I was drifting again, a feather in the gentle winds of sleep.

We were moving as thunder cracked the sky once again, and a violent blaze cut across my eyes. My drifting halted, my eyes opening wide enough for me to see the dark leaves of the trees above me. But my lids soon clamped shut against raindrops and the too bright, but not actually bright, moon rippling behind that dense canopy of leaves.

The shrieking rose up all around me, a chorus of rage. Was that the flower fairies? Their mother had fallen. Good. Bitch. The weakness crippling me was so worth it to know she was dead.

Pranay stopped as more thunder boomed. “What the fuck is that?”

Seph’s chains jangled. “Whatever it is, it’ll be horizontal soon.”

I tried my eyes again. No, not playing along. They didn’t want any part of this night. The winds of sleep stirred up once again. I could hear their song coming for me:

“Do not fight us, sweet siren. Let us carry you to a place of peace where there is nothing but solitude. All you have to do is let go.”

But Andy was out there in the hands of the enemy, just like Kimberly. A storm was raging, there were vengeful fairies wanting to rip our flesh from our bones. I couldn’t sleep and leave the people I loved to face this.

Love? You love Seph?

I mentally slapped myself, but it was like hitting a rock with over-boiled cabbage. I wanted to scream at my mind for going there. Of course, I cared about Seph. He was my friend, my companion, my soldier. But…

I couldn’t lose any of them. They were my family, my people.

How badly was the kelpie hurt?

God, my brain was exhausting, stirring up those winds. Half of me wanted to be carried away so I could reboot, refocus, be useful. The other half was refusing to comply with that logic.

Given love, have it taken away. First Jason is killed…who is next?

Fuck you!

My explosive response to myself was like the thunder, as radiant as the lightning.

I wasn’t losing Andy and Kimberly. They would live, and I would die. They weren’t supposed to die, I was. They had to live on beyond me.

Beyond me.

Given love, have it taken away.

I needed to hold my best friend, to kiss my boyfriends, to join hands with every single one of them and—

Tell them?

Tell them.

“Come with us, sweet siren. Sleep now. Sleep.”

“I’m not here to hurt you,” a woman’s voice came through the rain.

“Who are you?” Pranay barked in demand. “Don’t come any closer.”

“Come on!” she called back. “I’m here to help.”

“What the hell is she?” Pranay asked.

“Elf,” Seph replied.

At that moment, the winds of sleep were a hurricane. They tore me from consciousness and dragged me into darkness.

* * *

When I returned fully to the land of awake, opening my eyes was much easier. No rain was pounding my face, and there was warmth caressing my skin.

A gentle, orange glow greeted me. I blinked, focusing on a ceiling. The orange danced.

Firelight?

I felt naked, but not quite. I still had my underwear on beneath this…blanket.

“Baby?”

I turned my head, actually managed to turn my head, to face Pranay.

“You’re awake.”

He looked exhausted, bags under his eyes, worry all over his handsome face. He had no top on, and I could feel his skin against mine under the yellow blanket.

We were on a bed that was just about big enough to hold us—if we didn’t stretch our legs out. Mine were hanging over the edge. A little chill nipped at my toes, and I slowly folded my jelly-like legs into the warm confines of this cocoon.

When I swallowed to try and speak, it was like trying to clear sand from my throat. My head was pounding, and I had that super-rough feeling of a post-cocktails evening—the super-fun aftermath of a siren sing-song.

“I’ll get you some water,” Pranay said.

“Coming right up,” a woman responded.

Elf? The elf that’d been calling to us?

Somewhere above my head was the sound of rain—still heavy—and then the rumble of thunder.

“Here, baby.” I watched him take the cup—white with no other features—from a hand the color of sunlight.

“Thanks,” Pranay added.

“No problem, luvvie.”

My werewolf boyfriend tilted my head forward and brought the cup to my lips. Blessed cool water flooded my mouth, running down my throat like some sort of miracle elixir.

“Want some more?” Pranay asked, giving me a chance to swallow.

I nodded and drank down the rest of the cup.

“Thanks.” My voice was raspy and quiet—a dry version of what it normally was.

“I’ll grab a refill,” the elf said.

She came into view properly when Pranay helped me sit up. She was about four-feet tall, skin the golden radiance of autumnal sunlight. Her hair was a short bundle of blue curls—very Mae West but cerulean, not blonde. The elf’s eyes were big and green with lashes to die for, and she was dressed in a dark green and gold outfit that reminded me of Peter Pan.

“Hi,” she said, offering me a beaming smile.

I licked my dry lips in preparation to respond. Then her teeth caught my eye. “Is that a jewel on your left canine?”

She nodded, opening her mouth wider. “Yep.” She tapped the blue stone that sat there. “It was all the rage amongst elves to get teeth jewels years ago. Died off now, but this damn thing isn’t budging anytime soon.”

I vaguely remember that being a thing back in the earthly realm. “I’m Dylan.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said, taking the cup from Pranay. “I’m Jemima. The elf.” She winked. “You’re one lucky group to get away from The Nightshade. Hardly ever happens.”

“At least she’s dead,” I replied.

I was in a small room with an open fire, the walls a dark wood. There were tree roots in the ceiling, burst through some of the wooden paneling up there.

“Welcome to my hovel,” Jemima added. “Not much, and it’s underground, but it’s home.”

The hovel was warm and loaded with books. I didn’t recognize a single one, all of them looking like they had elvish titles.

Over by the fire, Seph was sat on a blue sofa in just his underwear, a white cup in his hand. His attention was on the flames. His right arm was bandaged up, his hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. He looked over at me.

“Welcome back,” he said and sipped his drink.

“Are you all right?”

“Been better. But yeah. Fucker didn’t do too much damage. You and Lucien saw to that.”

“I’m glad you’re okay.” The relief was intense but not full. “We have to find Andy.”

“Not in this storm,” Jemima countered. “It’s nasty out there. Even if you do know your way to Autumn City, you’ll never make it. The rain wakes up all sorts of night creatures in these woods, plus The Nightshade will be so pissed off.”

“What? She’s dead. How can she be pissed off anywhere but in the afterlife?”

The elf shook her head. “The Nightshade doesn’t die, she resurges.”

That’s not what I wanted to hear. “Great.”

“Her stupid flower fairies die, but not her. She’ll be hunting for you.”

“What do we do?”

“Wait the storm out, and her. Come morning, you’ll be able to carry on. You’ll probably hear her in the night. Don’t worry. She won’t find you.”

I didn’t want to be here when Andy was in the hands of that fucking creature. “Thank you for providing this shelter, but I can’t sit back while my boyfriend is dragged off to the city. The king will…the iron pits.” Wow, did my head surge with pain. I slumped forward, grabbing my forehead.

Pranay’s hand was on my back, rubbing. “You’re in no state, baby. We have to wait this out.”

This would be just as bad for him as it was for me. Andy was Pranay’s best friend. “I’m sorry…I just.” Fresh tears sprang to life. “I…”

“Come here, baby.” The wolf pulled me into his arms, gently maneuvering me, so I was sat between his legs, the back of my head resting against his chest. He pulled the blanket up over us, leaned down and kissed my cheek, then wrapped his arms around me.

“We’ll sort this,” he whispered.

“I love you,” I replied, caressing his arms.

“Love you too.” He kissed my cheek again, holding me tighter.

“I’m happy to help,” Jemima cut in. She was smiling at us like a happy spectator.

I noticed, then, our clothes by the fire.

“I gave them a little wash,” the elf said. “Just to try and freshen them up a bit.”

“That’s very kind.”

“No worries.” She scratched the side of her head. “The Nightshade is a first-class bitch. I hate her and her blooming cronies. After she doesn’t find you, ‘cos she won’t, I’ll bet she makes her way to the city to be all up in the king’s arse. She loves him hardcore. Everyone in the woods knows it. I think he’s a prick, but she’s clearly gunning for his prick, so there you go. What we need is fresh meat, someone without the huge fucking ego. I mean, sure, you can’t be no wimp to sit on the throne, but loving yourself to the point this king does is going way too far. It rots the throne, rots everyone around him. He is just completely useless. The barons will destroy him and the city—along with everything else.”

“He doesn’t sound like fun,” I replied, “but I intend to stop the barons coming this far.”

She nodded. “Us elves know about you, what you stand for. I think it’s brilliant and would be so perfect if you kicked their arses from here to oblivion. Barons wipe out all but one siren, then that siren brings them all down. I’d love it so hard!” She sighed, shaking her head.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I’m just scared. How are you gonna do it?”

“I guess I’m going to figure it out along the way.”

Jemima gnawed her bottom lip.

“What?” I questioned.

“Nothing. As I said, just scared. Now you have this complication with the iron pits to deal with before you even…I mean, maybe you should…”

I sat forward a little. “Should what?”

More nervous gnawing from the elf.

“Leave him behind?” I said for her. “Is that what you’re saying?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’d never leave him behind. He’s the man I love.”

She frowned in puzzlement. “Oh. What about Pranay here?”

“Him too.”

“Oh. Oh. Wow. You have two boyfriends?”

“I do.” She shouldn’t be making me angry. She wasn’t being cruel, but the suggestion of leaving Andy in the hands of the king was enough to boil my blood. “I don’t work on the idea of leaving people behind.”

“I’m sorry.” She hung her head.

“Not just because he’s my boyfriend, but because it doesn’t sit right in my soul.” I sighed. “But I know what you meant. You’re thinking this is a hurdle in the way of me getting the job done.”

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “That sounds so mean. Like I’ve got no heart.”

“It is another spanner in the works, but I’ve had so many thrown at me lately that I’ll just, well, do whatever it is to get rid of the spanner.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” Jemima said.

“You’re scared.”

“Yeah, and that’s so selfish. I want you to get over there and stop those fuckers, but you have to get your man back, and I’m thinking about myself not you, and it’s so unfair, and I can’t believe I’d think that shit because I do have a heart, and I’d hate to think what they’re doing to your friend because—” She sucked in a deep breath.

“The iron pits,” I added before she could speak again.

Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh, shit.”

“Yes. At least, I think that’s what’s going to happen. You don’t need to apologize anymore. I know what you meant. The barons are terrifying, and they need to be stopped. Your future is uncertain while the threat remains, and you want to see me succeed. From where I’m standing, there’s good in your intentions.”

Though good intentions carried their own negative stains.

I wouldn’t hold anything against her, though. For real. There was no point in hating the elf who’d given us shelter and water, who was just thinking like any other scared creature would. In the same position, maybe I’d feel exactly the same way.

Nobody was perfect in any sense of the word.

This was taking up too much of my mental energy. What with everything else.

“We need to get him out,” I said. “He’s fae. I don’t know what the iron pits are, but iron is bad for the fae, right?”

“Yeah,” Seph said from his perch. “Real fucking bad.”

Jemima was nodding. “It’ll make him sick. That poor guy.” She looked at me with guilty eyes.

I looked away.

Thunder cracked louder from the surface. Even the rain sounded heavier.

“This place won’t flood?” Pranay asked, mercifully redirecting the conversation. “Sounds so much worse up there.”

“Completely safe. Don’t worry.”

“How can The Nightshade not find us?” I asked. “Can’t she come underground?”

“She can, but she can’t find the hovels. The wood you’re looking at is a natural repellent to her roots.”

“But then she’d know there was a hovel here because she was repelled? Couldn’t she just wait at the surface?”

Jemima laughed. “Waiting around would be way beneath The Nightshade. Anyway, there’re too many hovels for her to wait outside of even if she thought you were down here.”

“Oh.”

“She’s got a massive ego too. Trips up the best and worst of us.”

With a little shame, I could relate to that when the diva crown was fully intact.

I looked over to Seph, who had his eyes closed, head slightly tilted back as he sat almost ramrod straight.

“Are you all right, Seph?” I asked in my raspy whisper.

“Fine. Cheers.”

I didn’t say anything else. He needed to rest. As long as he was okay, that was enough for now.

Pranay wiggled a little behind me. “You want some food, baby?”

My stomach protested at the idea, doing a little flip. “Not right now.”

“You’ll have to eat before we head out, though.”

“I will.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

He kissed my cheek once again.

“You two are super-cute,” Jemima said.

I smiled. “And super-grimy.”

“Ah, I have a bathtub you can use when you’re ready. Plenty of hot water. Might help you feel better.”

“Sounds good,” I replied. “In a little while. Feeling like I just want to be still.” I drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Which isn’t true because I want to be out there, gunning for Autumn City.”

“I know what it’s like,” she said, “going to the ends of the realm for someone. That’s why it’s so fucked up for me to suggest what I did.”

“Seriously, Jemima. A line’s been drawn in the sand.”

She took a pew on a small seat beside the bed. “I miss my best friend. I wish I could find him.”

That’d been unexpected. “What happened to him?”

“I don’t know. No one knows. He just left one day and hasn’t come back since.”

“An elf?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. He’s a spirit mage.”

My chest tightened, and I gripped hard on Pranay’s arms. He bristled behind me. I saw Seph’s head turn to face us out of the corner of my eye.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Fine, erm, that’s…rare. Spirit mages, I mean.”

“Yeah. They are. I wish I knew where he was.”

What did I tell her? That I’d seen her best friend, that he’d been enslaved by the barons and had tried to hurt me and mine? Did I tell her how Andy’s exploding throwing star had blown her friend’s eyes out of their sockets? He’d vanished after that in a weird cocoon. I had no idea if he was alive or not.

“He was so alone, even though he had me,” Jemima said. “There’s a dark cloud over his head all the time, you know?” She stood up. “You want some more water?”

“Yes, please.”

“No problem.”

Seph’s eyes were closed once again.

She disappeared through a little door near the fire into what I presumed was her kitchen. I would have to crouch to get through it.

The spirit mage had been someone she cared about. Great. Just what I needed. Another layer of guilt to go with everything else. Hiding the truth from her stung. It was cruel, but I kept silent. I didn’t want to go down that road with her, to be involved with the mage any more than I had been. That possibly made me a cold-hearted bastard, but all I wanted was to move forward. I needed to get to Autumn City. Luckily, I was still exhausted and could happily fall back asleep.

Jemima returned to the room. “Here.” She handed me the water, but Pranay took it.

“Let me,” he said.

“I think I might—”

“Just let me take care of you, baby,” he said.

I obeyed and pushed aside the guilt about the mage that wanted to stick to me and released a heavy yawn.

The water was so damn good.

“I should let you sleep,” the elf said.

“What about you? Where will you sleep? We’ve stolen your bed.”

Gives you her bed, and you can’t tell her about her friend…

“I don’t need as much as you do. Please, rest. Big journey in the morning.”

“We’ll leave at first light.”

“I’ll wake you.” She headed back into her kitchen.

Pranay adjusted us into a horizontal position, him the big spoon and me the little one.

“Sleep well,” he breathed into my neck.

* * *

A crack of thunder forced my eyes open. At least, I thought it was thunder. I couldn’t have been asleep that long.

“It’s all right,” Pranay reassured me.

He was sitting up, my head in his lap. I lifted myself to meet him, bleary-eyed, my heart racing like crazy.

Seph was on his feet by the fire, chains at the ready as he watched the ceiling.

I rubbed at my aching eyeballs, which were probably bloodshot to hell.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Siren!” the voice of the Nightshade answered.

I startled, Pranay grabbing me.

“It’s okay, baby.”

“What’s going on?”

“Seems like the bitch is back,” Seph said.

“Siren!” she called again. “Where are you, siren? Hiding down in the deep? Up in the trees? Foolish if you’re up high. I hope the lightning gets you!”

Thunder accentuated her words.

“Vile creature! I hope you’re dying somewhere, and I hope it hurts like my death did, like the death of my children. I will get you, or something else will. There is no hope here for you! Do you hear me? Faerie will bring your end.”

My hands balled into weak fists, chest burning with frantic panting.

Jemima came into the room, dressed in a pair of green pajamas. “Everything’s fine. Don’t worry about big gob up there.”

I swallowed. I couldn’t face The Nightshade again, not when I was in this state.

“Go back to sleep,” the elf said softly. “Forget about her.”

But she has Andy…

I couldn’t help him right now, and it was eating me up. But I knew when I had to shut up and get back on my feet so I could face the bastards who were keeping us apart.

My body wanted more sleep, wasn’t happy that I was sitting up. Invisible hands were dragging me downward, back into stillness, then into the dark.

But the darkness of a dreamless sleep didn’t last long.

I was soon facing Jason. He was standing in the dark. There was nothing else with us, and no one else. He was in a blue hoodie and blue jeans, his feet bare, and his brown hair messy.

Jason smiled, and it went all the way up to those lovely blue eyes of his. I’d forgotten how radiantly sapphire they were. Intense, the kind of eyes you couldn’t tear your own away from.

“Jason?”

No sound. Not even my own voice. It was more of a thought than anything else.

Jason didn’t even blink. He just stood there watching me with that smile on his face.

The need to protect him spiked, to hug him, and tell him everything was okay. All I wanted was to protect him, my friend, my fragile clairvoyant.

That wasn’t fair. Despite his skinny frame and past addictions, he was anything but fragile. He was strong and resilient and had battled on by my side, guiding me to the flooded city, to the three quays and back, there with me through every stride toward my destiny.

Now he was gone.

Now he was here.

“Jason….”

Soundless.

I knew this was a dream, that he wouldn’t move. He was put here in my sleeping mind to torment me.

Even in a dream, I felt the hot tears fall.

“I want you to come back.” Fuck the nonexistent sound. I wanted to talk. “You can come back. Don’t die, don’t let this be the end. Come back. I need you back. We all need you. Please, Jason. I can’t…I can’t stand this.”

Even in a dream, the agony of loss was rife.

“Please, Jason. This can’t be the end.”

Not one blink, not one twitch of recognition.

If only my song of summoning could summon the dead back from wherever they were. I could call him back, stick two fingers up at cruel fate, and everything would be okay again.

No, not okay. Only one part of three. Kimberly and Andy next, then the pie would be fixed to a whole.

But Jason was lost to me. I understood death, having faced it too many times in my life. If it were possible to go around summoning folk back to life, then I wouldn’t stop at Jason. I’d call back my brother and sister, my mother and father, all the victims of the barons, and my destructive song. There would be no death, no grief, nothing but a pure utopia where we could all live our eternal lives in peace, and I could rewrite every mistake, every loss.

“Go away,” I said. “I don’t want you here.”

His face was too much to bear.

“Go away, Jason.”

Nothing.

“Go away! Get away from me! If I can’t have you in the flesh, leave!” I screamed at the top of my voice, roaring at him, and the darkness that enclosed us.

It was swallowed by the silence.

“Go away!” I thought my body would explode with the ferocity of my cry.

Gradually, he began to fade.

“Good! Go! Go! I can’t…I…Jason!”

Suddenly, I didn’t want him to leave. I couldn’t bear not looking at him, even if it was too painful.

“Jason!”

As the image of him faded into nothing, I screamed again, pouring my sorrow out into the empty and silent internal workings of my damn mind.

Chapter Four

I thought I heard his voice.

“It’s morning.”

“Jason?”

“Baby?”

“Jason? You called me baby?”

A hand on my cheek. “It’s me.”

I opened my eyelids to be met with the face of my werewolf lover. “Pranay.”

“Time to leave soon,” he said.

Pranay didn’t refer to the fact I’d just called him Jason.

I sat up, feeling a lot better, having rested, if not a little traumatized by my dream. The grogginess remained, but would soon clear, and I could move properly again.

“Morning,” Jemima said. “How are you feeling?” She was back in her green Peter Pan outfit.

“Much better, thanks,” I said.

“Would you like some breakfast?”

I remembered what Andy, and Seph, had said about food in Faerie. It wasn’t safe.

“No, thank you.” My goodness was I hungry, though!

“It’s cool,” Seph said. “Elvish food is fine.”

I nodded. “Then, breakfast would be lovely.”

“Seeded bread, toasted, with blackberry jam,” Jemima said. “Does that sound okay?”

“Sounds lovely,” I replied to our host.

The wolf and the kelpie both agreed.

“Cool. I’ll whip up some tea, too. Your clothes are dry. Be back in a bit.”

She almost skipped out of the room.

I swung my legs off the bed, running a hand through my hair. “What food do we have to avoid, then? I thought it was all food in Faerie.”

“Most of it,” Seph answered. “But not all. Wasn’t expecting to end up anywhere we’d be offered the safe shit.”

“Oh.”

Pranay moved, so he was sitting beside me. “Plus, we lost the supplies in all that bullshit with The Nightshade.”

It hadn’t crossed my mind until now that we had nothing left. “The tents, the weapons…”

“All gone.”

“Not the best start,” Seph said.

“Wait,” Jemima called from the doorway. “I popped out this morning and found a few things.” She dropped a mud-splattered bag into the room.

Pranay went and unzipped it, crouching down. It was inappropriate to think about how delicious his arse looked in his tight boxers, but it did. Seems I could still appreciate beauty when mired in sadness and fear.

Damn. My brain was a strange creature.

The werewolf pulled out an ax, two tins of peaches, a water skin, and a packet of beef jerky.

“At least there’s something left,” he said.

“I’ll get back to the brekkie,” Jemima announced.

I blew out a breath and headed for my clothes, hanging by the fire.

Seph was standing there, close to me, too close, still only in his underwear.

I swallowed. “How’s your arm?”

“Getting better by the minute,” he said. “Kelpie healing is pretty nifty.”

Damn my body and its desire to run my hands up his abs, across that huge chest, trace the lavish tattoo all down his right side that spread to his right butt cheek, entwine my fingers in his hair, kiss him, feel him inside me once again, let him bind me to whatever he wanted with those chains.

I sagged, my cock not stirring.

These feelings I was having for him, and the checking out of a crouching Pranay, were all wrong when Andy wasn’t here, nor Kimberly, when we were out in a deadly realm with the odds stacked against us.

And Jason was gone.

“I think I need a bath first,” I said.

“Sure thing!” Jemima called from the place beyond the door.

* * *

I’d fit in the bath, no problem. It hadn’t been as small as expected, which meant that Jemima would have a decent amount of room to relax whenever she had a soak.

Through the little door, which I’d had to crawl through, was a kitchen, a smaller room with a single bed, and a bathroom. At least I now knew she hadn’t slept on the kitchen floor.

Clean, I sat on the big bed while Pranay took his turn in the bathroom, fully clothed, eating the toast and drinking tea like it was going out of fashion.

“Would you like some more?” the elf asked.

I nodded, chewing the last bite. The jam was amazing!

“Listen, I’ve come up with a plan overnight, which I think you might like. You don’t have to go for it at all if you don’t want. It’s only a suggestion, and I don’t wanna be all up in your business and stuff, but—”

“Take a breath,” I cut in.

Wow. She really did try to get everything into one verbal outpouring.

She nodded, licked her pale lips, and said, “I can get you into the tunnel. I know a guy.”

“Tunnel?”

“Sorry, under the city. It’ll get you to a safe house. It’d be too dangerous for you to go rolling up to the gates. You’re a target.”

Story of my life! “You’re right. I haven’t been thinking this through.”

The elf suddenly looked horrified. “No! No! I didn’t mean that, I—”

“Oh, my God!” I yelped. “That wasn’t what I was saying! I seriously haven’t been thinking about getting into the city. None of us have. We were just heading there and would’ve figured out while getting a better feel of the situation. But if you’re saying that we can go under without having to deal with the grief of being recognized, then that’s fabulous.”

A pinprick of pain starting to form in the side of my head. I drank my tea and tried not to think too much. This conversation felt too damn exhausting.

“How do we get down there without being caught?” Seph asked. “The city is watched hardcore from all angles. We’re not exactly mice.”

“There’s a place in the woods we can enter first,” Jemima answered. “As I said, I know a guy.”

“You know a guy in the woods,” Pranay said. “What does that mean?”

“It means he’s loyal and will help me out.”

“Will he wanna help us out?”

“Yes. He loves a bit of anarchy.”

“I don’t know about anarchy,” I added. “We just want Andy back and to find some transport.”

She nodded. “Across the sea will be best.”

“Do you know how we can do that?”

Jemima sighed. “Only by stowing away on a ship.”

“Might be the best way,” Seph cut in. “Not like we’re rolling in Faerie coin. We could steal a horse.”

“Too slow,” Jemima said.

“I know that,” he responded coolly.

“I know you know, but—”

The kelpie mumbled something in Spanish that had the bite of an insult. I didn’t need to understand the words to know that.

“First Andy, then the crossing,” I said.

Pranay was by my side, an arm around my waist. “Those fuckers are gonna hurt so bad when we get there.”

“Yes. Lots of hurt.”

* * *

We went up a steep stairway that curled up through a narrow tunnel of mud and roots, following the elf. The bulk of Pranay and Seph didn’t hinder their ascent, but their limbs only just missed scraping the sides.

At the top of the stairway was a trapdoor, bolted and padlocked. Jangling a set of keys, the elf unlocked the padlock and slid the bolt open.

“Ready?” She looked down at me as she spoke.

“Yes.”

She pushed it up and open. Rainwater ran into the tunnel in tiny rivulets, trickling down the walls and stairs.

Outside, the morning was cold and damp, but the sky was a gorgeous blue, and the sunlight transformed the pools of rain in the grass into puddles of liquid glass.

Though the ground was soaked, there wasn’t any visible damage from the storm. I’d been expecting fallen branches, trees split by lightning.

“Will be a bit slippery going,” Jemima said. “Mind your feet in those puddles.”

“Okay,” I said.

Jemima took the lead, and I followed, Pranay by my side with our one and only bag slung over his shoulder.

Seph hung back slightly, making up the rear.

Probably wants some quiet time.

I’d check on him again, to see if he was okay. He’d already told me it was getting better quickly. Rather than give me some curt response for asking him again or admonishing me for my feeble attempts at making small talk, he’d also told me that after another day had passed, his arm wouldn’t piss him off anymore. Until then, there was still a dull ache that bugged him.

“Good mood-setter,” he’d said, “being pissed off with pain. Gives even more oomph to the head busting.”

He’d even smiled, albeit weakly.

I sighed as I walked, and Pranay laid a hand on my lower back, the material of my gilet making a rustling sound as he made contact.

“Here we go, baby,” he said.

“How are you, Pranay?”

“I’m…fucked off. This is so fucked.”

“That king isn’t having our Andy.”

He shook his head. I was expecting a different response. “Can’t get the iron pits out of my head. It’s like true silver for me. What if he can’t handle it?”

I took his hand. “Do you think he won’t be able to?”

“No. Andy’s fucking hardcore. But this is iron. If I was hit with a silver bullet, things would get nasty.”

I squeezed his hand a little tighter. “I’m not going to let that happen to him, Pranay. I’ve just found you both. Well, no. Let me start that again. We already had each other, but now we’ve uncovered something even better. Real love.”

The guilt was a minuscule bug, pincers gnawing at my soul.

Until I die…

“When we get out of here, I’m taking you to my mum’s,” he proclaimed. “I said before she’s gonna be so happy you’ve made an honest man of me. My dad too. You’ll be fed ‘til your belly pops, then fed some more. And my dad will wanna pump you up with beer. He loves a beer and to talk about world issues. Trust me, he covers everything.”

I chuckled. “I can’t wait.”

Dirty lie…no future…

“Man, all I wanna do right now is carry you off somewhere for a swanky breakfast. Some proper posh restaurant where I can hold your chair out and give you a rose.”

The smile that stretched across my face was somewhat alien for this sorrowful period I was caught in. But there it was, going all the way up. My face could well have been glowing. “Are you being serious?”

“Yeah, baby. I love that shit.”

“How gentlemanly of you.”

He lifted our joined hands and kissed mine. “You’re worth all of it.”

“You’re worth all of it,” I responded. “I want to do all of that for you, take you away somewhere fabulous. You know, like a honeymoon, but better.”

“Somewhere hot,” he said. “Real hot.”

“The sun on our skins, the water so blue, and not a cloud in the sky. Spending all day on golden sands.”

“I’m so there, baby.”

My smiled died. Not only would we never have that together, but it reminded me of home—lazing on the beach with my brother and sister. Well, it was my brother, Adrian, and I who did the lounging. My sister, Isla, was always active, splashing in the waves, while we were spread out like the sun-worshiping divas we were.

“Baby?” Pranay asked.

“Sorry.”

“Where’d you go?”

I had to be honest with him on some things. “I was thinking about my siblings.”

“Shit. You okay?”

“I’m fine. Really.”

“No, you’re not.”

“I guess I won’t be until Andy has my other hand when Kimberly and I are trying to figure out how to have a champagne lunch in this realm.”

“You’ll have all of that, baby. We’re not losing anyone else.”

“I didn’t think we’d lose Jason.”

“No one else,” he reiterated and kissed my hand again.

You’ll lose me…

We passed into a denser part of the woods, Jemima leading the way across the wetland.

She glanced over her shoulder. “All good back there?”

“Yes,” I replied.

I looked behind me. Seph was scanning the trees left and right. Not in a way that said he’d seen something, but more patrol mode, making sure there was no crazy creature ready to take a swing or bite.

Part of the ground opened up in a square. Mud and wet leaves tumbled off the hatch. A tangle of blond hair came first, then a tanned face popped out of the square hole, followed by a small body covered in a purple Peter Pan outfit.

“Morning!” the male elf called. He was carrying a wicker basket.

“Hi, Clive,” Jemima said. “How are you?”

The elf closed his hatch. “Not bad, cheers. Nasty storm last night.” He gave me a big smile. “You must be the siren that’s got The Nightshade all worked up.”

I nodded. “Hello.”

He offered me his hand, and I shook it. “Pleasure, mate. Great to see her fuming like that. Yeah, I saw her.”

“You did?”

“Had a peek when she was going off on one. She’s heading to the city. Guess you already know that. Her and those creepy flower weirdos. They had a fae bloke with them. Gather he’s with you.”

“He is. Was he…hurt?”

“Just uncomfortable. They’d wrapped him up in vines and were marching him through the rain. Poor man would’ve got soaked.”

That was the least of Andy’s worries. I didn’t need to have it confirmed that he was being taken to Autumn City, yet it was oddly comforting to know there was no sudden divergence from The Nightshade. If she really loved her king, then she’d certainly give him what he wanted.

“Anyway,” Clive said, “nice talking to you. Better go and pick some apples for the wife. It’s her birthday. I’m baking her an apple cake.”

“Lovely,” Jemima responded.

“Swing by later if you want. Winnie would love to see you.”

“I’ll try my best. Wish her happy birthday from me.”

Clive looked at me. “I’d say the same for you, but I’m assuming you won’t be around to come in and have some cake.”

“Indeed. But that’s kind of you to consider us.”

“No worries. Bye, then.” With that, Clive was off with his basket, whistling as he walked.

“Nice man,” I said to Jemima.

“Yeah, he’s lovely. Amazing baker. His wife taught him well. Let’s crack on.”

