“I resent that,Rayly.” Morvyn said his friend’s name in a high-pitched tone, mocking Nixie.
Nixie whirled her finned hand through the air, thumping him hard in the chest, making him grunt.
“Do not mock me, Morvyn, or I’ll kick your scrawny, pallid ass.”
I felt like a trespasser, intruding on an intimate moment. Like someone peering in on a family through an open window. They were so comfortable, so at ease. Words flowed effortlessly between them, as if they knew each other’s thoughts like the beat of their own hearts.
A family. Friends. Both things I had never had before. Not truly.
“Tell them already,” Calypstra hissed, drinking from the chalice that appeared before her from the knowing hand of the dutiful Bryn.
Calypstra didn’t seem to fit. It was like she was a piece shoved into their lives. Even her relationship with Hylos seemed strange. She was older by some years. Closer in age to me than him. And I noticed the uneasy eyes from the others trained on her.
“The Great Circles have arrived at Naiadon,” Hylos said, smiling at his friends. “Well, all besides Circle Twynox. But that was to be expected. Draveen’s likely busy murdering some relative of his or committing some other heinous atrocity,” he said casually.
My blood ran cold. Were the sirens truly so brutal? Looking out into the crowd of beautiful dancing bodies, there wasn’t a hint of that violence. Only beauty and song.
“An insult to you,” Raylik said, his voice like gravel.
“Those from the Midnight Realm have a longer distance to travel. It is no insult to the king,” Calypstra remarked smoothly, not calling Hylos regent. Strange. Morvyn had said it was what he preferred to be called.
“And more time to plot,” Raylik said, his eyes staunchly on her.
“Morvyn,” Hylos interrupted the two, “your Circle just arrived. I invited them here tonight.”
Morvyn spit out his drink.
“That got in my fucking mouth.” Calypstra grimaced as she wiped at her face.
“I need to get out of here.” Morvyn stood abruptly.
“Sit down.” Hylos pulled his friend back down into his chair with that boyish grin. “Thegoodnews is that all the Circle leaders have agreed to come to the deipnon tomorrow night, and afterward the symposium.”
Morvyn groaned. “Including myhorrendousfamily?”
“Of course Fushdmuir Circle will be in attendance. They possess all the fjords of the North Elder Sea. They are one of our greatest allies,” Hylos answered as he sipped his drink.
“Ugh, my horrid aunt has been hounding me all year to mate with that absolutely drab girl from that unheard-of Circle in the Nordhavet Trench, to strengthen ties orwhatever.”
“The one whose father isextremelywealthy and manages all trade in your Circle’s territory?” Nixie added.
“All the wealth in the world cannot buy a personality, Nix darling.” He rolled his pale eyes. “Plus, I already have plans to mate with Thalassa, Nyra, Julian, and Calliope.” He counted the names on his pale, webbed fingers.
“However will you have time?” Nixie teased.
“Exactly! There’s only so much mating one young,male siren can do in a single evening. Even if the flesh is willing.”
Mating? What exactly did they mean? Sex?
As if reading my mind, Calysptra snapped her head toward me. “Have you told the human of Hydroxia yet?”
“No,” Nixie answered curtly.
“And why is that, Nixie?” She smiled.
Nixie turned to me.
“Hydroxia is a holiday of sorts, like Yule or Beltane,” she said, listing common high holidays. “We feast and celebrate the bounty of Nymphaea.”
