“Don’t touch her,” Finn growled, hastily buckling his jeans and swinging himself from the pool to face the three men.
I clambered out beside him in my wet sundress.
“You made a real mess of my establishment, princeling.” Stavros folded his arms across his chest. He was wearing another immaculate black suit.
One of his burly security guards gestured to Poseidon’s Box on the table. “It’s here.”
“Grab it and go,” Stavros barked. “Then we will pay the staff at The Aegean a visit. That was Mummy Dearest’s nightclub, wasn’t it?”
A vein in Finn’s temple throbbed, and he rushed forward, swinging his fist at Stavros’s head. Stavros caught his wrist, and they stared each other down.
Finn grunted as the man drove an uppercut into his gut. A low growl escaped Finn as he charged the Siren, and the two of them landed on the ground in a tangle of fists and snarls.
One of the burly security guards came toward me, while the other tucked the box under his arm.
“No!” I cried. We hadn’t come all this way just to lose the box now.
I reached for my dagger, still strapped to my hip beneath my sundress, but my trembling hands could barely grip the hilt. There were three of them and only two of us. We’d lose the box while we fought them off unless... unless I used my powers.
The rough fingers of one of the henchmen closed around my arm as I searched for the silver orb of power. Heart thudding, I let it fill me.
Stun, not end. Stun, not end.I repeated the mantra to myself. I didn’t want to kill these men, but we needed to get out of this.
My heart pounded, driving power through every vein as the henchman yanked me into a headlock. The magic burned like wildfire beneath my skin, threatening to consume me if I didn’t offer it release. With a frantic breath, I unleashed it.
42
Morgana
Ifloated in a bubble of calm. Some part of my subconscious knew I had failed to master my magic, stunning myself and leaving Finn alone with Stavros, his henchmen, and the box. But it was so peaceful here in this stupor. Before my eyes, a pale, blinding nothingness bloomed. As I hovered in a trance, it slowly warped, colors bleeding into the void until a vision began to take shape.
Manannán’s blood-smeared face was heavy with anguish, and his eyes were bloodshot from tears. He collapsed to his knees in the sand, clutching the lifeless body of a seal, while all around him, Drowned men clashed with Mer in brutal combat beneath the waves.
Manannán rose unsteadily, still holding Siana’s body to his chest.
“No!” A heart-wrenching cry echoed across the battlefield. Mer Prince Kyano had spotted them. Devastation distorted his handsome face as he pushed through the carnage to Manannán’s side.
“What have we done?” Manannán turned to Kyano as the merman ran a trembling hand across the seal’s limp body.
The two men’s swords lay forgotten in the sand.
“Please, save her.” Manannán tilted his face to the waters above. He stood, cradling Siana against his chest. Kyano raked a hand through his brown hair, eyes shining with agony as he hovered beside them, his viridescent tail flicking through the bloodstained water.
Then, the vision shifted, and the fighting was over. Lifeless Mer, Sirens, and sea monsters floated in the crimson undercurrent. The booming voice I now recognized as Poseidon’s echoed around the two men, still standing together and holding Siana’s lifeless form.
A merman emerged from the water, hair so dark blue it bordered on black. His muscular torso was etched with ancient Runes of the Ocean, and his eyes blazed with the azure brilliance of the sea. Poseidon.
At his side appeared a beautiful woman with cascading black hair and skin adorned with aquamarine scales. Her full lips were set in a pout of displeasure, and her deep brown eyes burned with emotion. Agápe. A seal appeared behind her, its eyes shining with heartbreak. My heart clenched. It was Síocháin, Siana’s mother.
Then came a monstrous figure. Glistening tentacles spilled down his back. Though fiercely handsome, the man’s face had a greenish hue, and a slick, scale-like suit clung to his powerful form. Cetus.
The gods of old were coming together to pass judgment.
Poseidon glided forward, his gaze filled with scorn. “Manannán, for your part in this battle and Siana’s death, we sentence you to an eternity in the shadows.”
Manannán bowed his head, and his form began to curl and twist, unraveling into wisps of darkness. It slithered into the ocean’s gloom and was swallowed by the deep.
“Kyano, my son, you disappoint me. Because of you, we strip the Merof their full strength and curse you to live as a broken man. You will only be free when three become one.”