* * *

The woods seemed endless as if we were stuck in a loop, and the same scenery repeated over and over. All of the trees looked the same, as did the occasional clearing. Now and then, we could come across a tree bearing fruit, or some bushes with colorful berries or flowers to break up the monotonous journey. The farther into the woods we traveled, the denser it became. The tangles of branches above my head blocked out most of the daylight.

I could hear a distance noise. The sounds of traffic, of a busy city, and the cry of gulls.

“Just down here,” the elf announced.

Thank goodness!

“We’ll have a look, then we need to follow the pansies to where we need to be.”

The ground sloped downward, the trees thinning until the land beyond this leafy bubble became a meadow.

I paused just before the end of the woods. The ground continued to slope down into a lake, almost bursting its banks, swans serenely cutting across the still water.

“Shit hole,” Seph said from beside me.

Autumn City was at once an imposing sight, as well as beautiful. It sat on top of a mound on the other side of the lake, a series of amber buildings, varying in size, reaching up to the sky like glass fingers. The palace loomed above those buildings; its spires twisted into elegant spirals gathered in a circle atop a cylindrical building, forming the points of a crown. Gulls circled those highest points in flocks of white.

To the west of the city was Rose Sea—the expanse of water we’d hopefully be crossing in the near future.

One thing I’d been told about all fae cities, which had stuck in my mind was the size of them. The outside betrayed the sprawling mass of the inside. Though the city on the mound was big, it looked somewhat contained. That was a lie. Things were much bigger on the inside, apparently.

“Real shitty shit hole,” Seph added to his review.

“Yeah,” the elf agreed. “Let’s follow the flowers.”

Like she’d said, there was a path of pansies. They ran along the forest floor, parallel to the tree line as a row of rainbows. So many colors, their faces looking up at me as I walked.

The flowers carried on beyond where Jemima made us stop. She stomped on a patch of floor that looked like the rest of the dead leaves and mud that made up this place. After another three stomps that came in quick succession, a hatch opened. Another male elf popped his head out. This guy was tanned, had no hair, and was sporting a black beard. His Peter Pan outfit was also black.

“Jemima,” he said in an incredibly deep voice. “What’s up?”

She folded her arms. “We need the secret way. Can you help?”

“What’s with the frostiness?”

“Nothing. Can you help?”

“Is it ‘cos I didn’t come over last week?”

She huffed. “Rude.”

“I was ill. Had the shits.”

“Charming!”

“It’s true!”

“You stood me up. I made blackberry pork.”

I resisted the urge to pull a disgusted face.

“I couldn’t help it!”

“Whatever, Dom. Can you help, please? This is Dylan Rivers. You know, the siren?”

The elf looked up at me. “Yeah, sure. Hi. Famous in these parts. But then you’re famous everywhere.”

“A blessing and a curse,” I said, taking his offered hand. “Nice to me you. This is Pranay, and this is Seph.” The men all greeted one another with nods and grunts.

“You need to get in the city,” Dom said. “I can help with that.” He cocked an eyebrow at Jemima, who was tapping her foot. “I’ll be glad to help.”

“Good,” Jemima replied. “Thanks. Can we start now?”

“Whenever you’re ready. You going too? I’m—”

Jemima turned to me then, sticking a hand in Dom’s face. “I’m sorry. I can’t go with you to the city. This is where we’re gonna have to say goodbye.”

“Too dangerous,” Dom added.

Jemima nodded. “I’m not welcome. I’ve caused a bit of trouble in the city in my time. Sometimes enough for some people to want me dead.”

“I know the feeling,” I answered. I bent down. “Thank you so much for your help. I…” Time for more lies. “I hope you find your best friend.”

When I died at the end of this, I was going to siren hell for that. Well, I guess there was a whole list of things that was going to catapult me to a bad place.

“If you see him, please…I don’t know. You’ll know him straight away from the whole white look he’s got going on. Distinctive. Tell him to come home.”

“We will,” I said gently.

“If we’re going,” Dom said, “We should go now. Even if The Nightshade’s in the city, she still has her spies on alert.”

“I’ve been watching,” Jemima snapped. “Nothing’s followed us.”

“Doesn’t mean—”

She spun on him.

“Not trying to be a dick head about it,” he added quickly, “but I want the siren and these lads to win.”

“Yeah,” Jemima said. She turned back to me. “He’s right. You’d better go.”

“Goodbye,” I said. “Take care.”

“Good luck, Dylan. Kick ass.”

“I will.”

She said her goodbyes to the wolf and the kelpie, and then we headed to the hatch.

“Just head down the ladder,” Dom said. “Wait for me at the bottom.”

Seph went first, then me, followed by Pranay. The ladder was metal, and the cold burned my palms.

A tunnel waited at the bottom, lit by pale blue hexagonal lights stuck into the mud. The floor and ceiling were paneled with wood.

Pranay cupped my face in both hands and pressed his forehead to mine. He said nothing, and neither did I, but our breath melded as one. We were together, united. I needed this moment, this grain of sweetness, the nearness.

I loved him so much.

The hatch above closed, and Dom came down to join us. Pranay and I parted, but our hands joined again.

“This is all a bit crazy, eh?” the elf said.

“You could absolutely say that,” I replied.

“Anyway, it’s a walk down this way. Don’t worry, the guards don’t know about these tunnels. Yet. Kind of expecting them to one day, but for now, all is good. This will take us to the Butterfly Inn—into their wine cellar. It’s on Crimson Lane—seediest part of the city, so a bit off the radar. You can stay there. It’ll give you a chance to plan. It’s my mum’s place, and she’ll sort you out. She’ll be more than happy to help. Think she was hoping she’d get a chance to meet you, despite the crappy circumstances.”

“Wow. Thank you.” This was just the dose of good luck we needed.

“Can’t let you go into the city without some prep. Not right. You need to plan if you’re gonna be taking on the king.”

“I was hoping not to face him, but I’ll do whatever it takes.”

He nodded, green eyes glinting in the blue light. “Take it Jemima told you her feelings on His Majesty.”

“She did.”

“Well, the same goes for me. I hate the wanker.” He sighed. “Sorry about that stuff between us earlier. We’re, er, on and off. I’ve pissed her off big time. But I did have the shits. I couldn’t just pop round there.”

“Don’t you have phones?” Pranay asked.

“Nah. That’s for city folk, not woodland elves.”

“Oh. Might be worth trying to set something up.”

He shook his head. “No elf would go for putting a reception tower up anywhere in the woods. It’d spark a riot.”

Pranay shrugged. “Might save you some grief next time you can’t tell your girlfriend you’re shitting through the eye of a needle.”

Lovely.

Dom laughed at that. “Yeah, would be handy.”

“She’s cool,” Seph added. “Same to you for helping us out.”

I turned to see the kelpie watching me once again in that way he did—sending the butterflies dancing just like my boyfriends managed to do just by being near.

As if to remind me, Jason’s bloody body flashed before me, the memories of Kimberly screaming as she was taken away, Andy’s gorgeous smile so distant and out of reach, the slaughter of my people. All of the images ran and bled into one another in a melting pallet of cruelty. I shouldn’t have butterflies. Flames to them, let their tiny bodies die because love was a pleasure, a beam of light. Sometimes the light could not pierce the smothering dark.

No.

I won’t succumb to this.

No!

No!

“Baby?”

I won’t let this destroy me! I have to fight! Jason didn’t die in vain!

No!

Being in a constant battle with myself was exhausting, but every word of it was true. No matter the claws of sadness that wouldn’t ever relinquish me from their grip, I had to keep reminding myself of what was at stake, of the possibility of hope—no matter how smothered in mist the river of destiny was.

Keep fighting. A simple mantra, but it was the best weapon I had against my turbulent emotions.

“Dylan?”

It was rare for Pranay to call me by my name, but it snapped me out of my mental wandering.

“Sorry,” I said. “Just thinking.”

“You ready to go?”

“Yes. Dom?” I said to the elf. “Please, lead the way.”

“With pleasure.”

We made our way along the tunnel toward Autumn City, my grip on the werewolf’s hand tighter than it’d ever been before.

Chapter Five

It took, according to Dom, thirty minutes to get to the end of the tunnel. That was pretty quick, really, seeing as we hadn’t followed a strictly straight line. There had been a lot of going sideways, as well as the odd dip into deeper parts, sideways again, then back up to return to a more linear trajectory.

Eventually, we came to another ladder leading up to another hatch that opened up into a wine cellar. It was cool and dusty in the room, spider webs in every corner, sawdust on the stone floor. Wine racks and beer kegs and glass bottles were all packed into the small space. A mouse ran past my feet, darting between two kegs.

“This way,” Dom said, heading over to some stairs.

We followed him up and through a door into a small room with a desk covered in paperwork, and green walls that were in desperate need of some fresh paint.

Beyond the blue beaded curtain at the opposite end of the room, I could hear chatter, the scraping of plates. The smell of bacon and fried food was in the air. Someone laughed.

“Wait here,” the elf said and slipped through the beaded curtain.

“Bacon smells good,” Pranay said.

“The wine looks good,” I added.

Dom came back through the curtain. “This way. Gonna take you upstairs.”

The elf took us down a narrow corridor, bypassing a kitchen with elves in cook’s clothing who didn’t notice us pass, then to a set of stairs leading up.

“Staff route,” Dom said. “Go up, and my mum will be waiting. I need to get back to the woods.”

“Thanks, Dom,” I said. “You’ve been brilliant.”

“Yeah, mate.” Pranay slapped him on the back. “Nice one.”

Seph shook his hand, remaining silent.

“Good luck.” The elf hurried away.

The hallway he’d left us in was fairly dark, the walls painted a deep brown. The floor was wooden and worn, as were the stairs. There were a few paintings hanging, depicting autumnal scenery, as well as cornucopias of fruits and vegetables.

Pranay insisted on taking point, so we reverted into the position of me being the filling in this muscly sandwich and headed up to the landing at the top of the stairs.

As soon as my feet left the top step, the wooden door flung open, and a female elf came bounding out.

Her hair was wild and black. A pair of green-framed glassed rested on her nose, her skin super-golden, and her smile as bright as the sun. Her trousers and blouse were black with silver sequins, her lips ruby red.

“My darlings!” She stretched out her arms. “Welcome to my home.”

Her entire aura exuded warmth.

“Thank you—”

Before I could finish, she bounded across the short distance between us and pulled me into a hug. She came up to the center of my chest, her hair tickling my chin.

Her hug was tight. I put my hands on her shoulders and let her carry on. She smelled of birthday cake.

She ended her squeeze and looked up at me, her blue eyes sparkling. “Well, I never thought I’d see the day! The Dylan Rivers in my home and place of business! I’m such a big fan.”

“That’s very kind. Pleased to meet you.”

She giggled. “Aw, you’re actually here. Come on through. Name’s Anna, by the way.”

“Pranay.”

“Seph.”

“Good to meet you all. I’ll show you to your room.”

“Excellent,” I said.

How long would we be in the room?

Patience. It was all about the planning.

We headed down another corridor and into a room with two single beds and a window.

The décor was brown walls, bed frames, flooring, and white linens on the bed.

“Sorry,” Anna said, “it’s probably nothing like you’re used to.”

“Don’t say that,” I replied. “It’s so kind of you to take us in.”

“Of course. Anything for my favorite singer in the world.”

I didn’t blush. Those sorts of comments didn’t embarrass me. I loved them but couldn’t quite get behind this one. I didn’t show it on my face—at least I was hoping I was hiding my lack of enthusiasm. She was a fan, and I appreciated all of my fans very much. If I could make time for them, I would. But these were complex circumstances that prevented me from getting fully behind a meet and greet.

Still, I would give her a little something. “What’s your favorite song?”

This made her cheeks flush rose. “Oh, well. That’s hard. It depends on my mood. For when I want to dance, then it’s got to be ‘Electric Disco.’ No, wait. ‘Lick.’ Wow, is that some hot stuff. Wait, no. Gah! Both! They’re both my ultimate dance tracks of yours. For when I’m in the slower mood: ‘Silk.’ It’s so sexy and smooth and always chills me out.”

“All excellent choices,” I replied. “Bless you.”

“Silk is my favorite album.”

“I had a lot of fun making it.”

Her smile wavered. “I’m sorry, Dylan. I know this isn’t what you want to talk about.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“It really isn’t. The last thing you need is me getting in your face like this.”

“Anna?”

She looked up at me with big, sorrowful eyes.

“I like hearing these things. Thank you for your enthusiasm and your support. I wish I could be like the old me. However, I guess you could say that right now, my sparkle has dwindled.”

Those eyes shimmered with tears. “That’s so sad.”

“It’s life at the moment.”

“But you said right now. There’s some hope there, then? You could get your sparkle back?”

“Indeed, I could.” Lie. “The lack of it, though, doesn’t lessen my love for you. If you like, I can sign Silk for you.”

Her jaw dropped. “D-do you m-mean that?”

“Of course.”

“Oh, my goodness! I’ll be right back!”

She hurried out of the room.”

“Sweet,” Pranay said.

“She’s right,” Seph joined in, “‘Silk’ is a good song.”

It was then that I blushed. “Thank you.”

Anna was back with her vinyl copy of Silk. There I was, spread out on a bed, naked but for some pink silk sheets covering my modesty—only just. It was an incredibly sexual record, and I’d ended up having sex with one of the producers in the recording booth because laying down my vocals for the steamy suite in the middle of the album got too much for the both of us. Not very professional, but he’d been a great fuck, and the album had been a huge success.

Anna handed me a gold pen, and I wrote a dedication and my best autograph across the pink.

Seph was watching my every move. “That’s an awesome shade of pink.”

“You know it,” I said.

The kelpie was obsessed with pink.

Finished, I handed Anna the pen. “There you go.”

“Thank you so much!” She hugged the record. “You have no idea what this means.”

“A pleasure.”

She grinned. “Do you need any food? Any hot drinks?”

“Coffee would be great if you have any,” I said. “Guys?”

The two men both agreed to coffee.

“And some of that bacon if it’s going spare,” Pranay added. “Man, do I need some meat.”

“Of course. I can make you bacon and sausage sandwiches if you like.”

“Sounds bangin’,” Pranay replied. “Got any brown sauce?”

Anna nodded. “I’ll bring up the red and the brown for you.”

“Awesome. Cheers, hon.”

“No problem. I’ll be back soon.”

She left, and I went to the window.

We were three stories up—on the top floor.

Crimson Lane wasn’t especially busy, but that was because a lot of the businesses were closed for now. Gambling shops and seedy-looking bars made up this stretch, as well as what looked like residential places. It was all in a state of heartbreaking disrepair. These buildings weren’t the gleaming amber towers that loomed over them, but a hodgepodge of dirty stone buildings with cobbled streets between them.

“Pretty notorious place,” Seph said. “You can see the difference in wealth for yourself. All the poor places are like this, hidden away as best they can be, with suffering and violence and no way out.”

“You’ve been down this lane before?” I asked as we stood either side of the windowpane.

“Yeah. Used to spend a lot of time in the cities with different guys. I don’t hold onto boyfriends too well, and the last man I dated lived around the corner from here. He was beautiful, a poet, loved booze too much, and he was a cheater. Couldn’t keep it zipped up. Fucked me over, then fucked himself over by getting way too drunk one night and a knife in his guts for messing with the worst kind of thugs.”

“Oh, God!”

He shrugged. “He knew better than that.”

“I’m sorry, Seph.”

“I couldn’t say I loved him, but maybe I would’ve if he’d been better. Don’t know. I got the blokes who killed him. See that building over there?” He pointed to a place that was boarded up with a faded sign saying it had once been a café.

“Yes.”

“Took them all out in there. All four of them, dead. My ex was a complete prick, but he needed some payback in his name. He wouldn’t have killed anyone, even if the booze turned him into a complete dick. You mess with wankers like he did, though, and you get cut. So, I cut them back. I couldn’t leave it.”

“Wow.”

“Not wow, Rivers. Just…what it is. He hurt me. After him, I swore off city boys and the whole dating thing. Fucking is so much easier, less complicated.”

“You don’t wanna settle down?” Pranay asked.

“I don’t think so. Not after that.”

“I was the same,” the wolf added, “before I fell for our boy here.” He put an arm around me. “But I get what you’re saying. Sometimes you just gotta fill up the space the need leaves.”

“Yes, mate,” Seph replied. “That’s why I started Surrender. It’s a place for people like me. I don’t have to worry about my fetishes. I’ve been judged for loving pink shit, and for the leather and tying up. But that’s me, and I want other people to have a safe space to be as kinky as they want. I don’t need a man to make me feel bad about who I am. The guys I fuck in Surrender love the thrill, and I’m happy to bring it.”

My cock stirred at the thrill of sex with Seph. He’d used his chains to tie me down, and it’d been amazing.

What about me? How did he feel about our moments? There had been tenderness, more than just sex—what I believed to be affection. But the poor guy had been burned by men, and I didn’t blame him for not wanting any part of the relationship stuff.

We’d had our moments, though.

At least he was talking. It was a beautiful sound hearing so many words come out of his mouth.

“It’s great for you guys,” he said, “that you all found each other. Fuck society. You have two boyfriends, Rivers. Good for you.”

The way he said it wasn’t quite full of sincerity. Not that I thought he disagreed with the situation, but something else.

Did he want this too?

I sighed. “Thanks. I need to see my other man.”

Seph nodded. “We need to get planning. This ain’t gonna be easy.”

“Easy can be boring as shit,” Pranay responded, “but it’d be nice to have the easy road sometimes.” He ran his hand through his dark hair.

“How easy will it be navigating the streets?” I asked Seph.

“In these parts, you’ll have to keep as low a profile as possible,” he answered. “We’ll see if Anna has some stuff we can really hide you with. Moving at night will be best. And we head to the pits, not the palace. If we can, we need to avoid the king.”

“What if Andy isn’t in the pits?” I asked.

“Then we’ll have to figure out how we’re gonna break him out of the palace. But I don’t think it’ll come to that. The best punishment for the king to dish out to a fae, apart from death, is the pits.”

I shook my head. “The bastard.”

“I know. Right. So, we sneak into the pits and sneak out, then we get out onto the water before anyone notices.” He looked out of the window for a moment, lost in thought. “I’ll get us over the walls around the iron pits. They’re just outside the city, to the north of the palace.” He pointed toward the royal palace, which was higher than the skyscrapers that strived for their own dominance over the city.

“Like you got us on the roofs in the flooded city?” I asked. So, basically, he’ll throw us up over the walls with his chains. They were deadly weapons as well as tools to get to high places.

“Yep. But we’ll need to be discreet. There will be guards everywhere.”

“Need to watch the patrols,” Pranay said. “As soon as night falls, we can go watch.”

Seph nodded. “Think we can find some cover nearby to do that.”

“Good, that’s a plan,” I said. “Then we hit the pits hard.”

Water-born were safe around iron, as were werewolves.

Anna returned with sandwiches and coffee. “Here we go, boys.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Do you have anything we can cut through iron with?” Seph asked. “Bolt cutters, anything.”

Anna adjusted her glasses. “I think I can get you something. Leave it with me. I’ll put the word out.”

“Cheers,” Seph said, taking a sandwich.

“Feel free to use the bathroom facilities.” The elf nodded to a door over by one of the beds. “Fresh towels in there. Also, I’ve arranged for some fresh clothes for you. All black, I’m afraid, but they’ll be warm for your journey.”

“That’s amazing,” I said. “Thank you so much.”

“You can’t be wearing those things. You need some proper gear. I’m good at guessing sizes, so they should be okay.”

“What would we do without you, Dom, and Jemima?”

She blushed again. “Oh, please. I’m happy to help. So are my son and his girlfriend. I wish those two would just admit they love one another and get married. I’m waiting. I have an amazing hat picked out for the big day. I know they fight a lot, but if any elves were ever perfectly made for each other, it’s those two.”

“Hopefully, you’ll get to wear that hat.”

“Here’s hoping. Anyway, I’ll come back with your new clothes when they arrive. Won’t be much longer now. Got to get back downstairs. Breakfast is almost over, and I need to start preparing to serve lunch and make sure my maids get the rooms nice and clean. The Butterfly Inn has high standards, no matter what. You don’t need to be big and fancy to be nice and clean. Though I wish I could redecorate. But there you go. See you all again soon.”

“Do you need any help?” It was a stupid question, but I felt I needed to be polite and ask it.

“No, no. You must stay in this room, I’m afraid. At least until nighttime and when your clothes are on your back. Can’t be having you bumping into guests. They’re not all as fun as me, and some of them are miserable fae who’d love to find the king’s favor.”

I knew that was true when I’d asked the question. “We’ll stay put.”

“Phew! You had me worried for a moment. We can’t have things fall apart now.” She gave me a wink and left the room.

“Make sure you eat, baby,” Pranay said.

I took the sandwich, my belly rumbling. “Isn’t it amazing how all of this has happened so fast? Just like that, these people help us out. That’s extraordinary. How is that possible?”

“It is,” Seph said. “Elves don’t fuck about and are good folk. The word will be kept quiet amongst them, but there’re spies all over the city. This is the best place for us now.”

Ah, the too good to be true moment. “I need to be more cautious, right? Have I been too trusting?”

“You can trust her,” Seph said. “I just don’t trust the city. It’s brilliant she’s managed to get so much arranged so fast.”

“I’m looking forward to getting out of this shite,” Pranay said, pulling on his jeans. “Manky as hell.”

“Absolutely,” I agreed.

“Now, we need to discuss getting out of the city,” Seph said. “We can head down to the harbor, but I’ll need to see a copy of the timetable for trade ships crossing the Rose Sea.”

“Why’s it called that?” Pranay asked.

“Shaped like a rose when you look at it from above.”

“Sweet.”

“Another thing to ask Anna,” I said. “Maybe she can get us a list of departure times.”

“Okay, this is how it goes,” Pranay added. “We get Andy out of the pits, timing it with a ship setting sail.”

“Yep,” Seph replied. “There’ll be departures all through the night. We’ll figure out the timing, but we have to do this tonight. The less time Andy spends in the pits, the better.”

Andy in the pits, the iron making him sick—the idea of it made me sick, set my rage boiling. I rolled my shoulders, keeping myself calm. “I like the idea of stealth. I want to reduce chaos and having to fight our way in and out. But I will unleash on the city. I don’t want to, because it could jeopardize everything.” I’d risk being brought down by the fae guard, or whomever if I drew attention to myself by using my song. “However, if I need to, I will. Hard.”

I was walking a fine line between rationality and fury.

“Andy might be able to use his aversion,” Pranay said. “Hate to ask him, but he might have some strength in him to hide us when we head to the harbor. We’ll see what state he’s in.”

“Then we have a plan,” Seph said. “Let’s keep going over this. The more it’s in our heads, the smoother it’ll go.”

* * *

It was approaching sunset. We were all showered and dressed in black jumpers and combat trousers, with some coats, gloves, and hats provided for when we finally set out to rescue Andy. Apparently, it was going to be a cold night.

Seph and Pranay had been scanning the shipping times while I watched Crimson Lane grow increasingly busier below me.

There was a car idling beside a gambling shop. A female prostitute was leaning into the dark window, smoke curling out of the car.

Fae cars looked just like human ones but didn’t give off exhaust fumes. They ran on a special blend of water and a common weed that grew throughout the realm. Chemistry wasn’t my forte, but I knew it was sustainable fuel that caused no harm to Faerie’s environment. It was a shame it couldn’t be exported to Earth, but that realm’s atmosphere killed it.

Laughter, the breaking of glass, someone shouting muffled insults in a building opposite the bar. It sounded like a fight was about to break out.

“Midnight,” Seph said. “That’s what we’ll aim for. If we head to the iron pits around eight and watch for no more than two hours. How does that sound?”

“That sounds good,” I replied.

“There’s the risk of us not getting Andy out in time to meet the ship.”

“But we’ve got a plan B,” Pranay added. “We’ll hide down in the docks until the next ship heads out at two. I mean, it’s not ideal with how cold it’s getting. Hopefully, we’ll get this sorted first try, but plan B is better than fuck all.”

Another outfit of black had been provided by Anna for Andy. He was a similar build to me. He’d need warmth and care and—

I couldn’t wait to hold him in my arms again.

“Oh, shit!” someone yelled from the street below.

I looked out to see the car speed off, the prostitute hurry inside the tavern. A weird silence fell over the lane. Only the noise of the city beyond it continued.

“That was weird,” I said. Crimson Lane was now empty.

“What?” Pranay asked, coming to the window.

“The street has just cleared out. Is something—”

She turned the corner at the top of the lane, a tall purple monster with her green and pink flower fairies by her side.

“Fuck!” Pranay spat.

The Nightshade. No longer dead, back to her awful self, looking straight up at the window. She grinned. What was in her hand?

She stopped some feet away. “Hello, again. Surprise!”

The flower fairies giggled as one. There were six of them—three males, three females.

The Nightshade lifted the object in her hand as if to give me a better look.

My hand went to my mouth.

That was no object. It was a head.

“Jemima.”

The elf’s eyes were wide, her tongue hanging out of her mouth. Part of her spinal cord dangled like a morbid tree root.

Nausea, rage.

Lucien stirred.

Pranay growled.

“We need to get out of here,” Seph said.

Poor Jemima. Another victim along this messed up journey.

“I’ll turn her inside out,” I seethed.

“No, baby,” Pranay protested, taking me by the arm. “You know that’ll do no good.”

“I’d like to try and make death stick to her.” I couldn’t take my eyes off The Nightshade, and she stared right back at me with just as much hate.

Commotion outside the room.

Seph’s chains rattled, Pranay was battle-ready. I turned as the door burst open, and Anna burst into the room, followed by Dom.

“You have to get out of here!” Dom yelled. “We’ve been compromised.”

Mother and son were ashen and terrified.

“Follow us,” Anna said. “We can get you—”

A green shape came up behind Dom before anyone could react. The male flower fairy’s yellow teeth bit down into the elf’s neck, tearing his flesh open. Dom fell forward onto his knees.

Oh, God!

Anna screamed as Seph’s chains hurtled at the creature, snaring it around the neck. The kelpie yanked the metal snakes and beheaded the bastard in one clean move. Green blood sprayed the walls, and the fairy started to crinkle into a husk.

“My son! My son!” Anna cried, falling beside Dom, her hands grabbing his face uselessly.

I fell beside her, placing my hands over the wound. Her hands joined mine then. He was still alive. We could save him. We had to!

The Nightshade was laughing outside as two female fairies appeared in the hallway, followed by another male. Seph and Pranay charged into the fray as I continued my quest to stop this dreadful bleeding.

There was too much of it. An artery had been struck, and without a doctor, I wasn’t going to stop this.

My song stirred. The one to enchant. I could snag The Nightshade and her children and force them to murder one another. I—

“For the king!” a man called from the hallway.

That was not a flower fairy. Some fae had joined in to help the fairies, leaping on Pranay and Seph. I saw the werewolf dropkick a guy with blond hair, then hoist him up from the floor to break his face.

More of them were flooding the hallway.

The window broke, and a female fairy rolled into the room. A chain flew at her but missed. She unleashed something, and it struck Anna in the neck.

A green spike.

“Anna!” I yelled.

It had gone right through, burst out of the other side. The elf gurgled, hands going to her affliction.

“No!” I got to my feet, calling upon my song. “I’ll—”

A sharp pain in my back, followed by the familiar sensation of ice in my blood. I’d been hit with the poison again. My eyes caught a glimpse of the yellow outside the window—The Nightshade’s other face.

The female fairy was sending spikes out into the fight taking place in the hallway as the other male fairy dove into the room through the broken window.

Everything was starting to blur, my limbs softening. I fell forward, and the male fairy caught me, giggling as my head rested against his slimy chest.

Get off me! I could only shout from the inside.

I’d broken through this poison once before. I could do it again.

“Dylan!” Pranay howled.

With scary strength, the male fairy dragged me to the window and pushed me through. Being paralyzed by the toxin, I had no idea if the shards of glass had done any damage. But that was the least of my concerns.

I tumbled out, head pointing at the cobblestones, only to land in a purple hand I’d had the misfortune of being in before.

“There,” The Nightshade said. “A wrong has been righted.”

I was face-first, unable to see anything but purple flesh. My ears were filled with the cries of my companions, with the calls in the name of the king from the fae who’d joined the fight.

“Burn it to the ground!” The Nightshade boomed. “Make sure the wolf and the kelpie burn with it!”

Chapter Six

Pranay…

Seph…

No.

Things weren’t supposed to happen this way. Where were the water spirits? I couldn’t feel them. Was this the end? Had I stumbled down a wrong branch of this river of destiny?

Stop thinking like that!

I had to figure this out.

Oh, God!

Jemima was dead, and so were Anna and Dom. There would be no wedding, no love proclaimed, no love fulfilled for those elves. They’d all died helping me.

More lives to avenge.

I was walked through the city, seeing none of it from my position in the purple hand. Eventually, though I wasn’t sure if it was intentional, The Nightshade moved me to her other hand where I was positioned at a side angle, facing the grand palace gates as the big, flowery beast approached.

My goodness were the gates huge—taller than a high-rise. The amber poles were carved into an ornate pattern of leaves and flowers, and they started to open inward.

“Welcome to the palace,” The Nightshade said.

The siren palace had been vast and beautiful too. In fact, it’d been much prettier. To me, all of this was overcompensating for a lack of style with its size. No matter how much work had gone into those gates, it was still the work of a second-rate artist.

I may be helpless, but I could still be bitchy and get some sort of win. Big palace for a small-dicked king.

I guess he had to make a statement, being the king of all of Faerie and all, and I could read that statement and cast so much shade over it with my giant, metaphysical parasol.

We passed through an enormous hallway with a painted ceiling depicting nude fae in autumn scenes, all very lavish and colorful with lots of gold and terracotta. The ceiling and the left wall were all I could see. Paintings of kings and queens passed me by.

“I have sent word to His Majesty,” a female voice said from below me. “He is already holding court in the throne room. Please attend at once, My Lady Nightshade.”

“But of course,” the purple bitch replied.

The sound of doors opening, and then a loud, male voice proclaimed, “The Nightshade, Your Majesty.”

I was in a room as ornate as the hallway, and the same heavy decoration, but this time with even more gold and a focus on deep reds. A hundred eyes were looking up at me. Fae dressed up in silken finery, splendid and beautiful on the outside, but all harboring a hateful glare for me.

Arseholes.

The Nightshade lowered me to the ground, rolling me onto my back so I got a good glimpse of the ceiling and not much else.

“Behold,” she exclaimed. “The last siren.”

If I could have rolled my eyes, they’d have gone all the way round in their sockets.

“Excellent work, my dear.” I could only guess that was the voice of the king. “You will be rewarded graciously for your service. First Andy, and now this. You truly are a most loyal subject.”

“I am humbled by your generosity, Your Majesty. But I require no reward. Your happiness is enough.”

