The army below murmured and shifted uncomfortably at my words.
Hylos shook his head, a concise no. “That’s impossible.”
“Your mother is Clare Adele. She was my mother too,” I answered, wanting to wrap him in a hug. “And I found Aegir.”
His eyes lit with questions. I wanted to sit with him and answer every single one over a drink in his study. Away from the armies and mistakes that edged the air.
“Where is he?” hedemanded.
“I’ll tell you everything, I promise. We just need to leave here and—”
“Tell me now!” he roared, the sound of thunder crackling with his words. A strange power emanated from him, making my knees wobble. The power of a siren king. His eyes fell atop my head.
“That crown, where did you get that?” My hand followed his gaze to be poked by a small metal crown. Had it been there this whole time?
“That is my father’s crown. It is the source of his power.” Choler flared in his eyes.
“Nymphaea said Aegir offered me his power. I wasn’t sure what it meant.”
The words caught like wildfire across the army.
Nymphaea.
Aegir.
Power.
“No, he wouldn’t give you his powers. The only way for a siren to give their power is … is to give their life. My father, he … he would never do that. He would never leave me … not without saying goodbye.” His voice broke and tears welled in his eyes, but he still held that same look of wrath.
I hadn’t known the weight of Aegir’s sacrifice.
My chest tightened.
His prayers were finally answered. Hopefully Aegir was at peace now.
“Hylos, I will tell you everything, I swear it. But we must take the army and leave. This is a trap. Calypstra has betrayed you. She’s working with Queen Jessal and they know you’re attacking here. It’s all a trap to capture you and use you—”
“Get out of my way,” he growled, and underneath those words that strange power emitted again from him. It threatened to bend my will, urging my body to obey and bow to Hylos, King of the Three Great Seas. Now officially, with the death of his father.
He turned his back to me, the water propelling him to his armies, to his war.
“No!” I yelled with a song that thundered against that strange force he was pushing against me.
He whipped his head around, fear flooding his eyes. He pushed another stronger surge of that commanding power toward me, but I only pushed back against it.
Gritting my teeth, I strained, saying, “If you continue forward, I will stop you!” I warned.
The great force stilled, and Hylos’s lips curved into a vicious smile.
“Elowyn, there is only one of you.” His hand directed my attention to the army behind him. “And thousands of us.”
“You will not harm my people,” I answered through clenched teeth.
“Ha! Go to yourpeoplelooking like that and see how long you live. Humans are not kind to what they do not know, Elowyn. And they take as they please. That is exactly why we must retaliate against them. So they will stop, once and for all.” That power radiated from him again, but not at me. I could feel it race toward his forces, marching them forward without a single word passing his lips.
Behind me, on shore, a clamor of human voices murmured, noticing the approaching figures on the sea’s horizon. They were so astoundingly far away, small specks collecting on the beach, and yet I could hear them. Dull tones and songs that rattled to us. Humble and small. But there were many of them.
“Hylos,” I called urgently. “Remember what I told you of Thornley. What Lumina told you of it too. It is mostly uninhabited. But do you hear that?”
