“Magic,” my mother hisses. She raises her trident, as if she can fend off the clouds of darkness that coat the sand like a sinister mist before she lowers it with a growl and looks once more to the king.
“A coup?” Dyanna asks, to which our mother nods.
“Howveryinconvenient.” The magic grows thicker, and it reminds me of the feel of Rhea’s. Except this doesn’t glitter like hers, and it moves with more fluid and grace, like black water gliding in from the tide. “Where did Rhea go?” Queen Amari scans the beach in the direction Rhea went, but with the magic writhing in front of us, so thick in the air we can’t see through, it’s impossible to figure out just how far away she got. “Go retrieve her,” she commands, trident pointing to Dyanna. “Your magic, as royalty, will work on the ring. Infuse your voice with your power and command her to return.”
“Your Majesty, send me,” Sade says, stepping in front of Dyanna.
“No. We do not know if Rhea’s magic fully healed you before the attack. You will help me protect the king.” Her dark eyes flick to me. “Get in the water and wait until Rhea is back and can heal you as well. You’re useless to me as you are.” Sade catches my eye behind our mother’s back as Dyanna takes off in the direction Rhea went.Go, she mouths, chin jutting towards the water. I watch as she and our mother raise their tridents as they approach the guards holding the king before I retreat partially into the water.
Just off the shore, the Queen’s Legion awaits my mother’s word to attack and though I can’t see them from where I stand, I can feel their gazes pushing at my back. The icy ocean laps at my knees as I drag my gaze to the direction Dyanna ran after Rhea,entering the shadowy magic that grows thicker. What the queen has done to Rhea weighs heavily on my mind as I stand there, the scared siren I’ve always been begging me to retreat to where it’s relatively safe. To obey my mother’s command because, after all, what difference couldImake?
But I have been forged into something different these past few months. Still scared—as is evident by the quick beating of my heart—still terrified of making the wrong choice, but there is now a spark within me that wasn’t before. One born of the need to take care of those I love and made stronger by the lessons from a certain fae. Yes, I could run. I could hide and be the same female everyone around me expects. Or I can choose to do somethingmore.Besomeone more.Who am I willing to become? No, a different question stirs in my head, one more pointed.Who have I become?
I begin to run after my sister—sisters, my hair tickling my back and toes squishing in the wet sand. I only glance back once, just to make sure my mother isn’t following me. That a legionary isn’t. I push farther onto dryer land when I confirm I’m alone, just as the dark magic begins to retreat. It’s a slow progression, the movement jerky where it was once smooth. Then shadowsscatteras if someone has snipped the string holding them, leaving me with a crystal-clear view of what is in front of me. And I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at.
Dyanna has already come to a halt, her chest heaving as she looks at a ball of glittering shadows with hints of dark purple, Rhea standing just a few feet away, torment contorting her face. “What’s happening?”
My voice causes Dyanna to startle, her bright pink eyes wide as she looks at me. “I don’t know. I heard her screaming.” Another rends the air, Rhea’s voice a ragged plea as tears streak over cheeks. I move a step closer, Dyanna’s fingers closingaround my wrist. “This is powerful magic,” she says quietly, her voice serious.
“Is… is she following a command?”
Dyanna nods. “Nothing can stop her until it’s been fulfilled.”
I hear my sister, but I’m too focused on the movement within all the whirling magic. Narrowing my eyes against the bright sun, I see the outline of a man on his knees, his shoulder leaning against the purple magic as his jaw clenches in pain. Rhea takes a single step forward, and the glittering shadows I know to be hers double in size, rolling in on themselves like a tumultuous wave. The keening sound she releases pierces me straight to the heart, and I watch as she struggles against her own body, screams that end in sobs repeating over and over again. The man at the center of it all grunts, his eyes flashing wide as the dark purple magic he leans againstshuddersunder the power of Rhea’s. But even as he fights to protect himself, his eyes stay on hers. “I love you,” he says, and Rhea’s answering scream could shatter worlds.
“She’s killing him.”
“And there is nothing we can do.” Despite the gravity of her words, Dyanna speaks them as if she is reading from a book. As it is an undeniable fact. I wonder if her lack of empathy is real or if it’s an act. If this is truly who Dyanna has always been or if it is something she’s forced topretendto be.
Looking back at Rhea, I find that I don’t have the same question about myself. Iknowwho I am now, better than I ever have before. “You’re wrong,” I whisper, shaking my arm out of her hold. “There is something I can do.” Dyanna doesn’t protest as I step forward before breaking into a run.