“And happy I am, indeed. This creature has been as slippery as a serpent. How did you find him?”

“A secret tunnel, Your Majesty, which runs beneath the meadow and opens up into Butterfly Inn.”

“I gather this inn is on Crimson Lane?”

“It was, Your Majesty.”

“Was? I do like the sound of that.”

“Burning to the ground as we speak, along with the tunnel through which the siren snuck. The elves who helped him are dead, and the siren’s companions are being dealt with.”

Despite my frozen state, the fury within bubbled away at the core of me. I would burn through the poison again and…how far would I get this time before I was stopped? This wasn’t the same as in the woods. I was in the royal palace now, the highest seat of power in all of Faerie. It wouldn’t be an easy task with all these fae around, but my cravings for destruction were spiking.

Could I summon all elements of my song at once? Maybe not the healing one, but the threads that could cause pain and destruction to all my enemies.

If Pranay and Seph were…I couldn’t even think about the d-word. Any more loss and this city would fall, and me with it. Fuck my destiny, fuck all of it. My revenge would burn the realm down. The barons could have what they wanted if I lost any more of the people I loved. I was done with loss.

You cannot veer from the path now…

Just watch me.

“Give him the antidote,” the king said. “I would like to speak with him.”

“As you wish, Your Majesty,” The Nightshade said.

She loomed over me, her face no longer the yellow flower, and stuck something pointy and violet into my chest. I didn’t feel it, of course, but a rush of heat quickly ran through my veins.

Feeling returned to my legs, my arms. I could wiggle my fingers, my toes. My head hurt, but function was coming back to me.

“I wouldn’t even attempt at trying to use your power,” The Nightshade warned. “You’ll be cut down before you can sing the first note.”

I’d like to have challenged her on that, but she was right.

I had to be smart.

No easy task.

“Thank you again for your work,” the king said. “You may leave us now. Go and rest, enjoy the evening. I will speak with you once I am done with the siren.”

Wonderful.

“As you wish, Your Majesty,” The Nightshade said. “Farwell.”

“Farewell, fair creature.”

Seriously? This formality was as thick as molasses and so damn annoying.

I sat up, rubbing the sides of my head, and rubbed my thighs.

“Get up,” a man growled from above me.

I looked up to see a handsome fae guard in red and gold armor on my right, a sword strapped to his back. He grabbed me by the upper arm, as did another man on my left. Together, they hauled me to my feet. I wobbled a little but managed to stable myself.

“Any funny business,” the guard on the left said, “and you’re dead.”

“Don’t think we haven’t been given our orders,” the other guard added.

What charming gentlemen.

Finally, I got my first proper look at this huge throne room. On either side of me were two groups of a fae. I was standing in a parted sea of silk and good hair. Ahead of me, on a dais, was the man they were all here to kiss the arse of.

The king had one leg over the side of his red and gold throne. He was dressed in an open shirt of white lace that revealed sun-kissed skin similar to Andy’s. His bottom half was decked in skin-tight copper trousers and black boots. His long, auburn hair was sleek and rested on his shoulders.

He regarded me with haunting, silver eyes.

A naked female fae was draped across a huge cushion beside the left of the throne. Her cropped, silver hair was striking against her dark skin. On the right of the king was a naked fae male holding a bowl of grapes, his hair longer than the king’s and a dark brown. He was the color of alabaster. The two of them watched my every move as the fae guards led me across the room to the foot of the stairs leading up to where the king held court.

God, he was beautiful. But that only meant he was probably hiding something far uglier.

Icy whispers of the fae filled the air.

“Your Highness,” the king said, not bothering to move. “I never thought I would have the pleasure of meeting the last siren prince face-to-face. I am a big fan of your latest album, by the way.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“Bow,” a guard commanded and pushed between my shoulder blades with a heavy hand.

I did as I was told.

For now.

“Your Majesty,” I said, “I am honored to be in your presence.”

He smirked. “I bet you are.”

The naked fae male stood, his cock erect, and fed the king a grape. The king stroked the fae’s penis, pulling him in by his erection for a full-on kiss. The fae woman joined in, stroking the buttocks of the male, then being reward with her own kiss from the king as he fondled her breasts.

The watching noble fae started to grope one another.

I’d clearly interrupted something.

The king watched me the whole time he snogged his servants. When he was done, he licked his lips, and the naked fae went back to draping their beautiful bodies over the lavish cushions once again.

“It’s good to be the king,” he said to me.

“So it appears.”

“Once upon a time, you lived your life like this, didn’t you?”

“Kind of.”

“Oh, you did, Dylan. Sex and sex and fame and all of those wonderful things your status brought you. This creature before me with the hair in need of grooming and the stench of a body in need of a long, long bath is a depressing sight. Whatever happened to the Dylan Rivers covered in gold glitter, wearing gold hot pants and heels, twirling around the stage, breaking the internet with his steamy stage antics?”

“He has no place in this world anymore.”

“What a shame. I was hoping to see him in all his glory. I’ve heard such wonderful things. I want to see him, to meet the pop star, the decadent diva.”

“Here I am.”

“You know what I mean. I have a feeling that Dylan Rivers would have happily come to my throne to receive a kiss of his own.”

As hot as he was, no way. Firstly, my ego wouldn’t have tolerated being a plaything for the king of Faerie. I wouldn’t want him being the biggest star in the room.

“There is sexiness beneath this grim package before me, though,” the king said.

Spare me the theatrics. “That’s very kind, Your Majesty.”

“But we find ourselves in a complicated situation.” He winked at me. “You’d like my cock, siren. I could make you sing like a siren has never sung before.”

Someone gasped behind me as if they would love nothing more than to ride the royal penis.

“That’s not going to happen, though, is it?” he added.

“I’m afraid not, Your Majesty,” I responded.

“Complications are tiresome, yet that is the nature of war. A shame, but I have to do my duty.”

Ah, so here he went with his point.

“It is my duty,” he continued, “not yours, to stop all of this. I have to say, your desire to bring down the barons is admirable, but that’s not your job.” He lifted his leg off the arm of the throne and crossed it over the other one. “I know you enjoyed some of your youth as a prince, but you have no idea of the weight of a crown. As the king of this realm, I am charged with its safety. The barons are a direct threat—one I will smite with the power I wield. Not your song, Dylan. This is my calling, my reason for being the king.”

“I don’t doubt that, Your Majesty,” I said.

Best not to poke him.

“And I gather you want Andy back?”

I took a moment, the sound of my boyfriend’s name on those lips, making every muscle in my body flex. “I do, Your Majesty. He belongs with me.”

He stroked his smooth chin. “Interesting choice of words. Is that what you think about one of my subjects? That he belongs to you?”

“He has my heart.”

Laughter in the throne room.

“He has your heart, does he? How wonderful for you. I’m sure he says the same about you. But I’m afraid he doesn’t have room for you in his.”

I drew a deep breath. “And why would that be, Your Majesty?”

He stared at me for a few moments before answering. “Because, Your Highness, he is mine. There can only be enough room in his heart for his king. That is what it means to be fae, to be truly loyal. The love of another is not the same as the love for your king. You wouldn’t understand that, I know. But he is mine. His love is mine. This love for you is falsely placed. I am his savior, his everything. Not you. How could you possibly be?”

Delusional arsehole. “Yet, you cast him into a pit of iron.”

The king smiled sweetly. “He is facing the error of his ways. His heart will expel you in time. Anyway, that is not your business, Dylan. None of this is your business.”

I went to take a step forward, but the guards held me back.

“Your Majesty,” I said, “Andy is my business. I’m sorry that you can’t understand that, but he is mine. Not yours. And I am his. There is no—”

One of the guards stepped in front of me and punched me the stomach. As I went down, the wind knocked out of me, he smacked me across the face with a heavy hand. I landed hard on my knees. My nose was bleeding, blood running into my mouth, down my chin. As much as it hurt, my nose wasn’t broken.

The king was laughing. “A lesser creature’s rightful place is on his knees.”

Absolute bastard! Though maybe I should stay down for a moment, let myself gather my thoughts and then unleash.

How was I going to unleash?

“Sirens are finished, lost forever,” he proclaimed. “I do not understand why I am even giving you your official title. It isn’t really official anymore, is it?”

“That’s up to you, Your Majesty.”

“Yes, indeed, it is. I guess it is my kindness that allows me to bestow such eminence upon you.”

How was I supposed to reply to that?

“You see, Dylan, this is the real struggle of a monarch. I have to be at once a leader, so powerful and strong and unrelenting, but I must also show compassion. Do you see the conundrum of great men?”

Great men? Right. “I do.”

His eyes narrowed. “I don’t think I like your sarcastic tone.”

Oh, dear. Had I really been sarcastic? I’d been trying to keep any trace of it out of my responses, and I’d even kept my reply short to avoid it.

Maybe I just couldn’t help myself.

He smiled. “Interesting. I have to admit, however, that I am not surprised by your manner. You are a pop star, after all. There is a certain level of arrogance that comes with the territory, is there not?”

“I wasn’t being arrogant or sarcastic, Your Majesty.” I loathed this meekness, but I had to keep him on a hook for a while longer. Let him think I was afraid of him, then strike.

I was still working out how exactly I was going to strike.

“You’re a terrible liar, Dylan. I can see it in your eyes. You detest me, detest anyone better than you. Why wouldn’t you? All of your time basking in fame has gone to your head. I do not doubt you are surrounded by those who say yes to your every whim, who fill you up with praise, never letting any criticism come your way.”

Oh, how wrong this bastard was! I’d seen plenty of critical reviews about me in the press, hateful comments online. My music was raunchy, but my performances were legendarily risqué. That was my gimmick. Skimpy outfits were always aplenty, sexy dancing with my dancers, writhing about on-stage, panting, knowing full well I’d be causing a stir. That was the point. I was there to entertain, to build a reputation. No matter the antics, I always delivered a fun performance. My goal was to always bring it for my fans, as well as keep myself firmly in the limelight. Some people had leveled their anger at me for being an attention whore. I wore that label with pride. How else was I supposed to stick it to the barons? Sail by quietly? No. Give me glitter and sex and a throbbing bassline, and I’ll show you just how fucking scared the last siren is.

Hmmm…

My mind was wandering.

“Are you listening to me?” the king asked testily.

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

He leaped to his feet. “There! There it is again! That sarcasm!”

Oh, well. “I do apologize. I think it just comes naturally to me.”

“You won’t take this destiny away from me!”

I already have. “I’m not trying to.”

“Liar! You want absolute power! You won’t have it! I loathed your mother and father, and I now know how much I loathe you! The fae will not accept a siren as their supreme ruler!”

Oh, dear. He’d gone mad with power—that was an understatement.

How boring.

“That’s not my goal, Your Majesty.” I didn’t want his power, but I certainly wanted to undo it. Just by this conversation with him, I could see that everything Jemima had said was completely true. It was time for someone new.

However, fae politics weren’t for me to interfere with. All I wanted was to free Andy and get as far away from here as possible.

“I will see your head removed from your shoulders,” the king seethed. “No trial. I am the judge and the jury. My word is final.”

Great. We’d reached this point.

“I beg you for my life,” I said. The words were toxic on my tongue, but I needed to try and find a way around this. If I used my song and ended up unconscious, who knows what could happen to my body. I couldn’t rely on Pranay and Seph to come to my rescue. If they suddenly burst into the throne room, then I’d sing away, take my chances with my song.

They might be dead.

Then things would go very differently.

Too many people were gathered in here, too many guards—too many loyal subjects in the city.

Or were there?

I didn’t believe I could instigate a rebellion amongst the fae. Not me. Maybe if half the room was made up of elves, then yes. Though the king needed replacing, there seemed to be a huge devotion to him. Was it false? Was there a big enough underground resistance beyond the elves and what I’d witnessed? Possibly, but that meant nothing unless this maybe rebellion had an attack planned for right now.

The king was laughing, a full belly laugh, holding onto the side of his throne for support. Joining him, the entire congregation roared. That included the two guards either side of me.

When the king was done, wiping away his tears of laughter, he raised his hands. “Silence! Oh, my. What a funny statement.”

Yes, because wanting to stay alive a bit longer was hilarious.

I kept quiet.

“I cannot believe you have just begged for your life. The last siren prince! How wonderfully pathetic! You came into this chamber, this city, so bold as to declare your love for one of my creatures, to think you could simply have him back.” He titled his head. “Poor, poor man. Look at you. Begging. How the mighty have fallen. Your fate feels wonderful to hold in the palm of my hand.” He held out his hand as if he were actually holding something. “Wonderful indeed. Now, I must consider what to do with you. So many options. Death seems to be a waste, yet a safe option considering the destructive nature you have. Not that you would be given any opportunity to use that magic of yours. I have many ways to suppress your power.”

I’m sure you do.

“What to do with the last siren. I cannot throw you into the iron pits with your beloved because it would do nothing. And that would mean allowing you to be near him. That will never happen.”

“Your Majesty—”

“Silence, siren!”

The guards grabbed my arms roughly. “Respect your king.”

Not my king. I kept silent. I was only going to plead with him again, feign some false meekness.

“What to do, what to do.” The king folded his arms. “I could relent and hold a trial of sorts, let my people decide your fate.” A chorus of excited whispers responded to that. “But that would be tiresome, and it is I who will bring a sentence down upon you.”

What was I guilty of exactly? Existing? My journey home had nothing to do with him. Other than being the chosen one, for want of a better term, there was no reason our paths should have crossed. If he had left Andy alone, me and mine would have simply come to the city to find some transport. That was it. There didn’t need to be any of this drama. He could’ve ignored Andy not wanting to be a part of his clan. How many fae loved him? More than one man, for sure. But no, he had to be this creature of vanity, to show everyone he was some twisted version of being chosen, that it was he who would lead the way to victory.

If he stopped me, everything would be lost.

Everything.

How did you reason with a megalomaniac?

“Aha!” the king proclaimed. “I have my answer. You will be my slave. What a wonderful idea. Simple, but a punishment to really make you learn the lessons of power. You will wash my clothes, cook my food, clean the shit and piss from every toilet in the palace. I want to see you on your knees, completely subservient to my every whim. You will know that the time of the siren has passed, that I am your king, the true ruler of everything. The siren realm is gone. What did you hope to achieve? There are no more sirens to make a new world. And it isn’t like you’ll be breeding anytime soon, is it?”

His court laughed.

“There is no desire for the seed of a dead race.”

“Andy desires my seed.” Whoops! That just slipped out. It was the truth, though, no matter how smutty.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I could make you a eunuch, siren. How would you like that?”

“My apologies, Your Majesty.”

“You are as sincere as Darius Thomas was. There is no reason to keep you alive, other than to make you suffer. To me, that is sweeter, more deserving.”

This was a mad man, through and through, drunk on too much power.

He smiled at me. “First, we will administer a slave collar with a twist,” he said. “It will suppress your magic. Then we can begin our trial run with you as a slave. Yes, a temporary arrangement. What happens next depends on your actions. If you’re good, you could—”

What happened next was the ground burst open between me and the king, a spray of black oil gushing from beneath.

The throne room erupted into screams, the crowd pushing back as guards moved in around the king.

“Barons!” someone howled.

Oh, no. Tarquin was here to visit.

The water spirits made their return then, their cold tendrils tickling my neck.

The oil stopped gushing, and a form rose out of the hole in the ground. I braced myself to see the Overlord of the barons, the man I needed to destroy even more than the king.

Only, it wasn’t Tarquin, but his son.

The late Darius Thomas was standing right in front of me.

Chapter Seven

I’d killed him, watched him burn. His skin was a charred mess, cracked and blistered. Between those cracks were gray fissures, and there was a stench to him of rotting flowers, of burned flesh, as well as a sour and acrid aroma that stung the back of my throat.

Around his head danced ribbons of purple magic. His eyes were violet, not the usual red of a baron, and more of that purple energy loomed around his fingers and feet.

I’d killed him.

As it had always been before, his arms were dipped in oil from hands to elbows, and he wore shiny, black leather trousers, the rest of his dead body exposed.

Because he was dead. The reason for that purple magic was coming through loud and clear now. I knew exactly what it was.

Necromancy.

Out of the hole came Kimberly. She was dressed in a purple pantsuit, her sleek, black bob immaculate, and around her neck was a diamond necklace with one stone, a striking obsidian.

My best friend and necromancer had been enslaved by the barons, animating the corpse of Darius.

It took every ounce of strength I had not to fall to my knees and wail.

Kimberly. Her attention was fully on her dead charge

“Destroy them!” the king roared.

A flash of purple and jets of oil sprayed from Darius’s hands.

The pink magic of the fae burst to life around the king in an instant, forming a shell around him. Oil bounced off the shield, dousing the naked fae beside him.

Fae were screaming. Guards were spilling into the room.

Jets of oil went wild, Darius spinning. I hit the ground as they rushed overhead, taking down my guards, covering my head as best I could.

I had to get to Kimberly, break that tainted diamond on her neck.

“Kill the necromancer!” the king bellowed.

They would. There were enough fae to do it, even if the oil was spreading—

The ground rumbled, and more geysers of oil burst upward.

Oh, God.

“Barons!” someone cried.

Jets of oil suddenly went wild from all angles, roaring overhead, drenching me in a black spray. There was something different about this oil—it smelled odd.

Then the spraying stopped. Cautiously, I looked around me, the red and gold décor tainted by splatters of dirty black. The noble fae were covered in oil, in a state of shock because four more barons had appeared through holes in the ground.

Four barons, plus Darius, the dead prince. I wasn’t including Kimberly because I could not contemplate the notion that she was my enemy.

A fae struck out at a pale, red-headed male baron. But his moves were wobbly, not as aggressive as they should be. Maybe the shock had held him back. He was quickly shut down with a jet of oil that sent him crashing into a wall. I heard his skull crack, his neck break. He hit the floor with a sickening smack.

He didn’t get up again.

It was then that many of the fae started to vomit, some even collapsing. One of the guards, who was sprawled on the ground next to me, coughed up blood, then vomited more of it.

The smell of the oil.

“Oh, no,” I whispered.

Iron. There was iron in the oil!

The king’s shield still was flickering. “What is this villainy?” There was a crack in his voice.

An olive-skinned female baron headed over to the dais. Her hair was cropped and silver, her eyes the deadly red of all oil barons. She threw me a smirk before facing the king completely.

She didn’t speak but clicked her fingers on both hands. A ball of oil manifested above her head, swelling and spinning until it finally stabilized into a pulsing circle of black.

“I will—” Before the king could finish, the center of the oil circle changed, giving way to the shape of a face, red eyes…

Tarquin.

His was a handsome, dark face that was the older version of Darius. But he wasn’t the same as his son. Darius had tried to, in his warped way, make me his despite everything that he’d done to me. Though I didn’t know Tarquin as I had Darius, the Overlord would never let his heart taint his ruthless ambition. Sometimes, you didn’t have to know someone to understand their cruelty. What he’d done to my realm was evidence enough. Even in the strange oil circle, he exuded menace, those crimson eyes, orbs of bloody menace.

“Good evening,” he said.

It was like a television screen, but oily and subverted.

“You!” the king barked. He had fallen back onto his throne, his shield still not dead but clearly heading that way.

“How are you enjoying this visit from my soldiers?” Tarquin asked. “Such a will of iron they all have.”

The barons, apart from Darius, all laughed in response.

“I will destroy you,” the king replied weakly, mustering as much aggression as he could.

“I’m sure you believe that, and I hear you have been amassing an army ready to meet my own.” He laughed. “The delusions of a decadent king. You are the worst kind of ruler.”

“It is I who will—”

“Who will what? Bring my end? Is that what you say while you languish on your throne? How comical.”

“The barons will not win this war.”

“Yet, here my soldiers are, breaking the seat of power. Did you not receive word?”

“Word of what?”

“The fall of Winter City?”

My chest tightened.

“You lie!” the king screamed.

“I take no pleasure in lying. It was easy to break through the city defenses, much like it was easy here. I knew it would be. Your arrogance is your downfall, king. At least those on Earth are trying their hardest. For now. Soon we will break through those pesky defenses.”

So, the council was doing a good job of keeping him out, then? I hated to admit it, but thank goodness for that! Well, at least for the time being.

Tarquin’s gaze found me. “Ah, there you are. You made it this far.”

I stood up. “Hello.”

“How do you like this new twist, siren? Look! It’s Darius! Still moving around even after you murdered him. And your dear necromancer friend. Just look at what she can do. She is so much more than your manager. What a waste of her skills that job was.”

“Your Majesty!” I heard The Nightshade cry before I could respond.

She burst through the throne room doors with flower fairies and fae guards—the latter quickly wavering under the noxiousness of the iron-laced oil.

Before The Nightshade could do anything, she was drenched with oil, her flower fairies screaming. A baron punched through her stomach and pumped her with oil, her purple body swelling until it couldn’t take anymore. She burst in a spray of black, purple, and yellow. Her children were then dispatched with quickly.

Some of the fae near me, who’d taken a massive hit of oil, were unconscious.

I had to make a move.

“This is the end of your reign,” Tarquin said to the king.

I poured everything into my song of enchantment, calling to the melody, magic rising. If I could snag the barons and Kimberly, it would at least stop the threat of oil jets with me in control of them. Unleashing Lucien or my song of summoning seemed like too much of a risk. This route seemed the safest. All it had to do was work.

“You will not have my kingdom!” the king cried, getting to his feet.

Good. He could be a distraction for me.

“Then drop your shield,” Tarquin drawled.

Gold ribbons of magic came to life around my arms. The melody was growing, and the conscious fae nearby were watching me with curiosity through their sick eyes.

“Coward!” the king spat back. “Hiding in your realm while you send others to face me!” The king was wheezy but determined to mouth off, apparently. “Face me! Face me!”

“You’re not worthy—”

“The siren!” a baron cried.

The golden light of my power was bright and swirling all around me. This was it, the crescendo about to boom.

“Bring him down!” Tarquin bellowed.

He wanted to admonish the king’s arrogance. Fine, but how many times was he going to underestimate me?

My song rang through the throne room. The golden threads’ claws ready to snare.

I ducked to avoid oil. Darius charged at me with a groan, swinging at me. I dove, keeping the song strong, and rolled out of his way as he slammed a fist into the ground. The tremor went through my bones. I ran, leaping over some fallen fae, then the first baron was mine. He screamed but then giggled. I caught a glimpse of who it was—the red-headed guy who’d killed a fae.

One down.

I continued to dodge oil jets and avoid Darius. He’d almost had me at one point, but I still managed to avoid his grip.

Three down—two more male barons were mine. All I needed now was the female one. Then I needed Kimberly. Darius was out of the question because he was dead.

Dead.

I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t him, only his body being controlled by my best friend. What was dead couldn’t be enchanted by my song.

“Kill the siren!” Tarquin boomed.

A fae guard leaped into a jet of oil as I ducked. He went spinning, crashing into Darius. But the dead thing didn’t go down, catching the fae in his big arms. He twisted the head from the guard as if he were hulling a strawberry.

The fae had helped me.

For goodness sake! One moment, they were my enemy, the next, they were diving in to take a jet for me.

I guess hating the oil barons was a form of common ground.

There, I’d done it—I’d caught all four of the barons in my song. Back when they’d ravaged my realm, their attack had been so overwhelming that there had been no chance of fighting back in this way, or in any way that could have given my people any kind of upper hand. Now, the tables had turned. It wasn’t the entire baron population, but I’d take these four as a win for now.

The last of the golden light threaded its way over to Kimberly as more fae were circling in on Darius and my best friend. The fae were weak and stumbling, but their pink magic was flashing. This wasn’t a rallying of strength for me, I knew. They were defending their king really—and thank God they were!

“Leave!” Tarquin barked from his screen.

Darius and Kimberly leaped back into the hole from which they’d come before I could grab her.

Damn it!

Tarquin laughed. “She is mine.”

“And they are mine,” I sang back at him.

That soon killed his laughing, his face full of hate. “They are but four.”

I ignored him, addressing the female baron who’d made the screen. “Hello.”

She swayed, formerly red eyes now sparkling with gold. “Hi. You’re soooo handsome. And I love this pretty song in my head.” She clicked her oily fingers. “What a wonderful beat.”

“Resist that song!” Tarquin boomed. “Listen to my voice. It is the stain of siren, the wickedness of their magic!”

The gold in the baron’s eyes flickered, showing the red beneath.

Ah, so it would be a battle of wills, then?

“I want you to use your fists, all of you,” I sang, “and drive them deep within the chests of your fellow barons. Pull out their hearts, hold them high when you’re done! I want to see!”

The barons skipped across the room to meet one another, twirling, laughing, calling over to me about how lovely I was and how they would do anything for such a handsome siren.

Tarquin wasn’t having any of it. “You are barons! You can resist the call of the siren! Expel it from your minds.”

The skipping faltered, and the barons wobbled, grabbing their heads.

I poured more song into them. If this knocked me out, then so be it. If the fae tried to screw me over after this, taking my unconscious body and slapping a slave collar on it, so be it. I’d break free. I was so full of determination. There were four barons in my grasp, and the water spirits were dancing away around me.

I was on the right track.

“Show me your hearts!” I sang. “Take the hearts of your fellow baron and hold them high for your siren master!”

More tempo, more energy.

Tarquin roared. “Master? I am their master! No baron has ever succumbed to the magic of a siren!”

I felt my eyes narrow, and my lips stretch into a wicked grin. If I could see myself, there would be a dark look on my face for the Overlord. “Oh, but a baron has. Did you forget your son, Tarquin? How he fell for me, how he was obsessed with me? He was willing to hide me in his little cave beneath the earth, so he could have me forever. Isn’t that a betrayal to you? He wanted the last siren to live so he could project his lust and twisted love all over me time and time again. He failed. I killed him. You can present him to me as a dead thing all you want, but all he’ll ever be is your dead son.”

The barons met and, as I’d commanded, punched into the chests of one another. It was easy work for their strength, and all four had the hearts of their fellow soldiers held high and beating above their heads, blood spurting everywhere.

“Wonderful,” I sang to them. “You have served your master well.”

As one, they all fell down dead.

I turned back to Tarquin as my song lingered on. It wasn’t done yet. “That’s five barons that have succumbed to a siren now.”

There was no roar of rage, no explosion from his screen. He watched me for several seconds with a chilly calm, then said, “I will undo you, siren. Mark my words.” The screen broke apart, the oil splattering the ground.

I then turned my attention to the king, who cowered beneath his flickering shield, slumped on his throne.

“Siren…” he tried. The iron-laced oil was really doing a number on him.

“Listen to me, king. You know my power, and you know it is capable of many things. I won’t listen to your filth any longer. I’m done with the theatrics. You’ll release Andy and my other companions and let us be on our way.”

If Pranay and Seph were still alive…

No.

They had to be.

He coughed, not saying anything.

“You murdered those elves, burned that inn to the ground, and killed who knows how many more. I hope you answer to that. I should kill you right now for them, but I’m willing to offer you your life in exchange for letting us pass.”

He coughed again.

I was well aware that The Nightshade would, at some point, be reborn, and then I’d have another thorn to extract.

“Answer me,” I said. “Unless you want to be enchanted.”

“You may…” His shield dropped. “You may…” He rose to his feet. “You may…” His hand was going to his back. “You may…die!” He lunged at me with a dagger, driving it down to stab at me. The king stumbled, and I caught him in my song.

“Your Majesty!” someone cried.

At that moment, the doors of the throne room burst open, Pranay and Seph charging in with an army of elves.

Wow.

“Anyone moves, and we’ll fucking gut you!” Pranay roared.

“Our king!” another fae yelled.

As I held the king, I turned to address the fae. “We will leave here safely, with Andy, and no one will stop us. If you try to, I will bring down this entire city.”

“Our king!”

“Your king is vain and repugnant!”

“What a wonderful creature you are,” the king sang dreamily to me.

“Our blessed majesty!”

Ugh. “Do we have an understanding?” I called. “I will spare your king in exchange for my terms. Agreed?”

“He is the king!” a man fired back. “He will never surrender. And neither will we!”

“After everything you’ve just seen? You helped me. The barons are gone. Now, I need to go and end the rest of them. You’ve seen for yourself what they can do, how they will strike. Iron-tainted oil. Have fun going up against that.”

Mutterings.

“It is my destiny to—”

“Shit!” I heard Pranay bark.

A spear flew across the room and struck the king in the stomach, bursting out of his back. My song dropped immediately, and I fell forward, landing on my knees at the same time as the king hit the ground. He screamed, then choked, and coughed up a horrible spray of the blood.

The spear was made of iron.

My head was swirling as chaos rang through the throne room, struggling to get to my feet. This was the payback for using my song. It’d come at the worst time.

What I did see was the surge of elves flood into the room, swinging their weapons at the fae.

Iron weapons. The iron oil had weakened the gathered fae, and so the elves were seizing the opportunity.

A war had broken out. But how had Pranay and Seph got through the city to the palace?

Answers later.

Pranay and Seph fought their way to me. My werewolf boyfriend scooping me up in his arms. Some fae were attending to the king.

One of them, a woman, looked up at me. “Go behind the throne,” she said, “and follow the corridor all the way to the end.”

“Madness has rotted this place,” a male fae added. “Shame and madness. Go!”

We were moving, passing from the decadent throne room into a stone corridor.

“Hold on, baby,” Pranay said.

Chapter Eight

I didn’t blackout. Yay for me.

But my head was killing me as we exited into fresh air, the night sky clear and full of stars. Darius and Kimberly and all of that mess was threatening to push me down, to make me falter. But I pushed back. I couldn’t fall apart. Not now. Kimberly was alive, and that’s what mattered.

I held on tight to that hope.

“Those flower fucks and fae kept on coming until the barons attacked the city,” Pranay said.

“They did? I thought they’d just come to the throne room.”

“No, baby. They attacked some fae and then let loose an oil well that’s fucking everything up.”

“Oh, God. That’s crazy.”

“Yeah, it is. There ain’t no stopping it either. Must be some mojo attached to keep it gushing like that. We managed to get away just as elves started pouring into the city. The fae are overwhelmed now.”

“And their king is dead,” I added.

“How fucked up was that?”

“More barons will come,” Seph cut in. “We need to get Andy and get the hell out of here.”

“What’s the time?” I asked. “I think I can walk.”

“Let me carry you to the pits, yeah? Then I’ll put you down.”

“Fine. It will speed things along, I guess.”

Pranay chuckled. “I love it when you pout, baby.”

The air had a cold bite to it as Pranay hurried along a stone pathway that ran down a slope. The path snaked down into a basin, then up another slope to the iron pits sitting solitary on a mound in another expanse of meadow.

To my left was the Rose Sea and the sight of freedom. The harbor was on the very edge of the city, at the bottom of the mound it rested on. From the look of it, all we had to do was follow the other branch of this path down to the harbor. There would probably be gates or something, but that wasn’t a problem in the grander scheme of things—certainly not after everything that had transpired.

