Excuses caught in my throat. I saw it with my own two eyes: a ship in my father’s colors capable of incapacitating sirens.
“Now you see why I must act. Terras are against us. They are coming after us. After my people, Elowyn!” He was working himself up into a fury. “We need your help. To stop him from hurting our people and his own.”
“Hylos … I … I can’t do that.”
Hylos grabbed my shoulders. “Try!”
Anger wasn’t the only tempest that brewed in his eyes. Desperation swelled there too.
“Hylos,” Lumina ran into the room dressed in a thin silk nightgown. Thoughtlessly, she reached out to him, her fingertips tracing the angry indentations of red crisscrossing his flesh the netting had left.
For a second, he looked at her. I could have sworn the love that reflected in her eyes was mirrored in his. Then it faded as he looked up and past her to Calypstra, who was pacing into the room.
Hylos brushed passed Lumina, and I tried to ignore the hurt in her eyes.
“Oakhaven attacked us,” he said, racing to his lover, who looked over his shoulder at … me? Anger was slick in her oily black eyes. This was getting ridiculous. I had nothing to do with any of this. What the fuck was her problem? What did I ever do to her?
“Hylos,” Raylik shouted as he ran toward his ruler, short sword in hand, ready to fight. “You sent a battle call? Are we under attack?” Nixie was not far behind him, two daggers clutched tightly in her fists.
“Tonight, after showing the High Circle leaders The Womb of Nymphaea—”
“You did what?” Raylik exclaimed.
“Oh shit,” Nixie cursed, pink eyes wide.
“On the way back, an Oakhaven ship attacked us.”
The group straightened up at Hylos’s words.
“How did they attack you?” Lumina asked as she walked back into Hylos’s view.
“It was like siren magic, similar to lulling, but it worked on me. I was completely stunned, but Elowyn was not.”
Lumina took in what he said, thumbing through that endless library of knowledge she held. “How is that even possible?”
“How did you get away?” Nixie asked, shock marking her features.
My eyes remained trained on Calypstra. She didn’t show an ounce of emotion at the fact that Hylos was almost taken. No fear showed on her features, no sadness. She did not care. She just stared at me with tight-lipped resentment.
“Elowyn saved me …” Hylos said, realizing it for the first time himself.
Lumina, Nixie, and Raylik all turned to me, staring with a mixture of disbelief and awe.
Calypstra stepped forward. “Wemustretaliate.”
Hylos nodded a terse yes, agreeing.
“We need answers,” Lumina said, “before we charge blindly in. We have no idea what we’re up against.”
“You dare make orders of your liege?” Calypstra hissed, baring her sharp teeth.
Lumina ignored her, turning to Hylos. “You were almost lost tonight.”
Shealmost lost him tonight.
“Nonsense,” Calypstra scoffed. “The king of all three seas does not fear humans. We will retaliate against them. We will fight them. We will make them pay.”
“If we charge into battle without strategy, we risk losing too much. We already lack numbers,” Raylik said, desperate to slow this madness too.
