A grape pinged off his cheek from Hylos’ direction.
“Manners, Morvyn,” Hylos tsked.
The pale siren sighed, placed a heavy elbow on the table, and rested his broad chin in his palm.
“Where’s Lumina?” Nixie asked Hylos. Her tone was soinformal. They were all before him as if they were merely friends sitting around, about to play cards. Not breaking their fast with their leader.
“She’s handling the cargo from last night,” Hylos answered quickly.
“She won’t be joining us then?” Raylik asked.
“No, she’s busy,” Hylos answered curtly.
I noticed the quick look that passed between Raylik and Nixie.
Through the glass table, I spotted the pale siren’s soles, fused together with that translucent membrane between each digit, just as Nixie’s and Raylik’s were.
He twiddled them like toes.
I looked up to meet his cold stare.
“Wanna touch?” he said with a wink.
I tried to keep my face in check, despite the scowl tugging at my lips.
I clutched the table knife at my place setting. “Sure.”
“Oh, I like her!” he said with a ridiculous giggle.
Great, off to a very undiplomatic start.
“Leave her be, Morvyn,” Hylos said, then with a mere flick of his wrist, he summoned a resounding beat like a drum that rolled through the room.
Frigid dread settled in my gut. He’d summoned music, just as they had when they hypnotized the captain and his crew. But this song was different. Not eerie or enchantingly beautiful, but demanding, like the sound of a military tabor being struck.
Two sirens holding large platters overflowing with food entered the room. One was violet from head to toe, with a smooth head. The other was a more earthly-looking being with long black hair and skin that twinkled, scales of gold trailing down his legs to his fins. They placed food upon Morvyn’s plate.
“Thanks love,” Morvyn said flirtatiously.
Then the siren placed a hunk of raw fish on my plate next, with a heaping pile of odd, purplish grain that made my face contort.
My stomach growled.
“It’s not that bad,” Nixie said quickly, “but this will help.” She pushed her palm at the plate, and a tinkling sound rang with the motion. The meat began to darken and cook before my eyes.
A gasp rushed from my lips.
“When will you all learn?” Morvyn said through a mouthful of food. “Terras need to be warned before you invoke stuff around them.” He looked to Hylos, then Nixie. “Freaks ’em out.” He turned to me. “It’s like MA-GIC.”
Before I could even tell him to fuck off for speaking to me like a child, even though he was right in some regards, Raylik spoke. “She’s tougher than she looks.”
Morvyn scoffed and returned to his food.
Raylik continued, “She gave me a run last nightafternearly drowning to death.”
“She’s a fighter,” Nixie added as she forked up her meal with a pleased smile, like she was proud of that fact.
“A fighter, you say,” a raspy voice drawled. A woman appeared. She wore a short, sheer, black dress, and slinked to Hylos’s side, perching on the arm of his chair.