“Almost there,” Pranay said.

The pits were three cylindrical structures, all the same size, built from a thick gray stone. Torches burned in sconces at either side of the gates we were rapidly approaching.

“Elves built these in ancient times,” Seph said. “Fae forced them into it. I guess a rebellion’s been long overdue.”

“Do you think they’ll win?” I asked. “I mean, their king is gone, there’s all that oil.”

I turned back to look at the city and palace behind us. I could see the tip of the gushing oil well, a black arch against the glow of the amber towers.

Awful, no matter how badly the fae had behaved. Some bad eggs didn’t make the whole tray rotten. There were innocents suffering in that big city. That was precisely why the barons had to be stopped before a tidal wave of oil swept over everything.

I wouldn’t rule that out from actually happening.

Pranay put me down when we arrived at the gate cut into the first cylinder. The damn thing was at least a hundred feet high.

There were no guards at the gray portcullis. Beyond it was a stone door that wasn’t going anywhere. God, this place was horrendously bleak.

Pranay sniffed the air. “There were fae here, but their trail runs back to the city. Looks like they’ve gone to try and sort that shit out.”

“Must have just missed them,” Seph said. “Good.”

“Secure,” I added, looking at the stone door behind the grate. “How many layers do you think there will be before we can get in?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Seph replied. “We’re going up. Do you think you can manage it?”

“This is Andy,” I said. “I’ll manage anything no matter what.”

The kelpie nodded and sent his chains flying upward, a heavy thump coming from above. He pulled hard, testing them.

“All good,” he said.

The kelpie had told us, back at the Butterfly Inn, that the layout of the pits was simple. Nothing fancy, the focus kept on the prison performing the duty required of it. The three structures were simple prisons that a fae could not break out of, the iron on the inside. There was no need for ornate design.

It was a horrible place to look at and even worse to think my boyfriend was trapped within one of these monstrosities.

“Ready?” the kelpie asked.

“Me first,” Pranay cut in.

“I was talking to you.”

“Oh. Cool, mate.”

Chains snaked around Pranay’s waist, then under his arms. Without warning, they flung him upward. My heart was in my mouth at the sight of his ascent.

Pranay landed on the edge of the building with elegant grace, giving us the thumbs up.

The chains unwrapped from around him and retracted back to their master.

“Your turn,” Seph announced. “I’d rather you stayed outside but can’t be leaving you alone.”

I was a little incensed at that. “I’m more than capable of going up and over.”

“You’re weak from the song.”

“Seph, honey, I’m not made of glass.”

He shrugged. “Just saying. I know you’re going up anyway.”

“Damn right, I am. Chain me up.”

The wicked smirk on his face was enough to have my skin flushing.

Damn.

I didn’t say anything else as the chains locked onto me.

* * *

From my position next to Pranay, I could see more of that vile oil well and the way it was splattering the amber around it.

“Do you think the city will fall down?” I asked. “That’s stupid, right?”

“I know what you mean, baby. It could happen.”

“Let’s hope not.”

Seph joined us, landing with the same elegance as Pranay had. My own landing had been wobbly, but I’d kept my balance without any help.

Another yay for me.

I looked down into the prison below me. The pit was deeper than it looked from the outside, the curved walls inside made of smooth iron with no roof covering it at all. Right at the bottom was Andy, the only occupant of this particular pit, slumped against the wall, dressed in a white robe from what I could see.

“Oh, God!” I gasped. “How do we get down there?”

I was expecting to be lowered by chains but soon noticed the ladder. Without a word, I went straight for it, summoning up as much energy as I could to make my way down the metal rungs quickly.

Iron rungs. I could only guess it was a method of mental torture for a captive fae. If only the ladder wasn’t iron, then a prisoner could maybe escape.

Pranay was right above me as my head swam with dizziness, forcing me to pause. I groaned, grinding my teeth together in frustration.

A chain locked tight around my waist.

I looked up. “What’s going on?”

“Safety,” Seph said, who was getting onto the ladder. The chain was also fixed to the werewolf.

I carried on, being as quick as I could, my body protesting at not being allowed to rest.

It’d have to wait!

Andy was down there. I had to get him out and as far away from this place as I could.

I reached the bottom. The ground was wet and cold and made of the same smooth iron as the walls. I hurried over to Andy, his arms and legs bound with iron shackles, chained to the wall, his chin resting on his chest.

All of his sun-kissed glow was gone, replaced by sickly gray. Even his red-gold hair was darkened and looked so brittle. My boyfriend of sunshine was a fractured light.

“Oh, Andy.” I crouched beside him. “Look at what they’ve done to you.”

He groaned and slowly opened his eyes. The regular emerald was now watered down to a pale green. “Dylan?”

His lips were chapped and dry.

“I’m here.” I took his hand. “We’re all here, and we’re getting you out.”

Pranay and Seph broke the chains and got to work on the shackles, pulling on them with all their powerful strength.

“I’m sorry,” Andy whispered. God, his voice was so weak. I couldn’t stand it.

I stroked his face. “What for?”

“Getting captured.”

“Don’t be silly.”

“The king…”

“Is dead.”

His eyes widened a little at that. “Dead?”

“Yes. I’ll explain later. First, we need to get away from this place and into somewhere warm. We’re crossing the Rose Sea tonight.”

“We are?”

“Yes.” I kissed his forehead. “I love you so much, Andy. So, so much.” I kissed him again.

“I love you,” he replied weakly.

The shackles broke and were tossed aside.

“Come on,” Pranay said, “let me carry him.”

I would love nothing more than to scoop my fae boyfriend up into my arms and carry him to safety. But I was still too weak. Walking was fine now, but that was all I could manage.

The wolf lifted his best friend up, Andy weakly wrapping his arms around him.

“I’ve got you, buddy,” Pranay said softly. “I’m here.”

A small sob broke from Andy, but then there was quiet.

* * *

Getting out of the iron pits was easier, Seph breaking locks on doors as we headed out through a series of short corridors to the stone door—the one on the other side of the portcullis.

A figure was there, wearing strange blue armor from head to toe—no skin exposed at all. It had a sword in its hand but wasn’t giving any indication of using it. The armored figure had a defeated stance.

There was sobbing coming from within the pointed helmet. Behind the figure, was a lever—the key to opening the gate.

“Blue shit protects the fae guards from iron,” Seph mumbled.

“I’m not going to fight you,” a distorted male voice said. “I…what’s the point? I don’t want to be here.”

“Then go to the city,” I said. “If that’s what you want.”

“Orders are orders.” The fae turned and pulled the lever, and the door lifted, the grinding of stone on stone shaking the corridor.

“Just like that?” I asked.

“Andy shouldn’t be in here. This is all such bullshit. Go.”

The portcullis opened next, the cold night air rushing in.

Was there a trick about to be activated, the guard suddenly changing his mind, or even a whole group of guards waiting to meet us and complicate our escape?

No. Nothing.

“Go,” the guard said. “Kill the barons.”

We left, heading back down the path away from the iron pits. I heard the gates close once again but didn’t look back.

“What’s the time?” I asked.

“Eight-thirty,” Seph replied. “There’s a ship sailing at nine. Called the Dawn Chaser.”

I loved that he’d absorbed and kept that piece of information.

We took the path that headed down to the harbor. Sirens screamed in the city above us, and the smell of burning oil wafted down to sting my nostrils.

The city was burning. Winter City had already fallen, apparently, so what would be left of Autumn City come morning? Would the barons attack it again?

“Almost there,” Pranay said. “There’s a gate up ahead. And guards.”

There was a tall, white metal fence running along the bottom of the mound, separating the harbor from the expanse of meadow, that cut across the beach and vanished into the waves.

Two gates sat at the end of the path, guarded by two black-clad fae. They shouted something and ran forward as a red light flashed.

Seph ran forward to meet the guards, his chains flying. They were on their backs within seconds.

There was no time to reason, to discuss. If they were going to get in the way, then so be it.

Pranay picked up the pace, and so did I.

The kelpie went over the fence, destroyed the red lights, and ran to a square glass box, its windows tinted. A fae came flying out of the door, thudding on the ground and not getting up again.

The gates opened.

Seph was back outside the box, which had been some sort of control hub. “Let’s catch our ride.”

Was it really going to be that easy?

Chapter Nine

It turned out that it was that easy.

The other fae we’d encountered just let us go without any protest. Those three Seph had dealt with would all have sore heads when they woke up, but that was it. I didn’t want any more blood spilled this night.

Unless it had to be.

Thankfully, we were now on the Dawn Chaser, west across the Rose Sea to Winter City—a fallen place and our destination.

Beyond the lands of Winter, was my lost realm.

We were gathered in the crew quarters, having been welcomed aboard by the fae captain, who had come to talk to us after giving us some time to settle. Andy was asleep on the lower bed of six bunk beds, wrapped up in thick blankets having been showered down to cleanse his skin of any trace of iron.

We’d all showered too and were now wearing the white and blue sailor uniforms of the crew, along with fresh underwear and boots. Our black clothes, provided by Anna, had been ruined by the oil, and we’d had to discard them before boarding the ship.

There had been a huge locker full of uniforms because the crew was required always to look fresh to represent their ship, and there was a garment for all sizes. In fact, one of the fae sailors was as built as Pranay and Seph—he worked in navigation, all bulging muscles and tattoos. All of us were catered for, looking like part of the Dawn Chaser’s crew. The real blessing, though, was the white fur-lined coats. They’d be great for navigating Winter.

The cabin was bare. The walls painted blue with nothing to decorate them. A small circle window looked out onto the waves, indicating we weren’t at the lowest point of the ship. There was a small wardrobe in the corner by the door.

“I’m sorry these quarters aren’t more luxurious,” Captain Marissa said.

“It’s fine, thank you,” I said.

The fae captain had raven-black hair tied into a ponytail poking out of a blue and silver hat that crowned her head, and she was dressed in a uniform in the same colors. Her skin was dark, her eyes a pale blue, and she was fully behind our cause from the moment we’d come into contact with her at the harbor.

What a turnaround!

As soon as she’d been made aware of the potential destruction of Winter City, she’d canceled her route north to Spring City, and decided to head west to see what was happening in her homelands.

“I dread to see what’s happened to the lands beyond the city, too,” Marissa said. “The western defenses have clearly been breached. I fear the worst.” She shook her head. “An army of barons could be waiting, blocking the way to your lost realm. Aine had feared this outcome, and now the Princess of the West is dead.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. Aine was another in a long line of baron victims, but she’d also been my enemy.

“At least the king is dead,” Marissa added. “I make no apologies for saying that.”

I stayed quiet—we all did—as she went on a rant about how power-mad he was. We’d heard it before from Jemima.

“Anyway,” she said once she was done, “I will head back to the bridge. Get as much rest as you can. When Andy wakes up, be sure to give him his uniform.” She tapped the wooden wardrobe door. “It’s in here, along with the underwear and boots.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

The kindness of strangers had gotten us through this journey so far, and I appreciated all of the help so deeply.

“We will arrive in Winter City at six in the morning.” Captain Marissa left the cabin, wishing us a goodnight and closing the door gently behind her. She’d left behind some water skins and fae bread.

Fae food was usually full of trickery, but the captain had reassured us of its safety. Still, I was hesitant to eat it. Plus, my stomach wasn’t really up to welcoming food right now.

Now that we were at a pause, I was starting to fully process what had happened.

We’d got Andy back, and Kimberly was alive. Relief was still a distant sensation, though. More wrongs needed to be put right.

Sitting on the bed next to Andy’s, I straightened my spine. “Darius can’t even have the decency to stay dead and rotting in the ground,” I said, a cold sting in my tone. It was either that or a fiery rage.

I’d have to save the anger for later.

“Fucking bastard using Kim like that,” Seph added.

“Does Tarquin think it will rattle me?” I continued. “Maybe it did, slightly. But what does he think it’ll achieve? Darius is still dead. Without the necromancer energy, he’s nothing more than a corpse. And I’ve never been so glad about anything in my life. It doesn’t matter how much magic Kimberly is forced to pump into him. He’s gone. Forever.”

I took a deep breath as the two men watched me, as I listened to the soft snores coming from Andy.

“Can’t wait to fuck shit up,” Pranay said.

I nodded. “On a grand scale.”

“We’ll need to find a way past Winter City, over to the borders of the—” Seph stopped, sighing heavily.

“What?” I asked.

“The mer realm.”

It was careless to have completely forgotten about my once neighbors, but the mer realm sat between the siren realm and the western borders of Faerie.

“Oh no,” I said. “Do you think they’ve fallen?”

“Shit,” the kelpie replied. “I can’t see why they wouldn’t have. Fuck!”

The merfolk. Had they been wiped out like my people? My realm was on the border of the baron lands, always protected by the Heart of Siren until I…gave it away, with the mer realm on the other side. The barons had wanted the sirens dead because of our power and our bountiful natural resources they could hoover up. That wasn’t on offer in the mer realm. As beautiful as it was, it was nowhere near as rich as my lost home. Once upon a time, maybe. But the last mer queen had faded into history a long time ago, diminishing the power of the mer. Having said that, they had always been ferocious trading partners—difficult and not standing for anything but the best. The relationship between siren and mer was, sometimes, complicated. And I’d fallen for a merboy in my teenage years, lost my head to Darius Thomas, who had swum into my life as my first true love.

Except, it had been nothing but deception, the baron prince disguised at something he wasn’t.

I hope you’re burning so bright in the lowest levels of your own personal hell…

“The mer are caught between places,” I said, “and they’re water folk. Oil barons hate water folk. There is no way they would have passed by the mer without bringing destruction.”

Lucien stirred within me. He’d once been one of the last mer queen’s seven water dragon warriors, and also a merman when his memory of that time had been hidden from him.

“I’m sorry,” I said to him. “Maybe—”

“I admire your attempt at consolation, mon amour. Yet, we both know what awaits us.”

“Destruction.”

“Oui.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“All the more to bring the end, mon chéri.”

Death, death everywhere, and no way to hold back the tide.

“Do not falter,” Lucien whispered, his words gently echoing in my head.

My eyes drifted to the window as a silence fell over the cabin. The sea was calm for the time being, and I watched the liquid starlight glisten on the small waves, holding onto this moment of nothing—no matter how short-lived it would be.

* * *

Andy woke up just after midnight.

“D-Dylan?” His voice was gravel.

I slid off the bed, Pranay and Seph doing the same from their positions. None of us had managed to drift off.

“Andy.” I was on my knees, leaning over him, stroking his hair.

He gave me a weak smile. “Dylan.”

Seph handed me a water skin. I tipped the liquid into my lover’s mouth, smoothing some of it over his dry lips once he’d had his fill.

“Thanks,” he breathed.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, taking his hand that surfaced from beneath the blankets.

“Like I’ve had too many beers.”

Pranay chuckled at that. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

A quiet laugh emitted from Andy. “Your fault.”

I noticed Pranay take his other hand.

“That’s it,” the werewolf countered, “blame me.”

“I’m sure you do lead him astray,” I got in.

“Ah, so now you’re both teaming up against me? Is that it, eh?”

“That’s it,” Andy responded quietly.

“Trust me, baby, Andy here ain’t that innocent. Well, you already knew that.” He winked at me.

I stroked Andy’s face with the back of my hand. “I do.” I leaned in and kissed the tip of his nose. “Are you in any pain?”

“No. I’m just tired. Iron did a number on me.”

“We’ll let you get back to sleep then.”

“Wait. I want…where are we?”

There were lots he didn’t know. “We’re sailing to Winter City.”

“We’re on a ship?”

“Yes.” Tears rolled down my face at the memory of his gentle sob into Pranay’s chest.

He squeezed my hand with a feather-light crush. “I’m fine. I promise.”

I nodded, wiping away the stray tears. “I know. I know. We really should let you sleep.”

“I…I was carried through the woods to the p-palace, taken to the king. He slapped me, told me I was a t-traitor, that I should only love him and not you. Then he had me chained up in the pits un-until he decided I’d learned my lesson.” He swallowed. “Learned to love him. Or I would die, and he said he’d kill you and p-put a stop to all this fake destiny.”

What a bastard the king was.

“Can I have some more water?”

I obliged.

“Thanks.”

He released my hand to wipe his mouth, then brought it right back to mine again.

“What happened?” he asked. “Once I was i-in the pit, it was…done. I couldn’t do anything else but…be poisoned.”

Oh, God! I wanted to bring the king back to life so I could have my turn at killing him.

Pranay proceeded to fill the fae in with all the details of what had happened in the throne room.

“Shit,” Andy replied once the werewolf was done.

“I know, mate. Fucked up.”

Andy’s eyes were beginning to regain their emerald hue. He’d soon be himself again, but he needed more rest. His eyelids were so clearly heavy with fatigue.

“Sleep,” I told him. “I know it’s a lot to process, but we want you back to fighting form.” I kissed him lightly on his lips. “Rest well.”

Less than a minute later, he was asleep.

* * *

I was in a cramped bathroom, a few rooms away from our quarters, staring at the dark circles under my eyes in the mirror.

I’d lost weight, and I looked like I could do with a few days of nonstop rest. However, my song hangover had faded, and sleep was hours away from me. Kimberly was on my mind, as well as my men, Jason, and the information I was holding back.

Despite leaning on my strength and determination, this quiet moment of solitude did call attention to the fact that I was rattled.

Hard.

Who wouldn’t be? This wasn’t exactly a breeze of a task with cuteness and fluffy trajectories I could skip down.

If only.

The ship rocked a little, the sea having become a little choppier around the two o’clock mark.

Four hours to go until we reached our destination.

The bathroom was super-small with zero frills. There was a shower over the toilet, and the sink below the mirror I was facing barely had room to accommodate water.

The door opened, and Pranay was standing in the doorway. I watched him through the glass.

His hair was disheveled, and he had no top on—only the white and blue sailor trousers.

Those dark eyes were hungry, casting their desire through his reflection. My own need spiked then, sensing that werewolf lust.

We needed an out, an escape from the grim.

Sex was the best medicine for that.

He stepped into the bathroom and closed the door. The size of the room put him immediately behind me, our bodies only inches apart.

Words were not required here.

He pressed himself against me, his concealed hardness rubbing against my buttocks. His lips went to the back of my neck, and I groaned as he sucked hard on my flesh there, his big hands sliding round to my front.

I leaned into him, grabbing the back of his head as he devoured my skin. He unbuttoned my trousers and made his way inside, grabbing my cock. The werewolf caressed my erection, fondling my balls as he continued to suck my neck.

This was exactly what I needed.

Done with my neck, he pulled down my trousers and fell to his knees, kneading my buttocks. He spread my legs wider, licking at my flesh, teasing the entrance into my slick crevasse.

Being a siren, I had the convenient ability to self-lubricate and be ready for his fingers. One at first, sliding in deep, then a second finger joined it, exploring me.

I gasped and arched my back, wanting him to go even farther.

As he played with me, his other hand returned to my balls, my cock, sliding back and forth to wherever it wanted to go, teasing the life out of me.

I loved every second of it.

Removing his fingers, he went in with his tongue. He’d never done that before. The last time someone had dined out on me back there had been when Seph had fucked me better, stirring up my healing song.

Pranay went down on me as if I were an all-you-can-eat buffet he wanted to sample every part of. He held my cheeks open, burying his face into me, sending electrifying pulses of pleasure up my spine.

I gripped the tiny sink for support, leaning into him. The sensation was pushing away the grief and fear, letting this moment flood in and claim me for just a little while.

Pranay was on his feet within an instant, and he thrust his cock into me with a growl.

Wow. No talking, only running on instinct. He was done with eating me. Now he wanted to fill me up in a different way.

And he did. Oh, yes. Gripping my hips, the werewolf pounded into me hard, with a fierce power that was nothing short of mind-blowing.

The saying is known as ‘fuck your brains out’ for a reason. Pranay was doing just that.

He grabbed my cock and beat it furiously in time with his thrusts. He was hitting my G-spot enough, as he often did, that I wouldn’t need to touch myself to climax. But that didn’t mean I was about to protest to his helping hand. It only added to the wild pleasure burning through me.

Pranay’s roar, so deep and loaded with intensity, tore out of him as his hot releases filled me up. That sound of his was enough to make me come too, my balls tightening and releasing their liquid in furious spurts as Pranay kept up the pace on both ends.

“Wow,” I gasped. “Wow.”

He started to slow down his working of my erection, remaining inside me.

“I love you, baby,” he said with heavy breath into my ear. “I fucking love you.” Then he nibbled my earlobe and kissed my neck some more.

* * *

Before we returned to the cabin, we had a bit more fun before getting properly cleaned up.

We’d fucked again, him sitting on the floor as the shower rained down on us, me riding more come out of him. He’d then proceeded to give me the most amazing head, then fucked me for a third time up against the bathroom wall.

Back in the cabin, we were tangled up together on the bed, dressed in our underwear. Thankfully, we’d had the foresight amid our passions to put our uniforms safely out of the way of gushing orgasms and shower water. Spares or not, we were going through clothing at an alarming rate, and I wanted to hold onto my outfit for a while longer. Trivial, yes, but also a personal experiment. Sometimes, triviality was a good weapon against the darkness.

Pranay held me in his delicious arms as I snuggled into his chest, resting my cheek on the soft hair there. It was a warm and safe space under the covers.

We still didn’t say much to one another, we simply needed the closeness of our bodies to get us through the rest of the journey across the sea.

It was half-past three in the morning. Sleep now wanted its turn.

The ship continued to bob on choppier waters, and the cabin was full of the soft breathing of Andy and Seph, who were both fast asleep.

I soon followed them into a dreamless slumber, curled up with a man I loved.

Chapter Ten

Snow was falling as the ship pulled into the harbor. A bitter wind bit at my face and blew the flakes in random spirals about the deck. I had the hood of the white coat up to protect me against the sting of the invisible icy fingers that pawed at my flesh.

We all watched the morning unfold. The pleasures of the night were now getting well away from me, the pain of reality firmly back to crush my heart.

The ship’s cannons were manned by the crew, ready in expectance of a baron attack.

There was no sign of the barons, only the mess they’d left.

Captain Marissa stood beside me, deathly silent as she looked out onto the smoking mess that was Winter City.

A few towers of frosted white glass stood, shaped like inverted icicles. But they were stained with black, and the rest of the structures were broken, shards of their former selves, toxic smoke curling from the piles of rubble they now were.

I guess that confirmed that the oil barons had attacked the city.

Bastards!

The dawn light was so pretty; purple and pink and blue, especially over the dark, snow-capped mountains that made up the horizon behind the city.

Death and destruction counterbalanced the beauty, and the air reeked of oil and blood. As the ship dropped its anchor, I looked over the side of the deck to see the dead bodies on the jetty. The snow was quickly covering the blood and oil in its deceptive blanket of white.

What was there to say? Nothing, that’s what. There was no comfort against this sight, at the tragedy that had befallen Marissa’s home. She was watching the smaller buildings that made up a district directly on the edge of the harbor.

There were so many bodies.

The quickest form of transport was now by foot. It would’ve been by horse, but it didn’t look like we were going to find one alive or even a stable master to talk to.

“This is total annihilation,” the captain said.

A building not too far inland cracked. It wasn’t as tall as some of the higher buildings—more like medium-sized. It’s frost surface, smeared with the black of oil, cracked, and the entire thing went down in a thunderous boom of dust and glass.

“Get down!” Pranay roared.

I literally hit the deck, Pranay falling on top of me as debris rained down on us.

God! If that had been a bigger building, things would have been a lot worse. Thankfully, the debris wasn’t enough to cause any damage or harm.

Andy threw up over the side of the railings.

Pranay hurried to him as I got to my feet and joined him.

“The iron,” Andy said. “We can’t go into the city.”

As if on cue, the captain vomited, and I heard one of the crew do the same from behind me.

Marissa wiped her mouth. “We’ll need to leave this place. I’m sorry, but my crew won’t be departing this ship.”

“Of course, not,” I said, rubbing Andy’s back. “I wouldn’t expect you to. I don’t really want Andy departing either.”

“Tough,” my fae boyfriend cut in.

“We’ll go around,” Seph said. “Give the place a wide berth, head straight for the mountains.”

“We can provide you with water and bread, as well as shelter and weapons.”

Thank the universe for a well-stocked fae ship.

There was still no sign of baron activity. I scrutinized the landscape, the dust of the fallen building drifting away to the north.

Then I saw them, standing in the snowy field below the city’s western wall. Winter City sat on a mound, just like Autumn City, and was surrounded by white meadow.

Darius and Kimberly were standing right there, small in the distance, but so clearly them.

“Oh, my God!” I bellowed, dashing across the deck to get a better point of view. “I need to get down there!”

A pause.

“Now! Seph? Can you get us down? They’re already heading away!”

I wasn’t letting Kimberly slip through my fingers again.

“Yeah.” Chains around me, and I was lowered down onto the jetty.

My grip on my fury had snapped. I took off immediately, not waiting for the others to join me. To hell with being smart. Rage could win. I wasn’t about to leave Kimberly in the hands of the enemy a moment longer than she had to be.

Fucking Tarquin!

Fucking zombie-Darius!

“Dylan!” I heard Andy cry.

Nothing would stop me.

I slid down the snowy bank of the mound, breaking back into a run along the city wall, then out into the meadow.

Darius and Kimberly were walking slowly, looking over their shoulders, in no hurry at all.

The snow before me erupted in a spray of white. A line of five oil barons waited for me, unleashing their oils jets.

I dove, but one caught me in the side, the bulk of the impact taken by my left arm, sending me spinning through the air and landing face-first in the snow.

“Fuck!” I howled, pushing myself to my feet.

A blur of gray and Pranay, in wolf form, threw himself at a baron, tearing into him with deadly fury. The werewolf ripped the bastard’s throat out before he could react.

“Kill the siren!” the all-male baron line-up cried as one.

I called to Lucien, singing the notes of the water dragon. My left arm was dislocated, and I could feel it was also broken from the force of that oil jet impact. But that could wait.

Lucien came forth in a swirl of glorious white and violet light. His forceful roar lifted me off the ground, and together, we flew across the plains as the song of the dragon cracked the air.

I poured all of my energy into him, mixing it with his. He roared again and set loose his fire that was water at the enemy.

As one baron succumbed to the watery trap that swallowed his body, another fired oil up at Lucien, who shot back. Streams of blue and black dueled in mid-air, pushing back and forth, the dragon roaring as the baron howled with rage.

I pulled a note of the dragon song out and gave it the biggest belting I’d ever managed, practically screaming it out into the morning.

The water that was fire beat back the oil, and the baron was engulfed in the strange watery dragon fire, drowning just like his squirming comrade a few feet away.

Seph was now in the fray, as was Andy. Chains went wild, Andy cast his throwing stars, crackling with pink energy, at the barons. One hit a baron in the chest, then exploded, the top half of the brute blowing apart, so all that was left was a pair of legs that fell into the snow, oozing red and black across the white.

Good to see Andy back on form, the rest having done him some serious good. Though there was the tang of iron radiating from the city, it wasn’t as bad as it had been in the harbor, and clearly wasn’t having as much of an effect on him out here in the open.

Good.

Seph took down a baron who had almost driven his fist into Pranay. As the baron hit the ground, bound up in chains, the werewolf bit down into the face of the man with his huge jaws.

One baron remained. He was smiling, despite being wholly screwed.

An explosion from behind.

“Fuck!” Seph bellowed.

I turned to see the Dawn Chaser in flames, some oil barons sending oil into a huge flame that blazed on the deck, the crew fighting the barons despite the fire.

No.

There was also a massive hole in the stern, and the ship was beginning to tilt upward.

Not the ship! Not more death!

“No!” I cried, and Lucien cut down the last baron.

But now there were more to face as another five or so came running across the snow.

I saw a sailor cut down, and a cannon fired. I didn’t see what it hit but hoped it’d caught a baron right in the face.

Another boom and a huge ball of flame engulfed the ship as it fell onto its side in a heavy crash, seawater exploding upon impact.

No…

I braced myself for the next wave of attack, giving everything I had to Lucien.

“Take all of me,” I told him. “Let’s obliterate the scum!”

He roared in response, and we were flying across the meadow again. Lucien let his power loose, taking down a baron as pink throwing stars flew in a spray of deadly force. One made a hit, exploding deliciously.

Yes! Kill them all!

The wolf and the kelpie moved to chains and teeth, all of my companions quick to avoid being caught by the oil jets.

Another three barons, all female, leaped over the city walls and fired, narrowly missing me. Lucien fired back, catching one. She fell and tumbled down the slope as she drowned.

The others charged, continuing their onslaught.

Lucien roared his terrifying rage, and I roared with him. He killed another two barons as Pranay and Seph double-teamed another.

When the last baron male fell, his body torn in two clean halves by Seph’s wicked chains. It was done. No more barons made their move.

There was still one, though, getting away from me.

Lucien and I were hovering over the edge, ready to plunge into the big pit of being spent.

But not yet.

We flew for Darius and Kimberly, who were running now.

“Run all you want, you dead bastard!” It was Kimberly controlling him, but it felt right to address him.

Lucien fired as we drew closer, sending Darius onto his belly. One of his arms broke off like a snapped twig from a rotten tree. He didn’t get up.

Necromancer magic is no use on the living, so Kimberly had no form of attack. Normally, she’d pull something out of her handbag to cause injury, but she was bagless. Purple magic swirled around her, but kept stuttering, not quite getting Darius back on his feet.

Her vacant, violet eyes looked up at me, her cheeks flushed with pink from the cold. Thank God someone had wrapped her in that big, black, padded coat she was now dressed in. She would’ve frozen to death otherwise.

Time to end this.

Lucien’s form was ribbon-like as he curled through the air toward Kimberly. She screamed and swung a punch. In her panic, she stumbled backward onto her backside, thrashing wildly as the dragon inched closer.

Darius’s body spasmed but still remained in its face-down position.

“Get away!” Kimberly hissed. “Get away from me, you fucking piece of shit!”

With a strange delicacy, Lucien caught the diamond necklace in his jaws and bit down. A gentle pull broke it, spilling diamonds into the snow.

A puff of black smoke and Kimberly screamed. The black diamond’s power was lost, dissipating into the winter air in dying tendrils of obsidian.

My best friend collapsed into unconsciousness. Seph was on her in an instant, scooping her up into his arms. His white coat was speckled with oil. He looked up at me with those hauntingly beautiful eyes, his long curly hair free and lifted by the wind. He offered me a nod.

“Let’s clean up this mess,” Andy proclaimed and drove two pink stars into the back of the corpse that was Darius Thomas. “Keep back.”

The oil baron prince exploded, the stench of decay following. But it smelled so sweet, and the mess his body left behind was just as morbidly wonderful.

This time, he was truly gone.

Forever.

