"The body remembers what it was." Coral's voice was quiet, matter-of-fact, as she watched from nearby, her dark eyes sympathetic but unsurprised. She crouched at the water's edge,her coral-pink tail still submerged. "It doesn't want to go back. But you did it. You're stronger than you look."
Lily pushed herself up on shaky arms, looking down at her human body with an expression I couldn't quite read. Her hands trembled as she examined them—the blunt nails, the smooth skin. Wonder, maybe. Or grief. Or something between the two.
"I forgot how vulnerable this feels," she whispered, her voice small and uncertain in a way I hadn't heard from her in months. She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly seeming so much smaller. "How... small."
"You're not small." I helped her to her feet, keeping an arm around her waist when her new legs threatened to buckle, feeling the way she leaned into me for support. My hand spread across her lower back, steady and grounding. "You're the same person you were five minutes ago. The same person you've been since we claimed you. The form doesn't change who you are."
She looked up at me, her dark eyes searching my face, and I saw the fear lurking beneath her determination—the fear of being human again, of being weak again, of being the prey she'd been before we found her. Her lower lip trembled slightly before she caught it between her teeth.
"I know." She nodded, squaring her shoulders, forcing steel into her spine. Her jaw tightened with resolve. "I know that. It's just..." She trailed off, shaking her head, dismissing her own fears. "Let's do this. Before I lose my nerve."
Coral provided us with clothes and reminded us how to blend in with the crowds that filled Thornhaven's busy streets. And then, on the third day, she led us through the city to the road that would take us to Saltmere—and to Marcus.
The estate outside Saltmere was everything I expected and worse.
We approached from the sea, swimming through the underwater caves Coral had described until we emerged in acellar that smelled of salt and fear and old blood. Cages lined the walls—empty now, but the scratches on the bars and the stains on the floor told their own story. How many omegas had been held here, waiting to be sold?
After tonight, there would be no more.
We transformed in the shallows of the cave, our bodies shifting from siren to human with practiced ease—though Lily's change was slower, more painful, her face contorting with agony she refused to voice. Her hands gripped the rocky edge until her knuckles went white, and she bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood. When it was over, she stood pale and trembling but resolute, her jaw set with determination, her dark eyes burning with cold fire.
We moved through the underground passages in silence, our bare feet making no sound on the cold stone. The transformation had left us weaker than we were in the water—slower, more vulnerable—but we were still predators. Still sirens beneath the human skin. And the humans above had no idea what was coming for them.
The sounds of the auction reached us before we found the main hall—laughter, conversation, the clink of glasses and the murmur of bids. Rich voices discussing prices and qualities and yields, as if they were buying livestock rather than people.
Vale went first, slipping through a servant's entrance with the grace that came naturally to him even in this strange human form. His silver eyes were sharp with focus, his beautiful features composed into an expression of pleasant neutrality. His voice was our greatest weapon—even without the full power of a siren's call, he could still influence, suggest, persuade. Within minutes, the guards outside the main hall had wandered away, their expressions blank and confused, and Vale returned with a thin smile on his beautiful face and blood on his hands.
"The back entrance is clear." His silver eyes glinted in the lamplight, cold and satisfied, and he wiped his stained hands on a cloth he'd taken from one of the fallen guards. "I counted thirty guests, plus servants and guards. Marcus is near the stage, watching the proceedings."
"Any omegas?" Lily asked, her voice tight with dread, her hands clenched at her sides. Her whole body had gone rigid, tension radiating from every line of her frame.
"Three. In cages on the stage, waiting to be sold." Vale's expression darkened, his jaw tightening with barely contained fury, his silver eyes flashing with cold rage. His hands curled into fists, the cloth crumpling between his fingers. "Two women and a young man. They look broken."
Lily's hands curled into fists, her nails digging into her palms hard enough to leave marks.
"Then we move now. Before they sell anyone else." Her voice was hard, commanding, and I felt a surge of pride at the steel in her spine, at the predator she'd become. We entered the main hall through the servant's corridor, emerging behind a heavy curtain that hid us from view. The scene before us was exactly as terrible as I'd imagined—a glittering ballroom filled with well-dressed monsters, their faces flushed with wine and excitement as they bid on human beings displayed on a raised stage at the far end of the room.
Standing near the stage, a glass of wine in his hand and a satisfied smile on his face, was Marcus. I recognized him from Coral's description—tall, well-fed, with the sleek look of a man who had grown rich on the suffering of others. His clothes were expensive silk and velvet, his jewelry ostentatious gold and gemstones, his entire bearing radiating the smug confidence of someone who believed himself untouchable. His dark hair was slicked back from a face that might have been handsome if not for the cruelty lurking in his small, calculating eyes.
He was about to learn otherwise.
"On my signal," I breathed to the others, my voice barely audible even to their enhanced hearing. "Riven—the guards. Vale—the doors. Thane—the cages. Lily..." I looked at my mate, at the cold fury burning in her dark eyes, at the predator lurking beneath her human skin. "Marcus is yours to confront. But when you're done talking—he belongs to all of us."
"Good." The word came out low, vicious, her jaw tight with barely contained rage, her whole body coiled like a spring about to release. Her dark eyes never left Marcus's face. "I want him to suffer. I want him to feel every moment of what's coming."
I nodded once, then stepped out from behind the curtain. For a moment, no one noticed us. The auctioneer was in the middle of his patter, his oily voice carrying across the ballroom, and the guests were focused on their bidding paddles and their wine glasses.
Then someone screamed.
Riven had found the guards.
Chaos erupted. Guests scrambled for the exits, their expensive clothes tangling around their legs, their faces twisted with terror, only to find Vale waiting for them, his beautiful face twisted into something terrible, his hands already red with blood. The auctioneer stumbled backward off the stage, his mouth opening and closing uselessly, his composure shattered.
And Marcus—Marcus stood frozen, his wine glass slipping from nerveless fingers to shatter on the marble floor in an explosion of red liquid and crystal shards. His face had gone white as bone, his eyes fixed on the four figures stalking toward him through the pandemonium.
"Do you know who I am?" he said, his voice shrill and panicked, nothing like the smooth confidence he'd worn moments before. He backed away, his expensive shoes crunching on broken glass, sweat beading on his forehead,his hands raised as if to ward us off. "Do you have any idea who you're dealing with? I have connections—powerful connections?—"
"You have nothing," Lily's voice cut through his babbling like a blade through silk, cold and absolute. She stepped forward, her human body moving with a predator's grace, and I saw Marcus's face go pale as recognition flickered in his eyes. His mouth worked soundlessly, his small eyes going wide. "You had gold, and you used it to buy people. You had power, and you used it to destroy lives. But that's over now."