As a siren, I have always been able to feel siren magic in the air around me, but this is the first time I’ve sensed another being’s so strongly. Even when Rhea used her magic to kill theguards behind the Spell or when she healed the sirens in my presence, it hadn’t quite felt likethis.
Pushing my curls out of my face, I feel my skin pebble at how much magic vibrates in the air, a shiver working through me as I stop behind Rhea. Fear robs me of my next breath, her magic much more terrifying up close. Her chest heaves with her sobs as she stares at the trapped man, his body completely hidden now by the shadows.What the fuck am I doing? I don’t even know ifmymagic will work, despite being royalty, because my siren powers have never been the same as everyone else around me. But maybe there is a reason why. Rhea cries out in pain, the sound agonizing as black veins begin to appear beneath her skin, her eyes glazed over in a smoky gray shade. If she notices me standing so close to her, she doesn’t show it, and again, that fear slips down my spine and urges me to run away.
But what was a life worth living if I didn’t ever do what was right when I had the chance? If Inevertook a stand? Lyre is doing it as she vows to keep her daughter safe and give her a life away from the cruelty of our mother. Sade is doing it as she risks herself daily to try and build hope with sirens who are tired of being oppressed. And Myla… Myla lives in a cloak of shadows and secrets, convincing herself she is a monster while risking discovery that she is the vigilante helping her city’s most vulnerable. I don’t need to be a determined mother or commander of a legion or vigilante, dragon-flying fae. I just need to bemeand believe that is enough.
I lay my hand on Rhea’s shoulder, gasping when her nearly black gaze jumps to mine. “I’m going to help you,” I tell her, tugging on the magic that is already pooling at the base of my throat. Rhea breathes harshly through clenched teeth, but I keep my hold on her just in case that is needed for my magic to work. Pulling in a deep breath, I lean in close enough to whisper in her ear. “I command you tostop.” My magic tingles in my throatand over my tongue, and I swear I feel it even on the tips of my fingers. “Stop,” I say again, my voice melodic and smooth as it coasts from my mouth to her ear.
And she does. That glittering magic dissipates like smoke from a blown-out candle as Rhea drags in a heaving breath.
“Aria, we need to leave.” Dyanna’s voice comes from behind me, and when I look up, I see two Mortal Kingdom guards heading our way from the other side of the Spell.
“Take the ring off,” I command quickly, holding my other hand out as I watch Rhea’s eyes gloss over from my words. Her motions are automatic and rigid, but she manages to take the ring off with trembling hands and place it in my outstretched palm.
“Now!” Dyanna shouts.
Just like the first time I held the ring, its magic makes me feel uneasy, but I close my fingers around it and watch as the onyx recedes in Rhea’s eyes, spots of bright green peeking through the haze. I release her and step back, and like it’s snapped something inside of her awake, Rhea whips her head around to look where the kneeling man should be. I look too, but he is only a heap of black on the sand—another male I hadn’t seen because of the shadows lying close by—and when I turn to follow Dyanna into the water, there is only the sound of Rhea’s sorrowful cries.
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-One: Rhea
Mystepsstumbleasmy body sways, the echo of the word “no” reverberating in my head, in the air around me. A quiet wrongness coats me when I fall to my knees and grip Nox, pulling his shoulders onto my lap. “Nox,” I think I rasp—or scream, my throat suddenly aching with the raw sting of his name passing my lips. My heart suspends in my chest, tetheredto my ribs as I stare down at his lifeless body. At his pale face and the too-still eyes behind his closed lids.
Magic thrums through me, a new pulse that beats to a different rhythm, one that should be matching his. Except when it stretches out, an animal finally freed from its cage, there’s nothing for it to latch on to. Because Nox’s magical signature isn’t—
“Nox,” I plead, one of those tethers holding my heart snapping when I shake his shoulders again and his head lolls to the side. It exposes his cheek, the flesh theremissingin spots. Black pockmarks dot his skin, exposing the white gleam of bone underneath. I do a quick scan of the rest of him, finding the same rotted flesh at his hands and his collarbone, beneath a golden chain glimmering in the sun.
And I know that my magic did this, that ithurthim. That I felt the moment his shield faltered as assuredly as I felt the moment that he fell. But this is Nox, and our magics are not enemies but two halves of the same whole, and hewillbe okay, because just as my magic can destroy, it can also heal.