Chapter Eleven

I held on to consciousness, lying on Pranay’s large wolf back, clinging weakly to his gray fur as Andy walked beside us, ready to catch me if I slid off.

Soon, I’d succumb to a blackout and would have to sleep this off. But I wanted to fight for being awake as long as I could. Lucien was already resting, curled up at the core of me to recharge.

We made it to the mountains. The rock was black and gray, the monolithic giants a wall of indestructible nature. Their peaks were way out of reach.

When I’d fled the siren realm, my route through these mountains had been in a different direction away from the city—so I’d never seen it in its former glory. We headed along a cutting that was unfamiliar, not the same as the one I’d once fled down for my life.

Snow continued to fall as we headed deep inside the mountain range. We were looking for shelter.

All the supplies Marissa had offered were lost on the ship. In my haste to save Kimberly, we’d left the oil barons to attack the Dawn Chaser, now a burning graveyard in Winter City’s harbor.

Fools rush in, but I‘d had to save my friend. Now, others had suffered.

I couldn’t keep aiming an arrow of blame at myself. I’d add them to the list of people to avenge.

“They won’t have died for nothing,” I said weakly.

“I know,” Andy replied.

No food. No water. No shelter.

This wasn’t good. The mer realm awaited us next, and that was at least a day’s trek through the mountains, if not more.

“We’ll find somewhere,” Andy said softly. “You need to stop fighting it. You told me to rest, now take your own advice.”

He was a little pale, the stench of iron still lingering on the air. Patches of his coat had been torn away by Seph—areas that had been stained by baron oil—to keep the iron away. By the state of the garment, he looked like he’d been in a fight with a lion.

My left arm was throbbing badly. It was set the best it could be with a kelpie chain, and the dislocation had been painfully fixed, but what I needed was to use my healing song.

Damn.

The time for that was not now, and not when strolling in the mountains.

Andy was right. I needed to stop fighting it. All I wanted was to rest now, just like my water dragon. My energy was fully used up, and I was running on a few hours of sleep, plus a previous usage of my song.

My body soon said goodnight.

* * *

I was sixteen again, cold and hungry and so afraid.

Rain pelted the mountains, my tears as heavy as the deluge as I cowered in a small alcove, terrified of every shadow, every sound.

I was completely devoid of hope.

“Mother,” I whimpered. “Father. Isla. Adrian.”

That me was there, and adult me was on the mountain path watching him in my dreams.

“Please…” teenage me whispered into the rain.

“Siren!” a voice roared in the night. “Find the siren.”

The younger Dylan’s green eyes widened in horror. That voice was close, way too close.

I remembered the fear that had almost crippled me. The alcove only just provided shelter from the rain. It did nothing to hide my slim body. So, I’d done something brave, which was a rarity in those hopeless days. I’d run, tearing down the path as the voice called for my death again and again.

I watched myself run into the night, slipping and scraping my knees. I winced at the remembrance of sharp pain. But I had pulled myself up and hurtled around a corner.

I remained, the adult me, at the alcove as the rain continued to pound down. Time had gotten away with me, but another boy ran into my view, stopping by the alcove.

It was a teenage Darius, dressed in black, his hands dripping with oil. He crouched down to where the young me had just been, touching the ground I’d been sitting on.

“Here was just here,” he said, his voice a little softer than the last time I’d heard the adult him speak.

A male baron joined him, pale and bald, his menacing red eyes burning in his head. “We’ll find him, Your Highness. Have no fear of that. The siren prince will not last the night.”

The pair of them took off in the direction teenage Dylan had fled.

I laughed. “But I did escape, and I lived, and still do. Where are you, Your Highness? A mess in a meadow, that’s where. Gone. No more you to haunt my steps. I got you in the end, bastard. I got you.”

* * *

Gorgeous warmth woke me up.

Hard rock was under my back, pushing through something soft to take the pressure off my spine—my coat. To my left, was a mound of fur and strength, and to my right, my fae lover.

“Hi,” Andy said.

I looked up to see him gazing back down at me, his eyes reflecting firelight. That red-gold hair dangled over his brow. I reached up to touch a gorgeous curl and then winced at the horrible pain in my left arm.

“Oh, God.”

“Try not to move too much,” he said.

“I want to sit up.”

My head swam with the unease of a hangover, many cobwebs having gathered in my brain and all over my limbs. But I was okay, apart from the broken arm.

Andy, looking so sexy in his sailing outfit, shifted and helped me sit up, Pranay looking up with his amber wolf eyes.

“It’s night now,” Andy pointed out. “You slept the day away.”

“Goodness.”

“Snow kept falling. It stopped about an hour ago, but it settled pretty deep.”

The cave we were in was enough to shelter us for the night. There was a tunnel over to my right—the only one in the space—which I assumed was the way back out to the mountain path. Seph sat facing it, on the other side of a small fire, giving me his shadow profile.

“How did you get firewood in the snow?”

“There was wood in here when we arrived, probably left by some traveler. Sometimes travelers leave stuff behind for others who’ll follow.”

“Lucky for us.”

“Yeah.”

On the other side of Andy was Kimberly, still fast asleep, wrapped in a white sailor’s coat.

Andy kissed me, our lips happy to be reunited once again. I lingered in our connection, my eyes closed as flesh met flesh.

When we were done, I asked, “Has she woke up at all?”

“No,” Andy replied. “She’s just slept. No change.”

What if she doesn’t wake up?

She had to wake up.

Pranay’s body shifted, contorting and transforming from gray fur to brown, naked skin. “Hey, baby,” he said when he was back to his yummy human shape. God, his nakedness was distracting me, my penis hungry for him.

Sometimes, I thought my cock did my thinking for me.

Only sometimes…

“Hi.”

“Come give me some sugar.”

“Seriously?”

“Fine. I’ll take it myself.” He cupped my chin and gently pulled me into a kiss.

I giggled and happily kissed him back.

“Lost my uniform when I shifted, so I’m gonna have to stay a wolf for now. Only way for me to stay warm. But I thought I’d pop out to have a chat. You okay? Apart from the arm?”

“Fine. Processing as usual.”

“So fucked up what those wankers did. Poor Marissa and her crew. Didn’t deserve to go down like that.”

“Everyone who helps us gets hurt.” I sighed. “It’s a cruel stroke of fate. I must be cursed.”

“Don’t say that, baby.”

“I know, I’m being stupid. The only curse is the oil barons.”

“Oil can be removed,” Andy said. “Tricky but not impossible.” He rested a hand on my thigh.

“We’re gonna have to get that arm of yours fixed,” Pranay said. “But not in here. Too rocky.”

“And I don’t want to see that shit.” The faint response of Kimberly. “Bloody hell.”

Ignoring the pain, I pushed myself up and cracked my head on the low ceiling. The damn thing hadn’t looked that low moments ago!

“You’re awake,” I said, crouching my way over to be by her side.

Again, ignoring the pain, I pulled her into a fierce hug with one arm, and we both started to cry at the same time. Her sobs ripped out of her, her tears running down my neck.

My tears were liquid fire down my cheeks. “I have you back.”

“Oh, darling.”

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Just…” She sniffed, releasing a wobbly breath before continuing. “Just sore. So tired. My head is killing me, and I can’t stop… God.”

“You don’t have to say anything.” I squeezed her harder. “I love you so much, Kimberly. I’m so sorry this happened to you. So fucking sorry. I’ll never let you out of my sight again. Never. You’re safe now.”

“No one’s safe until that bastard is dead.” Though her voice was weak, it still harbored some of that sharpness she was famous for. “Tarquin filled my head with his own will and made me get his son up and running as a fucking zombie. I could see what I was doing, could see you—all of you—but I couldn’t do anything about it.” She sighed. “Thank God, you stopped me. Lucien is impressive.”

“Isn’t he just?”

Lucien purred like a cat at the compliment.

Our hug ended, and she took my face in her dry hands. “I was kept deep in the ground, in the dark with dead Darius, surrounded by oil and waiting for you.”

Barons were always bursting out of the ground. They could travel through the earth using their oil jets, which gave them a bit of an advantage in the traveling department, as well as the element of surprise. I wasn’t sure how quickly they could move down there, but it was another thing to make me hate them even more.

I shuddered at my mind’s suggestion of one popping up through the rocky floor right now.

It would die quickly if it did.

“Then,” Kimberly continued, “after you beat the barons in the king’s palace, we were ordered to head to Winter City and wait to draw you into a trap there.”

“One that worked,” I said. “Even though we killed those bastards, they took down that ship and the captain and crew who had been so kind when they didn’t have to be.”

“Jason,” Kimberly said. “Where is he?”

She didn’t know.

“Oh, God,” I gasped.

Seph’s head turned then, his regard completely freezing me in place.

She didn’t know. He’d died after she’d been taken.

“Where is he, darling?” Kimberly asked again.

I told her, and her sobbing returned.

I held her as she joined us in our grief for our beloved, fallen Jason.

* * *

Sleep had been way out of my grasp for the rest of the night. I didn’t need it. But Kimberly had fallen back into a deep slumber after her crying had left her already-exhausted body devoid of energy.

Her head was in my lap as the fire died down to smoldering embers, my back against the wall, Andy’s head resting on my right shoulder.

I was in pain, both inside and out, and itching to move on. But my friend needed her sleep, and the rest of us needed to gather our own strengths as best we could.

Pranay, back in wolf form, was sitting on his hind legs beside Seph, the two of them watching the entrance. The first hints of sunrise were spilling through the dark tunnel in streaks of white.

“Morning,” Seph said, even though he must have known I hadn’t been asleep.

He hadn’t slept either, a silent sentinel keeping a silent watch through the night.

“Good morning,” I replied.

“Looks like it’s gonna be a sunny day.”

“Though the weather can be deceptive,” I countered, giving him a gentle smile.

“Yeah. I guess. Knowing our luck, there’ll be a snowstorm in the mountains.”

I chuckled lightly, Andy stirring on my shoulder. “We’re a positive group.”

Seph’s smile lit up the room, even if it was only a subtle curling of his lips, on his profile, I could see.

Pranay turned to look at me briefly, then faced the direction of the tunnel once again.

There was an emptiness to me. It wasn’t quite calm because I couldn’t ever truly be calm again. It was somewhere between being content that I had everyone with me again, aside from Jason, and hollow. Maybe it was the calm before the storm, but it wasn’t quite that either. So much had happened, yet no real emotion stirred. Even the pain in my broken arm wasn’t doing much to drive me crazy.

I guess I was simply floating.

“We should set off soon,” the kelpie said, that ghost of a smile gone. “Leave it no more than an hour. If the day’s gonna be bright, then we’re not gonna have much coverage. Don’t think it’s smart to wait until night.”

“We’re sitting ducks,” Andy added sleepily. He sat up and yawned, stretching his arms. “I agree it’s best to move ASAP.”

I nodded as Andy leaned in for a good morning kiss.

“Morning,” he said.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”

“Your shoulder is the best pillow in the world.”

“You’re such a charmer.”

He winked. “You know it.”

Pranay padded over and licked my hand. Then he shifted into his naked male form. “Sorry, that was crap. I wanna give you a proper morning kiss.”

So he did, and Seph watched us, the tender closeness the three of us had.

Then he looked away again.

“How’s the pain?” Andy asked.

“Not great, but I’m tolerating it.”

“Won’t be long until we can get you all healed,” Pranay said.

“I can’t wait to get my hands on you,” Andy breathed. “Feels like it’s been forever.”

A pulse of pleasure jolted through me. “Yummy.”

My boyfriends laughed at that.

“Bloody hell,” Kimberly groaned. “You lot are sex-mad. Save the horniness for another time. I ain’t had a coffee yet.”

“I’m sorry to say you’re not getting one here,” I responded. “And I feel all the pain you’re suffering at the lack of coffee and champagne.”

“Oh, fuck.” Her formerly sleek bob was all over the place as she sat up, rubbing her head. “Now, I want some bubbles.”

“If only we could go for brunch,” I said.

“Smoked salmon, eggs benedict, give me all of it.”

My stomach growled. “Sounds wonderful.”

“The good old days of brunch.” She sighed. “Where did the glamour go, darling?”

“I miss the glamour. This is so not my style.” I tugged on my sailor uniform. “I need some sparkle, something revealing that would freeze my balls off in the mountains.”

That got a laugh, even from Seph.

“What we need is a spa day,” Kimberly said. “Our hair has become shockingly neglected!”

“We’ll make that a goal.” Another dirty lie. But what was I supposed to say? Now was not the time to reveal my deceitful secret.

Would I ever have the heart to?

“Are you feeling better?” I asked her.

“Better than I was.”

The emotional scars would run deep, though. She’d been through a traumatic experience. I knew her inside and out. She was holding back, for now, but the floodgates would open soon.

“What we gonna do about food?” Pranay asked. “Are there creatures in the mountains I can hunt?”

“Can we eat that, Andy?” I asked. “I know you said fae food is dangerous to eat, but what are we going to do?”

“Right, okay. I need to warn you about some of the things growing in Winter. Some berries love to be eaten so they can use your guts to plant roots to grow a new berry tree. You’ll probably see the yellow berry bushes as we head out—they’re the worst, and they all used to be fae men and women, or even animals before they became bushes.”

“That’s gross,” Pranay said. “I’ll stick to the deer.”

“Pink berries are safe but taste horrible,” Andy continued. “There are goats and mountain sheep around, but the problem with wild meat is it’ll have to be cooked beyond well-done, practically burned, so any taint of Faerie has gone. Some animals of this realm get their revenge by being born again through your body as you eat their dead flesh.”

“What is it with this birthing theme?” I asked.

“Init!” Pranay agreed.

When I’d fled my dying realm, I’d practically run on empty, only eating the odd apple here and there I’d found along the way. I’d been naïve to Faerie food, and clearly lucky enough to not have had an apple tree burst out of my tummy.

“I don’t think we’ll get a chance to start a fire again before we pass through the mountains,” Andy added.

“No meat, then,” I said. “Not that I’m bothered. After that story, I’m quite happy to suffer the pink berries.”

“They smell like rotten cauliflower and taste the same.”

“I think I’m going to puke,” Kimberly said.

* * *

It was late afternoon by the time we left the mountains, and the vile taste of a pink berry was still lingering on my tongue.

They were so much worse than I thought they’d be. Yet my stomach was full.

I’m not sure if that was the lesser of two evils or not.

The journey had been uneventful, not a baron in sight. Not one single creature. It was probably the snow, which was incredibly deep and had slowed down our pace. I was thankful for small mercies, though, and not having to be subjected to another oil baron showdown.

There’d be plenty more to come.

At the end of the mountain path, the snow up ahead suddenly cut off, giving way to golden sand and a sky that was free of cloud and a glorious azure. The border between Winter and the realm of the mer shimmered like heat on tarmac, going all the way up to the sky.

I could see the vast sea in the distance and the village that sat close by. Beyond that, fields of green and miles of orchards where the mer grew their food. They were famous for their orange groves, which produced the finest oranges in the universe.

But there was something wrong there in the village. A black stain, dark smoke rising from the heart of it.

The barons.

Of course, I was expecting my enemy to have completely decimated these lands. But the sea was still there, no smog from their vile pollution. Apart from the smoking village, there wasn’t any other sign of destruction.

The sand sloped downward, heading straight for the village. To the right, though, was a rocky path that led to the cliffs at the top of a cove.

“We go that way,” I said.

It was the best route. Aiming straight for the village would be foolish. The barons were clearly in residence or at least hanging around, so we had to exercise some stealth.

“There’s a sheltered cove we can hide in,” I continued, “where we can think about our next move. We’ll have to swim around the village, then aim to head through the orchards and make our way to the siren realm borders.”

I felt like a commander, my posture straight as I drank in the horizon.

My God, we were so close to my home now. The mer realm wasn’t particularly large, and what I’d just told my companions was the most secret route I could remember from my time here as a child.

When we weren’t sunbathing or exploring our own realm, my siblings and I would come and explore the cove. There was a breed of sea horses that were ghostly white with the creepiest blue eyes I’d ever seen, all three of us loving to study them. They lived in various rock pools that dotted the coast, which I always found odd and risky for such delicate little beings. But then no predator seemed to bother them. Probably because they looked so damn spooky.

My brother, Adrian, was a budding artist, and the ghostly sea horses were his favorite subject to sketch and paint. All of his work would have been long gone, lost in the destruction.

“Let’s go,” Seph said, taking point.

I followed, keeping pace with Kimberly while Pranay and Andy covered the rear. At this distance, the risk of being spotted by a baron was low. The danger of a baron popping up out of the ground, however, was as high as it always was.

As we passed through the shimmering border, the temperature went from freezing to positively tropical. I had to remove my thick coat within seconds.

Maybe the hot weather would work better with my broken arm. The cold had really set it to aching, and I was doing my best not to complain about the pain. Still, it hurt like crazy. A healing session was certainly required, but that took time, and nowhere in the mountains had been adequate.

“Wow,” Kimberly said. “Some decent weather.”

Keeping conversation on hold, we cut across the sand, working our way past boulders over rockier terrain. Stone and sand battled for dominance over the land.

The boulders helped with the cover, so I was fully Team Rocks!

We finally came to the cliff edge and a pathway of roughly cut steps that led down to the beach.

Carefully, we headed down, now fully concealed by the half-moon enclosure the cliffs provided.

Upon hitting the beach, Pranay shifted. “Sorry, but I need to catch some rays on my skin.” He closed his eyes and drank in the sunshine.

It was gorgeously warm. I opened my shirt to let some of the sea breeze kiss my chest and languished for that moment under the rays. I always went back to the idea of a perfect world, this time being no different. I imagined all of us here, sunbathing with a picnic and champagne, having a completely lazy day together.

If only.

Seph pulled off his top, exposing his muscles and scars and his impressive tattoos, his chains crisscrossed over his chest. He tied the blue and white garment around his waist and scraped his hair back, looking out to sea.

Andy had his shirt open too, his eyes closed, exposing his sun-kissed chest and firm stomach. I took a moment to drink in each of these men, all three of them sending a different kind of heat to my groin.

Damn.

Kimberly took a pew on a rock, her coat discarded. We were all having our moment in the sun, and I think we’d earned it, even if it could only be the briefest of pit stops.

“We’ll need to visit the mer Honeycomb underwater,” I said. “I hope it hasn’t been harmed.” There, I was already spoiling our chill-out session.

“You can heal there,” Seph responded. “Plenty of private places to get it done.”

Is that an offer?

Not now.

“That village didn’t look in too good a state,” Kimberly said.

God. They were probably all dead, the Honeycomb vacant and full of sorrow if it was still standing.

Damn this! I walked farther down the beach.

The mer sea was calm, sparkling with sunlight. Gentle waves licked at the shore. There were eight different rock pools across the beach, a dark juxtaposition to the gold of the sand. I went to the one closest to me and had a look inside.

There they were—the ghostly seahorses—and they’d just had some babies. Tiny white lights drifted in the still water, no bigger than a grain of sand.

I sat at the edge, watching them. They were always such a symbol of solace, never being anything but floating seahorses living their quiet lives in their pools. A tear rolled down my left cheek and dropped off my chin into the water, casting a small ripple on the pool’s surface as it landed. Another followed as that terrible ache of grief surpassed the pain in my left arm. I wanted my brother here with me sketching, my sister in the sea as she normally was. The need was an agonizing flare that spilled more tears into the pool, disturbing the ghostly seahorses. Their blue eyes flashed back up at me as if to tell me off.

“Dylan?” Kimberly sat next to me on the pool edge. “What are you doing? Oh. What were they?” She leaned closer to the water. “Are they seahorses? They’re a bit…strange.”

“They are.”

Her eyes met mine. “You’ve been crying. Bit of a stupid moment of pointing out the obvious there, but you have been. What’s wrong?” She sighed heavily, shaking her head. “What a silly cow I am. Hand me a list, eh? Pick what I want because there’s so bloody much to shed tears over.”

“Facts,” I agreed. Then I told her what I’d been thinking about.

“I see.”

“Just having a sad moment.”

“One of many, darling.”

“Correct.”

Her eyes started to glisten. “I don’t want to be doing this, darling. All of this trying to be strong. I’m…broken. I feel so…” Her own tears started to roll. “This is too much. I thought I was going to die, even though all I saw was the death of others. The way the fae were cut down in Winter City was…was…” Though her anguished cry was soft and low in volume, it didn’t diminish its power. “Darius wasn’t…wasn’t used to killing. All we ever did was stand and watch the other barons dish out the killing, apart from a bit of involvement in the throne room, as I fed my magic into that corpse to keep it upright. I had to be careful with him, Tarquin had told me, or I’d lose my head if I let his son collapse back into decay. Not that I had any choice but to be his slave with that thing around my neck.” She took a pause. “He really believed that you seeing Darius walking around again would throw you off. Tarquin wanted Darius to kill you, which would’ve been like me killing you.” She was trembling, and I took her hands. “We were one. Me alive, him rotting and full of nothing, and I…I can’t get the sensation out of me. I want to bleach my skin and eyes and sit in the hottest bath for years to try and cleanse myself, but nothing will help.”

“I’m going to kill that bastard,” I said. “I promise you that. The last thing the overlord of the barons is going to see is my face watching him die.”

She shuffled closer, and I pulled her into a hug with one good arm.

“This never should’ve happened to you. All I’ve ever done is drag you into precarious situations, and I’m so sorry. You don’t deserve this.”

“Nobody deserves this,” she said softly. “You don’t deserve the suffering you’ve endured. It doesn’t matter that you took Darius to the Heart of Siren. You were a teenage boy who’d fallen in love. I remember what it was like to be that young and intense. Let’s face it, everything’s heightened to a million with all those hormones going wild.”

“Kimberly—”

She ended the hug. “My point is, darling, that I chose to be by your side. I would never have it any other way.” She sniffed and wiped at her eyes. “But I’m weak right now. I thought I’d end up watching you die because of my magic.”

You may well watch me die, but not like that…

“I’m…I just need another hug,” she added.

I obliged.

Maybe now, in this quiet moment on the beach, was the time to reveal everything about the prophecy. The closer we got to the siren realm, the fewer opportunities I’d have to say it. And this was the kind of news that would throw people off their game.

Understatement of the year!

Damn this drifting, this foolish indecisiveness. How much longer could I let this secret eat away at my soul?

“There’s someone in the water,” Andy said, snapping me back to reality.

I saw a figure in the sea close to shore, dark-skinned and blonde-haired. Female.

Mermaid.

She was waving to get our attention, then she vanished beneath the surface.

A rumbling in the distance, then a terrifying boom that had sand raining down from above.

Oh, no.

I looked up to see nothing. But that had been the sound of a baron bursting out of the ground.

The mermaid appeared again, throwing something onto the beach. She quickly vanished.

Loud voices from above, but still no sign of anything. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Pranay’s ears seemed to flex with his werewolf hearing.

“Barons,” he said, “talking about us. Intensifying the hunt because we must have left the mountains by now. Shit.”

The object the mermaid had thrown was a conical white shell with orange stripes. There was an odd sound coming from it.

I picked it up and placed it to my ear.

“You need to come into the sea right now before they find you!” the echoey voice rang.

I blinked, listening to the words repeated once again. They were on a continuous loop.

“Dylan?” Andy said. “What’s happening?”

I handed him the shell, and then the message was as clear as polished glass.

With no words needed, and fully dressed, we went straight into the sea.

I glanced over my shoulder and up to the cliffs. Nothing. Not a baron in sight. But I could still hear their distant voices.

The mermaid swam out, and we followed.

“Don’t worry about air,” I said to Andy, Pranay, and Kimberly. “We’ve got you covered.”

They knew about the passing of air through a kiss from a water-born to a creature that would need it. Seph, Lucien, and I had all done it for Jason in the flooded city.

Kimberly took my good hand as we went under, swimming out into deeper water to get as far away from the coast as we could.

Seph sent chains out to lock us all together, in case of rip currents. “You good?” he asked.

I was the only one who could hear him. “Yes.”

He nodded, and we swam after the mermaid as fast as we could. She kept turning back now and again, saying nothing, clearly checking we were still on her tail.

She was leading us to the mer Honeycomb.

Chapter Twelve

The Honeycomb was as wonderful as I’d remembered it to be—a vast structure of hexagonal alcoves all made from pink coral, looking like underwater bees had constructed it, all of it shimmering with a gorgeous iridescence. It reached up to crest the surface above and plummeted down into the darker depths of the sea below. It was brimming with mer life, and fish and even a few dolphins swam by.

The mermaid was leading us to an alcove on the far right, about halfway down.

Nothing had changed, no sign of baron destruction.

The remarkable thing about the Honeycomb was it had pockets of dry within it, not all of it completely submerged underwater. That was a plus for my bestie and my boyfriends.

Seph and I paused again to give our land-dwelling companions some precious air.

“Almost there,” I said to Kimberly, despite her not being able to hear me.

We swam past a handsome merman who seemed to recognize Seph.

“Didn’t think I’d see you again,” the merman said.

“Yeah, neither did I. Busy, can’t stop.”

“Fine. Hit me up if you’re in the mood to fuck. Wouldn’t mind a second round.” The merman swam away.

Seph hadn’t given a response.

Though that particular mer hadn’t so much as looked my way, the others stopped to stare, to whisper, some even blatantly pointing my way.

Fame followed wherever I went.

It was quite amusing, really.

We entered the Honeycomb, swimming up through a wide passageway. The pink shade shifted to a pearl white as we went up and broke the surface.

Kimberly gasped beside me, swallowing the oxygen in greedy gulps. Andy and Pranay followed suit.

We were in a pool, with some steps a few feet away leading up into a chamber carved from the same pearl as the passage. It sparkled as if kissed by sunlight, and the air was as warm as it was on the beach we’d left behind.

Seph offered me his hand and helped me up the steps.

My arm was starting to protest a lot more—I think he may have seen my pain. Being a siren made me an excellent swimmer, even when injured, but I was now suffering the consequences of that swim.

There were two doorways, seaweed drapes covering them—one to the left and one to the right. The mermaid was standing between them, tail now gone as occurred when mer were on dry land. She was naked, her long blonde hair falling over one shoulder.

“Hello,” she said. “My name is Kendra. It is good to see you all alive and well! I’m so sorry for the shell business, but the situation was becoming awfully precarious with the barons lingering on the cliff top.”

“Thanks for the help,” I replied. “I’m impressed with the new method of communication.”

“Thank you, siren. It has been useful since the occupation. And, might I add what a pleasure it is to finally meet you in the flesh.”

“The occupation?”

“Yes, of the oil barons on the surface.”

Oh, God.

Her eyes wandered over to the penis of my werewolf lover. He didn’t seem to notice, his attention on the pearlescent walls, mouth open with awe at all the sparkliness.

She saw I’d noticed her hungry eyes and locked her focus onto me.

“Tell us more,” I said. “Please.”

“Your arm,” she responded. “It looks awful.”

I nodded. “Feels it too.”

“Come and sit, and we’ll talk.”

She led us through the left door, into a smaller chamber with huge turquoise corner sofas, but more angular, and gestured for us all to sit.

The softness of the cushioning was heaven on my soggy behind.

Warmth, like underfloor heating but in upholstery, spread through the sofa.

“It will dry you off,” Kendra said.

“This is fabulous!” Kimberly proclaimed.

“Would you care for any beverages?” Kendra asked. “We are limited in what we have to offer, but we do have coffee.”

“Coffee would be wonderful,” my manager replied.

“I shall fetch some for you shortly. But first, the siren wanted me to talk.”

“Please, call me Dylan.”

Kendra nodded and sat next to me, twisted herself so she could face all of us. “The barons came two years after the siren realm fell. After decimating everything there, they had run out of any viable food source. So, they turned to the mer. They left our waters intact so they could fish in them, take what they want. And they do. The orange groves and orchards and crops all belong to them. We are forbidden from going to the surface, having to remain down here, so any food from up there is denied to us. We can eat from the sea, but nothing else. I miss oranges. They are my favorite.”

“That’s horrendous!” I said.

“That’s the oil barons,” she replied. “If we’re spotted, we’re killed. It’s as simple as that. Many tried it in the beginning of the occupation, but few do now.”

“Apart from you,” I pointed out.

She nodded. “Apart from me.”

“What were you doing on the surface, though?” Pranay asked. “Not like you can do much up there.”

Kendra was looking past me, getting an eyeful of the werewolf’s enormous cock again, then quickly averted her eyes and cleared her throat. “I, erm, well…”

Pranay laughed quietly at her awkwardness, having noticed this time.

She blushed and straightened her spine. She was naked herself, so it wasn’t embarrassment in the face of nudity. Pranay’s cock was a delicious thing to behold, and certainly had the power to send me into a fluster.

But I could feel the deep creasing of my forehead as I frowned. Not at Kendra, but with disgust at her terrible situation.

“You risked your life up there,” I said. “They could have spotted you.”

“I like to feel the sun on my skin,” she answered Pranay’s question, seemingly having regained her composure. Now, she looked sad, her slender shoulders sagging. “I used to love sunbathing. A simple pleasure, but it gave me so much joy. I miss spending time on the beach or harvesting the oranges.”

My frown unfolded at the softness of her voice. “I’m sorry they’ve stolen that freedom away from you.”

“We heard rumors that you were coming,” she added. “The last siren returning to his lost world. There are so many whispers on the water.”

The water spirits made themselves known once again, cold tendrils running down my back.

“I’ll get you that coffee.” Kendra got to her feet and then started to blush a little. “You will be wanting to heal that arm, Dylan.”

Ah, that explained the blushing. “Yes. Indeed.”

“If you go through the other door back out in the main chamber, you will find three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Please, help yourselves to whatever you need.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Okay. Coffee.” She went to leave the room.

“Kendra?” Kimberly said, standing up. “Can I come with you, please? I’ll leave the lads to it. Coffee and a long soak would be fabulous.”

“Follow me,” the mermaid said, her cheeks fully flushed. She got one more peek at Pranay’s cock before heading off.

The werewolf chuckled again, but his expression was serious. “These poor mer. Fucking barons.”

“At least they didn’t see us going into the sea,” Andy said. “If they did, we wouldn’t be sitting here.”

“We have to be careful,” I added. “Let’s not take this for granted. I don’t think we should linger here for too long.”

“Yep,” Seph agreed. “Heal, grab some food, and let’s go.”

“Timeframe,” Pranay said. “Let’s agree on one.”

“Three hours,” I responded. “Does that sound good?”

They all agreed.

“Shall we go and have a look at the bedrooms?”

* * *

All of the rooms were large with beds bigger than king-sized, and a chaise longue that heated up like the sofas had. Kimberly had already staked out a bedroom, Seph also taking one for himself, while my boyfriends and I took the other. They weren’t for sleeping in but for recuperating—or healing in my case. Those pink silk sheets looked divine, and I’m sure Seph was wishing he could steal a set to take home.

One of the bathroom doors was locked, so I stepped into the other as me, Andy, Pranay, and Seph continued our tour.

The bath was, well, a pool—a Roman bath carved from pearl. It sparkled like the walls, steam rising up from its bubbling surface.

I couldn’t wait to climb in.

Over by a blue chaise longue was a shelving unit, made of pearl too, with an assortment of lotions in ornate glass bottles, as well as fluffy white towels.

I turned to the three men. “We should make the most of having a bath. We won’t get this chance again. And I’d like to be clean for the healing.”

“To get all dirty again,” Pranay quipped and winked.

I grinned. “Well, we’ll just have to have two baths.”

“No complaints here,” Andy joined in.

“I’ll be ready in thirty minutes if that’s okay. I really just need a soak, even if my arm is crying out to be made better.”

“Poor baby,” Pranay said. “I hate seeing you suffer.”

“It’ll soon be over.”

“We’ll leave you in peace,” Andy said. “Take this time to soak up. We’ll go get sorted and meet you in the bedroom in half an hour.”

“That sounds great. But I can’t hog this bath all to myself. Feel free to—”

“Have some you time,” Pranay said. “No worries. You cool with that, Seph?”

He shrugged. “Nothing to do with me. Happy shagging. Make sure it’s a good one.”

Pranay looked as if he were about to say something, then changed his mind. “Thanks, mate.” I doubted those had been the words he’d swallowed.

The kelpie nodded and left.

It tugged at my heart. I wanted…I wanted him to be a part of this process too.

Damn.

“See you soon,” Andy said.

The two men departed.

I immediately removed my wet clothes and hung them on the chaise longue to dry. Then I took a bottle of purple liquid and took it into the bath with me.

There were some steps going down into the bath. My first contact with the water was incredible. It was so warm, so welcoming. My muscles sang with joy as I submerged myself into the liquid bliss, even my broken bones were relatively happy to be snuggled up in heat.

Healing myself was important, but this was step one of the process. I wanted to feel clean and sexy, not grimy. My healing song fed on the sexual energy of others, but it needed to be coaxed to life by temptation. There was no such thing as a quickie in those situations.

* * *

Not much time had passed before I felt a presence behind me.

The aquatic energy of a water-born.

I turned my head. “Seph?”

The kelpie was standing a few feet away, still in his white and blue trousers, barefoot, chains across his chest, his hair tied up.

And he looked so damn sad.

“Are you okay?”

He walked over and sat down beside me on the edge of the pool. He didn’t bother to roll up his trousers as he slipped his legs into the water.

“Man, that’s good.”

Butterflies stirred in the pit of my tummy. “It is.”

“Fuck,” he breathed. “Fuck.”

I shifted around so I could look up at him properly. “Seph?”

“Sorry, I know this is your chill-out time.”

“Not really. You can use this bath too if you want. Though you might want to strip.”

Why did I have to blush at that? It’d been a genuinely innocent comment!

“Yeah. Would make sense.” He rubbed his chin, which had become stubbly over the course of our journey.

I wanted to touch it.

“I fucking miss him so much.”

Those words were like taking a bowling ball in the chest.

“I know you do.” Did I reach out to take his hand?

“So fucking much. He was my best mate. There was no one like Jason.” He lowered his head. “I just wanna hear his voice again.”

I reached out with my right arm, placing my hand on his huge thigh. “That would be wonderful.”

Those beautiful aquamarine eyes bore into me. He licked his lips, holding me with his gaze. His hand covered mine, his little finger gently tracing a knuckle.

Tremors went through my whole body at his touch.

“Jason helped me through so much of my shit,” he said, never breaking eye contact, “especially with my ex. He’d met the prick once, before he got in real deep with his pearl addiction, really laid into him about how much of a wanker he was to me.” Seph shook his head. “Jason was my brother. Fuck.”

“Seph…” I squeezed his thigh.

“I miss him so much. I need him back.”

Tears began to flow down his face, a stream cutting across the beautiful scar on his right cheek.

It was heartbreaking.

I reached up for the rivulet, my broken arm twanging with pain as I stretched and caught a glistening tear with my finger.

He caught my hand gently. “There’s something about you that’s got into my head. I don’t know what it is, but I know I wanna be next to you, to protect you to…to be like your boyfriends.” The last word was wrapped in the seductive tones of his Spanish accent.

My heart skipped a beat. “You—"

“I want you. But you know that. I watch you, and I want…fuck. I don’t know. I used to talk to Jason about you, about stuff, about…the future. My head is full of so much shit right now, and I’m so fucking sad all the time. But then I look at you, and I see something special, something new. He loved you, you know. Never stopped going on about how you were gonna do a song together.”

I closed my eyes. Jason loved hip hop music, had even rapped to me on a balcony in Paris.

“He—"

Seph kissed me, hard and powerful, bruising my lips. I returned the gesture, grabbing him by the back of the head with my free hand.

“Shit!” I yelped as my broken arm had something to say about my actions.

“Sorry,” he said. “I—”

“You said you wanted to be like Pranay and Andy.”

“Yeah,” he replied quietly.

“Kiss me again.”

Grief is a funny springboard to other emotions. We were united in ours, and maybe that’s what was bringing our lips together again. He held me by the waist as I stood on the steps of the bath, no longer having to stretch to kiss him.

His hands slid up my sides, down my back, his touch sparking every cell and nerve ending into a dancing frenzy of lust.

Deep at the core of me, my healing song responded.

I ended the kiss and lowered myself into the water, pushing his legs apart. His hardness was straining against the confines of his trousers, indicating its desire to be free.

I set it free, pulling the garment halfway down his thighs.

He looked down at me, his tears gone, his eyes sparkling like the walls and the water. Getting myself into a comfortable position between his legs, I took his large cock into my mouth.

A deep reverberation came from him and into me as I worked him, lips and tongue going to town on that delicious flesh. His fingers tangled in my hair, and I built up a quicker rhythm.

But not to make him come.

Oh, no. Not yet.

I knew I was supposed to head to the bedroom soon to let Andy and Pranay work their skills upon me, but I was entangled in this moment now. I needed Seph, and he needed me. This wasn’t just about him healing me, but about us.

What happened next, I didn’t know.

You die…

I took that inner voice and choked it until it faded.

Fuck you…

Time for more.

As I removed my mouth, Seph pulled his trousers all the way off and joined me in the water. He towered above me, and drank me in, running his eyes and hands all over my scales.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said.

Wild energy was threatening to consume me in an inferno of wicked desire.

Let it devour every inch of me.

He pushed me up against the wall so I was facing him, being careful of my arm so it wouldn’t get caught between us. My skin prickled with need as he took hold of my buttocks, massaging them, spreading my legs apart. He slid a finger into me, teasing me there, calling to my song, even more, locking his lips to me in a crushing kiss once again.

Yes…

Two fingers, deep and exploring. His body pressed into me some more, locking me between him and the bath wall. Other fingers went to my nipples, squeezing, pulling. He nipped my bottom lip, and I nipped back.

My song liked it.

He removed his fingers. Without warning, he lifted me up by my thighs and plunged his cock into me, a hand going into my hair. He pulled my head back, nipping at my neck. His other hand tugged on my balls firmly. Oh, God! That felt so good!

He ran his tongue over my lips, and our tongues met, wrestling.

My song was really liking this. The pain in my arm was starting to abate.

“Well, I see you two just couldn’t wait.”

I couldn’t turn my head to see Pranay.

Oh, God.

Seph paused, looking up.

“What happened to some quiet time?” Andy asked from behind me.

Damn.

My song needed more!

Footsteps and the two men stepped into view on the left side of the bath.

They were smiling. Pranay, still naked, was hard. Andy, only in his trousers and with bare feet like Seph had been, was also erect beneath the garment.

“I like what I see,” Pranay said.

“Me too,” Andy echoed.

The fact that this wasn’t a bad thing in his eyes or Pranay’s by the grin on his face, was a giddying experience. This loving two men was a new experience in itself, but was I now going to add a third? Or was this just healing sex like before?

Three men.

Andy and Pranay looked like they were a pair of oracles with all the information.

The Seph thing was complicated—also known as having no clue what it all meant.

He’d said he wanted to be like them.

Like my boyfriends.

I was getting way ahead of the situation. The kelpie was still inside me, and my arm was still broken. The pain was leaving, but the job had yet to be complete.

“Join us,” Seph said in a deep whisper.

Andy removed his trousers, and the two men came into the bath, positioning themselves together on my right.

The kelpie thrust into me once again, returning to his previous rhythm.

Pranay was stroking himself, as was Andy. I watched them work their cocks in the water as Seph pounded away.

Golden light curled out of me, spiraling up to meet Seph.

My boyfriends watching me get fucked by the kelpie added a whole new level of pleasure.

“Kiss him,” Seph said.

“What?” I breathed.

Andy leaned in to kiss me.

“Hot,” I heard Pranay say.

The water churned, and the werewolf was suddenly on my other side. Seph pulled his body back a bit so Pranay could reach for my cock.

The golden magic of the healing song flashed, and its melody rang in the air.

Andy followed suit, cupping my balls as he kissed me some more. “Let us hear you sing,” he said into my mouth between kisses.

“So fucking hot,” Seph agreed with Pranay and went for even deeper thrusts.

The song’s magic reached out to all three of them, drifting over their naked bodies, turning their eyes golden.

There. It had them. The bulk of it locked onto Seph, though, drawing from him as he unleashed upon me.

Pranay’s stroking of my cock was just as fierce, as were Andy’s kisses of fire. My breath caught with the pleasure from all angles, with the ferocity of need spilling out of them as my song commanded them to heal me.

I climaxed hard, my back arching. Seph came hard inside me, letting out a powerful growl as the magic ignited the room in a golden blaze, my bones melding back together, all of the pain gone, my body filled with powerful sexual energy.

Seph kissed me, then Andy, then Pranay, nibbling on my ear lobes.

I was encircled with tenderness, hands and lips all over my body as the golden light began to fade.

“All better now,” Seph whispered.

A wild energy was taking hold of me. “Why don’t you watch now?” I told him.

He cocked his head. “Watch?”

“Tie my hands above my head and watch.”

He grinned, if not looking a little puzzled.

“Baby?” Pranay questioned.

“Use those chains,” I said.

The kelpie got out of the water and stood over me. I held up my wrists, and he bound them together with his steel snakes, locking them tight.

“Like that?” Seph asked.

“Just like that,” I replied. “Now, you two…together. Hard and fast.”

The werewolf and the fae were fully on board, not needing to be told a second time.

I was completely at their mercy in the water, letting them position my body as they saw fit.

My back rested against Pranay as Andy took the front, my arms still firmly above my head. Both of their cocks plunged into me at once, a double burn of pleasure, of exquisite friction.

Lips and teeth and thrusts, and I was taken to paradise. I may have been healed, but I needed to experience my boyfriends as well as the kelpie. What I needed was blinding pleasure, to revel some more in bliss.

I locked eyes with the kelpie. He licked his lips, holding me tight with one hand, stroking himself with the other.

All three of us connected…

I came without touching myself as twin orgasms tore through me, my gaze not breaking its lock to Seph.

He brought himself to climax, throwing his head back, the chains tightening.

Beautiful.

So beautiful.

The kisses from Andy on my lips, and Pranay on my neck, were so tender, so loving that I almost started crying.

This would be the last time anything like this would happen again.

* * *

After cleaning ourselves up, Seph and I sat together on a bed fully clothed in our dry sailor uniforms once again. Andy and Pranay had left us to talk things over, both of them having given me more of their oracle-like smiles.

There was no hangover from using my song. Not yet, anyway. It would come, though, and I’d just have to work through it. Using only the healing song didn’t have as bad a consequence as going all out with one of the other threads of my power.

Anything was better than a broken arm.

Since we’d sat next to one another on the bed, there’d been a silence between us. I couldn’t stop thinking about the places he’d touched, how they still tingled like sexual brands.

“So,” I said, breaking the silence because I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Yeah.”

“I—”

“I don’t know what this means,” he stopped me. “There’s too much going on right now for me to really go through this in my head. But what I can say is…is that it was more than just healing you.” He turned to face me. “I like touching you.” His hand went to my cheek. I nuzzled it. “I really do. When I said I wanna be like those two, I meant it. But I don’t know what it means.”

“Only you know what you want, Seph. And you have to really want it.”

“I think I want you, Dylan.”

My hand went to his cheek too. I could tumble into those twin pools of aquamarine and revel in their beauty, never looking away.

There were strings around my heart, pulling it in three different directions.

“I like the way you touch me, the way you look at me,” I told him. “You make the butterflies jump. I want to know more, to see more, to—”

“Go out for dinner?” he offered.

“Yes. That would be nice.”

Liar…

Liar, who is marked for death…

I couldn’t keep doing this.

He leaned in and kissed me once again. My lips would never be tired of his being on them. “Let’s just get this done first, yeah?”

“That sounds good.” My inner voice didn’t comment for once.

“I know it seems I’m all about the sex, and I am. But there’s more here. I know that, you know that. I think about the way we held each other in that room in the flooded city. The fire, the bed, how great you felt in my arms. Wait…you’re crying.”

“I’m sorry.” I shuffled away a bit, feeling like a fool and a dirty liar. “I can’t do this anymore.”

“What?”

“I need…I need to tell you something. Everyone.” I took a deep breath. “Before we leave.”

“You want me to get everyone in here?”

Now would have to be the right time. What if I didn’t get another chance, and my death came as a wicked surprise?

I had to prepare them all.

No more lies.

“Yes, please.” More tears rolled. “All I ever seem to do is cry.”

* * *

My companions were now gathered in the bedroom. Our target of three hours until departure was still an hour and a half away.

I stood before them as they sat in a row on the bed, an audience I didn’t want.

At least I’d stopped crying for the time being.

“There’s something I’ve been hiding from you all, and I need to tell you the truth before we carry on with the final part of this journey.”

No one said a word.

“Believe me when I say that I never meant to hurt any of you,” I continued. “But I was weak, too frightened to speak the truth.”

“You’re scaring me, darling,” Kimberly said.

Seph took her hand.

“I’m so sorry.” A wobbly breath. No more delay. “I’m going to die.”

A collective intake of breath.

“What the fuck?” Pranay questioned. “What is this shit, baby?”

I swallowed, and tears started to flow again. “Before Jason was killed, he revealed the prophecy to me. We never got to the root of it, only that I had to stop the barons, that there was hope for the siren realm to be restored.”

Expectant eyes, no words.

I carried on, reciting the prophecy. “The last siren, the third child of the last dynasty of the realm, is the boy with the third song. He is the end and the beginning. If he survives beyond the tests put in his path, it will be his sacrifice that will bring back the realm. His heart, his life, must be given when he claims his broken throne. He will call to life, summon it forth, and he will be the sea, the air, every grain of sand—all things will be him. His gift will bring back the light to where shadow has dwelled too long.”

Silence.

Horrible, horrible silence.

Andy stood up. “No.”

“That’s the truth,” I replied. “I’m so sorry.”

“No,” he said again. “I don’t care. This won’t come true. We can break it.”

“Yeah,” Pranay added, standing with his best friend.

I looked to Kimberly, who’s head was lowered.

“I wish that were true, Andy, but it’s not. It makes—”

“Don’t you dare say it makes sense,” the fae snapped.

“Andy—"

“Don’t you dare! How can you even say that? That’s like giving up.”

“I’m not giving up. I’m finally being honest with you.

“What’s the point of everything,” Pranay stepped in, “if that’s the endgame? It’s not fair.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Everything you’ve said to us,” Andy said, “all of the dreams of our future together…it was…empty.”

“I meant every word.”

“How?”

“Because I love you. I couldn’t destroy those dreams, the wonderful idea that a life that was waiting for us. So I lied.”

“Sometimes lies are prettier than the grimness of truth,” Kimberly cut in. She was now looking at me. “You should’ve told us, darling.”

Seph remained silent.

Andy started to pace. “You’re marching to your own death. How is that right? I can’t go with you to watch you die. We should be going the other way.”

“Then the oil barons will spread across the realms,” I countered. “Andy, please.”

His eyes leaked his anger. “Fuck. This isn’t right. It’s a nightmare. I’m dreaming this somewhere, still out of it from the iron. Yeah, it’s an effect of the iron making me hallucinate.” He grabbed Pranay by the shoulders. “Hit me. Go on. Wake me up.”

“Mate, I—”

“Come on! What’s wrong with you? Hit me! I need to wake the fuck up!”

“Andy…” I said gently.

The wail that came out of his body almost shook the room. It was awful, loaded with anguish. He collapsed into Pranay’s arms.

“It’s okay, buddy,” the werewolf tried to soothe.

“Not it’s not.” Andy’s voice was muffled against Pranay’s big chest. “I love him. You love him. He’s ours, and now we’re gonna lose him just like that.” He sobbed and sobbed and sobbed, and Pranay soothed him all the while.

“I know, buddy. I know.”

“Pranay,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, baby. I get why you couldn’t say anything. I do. It’s fucked up, but I do. You…you were protecting us.”

I shook my head. “I was wrong. I ended up delaying the hurt.”

Andy continued to sob.

“I love you so much,” I said. “I never meant for any of this to happen.”

Maybe there was a reason I hadn’t been in a proper relationship after the fakery that was my teenage romance with Darius. I’d always put it down to a resistance to love and being tied down. My life had been about pleasure amid the hard work, of being commitment-free, carefree, no room for the messiness of relationships. Yet maybe the reason was that deep down, a part of me knew that I was going to die for a future greater good. It had been wrong of me to declare my love for these men, to form any kind of bond with anyone.

All it would do was break their hearts.

“I love you, baby.” He held his friend tighter.

“Oh, darling.” Kimberly rushed at me, grabbing me into a crushing hug. “Is this really real?”

Oh, God. The pain. The tears. I couldn’t stand it. “I’m so sorry.”

Seph’s eyes met mine, and he stared at me for a while. “The prophecy could be wrong,” he finally said.

Fresh tears ran down my face.

There were no more sorrys I could offer, nothing more I could say.

As seemed to be the theme of my life, I stood in a cloud of sadness.

Now, they all knew.

The truth was finally out.

I wanted to die right there under the weight of it all.

* * *

There was no moving forward.

“We can’t let you die,” Andy said as I sat between him and Pranay. I rubbed his back as Pranay rubbed mine. “I’m a selfish prick, but I can’t let you go.”

“Kind of wish I didn’t know,” Pranay added. “Feels worse knowing.”

“I get that,” Kimberly agreed.

Seph muttered something in Spanish. I didn’t know what he’d said, but I could only guess that it wasn’t bright and sunny.

My tears had dried up. Amid all of this, I’d been thinking and had come to a decision that was a terrible betrayal, and worse than hiding the secret of my impending demise.

I was leaving them. They didn’t know it yet, but I was going to slip away.

Andy was right. They couldn’t watch me die. They deserved better than that. I’d taken enough from all of them, only to offer nothing but grief in return. Now was the time to stand alone, to be the siren of the prophecy. I would bring down Tarquin, or he would crush me. I knew what the consequences of a baron victory over the realms would be, but I had to give my people a chance at new lives.

They’ll follow…

I had a plan for that.

So, I started to sing my song of enchantment.

“Darling? What are you doing?” Kimberly questioned.

I ignored her, the melody gentle, the golden ribbons dancing through the air.

“No fucking way!” Seph boomed. “No!”

I dashed across the room, sending more song their way.

Pranay pounced with scary speed and grabbed me. “Stop it, baby! Stop!”

“No!” Andy yelled. “You can’t do this!”

But it was too late. They were all under my spell. Their eyes blazed with gold, and they all smiled as if nothing bad would ever make them frown.

“Pretty tune,” Pranay sing-songed. “Loving it.”

The others all nodded.

“Listen to me, all of you. I did this to save you. Once this is over, you can go about your lives and be whatever you want to be. There is so much greatness waiting out there for you to take. Go and be the best you. I love all of you so much, and I will be forever grateful for everything you’ve done for me. You’ve kept me going, living, showed me that I was capable of loving others more than my career. Each of you has shown me that I’m not an empty, shallow shell, that there was once a chance for me to have something more. I wish I could’ve been more to all of you, but all I can do now is give you the best reward I can think of.”

I looked to each of them in turn, taking in their features, enjoying their presence for a few moments longer.

“So lovely,” Seph said. “Sing to us forever!”

“Yeah! Forever!” Andy practically rejoiced.

Kimberly was swaying along to the gentle music.

I poured more magic into them. “You’ll sleep now, safe in this place. If danger comes, you’ll get to escape, but all eyes will be on me now. I guess that’s how I’ve always liked it. Now, each of you climb onto the bed and let my song be a lullaby. When I’m dead, you’ll wake up. I’m not wiping your memories, and you may hate me for doing this to you. But know I will always love you from wherever I end up.” I inhaled, then exhaled a shaky breath. “Goodnight.”

Chapter Thirteen

I was watching them sleep as Kendra burst into the room.

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were going to bed,” she said.

I turned to her. “We’re not. Well, they are.” I explained everything to her. “Will you help me by keeping them safe here?”

“That is so sad.”

“Will you?”

“Of course. But you shouldn’t go alone. It’s dangerous.”

“This is my fight now. I have to face this last part alone.”

She shook her head. “That seems incredibly unfair. They would want to fight by your side.”

“This is the way it has to be.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “I won’t pretend to like this, because I don’t. You should have the backing of these people who have proclaimed their loyalty to you. But I understand your reasoning.” She sighed. “Am I making the right choice here by helping you?”

“Please, I need to go. I’m sorry to put this on you when we don’t really know one another, but I have to do this. For them.”

She shook her head again. “I’ve always respected you and your tenacity to stay alive. You being the famous pop star must drive Tarquin beyond crazy. I’ve always loved the outrageousness of you throwing your survival in his face like that. For that, I will help you. I just wish there was something I could say that would change your mind.”

“Just know the guilt of doing this is breaking my heart even more.”

“I’m sorry.” She gave me a hug. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I’m just terrified. What if you fail?”

“I’ll try not to. But they don’t need to watch me die, and I don’t want to see them hurt any more than they have been. What if Tarquin murders them before I stop him? I know that’s an obvious risk, but I’m removing it as best I can.”

“What if I need to wake them?”

“Say this word.” I leaned close to her ear so I could whisper it. “Electric Disco.”

“What is that?”

“A relevant word. You’ll need to say it three times to rouse them. Only in an emergency.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Thank you so much for your help.”

“My pleasure.” She hugged me again. “Good luck to you. I hope you vanquish the overlord and all of his kind.”

“I want to give you your life back, so you can taste the oranges again.”

“Oh, Dylan.”

“Goodbye, Kendra.”

“Wait.”

“I have to go.”

“Please, take some food.”

“There’s no—”

“Take some food!”

Her volume shocked me into compliance. “I’ll take some food.”

She hurried out of the room and soon returned with a green parcel.

“Seaweed rolls,” she said. “They fit in your pocket easily, and it doesn’t matter if they get wet. And they don’t smell, so don’t worry. Us mer have perfected a secret recipe.”

I smiled and took the food. “Thank you.”

There was a water skin in her other hand. “Here. Water. I had all this prepared for each of you for the journey. I guess it will be perfect for when your companions…go home.”

That stung. “Yes. It would be wonderful.”

She nodded. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Dylan Rivers.”

“Likewise.” I pocketed the seaweed and fixed the skin, which had a hook attached to it, onto my trousers.

“The temperature will be warm enough to dry your garments quickly when you surface. Even at nightfall.”

“Goodbye again,” I said.

One more hug and it was done.

I went back to the chamber with the two doors, back into the warm seawater.

This was it.

I swam out of the honeycombed coral, passing more whispering merfolk and headed west.

Though I would still need to swim around the village, as I’d told my companions, I could just carry on all the way to Star Caves and remain underwater until I reached the siren realm border on the other side. There was no need, now, for me to surface until that point.

I’d left them behind.

I’d betrayed those I loved.

Maybe death would finally bring some relief from all the guilt.

* * *

My energy was fading. I’d used two songs in close succession, and my body was scolding me for it.

Damn!

It was rather irritating that these consequences of using power came in different variations, and always liked to thwart me when I seemed to be on a roll.

I’d been swimming for two hours, making good time, gliding through the water as if I were home. It was so freeing, so incredible to do this, to feed the call of the sea that often pulled on me. This is where I belonged, down in the depths, scales out in full, being the real me.

But I was fading.

Star Caves were just ahead, probably another ten-minute swim before I reached them. They’d be an adequate resting spot before I carried on.

So, I swam on, giving everything I had to reach my destination.

Dream sweetly, I said inside, hoping that somehow my loved ones heard me.

“They will, mon amour,” Lucien replied. “They will.”

“Have I done the right thing?”

“You have acted on love. That is your gift to them.”

“I feel so dirty.”

“Sometimes love is dirty, forces us to act in ways that are for the greater good, even if the greater good carries its own grime.”

“Indeed. Well, it’s just you and me now.”

“I will open the way, and we will defeat him.”

“Us against the world. Who would have thought the merman journalist I met in Paris would be the final key to open the lock?”

“Destiny is a strange mistress.”

“Absolutely. How did it feel to be in your home seas?”

“Odd,” he replied softly. “I feel sorrow for the mother I lost to the barons there, for the father who died of heartbreak. Yet they were not my blood parents.”

“That doesn’t lessen the pain,” I said.

“No, it doesn’t. Still, the sea around us is wonderful. It always has been this blissfully warm. If times were sweeter, I would suggest an adventure for you and me, mon amour.”

I sighed, bubbles floating across my face. “What will happen to you when I die?”

“Who can say?”

“I hate to think you’ll die with me.”

“But, we two are one.”

“Yes.”

“I am here as your heart beats. Maybe we will be together in the next life.”

“Possibly. I’d like to think so.”

“Any version of a life would be lonely without you.”

“That’s so kind.”

“It is truth.”

“I hope Jason isn’t lonely on the other side.”

“I hope the same, mon amour.”

I pushed myself across the remaining distance, heading straight for the entrance to Star Caves.

The network of underwater tunnels got its name from the abundance of starfish that called them home. The little creatures were everywhere, a ring of blue ones around the entrance.

I swam in to be faced with more—pink, green, yellow, white. Tiny fish of many colors swam with me as the starfish moved idly across the cave walls all around me.

“I need to rest,” I said aloud and found myself an alcove.

It was free of starfish, with only a few lingering at the edge of it.

For a siren to sleep underwater, and not float away, a series of breathing exercises had to be done in order to anchor down the body. I performed each step, letting in the force of gravity, putting gentle pressure onto every organ, limb, muscle, and bone. I’d never fully understood how it worked, only that I had to release air, then slowly draw it back in while holding each intake of breath for ten seconds so it could join with the water to allow me to rest on the rocky floor.

There was no way I was making it all the way to the other end of Star Caves without my body giving out, and I didn’t like the idea of my body floating through the tunnels at the will of the water as I slept.

I curled up, Lucien sending a wave of loving warmth to me, and let my body rest.

* * *

Was that a song? A siren song?

A beach of golden sand, a purple sky, stars twinkling in tune with the melody. This was some kind of twilight world in my head.

A siren song?

A woman surfaced through the gentle waves of the dark sea that licked at the beach. Obsidian curls fell down her front, covering her breasts and brushing the tops of her knees. The rest of her was naked.

She was singing her song, her blood-red lips stark against her pale complexion.

“I swim these waters,” she sang at me, “alone and in need of the touch of—”

She screamed and grabbed her head, pulling at her hair. “No! No!”

Wham! I was shoved out of sleep. The synergy of air, water, and gravity keeping me down broke, and I started to float upward.

That song was still ringing in my ears.

My head was fuzzy, but I was mostly all right.

Who had disturbed my sleep? I’d rip their tongue out of their head.

As I swam out of the alcove, I saw another opposite me that hadn’t been there before.

That wasn’t the strangest part.

There was a pond there, even though I was underwater. But it was clearly a pond with a surface all of its own, with a purple octopus sitting in it.

“I’m sure this wasn’t there before,” I said aloud.

“Non, mon amour. Shall we swim on?”

“Hello.” A female voice came from the tentacled beast.

Oh, dear.

The creature was ghastly in the extreme. If a voice could be wet, full of slime, then this was a prime example.

“Erm, hello.”

“What a treat to see a beautiful man! It’s been so long since I’ve seen any man!”

The tentacles slithered together, throbbing.

“Thank you for the compliment,” I replied. “Bye.” I wasn’t in the mood for creepy octopi lounging in underwater ponds that shouldn’t exist.

Or was she stuck?

“Wait! Please! I want to talk to you.”

Damn, did I hate Faerie. “What about?”

Her eyes were onyx pools. “Things.” She shivered and squealed, tentacles thrashing. “Don’t do that!”

I backed off. “I’m going now.” I didn’t want to know anymore. Let it stay a mystery. To hell with Faerie and all of this!

“No! Please! I want to talk.”

“Can’t say I’m feeling the same. Goodbye.” I went to turn.

“I’m representing the sea witch.”

I froze, turning slowly back to face the creature. “Excuse me?”

“She is my dear, dear sister.”

I had to be dreaming. “No. No, she isn’t.”

“She is! She is! She made me this thing you see before you. The real me was in your dream, singing her sweet song. I would seduce so many with my music, have so much fun in the days gone by when fun was something I could reach out and touch. But not now. No. I have to live in this fucking pond as this fucking thing! She did this! She did this!” The tentacles thrashed again as if volts of electricity were sparking through them. “No! I will! I will! Please!”

I backed off some more. The sea witch’s sister? Was this some more trickery? Was the witch not happy that I’d come into her stupid city and caused chaos? Was that it?

“You must speak with her!” the octopus bellowed. “Please!”

“No!” I yelled back. “Is that her shocking you? If it is, tell her to stay away from me. I’m not in the mood. Better yet, I hope she can hear me. Don’t fuck with me! Do you hear me? I don’t care about anything else but my mission. So, mind your business and leave me be. I’m done.”

“All she wants is to talk.”

“You’re clearly deaf.”

The creature made a sloppy sound, and a tentacle lashed out. Lucien roared as I was sucked forward, my head landing into the pond.

My muffled protests were short-lived as I was dragged down into the cold dark.

Chapter Fourteen

Clearly, my refusal to have a chat with the sea witch didn’t factor into it. I had no choice.

I was floating in gray clouds that rolled by as if a heavy wind ushered them on. I couldn’t feel any hint of a draft, though.

“Hello?”

No answer.

“Sea witch?”

In response, I fell through the clouds, tumbling out, and hurtling down toward a familiar sea. My descent didn’t speed up but slowed down, my body turned, so I was pointing feet-down.

At least, I thought the sea was familiar.

In the very far distance was a cityscape, the shapes of the buildings as black as pitch.

“Is that—”

“The place where you undid the quays,” the sea witch responded. “My creation.”

The flooded city was so far away, though, and not my destination. I was floating down toward a dark island in the middle of the rough sea I’d once briefly swam in. Not for fun, but to bring Lucien to life and get walloped with a ton of revelation.

Shadow Island. The place of the witch. What was I even doing here? Why would the sea witch want to talk to me? Well, she could chat all she wanted, I wasn’t making any deals with her.

At all.

I landed on the island. The land was sloped all around, but not steep. I could easily stand without feeling imbalanced and ending up rolling down to the beach below me.

It was the grimmest beach I’d ever seen. Black tangles of thorny vines choked the sand, the vicious plants bursting from the many, many jagged rocks that seemed to form a barrier around the lowest parts of the island. Waves smashed into them as if trying to obliterate them in a watery mission of destruction.

Not exactly an ideal holiday destination.

Those same vines spread up the sloping land, past my feet, up to a huge black rock at the summit. Cut into that rock was an entrance, a curved void of darkness that swallowed the vines.

Her house.

The vines at my feet opened up, rolling aside and forming a clear path for me.

How kind.

I followed the path up as the wind howled, and the sea raged. This time I did feel the ferocity of the wind. Not enough to topple me over, but enough to lift my hair and whistle in my ears.

It didn’t take long to reach the rock, the island not exactly a mountain to traverse.

I headed inside, meeting instant warmth and a rather ramshackle room with mahogany-paneled walls, a green carpet that was so clearly worn by overuse. A fire burned in the corner, and lamps chased away most of the shadows in the small room. A bookcase bulged with books to my left, and there was a floral sofa to my right, with a matching armchair, and a mahogany coffee table between them laden with cakes and a tea set.

On that armchair was a woman, dressed in what looked to be a gown made of blackened kelp, her pale skin covered in carbuncles, her hair a wild tangle of seaweed. There was a slimy sheen to her overall appearance. Her black eyes watched me as I stood there, staring at her.

“I see slipperiness runs in your family,” I said.

“Interesting choice of words,” she responded. “I haven’t seen my dear, slimy sister for many years. I have no desire to unless I need to engage with her.”

“Family drama?”

“You could say that, siren. She deserves what she has. Why not take a seat, relax a little? Have some tea and cake. The Battenberg is wonderful today.”

I folded my arms. “Because I’m rather busy and have more pressing issues than taking afternoon tea with the infamous sea witch. Is it afternoon here on Shadow Island? Hard to tell with all the grimness outside.”

She smiled, exposing a set of pearl teeth. They were literally pearly white and pearl by nature. “Infamous. I like that.”

“That’s nice. I really need you to pop me back into Faerie now.”

“So soon? But we haven’t had a chance to talk yet.”

My forehead creased up, my eyes narrowing into angry slits—at least, I hoped that was how they were looking. “Why am I here? I thought you weren’t involved with the wheels of destiny. If you’re upset about my visit to your city, then, well, there’s nothing I can really do about it. I won’t be coming back if that’s any consolation.”

“I don’t interfere. Generally. That was your business, and I’m pleased to see you succeeding so far.”

“You’re not angry about me basically destroying your entire deal with the mermaid queen?” I asked.

Lucien stirred. He was the last of his kind, made by his long-lost monarch.

“Sorry,” I said to him. “But I had to ask.”

“Not a problem, mon amour.”

That made the sea witch chuckle lightly. “That deal is but one deal and is not something I will discuss with you. You understand the necessities of anonymity, of course?”

“If you say so.”

“That tale is done, and I will not discuss it.”

“Fine. That’s fine. I’m simply making sure you’re not bringing me here because you hold some sort of grudge.”

“Not at all. As you know, that’s not how I work.”

“Well, I don’t know for sure.”

“Now, you do. Your destiny has nothing to do with me.” A shadow passed over her face, faint but so evident. It signified a schemer, a creature with a dark bite. “But it could do.”

That actually made me gulp. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“This is why I want to talk to you to see if I can sweeten the sound of it.”

“Sorry, but no. I’m not falling for your trap. Because that’s what your deals are—sticky webs. I’m not dying to then end up trapped in your city. I’d rather there be nothing waiting for me on the other side.”

“Nothing? Nothing is bliss, is it?”

“Compared to being under your thumb, yes.”

She nodded, stroking her neck. “I understand your reservations, siren.”

“That’s putting it mildly.”

“Yes, I suppose. But why not hear me out first? You never know, this could be something amazing.”

“I doubt that.”

“I’m sure. However, I’m not setting you free until you’ve heard everything I have to say to you. So, it’s your choice. You can languish in my home or on the island, straining your mind to try and think of a way back to your quest. Trust me, you won’t find one. It would be a complete waste of time. Alternatively, you can have a seat and hear me out, then go right back to it. Simple. All of my cards are spread out on the table. I want you to listen, that’s the extent of my conditions. After that, you’re free to go or make a deal—whatever you wish.”

Why me? Why now? “How can I trust you?”

“You can’t. But you can trust yourself.”

“I wouldn’t always say that.”

She picked up a china cup and saucer, curls of steam drifting up out of the crockery. “You always seem to fall back after making some positive strides. First, your destructive song, then Jason, now this.” She sipped her tea.

All I had to do was sit and listen, and this would soon be over with. “Indeed.”

“What a strange beast destiny is.”

“You can say that again.”

She put her cup back down on the table. “Your friend Jason is at peace.”

My heart almost stopped. “I’m sorry?”

“Though I do not care to discuss deals, as we’ve not long established, I will tell you about your friend as I think it will give you comfort.”

A wave of dizziness washed over me.

Jason.

A deal.

“What are you saying?” Were my words slurred? I couldn’t tell. This was…too much.

“We made a deal, Jason and I.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“You’re—”

“I’ll stop you there, siren. It would be tacky of you to accuse me of lying, and me to lie now when I want to earn your trust.”

Jason had bargained with her. “You make slippery deals.”

“It depends on the perspective.”

With the dizziness came the need to vomit. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Please, try not to. It would not be good for the carpet.”

I sucked in air, taking deep breaths to calm down.

“Are you okay, siren?”

I took a good few moments to answer. “Not really.”

“Should I not tell you about your friend?”

“I want you to tell me.”

“Well, as you know, he saw his own death in one of his visions.”

I didn’t ask how she knew I knew.

“He came to me,” she continued, “not long after that, when you weren’t aware. He didn’t want to fade off into the afterlife and be apart from Yara.”

Jason had been in love with Yara, the dolphin shifter.

“He asked me to let them be together, if there was anything I could do. Well, I have no power over death. It is inevitable in the majority of cases, but I can manipulate it for the right price.”

Oh. My. God. “What did you do to him?”

“I offered him happiness.”

“And what was that? At what price?”

Before she answered, she had another sip of tea. “They could only be together in death. Now, all of my residents here are either dead or alive—my manipulations can keep the dead in the city. The living can’t see them, but they’re there, living on the other side. Or not living. Existing? That seems a rather negative term. Anyway, you get the idea. So, I made a deal with Jason that he could most certainly be with Yara in death and live on that other side of the city.”

“Wait…she’s…dead?”

“No.”

“So, they’re not together?”

“Not yet.”

“How is he at peace, then?” There it was—the wickedness of her bargains!

“Because he knows he will be there when she is ready to die. She is my creature, bound to me, and will be put over there when her time as flesh ends. He’s at peace with that. He loves her, so he’ll wait for her.”

“That sounds so cruel.”

“You’d rather Yara was dead? You’d want me to kill her so she could be with your friend?”

“Maybe she’d be happier.” I couldn’t believe I’d just said that! “I mean, they want to be together. It’s got to be better than the grief she’ll be suffering.”

Now, I sounded utterly cruel.

Damn.

“Does she know he’s dead?” I asked.

“No. How could she? There is no contact with the realms beyond the city. He wants her to live her life.”

“Because he’s not a selfish bastard.” I slumped back in the chair. “I wished her death.”

“Selfishness is complicated. You wanted them to be happy. They will be. In time.”

“What do you get out of it?”

Her eyes darkened. “More souls.”

I swallowed hard. “Do you feed on them?”

“Is that a question you want answering?”

“I—”

“Synergy,” she said. “That’s all you need to know.”

She was the aquatic version of the devil—the Lucifer to the water-born.

The sea witch grinned as those thoughts ran through my head. Was she reading my mind?

She simply sipped some more tea.

“Now, then,” she said. “Shall we get down to business.”

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

“Is Jason really at peace?”

“Yes.”

“Can I—”

“No.”

“What—”

“No. You may not see him. He is beyond you now.”

Tears took me by surprise, welling up, and then spilling down my cheeks within seconds. “I miss him.”

“I know. But that is the pain of reality. He is beyond you now.”

“Don’t say that!” How could this be? Jason trapped forever in that city, belonging to the sea witch for all time.

“It is the truth. You have to believe he is at peace, though. There is no need for you to worry.”

“Don’t try and convince me you’re a saint! I know you’re not!” I shouldn’t have lashed out, but she, well, this was Jason! How was I supposed to just leave him here? She’d basically admitted that she fed on souls.

Maybe.

Synergy.

More complex than that?

I didn’t care. “I can’t leave him here!”

“That’s not your decision to make.”

“It—”

She lifted her hand to silence me. “And you’re correct. I’m not a saint, nor am I a demon. How boring to be placed in a box for convenient, small-minded consumption. I am, to simply put it, a marvelous shade of gray.”

I wiped my eyes. “That’s putting it simply?”

“Yes. With a flourish. Are you sure you won’t have some cake?”

I shook my head.

Jason.

Here forever.

“Fine. When you’re ready to listen to my proposal, I will begin.”

“Let’s get this over with.”

“Good. I thought you’d forever hold me back.”

I waited.

“Right, then. Here we are, you and I, not quite taking tea. I have to say, siren, I have deeply admired your determination to succeed. That is my tribute to you. I respect guts and value hard work.”

“I didn’t do it alone,” I countered.

“No, you didn’t. And because of that, this deal will be a reward for you as well as the people in your life.”

I bit my tongue. Any interjections would hold up the big reveal, and I really wanted to know the ending!

“It really is good Battenberg.” The sea witch gestured to the pink and yellow cake sitting on a china plate.

“No, thank you,” I whispered.

“Anyway, let me get back to it.”

Please, do!

“I know all about the end of you, siren. You are to die to save your realm. Before you ask how I know, I just know. I’m not the queen of an entire realm because I sit around, paying no attention to the voices all around me. I know, and it is something else I admire about you. You’ll die even though you have found love. You’ll sacrifice yourself to let your homelands start again.”

“Wouldn’t you?” I asked.

“That’s a question I could never answer.”

I sighed. “How could I not?”

“There is always a choice.”

“There is. I’ve conjured up the future in my head. Not the future, but a future I’d love more than anything. Date nights with my boyfriends, holidays, another world tour, fabulous times with Kimberly. I want to see my people happy, to achieve, to be who they want to be. They all have their things, their aspirations, and I would love nothing more than to see them flourish. But I can’t. That’s not for me. Death is for me so a new generation can be filled with hope, with life beyond the barons.”

The sea witch nodded slowly. “The fae likes to cook, the werewolf is a photographer.”

It was creepy she knew a lot about me and mine. “That’s right. Are you in league with the water spirits?”

She laughed. “No, but I hear them.”

“Oh.”

“Your manager wants to see you climb higher and higher in your career, but her own desires are a little muddier.”

“Because she’s always been so tied to me. I want her to go off somewhere sunny with her young lover and relax. For a year, maybe even more than that.”

“And the kelpie…he wants…you.”

“What?”

“Don’t play coy, siren. He wants you, and you want him. Anyone can see that. But grief has clouded the water for now.”

“Maybe, but I would guess he also wants his club that I’d destroyed to be up and running again.”

“Yes, I guess he does.”

Hot blood had flooded my face. Seph wanted me. I mean, that wasn’t exactly a revelation, not after all of our moments. I wanted him too, to explore, to go deeper with him. Could he have been a third boyfriend? He got my pulse racing just like Andy and Pranay, and I—

No. There was no point, no future for any of it.

I was done with this trajectory. “So, you watch us all, tap into the things we want.”

“You are the one thing that binds them. They all want you. The men romantically, your manager in the love of friendship. Even the dragon within you loves you, wants to protect you, and be by your side.”

“That is true, mon amour,” Lucien whispered.

“That’s very sweet,” I answered.

A warmth passed through me, right into my bones.

“You’re digressing,” I said to the witch. “Please, get to the point.”

There was that scary shadow passing over her face once again. “I can give you a future.”

My throat closed up, cutting me off before I could make one sound.

She chuckled. “I gather you’re dying to know how—pardon my words. Manipulation, siren. There can be happiness for you in the end. But it will come for a price and with conditions. After all, I am a manipulator of death, not a master of it.”

“I’m…listening,” I managed. That was all I was doing. No contract signed, only listening to a proposal.

Hope…

“You will die, siren, because that’s what is written. Your people may die too. If they do, it is done for them. This deal is for you, the consequences of it a good thing for them only if they survive.”

“What is it?”

“The best of both.”

“What does that mean?”

“Dead and alive.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I can make it so you are flesh for seven days each month. To do as you please. After that, you will be dead once again.” She smirked. “Doesn’t that sound wonderful?”

It did. It really did. “Now, give me the catch.”

“You have to do something for me first.”

“Naturally.”

“I want you to kill Alexander.”

Now that was an unexpected turn. “I’m sorry?”

“That wretched creature of the council. I want him dead. You kill him, I give you this gift.”

I leaned forward. “One problem here is that I’m going to be dead before I have a chance to go back and kill him. Unless I have to do it within these proposed seven days a month.”

“Oh, siren. I wouldn’t do a thing like that. Deals are not made this way. No. First, you prove yourself to me, then you get what you want.”

“I didn’t say I wanted it.” I shook my head. “I don’t trust you. And I’m over proving myself. This quest has been filled with enough proving for me. I’m done. There will be some small print I’ve missed if I agree, and you’ll just drag me to the flooded city once the last drop of blood has left my body.”

I tried not to think too much about how I was going to die. The mechanics of it could remain a surprise. I didn’t want to know.

“Is that a no, then?”

“It is. I’ll—”

“Take your chances?”

“No, that’s not what I was going to say. There’re no chances to take. I’ll die, and that’ll be that.”

“I can send you back to Earth right now, right where you need to be in order to kill him.”

“As tempting as that is—”

“He murdered my sister.”

I froze. “What?”

“She loved him, and he killed her.”

“Your sister? You cursed your sister to live in a pond as an octopus. Alexander needs to die and is responsible for many things, but not your sister. Anyway, isn’t she still alive?”

“Not that sister. The other one.”

Okay. This was getting silly now. “Look, can you please just send me back and—”

“Jilly. He killed my sister, Jilly.”

“Jilly’s Bane,” I blurted out. That was the name of the monster that’d caused so much destruction in London. Alexander had briefly mentioned it was the creation of a witch called Jilly.

“I know he told you about her. Well, in passing.”

“That all happened in the 1960s, wasn’t it? He said the council stopped her.”

“Alexander has been around for a long time, drawing on the magic and potions of witches to sustain his life and health. He’s had many relationships with magical women over the years. This time it’s the turn of Maria Delilah. Back then, it was my sister.”

“But—”

“Before you say anything about her creating the monster, it is true that she did. But it wasn’t out of madness or any nonsense that bastard would fill your head with. It was love. Out of love, out of wanting to please the man she loved. Sap. That’s all she was, giving into a man’s needs like that. He wanted her to create him a powerful weapon for the council in case the Cold War became a full-blown global conflict. The council wanted to posture too, to remind the governments of the world that they were a greater threat than any nuclear weapons. A game of foolish dominance, all of it ridiculous. But Alexander, being ruthless and lower down in the ranks back then, wanted to assert his potion as a powerful player to his superiors. So, he used my dear sister to attempt to make a weapon. But it failed. The monster failed and was too dangerous, a failed experiment that Alexander blamed entirely on Jilly, on her madness. The monster was killed, and then Alexander drugged her with some awful mind-altering concoction and staged an attack on the council’s headquarters. She looked to be crazy, murderous. Alexander stepped in and killed her before she could kill the Chair who was in power at the time. And that was it, mad Jilly gone, Jilly’s Bane buried deep in the earth.”

I didn’t know what to say, but my fury was boiling. Maybe a smidgen of it for Jilly, but all of it for Jason.

He needed to pay.

“Their relationship,” she added, “was secret. No one knew they were together apart from me and Miranda—my slimy sister. He got clean away with it.”

My hands were fists, my jaw clenched. Images of the knife in Jason’s chest, of Alexander’s smug face, the witch Maria Delilah by his side, of all the pain he’d caused.

This rage was an inferno waiting to explode out of me.

“He has to die,” I seethed.

“That he does, siren. That he does.”

Chapter Fifteen

Running on anger doesn’t make for smart decision making. It clouds judgment. “I’m ready right now. Send me over.”

Wait…

Was I about to step into the deal?

A rational energy kicked in, like a contingency switch to override me whenever I started veering into the realms of recklessness.

“I can’t,” I said, swallowing hard as if my anger were a lump in my throat. “This isn’t my path.”

“No?”

“No, I can’t—”

“You’re not willing to give your people what they deserve?”

“What they deserve is to live a life free from war.”

“That is idealism at its worst, siren,” she countered. “Do you think by ending this war with the barons that peace will endure?”

“No, but—”

“Foolish,” she cut me off. “Granted, putting an end to this saves the world from destruction, from tyranny. But a world without war? Maybe over in this realm, there can be some degree of peace. Let us see who the next king or queen of Faerie will be. But on Earth? No. There is always war because there can never be contentment.”

God, she was annoying. “Don’t lecture me. I know what I meant. I can stop this, stop this threat. I can give them that.”

“And then what, siren? They have to learn to carry on without you?” She sighed heavily. “Such is the cruelty of life. I have had to do the same with the loss of Jilly. It is incredibly hard, even now. I don’t understand the world without her, especially when the sister who betrayed me deserved death more than Jilly. Still, I couldn’t terminate my own sister despite her desire to terminate me.”

“I know how it feels. I miss my family so much every single day. I may look like I’ve learned to live without them, but I haven’t.”

“You want them to be proud of you, to see all that you’ve achieved.”

“I don’t care about that. I want to see their faces, hear their voices, be home with them again.” Here came the tears, the pain as raw as it had been back then. “I saw them slaughtered. My beautiful family. I live for them. I know it’s a cliché, but I do. The enemy has to see the spirit of my family in me—that big fuck you.”

“You know how it feels to be left behind.”

I let out a wobbly breath. “I—"

“Listen,” she stopped me again. “I am offering you a way out of true death, to be able to see the declarations of love you have made blossom, to still be a best friend. Haven’t I already explained the components of the deal to you? Kill Alexander, and I’ll bless you with seven days per month as flesh so you can resume some kind of life.”

“That feels…wrong.”

“Why? It’s not like you’re not going to see through your destiny. You’re walking towards death, so why not have a little bit of a reward?”

“It just doesn’t feel right.”

“But leaving those you love behind is?”

“Isn’t that the way it has to be?”

She smiled. “One such as you, who has been manipulated by the water spirits, surprises me. Why not give things a twist? Let the spirits be wrong, even if it’s just a little bit.”

“What about the council’s defenses?” I asked.

“What about them?”

“If I killed Alexander, then I’m weakening those defenses and giving the barons an in.”

That made her chuckle. She leaned forward and poured herself another cup of tea. “What a worrier you are, siren.”

“Don’t patronize me, please.”

“I wasn’t. Sometimes it is a good idea to think things through, come at them from all angles.” She stirred milk and sugar into her cup. “But not always.” She lifted it for a sip. “Ah, wonderful. Listen, you don’t have to worry yourself about such things. Alexander is one man. He isn’t the one keeping the shields up, out there in the field with a wand in his hand. His wand is in Maria Delilah’s hand.” She pulled a disgusted face. “They’ve been together for a while now. Right at this moment, they’re at his country retreat, celebrating a job well done after killing your friend and leaving you in Faerie.”

My jaw clenched.

“A lot of power was harvested from Jason,” she said. “He was the true star of the show.”

I let out a heavy breath. “I don’t know what to do. This is too much side-tracking. I need to get back to my goal.”

“You do. And what you decide to do is up to you. We’re all given options in life, and no one can take hold of those choices but ourselves.” She sipped more of her tea. “I am done now. No more explanation, no more analyzing. This discussion is over. The next words to be heard will be from your mouth. I will only respond to an answer.”

“This is crazy.”

But tempting…

Was I that much of an idiot that I could make a deal with this woman?

My head was saying no.

My heart was saying yes.

I wanted a future, even if it was wrapped up in this version she was offering. Seven days a month to be with the people I loved.

Could I do this? Was it selfish? Should I just face the reality of death and embrace it?

Love was pulling me the other way, just as strong.

I could give them another gift, make up for abandoning them.

“Maybe this is part of your destiny, Dylan.”

I blinked as something appeared in her hands. “What?”

“Your dagger,” she said.

It was! The one I’d lost fighting Jilly’s Bane.

Speaking of which… “Where is that monster now?”

“With its new master.” She offered me my dagger. “Take it.”

Love certainly does make fools of us all. I took the dagger. “You have a deal.”

The hilt felt so good in my hands once again, laced with the touch of water. My dagger. We’d been through so much together, the blade piercing so many gnome heads.

Another question floated up. I hadn’t seen a single gnome, or dwarf who’d gone over to the baron side, on my quest. Why I hadn’t noticed that before was beyond me. It unnerved me all the same.

The sea witch grinned and stood. Her teacup and saucer tumbled to the ground with a clatter. Black spirals of energy swirled around her head like liquid leaches.

“The siren has accepted the deal. He will swear to it now and bind himself to get it done.”

I dry swallowed. What was I doing?

Acting for love…

Those dark leaches came to me, swimming around my head.

“I swear that I will end the life of Alexander, taking up the mantle of vengeance for the sea witch, and for myself, to honor the death of Jason.”

“And I will grant the siren life in death, seven days in a month to be flesh. Does the siren accept?”

If she betrayed me, I would find a way to break out of the deal and end her. She was probably preying on my emotion, and I’d gone right along into her hands to be played with. But if there was a chance to be with the people I loved again, I had to try.

I’d survive all these years. I could find a way to destroy her if she fucked me over.

“I accept.”

So many leaches burst out of the sea witch, rushing at me, striking me in the chest. They actually were leaches, to a fashion, as their tiny jaws locked onto my flesh, drawing my blood.

“It is done!” the sea witch cried.

The room shook violently, and I swear I heard thunder crack outside.

“The deal is done!” she howled and more leaches flung themselves at me.

I screamed as they latched onto my eyes.

“The deal is done!”

Another huge clap of thunder and the leaches were gone, along with the sea witch and her room with tea and cakes.

I was now standing in a dark room as heavy rain beat against the tall window behind me. There was a night as dark as pitch out there. All I could make out was vast land, possibly a tree line in the distance. The moon, it seemed, was smothered in rain cloud.

The room, hidden in shadow, felt large as if it were one of many rooms in a grand country home.

Alexander’s home.

Chapter Sixteen

If the sea witch had the power to transport me back into the realm of Earth, then why couldn’t she just kill Alexander herself?

What was with me and these delayed responses? I should have asked that from the outset!

Was she somehow involved with my destiny? Was this deal part of it, to save me from a true death?

The water spirits weren’t around in this moment.

Alexander…

The glow of light illuminated the gap at the bottom of the door, and I crept over, falling to my knees to look through it.

Gleaming, dark wooden floors with a green and silver runner carpet made up my limited view of a hallway outside. No feet, no people noises, just silence.

It was now or never.

Getting back up, I turned the doorknob and eased the door open. It didn’t creak. Nice to know Alexander kept his hinges well-oiled.

He’d murdered Jason.

Rage was sparking through me, needing to see that smug face.

Slowly, I slid out of the door and into the hallway where all the doors—and there were many—were closed.

I had three options—go left, right, or straight on.

Great.

Footsteps.

I darted back into the room, closing the door and falling back to the floor just in time to see boots cut across the carpet from the left, then turning to head straight on.

There was a slight limp in the walk.

It was one figure, and it turned right at the end of the hallway, the sound of its footsteps fading away into the distance.

I didn’t move. I had a plan. If they came back this way again, I’d head in the direction I’d seen them go.

My reasoning was that the boots belonged to a member of staff—a guard, whatever. My theory was that this person was on the payroll and was going to talk to Alexander about something or give him something. Those details didn’t matter, but if that limping person came back this way after possibly visiting their arsehole boss, then I would at least have a rough direction to head in.

It was the only plan I had in that moment. This house would be a maze, and I couldn’t simply wander around its hallways, hoping to find what I was looking for.

Well, I would if that was the only option I ended up with. But for now, I had a plan.

God, it was so quiet, aside from the rain. No more boots came, no voices, nothing.

My heart was pounding as I waited with the patience of a cat. Okay, my patience wasn’t that good, especially given the firmness I gripped my dagger with, craving to see it cut the throat of that piece of shit. Still, I wouldn’t mess this up, do anything to give myself away.

I waited and waited. Nothing.

I didn’t think about the passage of time, though. It would only serve to piss me off. I’d made the decision to do this, and I’d see it through. Taking down Jason’s murderer as well as Tarquin was too sweet a deal in the end. I wondered, despite my protestations to the sea witch, if I ever would have actually said no.

Forgive me for being led into temptation so easily…

I didn’t know who that thought was directed at.

Lucien didn’t respond to it.

…but this bastard needs to die.

Footsteps again.

The same limping figure came back towards the door. Its pace was slower, and I worried for a moment that it would stop outside, maybe even come into this room.

It didn’t.

I waited for a few more minutes as the footsteps fell away, just to be safe, then slipped out of the door once again.

Time to put my theory into practice.

* * *

When I made the same right that I’d watched the figure make at the end of the corridor, I immediately heard the distant sound of a television.

Every corridor looked the same— an endless onslaught of the green and silver carpet and the off-white wallpaper with champagne leaves. I passed door after door after door, trying none of them, always following the noise. It sounded like a news program. At each junction in this labyrinth of a building, I had to make judgments on which way to go based on what I heard.

Could this be a trap I was walking into?

Was the sea witch really working with Alexander, who was now in league with the oil barons, and this was all to just stop my quest dead in its tracks, and that would be the end of everything?

I ignored my brain and kept on.

Footsteps again as I reached yet another junction, the loud volume of the TV almost drowning them out.

Damn! I was so close. However, I couldn’t get into a fight now, not when I was on the verge of execution.

I tried the door behind me.

Locked.

Mercifully, the one opposite wasn’t.

It was a small bathroom, dark, only the white of the toilet giving away what it was. Thank God no one had been relieving themselves!

Slipping inside, I closed the door and waited, listening to every step this oncoming person made, holding my breath.

They passed without incident.

Excellent.

I exited and resumed my journey, which led me down another corridor, then into a smaller one where the lights were all off.

At the end of it was a door that was open a fraction, the blue glare of a television screen glowing in the gap, the noise of what was indeed a news program loud and clear.

It was regular news, the topic political. Not anything about the supernatural world, or any of the destruction that had been inflicted upon London, because that was gone, all wiped from the general population’s memory by Jason’s death.

His killer was in that room.

He had to be.

I crept up to the door and peered inside.

A room of white walls and white carpet, painfully minimal aside from the TV hanging on its brackets in the corner, pointed toward the double bed.

Lying next to one another under the white sheets were Alexander and Maria Delilah.

My stomach flipped at the sight of those bedfellows. My rage ready to unleash upon them.

They were asleep, not snuggling or looking in any way intimate. How they could sleep with the blaring television so close to them was beyond me. But I was glad for it.

Those footsteps that had come in this direction must have been either guards or minders, on a patrol to keep an eye on this sleeping pair. That was my guess, at least, so I’d have to be careful.

Fury took over then, drowning out every aspect of me that wasn’t focused on annihilation. Rather than being hot and volcanic, it froze into a solid steel resolve.

I entered the bedroom properly and left the door in the position it was in, so to keep up appearances. Then I slinked across the carpet, picking up their gentle snores, heading over to Maria’s side of the bed first.

Without hesitation, I sliced my dagger across the dark skin of her throat, cutting deep. She immediately woke, hands flying to her affliction, gurgling, blood seeping through her fingers, and quickly staining the white sheets.

I couldn’t have her performing any spells on me while I dealt with her boss and lover.

Her wide eyes, full of fear, watched me as her lifeblood left her.

Alexander stirred. “Maria?” he asked sleepily, his eyelids flickering.

I leaped over the witch, landing on top of Alexander, so I was straddling him.

“What—”

Before he could ascertain what was happening, I drove the dagger into his throat, destroying any possibility of him making a sound.

His blood spattered my face and sailor uniform. I felt myself grin as it ran down my chin.

I drove the dagger into his stomach and twisted, pushing down on it hard.

He was looking up at me with the horrified realization the vengeful half of my soul rejoiced in.

I leaned in close as his hands gripped me weakly. “Nothing to say?” I mocked. “Oh, dear. There’s usually some awful remark that slithers out of your mouth. But that’s fine. You don’t deserve any last words.”

Maria was no longer moving.

“There isn’t much time,” I told the dying bastard, “so I’ll keep this brief. When you’re whisked away to whatever hell you’re heading for, remember my face. I got you, Alexander. You stole the life of my friend, so now I steal yours. You presumed to try and control me, to try and hold power over me and mine. Look how that’s turned out.”

The sea witch’s magic was pulling on me.

“This is rather pathetic,” I continued, “the way this ends for you. Such a powerful man, murdered in bed by the siren he thought he’d had on a leash.” I laughed. “How did I get here, you ask? I mean, all of the security you surely must have, and yet I manage to slip in and give you the kiss of my dagger. She likes kissing.”

I yanked the blade out of his guts and drove it down once again. He choked in pain, spitting blood in a crimson spray over my face once again. I stabbed him over and over until he stopped moving, the life fading from his eyes.

“That was for you, Jason,” I said, drenched in Alexander’s blood.

A commotion behind me and the door flew open.

The male guard, whose face I couldn’t see, cried, “Oh, fuck!”

Then the sea witch pulled me out of there.

* * *

I was back in Star Caves, floating in the alcove where the octopus witch had been, clouds of blood wafting around me as it joined the sea.

The punished sister witch was gone.

“Sea witch?” I called. “Is that it?”

No answer, no sense of her at all.

“Remember, I fulfilled my end of our bargain!”

Still no hint of her.

I’d done it. I’d killed Alexander, along with Maria.

Was it real? Had I just woken up from my rest, all of it a dream conjured up by my desire for revenge?

“It was real, mon amour,” Lucien said. “You brought death to the other enemy.”

The blood in the water around me certainly wasn’t an apparition.

Had I just sold my soul, been tricked by this devil dealer?

“We must go,” Lucien added. “Time to move closer.”

What about Lucien? Another question I should have asked!

Damn.

Wherever this would lead now, it was done.

Jason had been avenged.

Chapter Seventeen

The warm night air met me as I broke the surface of the mer sea.

Though the sky was full of stars and a crescent moon, it was seeing the wall of black that stretched across the western side of me, mere feet away, that crushed my heart an in unforgiving giant’s fingers.

A wall of rippling oil, blocking out anything that would have once been the siren realm, slicing across the mass of beach that vanished into the horizon behind me, a marker of the border it shared with the place beyond the oil.

My home.

“I will open the way,” Lucien said.

Above all things, this was the water dragon’s role—to get me through to what lay beyond.

Oh, God. A wasteland, a heart-breaking scene. What was waiting for me?

I held back the tears as best I could, though some escaped. I sucked in the night air to try and retain the same level of steel I’d had when killing Alexander.

But this was my home.

I was home.

Home.

Once, I could have stood here in this exact spot and seen the siren palace in the distance through the shimmering border wall, as well as the magnificence of the siren sea—a far greater expanse of water than the mer waters, or of anywhere on Earth or Faerie.

Now everything was black.

I waded cautiously through the water, up onto the beach, facing a grove of trees farther along that bent away from the oily barrier.

There were no barons to contest me.

Yet.

How much did Tarquin actually know about me? Whatever knowledge he had of the prophecy, and of Lucien, he must have feared me as enough of a threat to want me dead. But what was he expecting to happen when I finally reached the border? This oil wall was intense, absorbing any light that touched it, a monstrosity that seemed to be utterly impenetrable.

Tremors beneath my feet.

The beach burst open in random places, close to me and farther down the line.

Barons.

I couldn’t count how many there were, only that an ocean of red eyes were trained on me, so many arms dripping with oil.

The trees shook and bent even more, one even falling, and the monster known as Jilly’s Bane tore into view, stomping to a stop just shy of the tree line—a giant and hunched mass of brown fur, two large fangs dripping with saliva, ready to devour. There was magic working within it to keep it stable, but not from the spirit mage as had once been the case before. It was running on a different kind of juice to stop it rampaging—earthly magic. I could smell it.

Had I been expecting anything less?

Then came the recently elusive gnomes, filing out of the trees with their axes, followed by the dwarves with their own heavy hammers and weapons used for breaking heads.

Soon, I was completely surrounded, every way out blocked off by some solider of Tarquin.

Alone.

Laughter, deep and chilling.

The overlord stepped out from behind Jilly’s Bane, a powerhouse of muscle, his bare chest ripped with strength, his black cloak billowing behind him.

He looked utterly triumphant, and every part the leader he was.

I tensed everywhere, going completely still, my attention on him.

“Here you are,” he said, his voice loud and kingly, “the last siren. How does it feel to be home?”

I waited for the sensation of the water spirits but got nothing.

“Thank you for the welcome committee,” I retorted. “What a gathering!”

He laughed at that. “Not quite what a prince is used to?”

I simply shrugged.

“I have to say, I am impressed you made it this far. I have come to regret the actions taken in Autumn City because the fae could have done our work for us by detaining you. A mistake on my part. I should have known you are not one to be underestimated—as has been proven time and time again.”

“Wonderful to see you’ve noticed.”

“Though, I will never understand what my son saw in you.”

Oh, that old chestnut. “He saw his end.”

The smile on his face was unexpected, and I had to stop myself from shuddering under the chilliness of it. “You must be tired, siren.”

“I’m good, thank you.”

“I would say you look exhausted.” He turned to a male gnome nearby. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

“I would, Your Majesty.”

Tarquin shrugged. “Not just me saying it, siren.”

“So, where do we go from here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

I was terrified, on the verge of wetting myself. But I wasn’t defeated.

Tarquin titled his head. “Blood in your clothes. What have you been up to?”

“Righting the first wrong of the night.”

“Interesting. And where are your loyal companions? Hiding in the mer Honeycomb? How inconvenient.”

I didn’t answer.

“I received word of the mer treachery. Incredible after all we have done to not slaughter them. You could say you’ll be my first righting of a wrong tonight, the mer next.”

“Then where would you fish?”

“Earth has a bountiful supply, I’m sure.”

Again, I kept quiet, trying my best to hide my fear.

He knew my people were under the sea. I’d doomed them!

Tarquin gestured with his hands, and two barons seized me, twisting my arms behind my back and tangling their legs with mine.

I dropped the dagger in the sand.

Tarquin came closer. He grabbed my face in his oily hands. I gagged as some of it slid into my mouth, burning my throat.

The force of his grip was so strong that he broke a few of my teeth. I howled at him as blood filled my mouth to join the oil.

He laughed. “How pathetic to put so much hope into such a pitiful creature.” The overlord punched me in the chest, snapping ribs. I tried to move but was fixed firmly in place.

This couldn’t be the end. Not like this.

Where were the water spirits?

Tarquin released my face, and I spat blood and broken teeth, then gulped at the air. The pain in my chest was nasty. I didn’t look down, but I was sure a rib bone had burst through my skin. It certainly felt warm and wet there.

I had to fight on. It was time for a song.

“Lucien,” I sang his name on the inside of me.

“I could torture you all night, siren, but I am no fool. We all run this risk of suffering at the hands of one of your songs. Anyway, I have this army to lead to victory.” He grinned. “May I share a marvelous secret with you, siren?”

I said nothing, trying my best to push through the pain.

“We’ve found a hole in the council’s power.”

Oh, God! Had I done that by killing Alexander? Had I just delivered victory to the oil barons?”

“Everything has its weakness. It is only a matter of testing everywhere for a weak spot. The gardens of Buckingham Palace.” He cracked me around the face with the back of his hand, fracturing my right cheek, pain bursting behind my eyes. Then he did it again.

I was furious with myself for doing so, but I sagged forward and vomited. The toxic oil had reached my stomach, bringing up its contents in an acidic wave.

Regardless, I continued to sing the notes.

“Right. We best get along with business.” He lifted his fist to drive it into me and pull out my heart like I’d seen so many barons do to their victims.

The pain was holding me back. I had to put more force into my song. The dragon was coming, but the fault was with me and my pain.

No.

Not like this.

The water spirits made themselves known.

“Give my regards to your family,” Tarquin said.

That same gnome he’d spoken to a few moments ago took an arrow to the head. The creature fell down dead as Jilly’s Bane roared.

The overlord stopped, turning. “What is this?”

I was almost there, the song right on the cusp of unleashing.

A group of fae charged out of the trees, dressed in the red and gold of the royal guard of Autumn City. They sent arrows flying, but there weren’t enough of them—maybe ten. They could not stand against this army.

This was my one and only chance. I belted out Lucien’s song, the melody crashing through the night, and he roared to life.

“Take all of me!” I cried through the pain to Lucien. “Take all of me!”

Immediately, an onslaught of oil jets came at me as I was lifted into the air by my dragon, out of Tarquin’s grip.

“Siren!” he bellowed. “Kill the siren!”

The dragon roared, and his fire that was water got to work, fending off every single attack as we rose higher and higher.

“Time to fly,” Lucien said and took off fast along the wall.

Tarquin’s continued roars of rage made me smile, blood oozing down my chin.

We soared over the sand, Lucien fending off the barons as I continued to feed him his song. The pain Tarquin had wrought on my body was still there, but no longer the loudest singer.

That would always be me.

Never come for my throne as the world’s most fabulous pop star.

“The best!” Lucien roared in agreement.

The dragon sent his water crashing into the wall, drawing an incredible amount of energy from me.

Water and oil do not like one another. They separate when they come into contact, refusing to blend. So was the case when the fire that was water met the wall of oil. But with better results.

It burned through the black, pushing it up and away as if it were actually burning through it, not letting it resettle. The entire barrier vibrated under the force of the power as more and more of that marvelous blue and white energy tore through it.

“Yes!” I cried.

“We—”

Before Lucien could finish, I was struck in the back with an oil jet. The force of it sent me hurtling through the air. Lucien roared and tried to steady me, but I was struck again as I spun, right in the stomach, oil spraying upward into my face.

My song wavered as I tumbled through the air, Lucien unable to stabilize me.

“Mon amour!”

I hit the ground on the other side of the broken wall, my legs shattering, my wrists snapping, my face crushed into the ground of my lost home.

Shards of rock burst through my eyes, my mouth.

I was blind, and my bones destroyed, yet still held onto life.

Barely…

Chapter Eighteen

Andy

“Electric Disco!”

What the hell was that?

I blinked my eyes open.

“Electric Disco!”

That sounded like Kendra.

I sat up on a large bed—one of the beds in the mer place under the sea.

“Kendra?” I rubbed the back of my head, looking around to see Pranay, Seph, and Kimberly, all waking up on the same bed.

What’d happened? Where was Dylan?

“It worked! It worked!” The mermaid hurried over. “Please! Please! I know I said I wouldn’t, but the siren! The siren!” She was all panicky, grabbing my arm. “Please!”

Dylan wasn’t in the room.

The cobwebs of sleep blew away, and I got to my feet. “Where’s Dylan?”

“He went alone, sent you all to sleep with his song.” She told us his plan, calming herself down a bit to get the story out.

Then I remembered him using his power. “Oh, no. No, no, no.”

“What the fuck?” Pranay boomed.

“The barons know you’re here! You need to go now! Go to save the siren! Go before this place becomes your grave.”

Save the siren.

Dylan was gonna die. My Dylan, our Dylan.

I never thought I’d love someone as much as I did him, but I so did. From the first time I’d worked for him as his bodyguard, I’d fallen. I loved his determination to stay alive, his strength, his diva moments. Every part of him. We’d had sex so many times, but it’d never been enough for me. I’d always wanted more. Now, I had more, and I was about to lose it.

Kimberly sighed. “He always felt so bloody guilty about everything. The little shit!”

“Screw the prophecy,” I said. “We have to try and save him.”

Kendra had woken us up, which meant, according to what she’d said, that Dylan wasn’t dead yet.

“I know a quicker way we can get there,” Seph said, “but it means being underwater all the way.”

A rumble from above.

“Barons!” Kendra cried. “They’re going to destroy this place. We all have to flee!”

“You’ll have to keep us alive, then,” I said. “Keep the air flowing.”

More rumbling.

“Then let’s get the fuck out of here now!” he responded.

Chapter Nineteen

Lucien raged but was fading.

Ash and oil in my mouth.

“Mon amour!”

I tried to push more melody and power his way, but the pain was beginning to overcome my efforts to fight it, as was the realization that I was blind and paralyzed with a rock piercing the roof of my mouth.

“Mon amour!”

At least my hearing remained for the time being.

There was something buzzing across my flesh.

The ground shook with an onslaught of the barons moving beneath. No doubt, Tarquin was coming to finish the job.

Buzzing…

Reverberations in the dirt beneath me…

Such toxic land.

What was it?

“Mon amour!”

The…siren realm. That’s what the buzzing was—parts of the realm that was decimated. Ghosts of the past, the remnants of my people in this dead soil.

My people.

I was truly back in my homeland.

“Just look at the siren!” Tarquin roared.

The realm was calling to me, tracing its many fingers across my flesh as my lovers liked to do. It wanted me, my blood, my everything. The third song, the one to summon, spoke to me, told me it needed to come and be with the realm, to call upon life.

He will call to life, summon it forth…

Call to life.

Give my life.

I was dying, no way of coming back from these injuries.

Give my life.

“Mon amour.” Lucien did not roar this time, spoke to me softly. He knew too that this was the end. “They speak, the dead, along with the sea and air and sand. You can bring them back from the abyss.” A pause. “Bring them back, mon amour.”

This was the prophecy.

The water spirits caressed me along with the realm.

My realm.

My home.

“One last song,” the dragon whispered.

I called upon my song to summon, the magic bursting out of me in a powerful surge. It dove into the ground, finding its way deep into the roots of the realm, and soared up into the skies, plunging back into the sea.

Though I was blind, I could see it, feel every inch of it, and the realm wrapped itself with it as I was pulled upward.

My vision had fully returned to me, but my eyes were still lost to my physical body. I was seeing in a new way, beyond my shell of flesh, and seeing all that had become of my home.

The ground was ash and bone, oil refineries everywhere in the distance, harsh concrete buildings staining the land with their brutal ugliness. The once glorious sea was black, nothing but oil. I could feel it, that part of the realm, dead and longing for life once more. As did the ground and the air that was so choked with smoke from the factories churning out their poison.

This was a new place of vile industry, of suffocating death. The entire realm had been murdered.

Yet there was still that trace of what had once been, those fingers caressing my song.

Oil jets fired and went wide, missing me each time.

Lucien wrapped himself around me, firing off the last of his power as his energy dwindled.

It was the turn of my other song now.

I felt them, my family, tingling across my skin, a shade of love so soft, yet so powerful.

This was for them.

“Destroy him!” the overlord boomed.

His wall of oil was crumbling behind him as he looked up at me, golden light spiraling all around my broken body.

He fired oil that missed as all the other jets did.

Barons and gnomes and dwarves, an army of hate aligned together, watching the last siren drift above them.

It was time.

I called to the realm.

“I give you my life.”

Chapter Twenty

Pranay

Fucking lungs letting me down!

I had to do the stupid shit of going up to the surface for some air.

I kicked upward, my head breaking through the waves.

The air was sweet, but I was still pissed off to the max!

My baby was out there. I needed to get to him. Andy was right. Bollocks to that prophecy! We could find a way and be with him.

Man, I loved someone for once, had actually made a connection, actually wanted to do more than tear his arse up.

And I was losing him.

Kimberly popped up next, followed by Seph and Andy.

“I’m fucking sorry,” I said. “I couldn’t handle it.”

If the barons spotted us, we’d have problems. They were already going after the Honeycomb. Thank fuck the mer swam out too, though, none of them being dicks about staying behind with a sinking ship and all that shite.

“It’s cool,” Seph said, “we—”

In the far distance, a burst of light that reminded me of Lucien’s weird dragon fire, that wasn’t really, went up.

“The siren realm,” Seph said. “Oh, fuck. Lucien’s opening the way!”

“Then, let’s swim!” I yelled. “We ain’t losing him!”

Chapter Twenty-One

Prophecy is a strange thing, and rather unfair.

If this was my destiny, why had it been determined that the siren realm would fall? Or was I the backup if it did, its destiny not having been quite set in stone? The threads of fate were a mystery to me and seemed overly complicated for my tastes.

But that didn’t matter now.

This was my destiny.

My body died. Though I’d kind of been outside it anyway, the last pains ripped through me as everything shut down.

The barons had stopped firing at me.

A wind stirred and licked at my dead flesh. Every part of my corpse shimmered with gold as the scales made themselves known once last time. My body was torn apart in a swirl of gold dust, the wind carrying it high, golden strands of magic following it into the toxic clouds.

I was dead.

Was I now my soul? My spirit?

My song was still going, though, and reached a crescendo that thundered in the clouds above. A pool of gold formed in the greenish-black, then spread outward, changing the entire color of the sky.

I was pulled into many pieces, many notes, hurtling into the sea, into the ground, swirling in the air.

…he will be the sea, the air, every grain of sand—all things will be him.

Thunder, golden lightning, the oily waves shimmering with gold too. The entire realm was beginning to look as if it’d been touched in every corner by King Midas.

And I was everywhere, in everything, my energy pouring into the dead world, calling the life that was lost back from destruction.

With each note of the melody that filled the arena that was the siren realm, I brought forth a living essence. Piece by piece, they joined to me, came to me as I promised them a new chance.

“I am you,” I said with no physical voice. “I am all of you, everything. This song is yours, this life of mine, my gift. I will be in the air and the water and every grain of sand. I am mother and father and all things.”

In death, everything made sense.

Lucien was now part of the air, his energy feeding into the realm as mine did.

In turn, I was fed, too.

I was the realm.

And the realm needed vengeance before it could heal.

With every piece of life as my fuel, I summoned with my song. The waves of the sea rose up, blazing with gold and fully at my command.

With no physical form of mine for him to see, Tarquin was observing everything that was taking place with delicious fear in his crimson eyes. The night had become a golden day. Shimmering rain began to fall in a heavy downpour.

The smoke of the factories was being blown away, broken up, the rain flooding the chimneys.

“The sea!” someone cried.

As high as the wall of oil, a wall of water had surged, rolling, heavy, waiting.

It was time to purge this realm of this disease.

Then it would heal.

As the waves came crashing down on the barons and their army, I wondered about the deal I’d made with the sea witch, and how much she actually knew about things.

Would I ever be flesh again?

If not, then at least I’d fulfilled my destiny.

The enemy were swallowed up by the golden water, not standing a chance.

I felt them die, reveled in their suffering.

For I was the realm.

I was everything.

I had died to save it.

Now, it could live again.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Seph

The biggest wave I’d ever seen, and the first one made of gold, came crashing down on the army that was gathered in the siren realm. The oil barrier had gone.

We’d just come out of the Star Caves, haven taken that route for quickness when the wall of water came down.

“Holy shit!” I roared. “Get back in the water!”

The wave was a beast and ripped through that army quicker than I could turn. Not one of them got out, the border like solid glass. I saw a few break their heads open as they tried to escape.

The realm was sealed, the waves crashing into the border wall with not so much as a drop of golden water getting out.

There were some barons, gnomes, and dwarves hovering outside the border, along with that fucking monster.

He’s dead…

I charged forward, throwing out my chains. The men I shared a love for the siren with were at my side. The fae sent his throwing stars flying, the wolf howled, and Kim followed behind us, ready to do what she could to cause some hurt. She was an amazing woman who also loved Dylan.

I could’ve loved him.

Could’ve been one of his.

But he was dead.

He had to be.

That golden sea wasn’t a result of anything other than him giving his life—just like the prophecy had said.

I could’ve been his…

Chapter Twenty-Three

Andy

The monster’s head exploded from the power of my throwing star.

It fell down dead, shaking the ground on impact.

That was the last of them.

The beach was littered with bodies. There were even some fae there—dead royal guards who’d come for their own revenge.

I hoped they’d helped Dylan.

They must have because the siren realm was literally golden. He’d done it! Had he done it? Where was he?

I couldn’t accept he was dead.

“Look!” Kimberly yelled, running to the border wall.

Tiles of gold were spreading across it.

“Oh, shit!” I broke into a run as the tiles shot across every inch of the wall, forming a shell. “No!” My legs weren’t fast enough.

I stopped just before I ran straight into it. Kimberly had a hand pressed against the gold, sobbing.

“He’s gone,” she said. “He’s gone.”

“No,” I whispered. “No.”

But now, I had my own hand pressed up against the firm reality of the situation.

The man I loved was gone.

Dylan was really gone.

Forever.

* * *

Pranay

“Goodbye, baby.”

I didn’t cry much, but this time tears came like those fucking waves that’d crushed the barons.

“I love you.”

* * *

Seph

…

…

I could’ve been his.

One year later…

Epilogue

Andy

I watched Pranay take a photograph of the champagne bottle that had worked its way around various parts of London every month of the past year.

This time, it was at the end of the pier along the Southbank where the Oxo Tower was. The day was sunny but with a chill. At least it wasn’t raining.

“Sweet,” my best mate proclaimed after taking his shot with his big, professional camera.

We still hadn’t decided where it would be next month. Maybe somewhere really far out, just to be quirky.

Dylan had been gone a year. It was October again, the passing of time nothing short of terrifying.

A lot had changed too.

For one thing, there was a whole city all of us suddenly remembered. Pranay and I had worked a security job down in Coldharbour once, too! I mean, what the hell?

It’d been part of a government and council cover-up to try and save the world from some messed up creatures. But once Coldharbour had popped back into memory, the existence of supernaturals had come to light.

The council tried to cover that up and failed miserably, bringing along some fresh problems with their fuck up.

It also turned out that Alexander and the witch Maria Delilah had been murdered in their bed—news we’d received when we’d left Faerie after losing Dylan. I hadn’t even known they were sleeping together! The case was still unsolved. The one witness was unclear on the perpetrator’s identity.

If I ever found out who it was, I’d shake their hand and buy them a pint.

A year is a long time, especially when in mourning.

Pranay had decided to give up the bodyguard business and was getting ready to have an exhibition of his photos in the next few weeks in an east London gallery.

I was so proud of him.

Seph was having his club, Surrender, refurbished and was planning the launch party for next month.

As for Kimberly, she’d officially retired from the music business and was considering a move to the south of France.

Our lives were moving on.

Like Pranay, I threw in the bodyguard towel. There was only one body I ever really wanted to guard, and he wasn’t here anymore. I was trying to follow my dream, like he’d want me to, and was thinking of putting my savings into a café somewhere out of London.

But a year can also not be a very long time. Big old paradox, that.

I was still all over the place, as we all were, trying to digest Dylan’s death as well as a changing world.

I missed him so much, and so did his fans.

The official statement was that he’d gone missing. There were reports of sightings all the time, as well as searches organized online to find him.

There was nothing to find, but none of us in the know were about to reveal that information.

Dylan’s former apartment building had become a shrine, attracting huge crowds who brought flowers and gifts and candles every single day.

Today was exactly a year since he’d gone. Yeah, happy fucking anniversary.

The siren ream was still sealed up behind that golden wall, with no sign of opening up again. Most of the barons had been wiped out. Those who weren’t were being hunted and shown no mercy when they were caught.

Talk about karma. Soon, they’d be as extinct as the sirens.

Unless the realm did open again. Dylan died to restore it, so would we see the rebirth of sirens as well as the whole realm?

Only time would tell.

“Okay, take one of these,” Kimberly said, opening her handbag. She handed out a gold candle to each of us.

Appropriate color.

Then she took out another, smaller bottle of champagne. The touring bottle stayed shut, but we always had another to pour on the ground.

We did the same thing for Jason but used various hip-hop CDs that were his favorites for the picture instead, and always at his gravestone in Kensal Green—the supernatural council had handed over his body to be interred.

It’d been his one-year anniversary the other week, too. None of the city would be standing if it wasn’t for him.

I missed that guy. He’d been good people.

And Lucien, he’d gone with Dylan. We remembered him, too, and how bright he burned so briefly.

Kimberly poured the champagne onto the wooden planks of the pier. “For you, darling.”

She handed it to me. “For you.” I poured, then gave it to Pranay.

“For you, baby.” He paused before handing it to Seph. “Someone’s coming.”

* * *

Pranay

The fuck?

Why couldn’t these tossers leave us in peace? I swear I’d punched this wanker in the face if he started shit. What did he even need to be here for?

And it was a bloke—a big brown coat, black jeans, and boots with big sunglasses covering most of his face, and a green baseball cap on his head. His hands were stuffed into his coat pockets.

“Excuse me,” Kimberly said, turning to face the man, “but we’re having a private moment. Would you mind giving us a minute?”

“That’s a dreadful waste of champagne,” the man said.

That voice…

* * *

Andy

The man took off his cap, exposing a slightly dented blond quiff.

That voice…

* * *

Seph

The guy took off his glasses, and my heart nearly fucking burst out of my chest…

* * *

Dylan Rivers

Kimberly’s were the first arms I ran into as I delivered my big reveal.

She practically crushed me, wailing into my ear. “Oh, darling! Oh, my God! Am I dreaming?” My coat was soon soaked with her tears.

“Dylan?” Andy said from beside me. “Is it…you?”

I looked up to the fae. “It’s me.”

“Baby?” Pranay asked.

“It is you,” Seph added.

The hugging with Kimberly at an end, I pulled Andy into one, then the werewolf, followed by the kelpie. Then a massive group hug happened at the end of the pier.

And it was real—so, so real.

I cried for the first time since my physical body had died.

The tears felt so good as they made tracks down my face—my actual face.

“Sorry it took so long,” I said softly.

“What do you mean?” Andy asked from within the huddle.

“We all need to talk.”

* * *

“So, the sea witch had come good on her deal in the end,” I said as we sat together in Pranay’s flat.

I’d just told them everything.

“My mind is officially fucking blown!” the werewolf exclaimed. “This is unreal.”

“Dangerous,” Seph added into my ear. I was sitting on his lap on his insistence, which had surprised me. “She could’ve fucked you over. At least…at least Jason’s at peace.”

“He is.”

“And Lucien.”

The former water dragon was part of the siren realm, too, part of me still—pure healing energy.

“Yes,” I responded.

Andy held one of my hands, Pranay the other, the two of them sandwiching Seph and me on the sofa.

Kimberly was pacing, smoking a cigarette with a glass of champagne clutched in her other hand. “Why did it take her so long to make you whole again?”

“There was the complication of me being the siren realm. Because that’s what I am now—every part of. The prophecy was right in its wording. I’m every element, and my death has given it the chance to start again. But there’s years and years of healing to come.”

“Bloody hell.” Kimberly gulped back the champagne. “She’s a goodie.”

“Let’s just call her a shade of gray. I got very lucky. Her spell is binding, so the kinks had to be ironed out before it could kick in properly because I had actually died to become, in essence, pure energy. But it’s all good now, so I get seven release days a month.” I paused for a moment. “I’ll need to go and talk to Queen Brenna.”

“We had a meeting with her,” Andy said. “That wasn’t fun going down to that pirate ship.” He shuddered. “But she seemed to know she wasn’t going home yet. She’ll be pleased you’re not…gone.”

His lovely green eyes sparkled. I was so happy to get to see them again.

I knew none of them were immortal, that one day I wouldn’t need to ever be flesh again, but I didn’t want to think about that.

“We get to have the time together I thought we’d never have,” I added.

There was no guilt for how I’d got to have this sweet condition. Alexander had deserved to die, and so did Maria for aiding him.

“I think we need more bottles of fizz,” Andy said. “This is a celebration night.”

My body tingled in how that would play out.

Another four-way but with more added spice?

“This is day one,” I said. “Let’s make the most of every hour.”

Seph kissed my ear, wrapping his arms tighter around me. He wasn’t officially my boyfriend, but this was certainly a step in that direction.

Pranay and Andy nuzzled into me, also wrapping their arms across my body.

“How cute,” Kimberly said. She pulled out her phone. “I want a picture.”

We posed willingly.

“I have some plans for the being alive days,” I said. “I want to organize a comeback concert for Christmas.”

Kimberly stared at me for a moment. “You’re not being serious?”

“Deadly. But wait. I know I can’t go back to the way things were. However, I can give my public one last hoorah with the most fabulous spectacle they’ve ever seen. Then, I’ll announce my retirement.”

My manager blinked. “In time for Christmas?”

“Do you think I can pull it off? I know I can’t be around much to help, but—”

“Darling,” she lifted a hand, “all you need to do is show up. Do you think you can learn choreography when you’re floating around and being a whole realm?”

I laughed. “I think I can manage it.”

“Then, we’re doing this.”

“You want—”

“Of course, I want to be involved!” she barked and took a deep drag of her cigarette. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll start the ball rolling ASAP.”

“I just have to get it out of my system—one last song. Then that’s it, that chapter of my life fully closed.”

I’d been filled in on what’d happened. So, that city I’d stopped by along the way to the sea witch’s realm, then consequently forgotten about both times I’d encountered it, had been the city of Coldharbour.

Oh, the drama.

“You’re back,” Andy said. “So, so back.”

“I am. And I love you so much.”

“I love you too.”

“Okay, how does this sound?” I asked from my fleshy bubble of yumminess. “Today, we celebrate, just us. But first, I think Kimberly and I need to do lunch. Not in public, though.”

“Sounds fabulous, darling. We’ll go to mine and order in from that French place.”

“Great.” I turned to Pranay. “I seriously owe her a lunch.”

He laughed. “No worries, baby. You want to have our party here later?”

“That would be wonderful.”

“I’ll get cracking on the food,” Andy said. “In a minute.”

“Then,” I said, “I want to use the next few days for date time.” I shuffled in the kelpie’s lap. “You know, like proper boyfriends.”

“Sounds good,” Andy said. “What shall we do, though? I mean, we’ve got to keep you hidden, right?”

“Oh, that will all be out the window soon,” Kimberly drawled. “Once the concert’s announced, all hell will break loose.”

I sat forward. “Do you know what? Never mind ordering in food. Let’s go out there and cause a scene. Like the good old days.”

“Yes!” she cried. “Thank God you’ve come to your senses! I was worried.”

I could hide, be all secretive, and even not bother with the concert. But where would be the fun in that?

“Dinner, theater, dancing,” I said to each of the men around me. “Whatever you want. I’m taking each of you on a date, spoiling you rotten, and then maybe we can go all the way.”

Pranay roared with laughter, leaning in for a kiss.

Yes, I was going to spend all night having sex with all three of them.

“That was the worst attempt at being virginal ever,” Kimberly said.

“Please, don’t mince your words,” I responded.

“Never, darling.”

“Can’t wait to be spoiled,” Seph said and kissed my neck.

Andy came in for a kiss too.

“Now, you’re all just getting on my nerves,” Kimberly said.

I quirked an eyebrow at her. “What about your hot, young stud?”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be working up a sweat later as much as you will be.”

“Yay!”

She poured some champagne into her glass and gave me the cheers.

Wherever these people were, that’s where my true home was. Even if it was for seven days a month, I would revel in my home, enjoying each of them in all their wonderful ways, savoring our time together.

I had a future, one free from the shadow of Tarquin and his barons.

A new life could now begin, my debt repaid.

The End

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for following the tale of Dylan Rivers and his companions. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride as much as I have.

This is it for now for the siren and pop star. He may appear again in a short story or two, but for now, it’s time to say goodbye.

Okay, before I start sobbing into my tea and Battenberg, I need to show you some more books coming from me in 2020.

Get ready for some pre-orders after I’ve signed off!

Okay, signing off…

Big love,

Richard

* * *

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Up Next…

A new series begins in…

First Moon (Four Moons #1)

Releasing February 28th 2020!

Pre-order on Amazon now by clicking HERE or the cover image!

* * *

Have you read The Christmas Bones (Jake & Dean Investigations #1)?

Ready for more?

The Charms of Death (Jake & Dean Investigations #2)

Coming March 27th 2020!

Click the over image or HERE to pre-order on Amazon!

About the Author

Richard Amos is an author from England who is constantly lost in the worlds he writes about, and the ones in the queue yet to be written. He also has more books in his house than anything else and is never without a book (and chocolate) in his hands when he's not writing. He's a proud nerd who loves to dance. Hard. 

In a former life, he was definitely a merman.

Richard writes kick-ass Fantasy and Urban Fantasy with gay male protagonists, all with good doses of action, adventure and romance.

Also by Richard Amos

Coldharbour Chronicles

Winter Rising

Winter Shadows

Winter Fire

Winter Blood

Winter Twilight

Dylan Rivers Chronicles

Siren’s Debt

Siren’s Call

Siren’s Heart

Siren’s Destiny

Jake and Dean Investigations

The Christmas Bones