“Siren you may be,” he said, “but you’re no true daughter of Numahao. Even if you somehow survive my Command and my blade, you can still drown like theoulaniyou are!”
He turned a large valve in the corridor outside the chamber and seawater began pouring in through two large grates in the testing room’s ceiling.
The door slammed shut, and Gabriella heard the sound of the steel bolts sliding home, sealing her and the bodies of Biross and Tarrant inside as the room rapidly filled with water.
Dilys dropped to his knees and slid under the sharp, glistening points of one of the guard’s jabbing trident. He leapt back to his feet a split second later to deliver a driving blow to the guard’s solar plexus. The guard gave a wheezing gasp as all the air in his lungs whooshed out, then dropped to the ground when Dilys followed up with a knockout punch to the bespelled male’s jaw.
“Get him out of here,” Dilys barked to one of Ryll’s men. “Lock him up somewhere where he can’t hurt anyone until we can free him from whatever spell he’s under.”
Around the room, Ryll and two dozen other warriors were subduing the remaining three ensorcelled queen’s guards. Dilys would have killed them if he’d had to. Thankfully, Ryll had come with enough men to make bloodshed unnecessary.
The same wasn’t going to be true for Calivan.
The minute four of his mother’s most trusted guards had run into the room with weapons drawn and murder on their mind, Dilys’s suspicions about his uncle had been confirmed.
Calivan Merimydion had betrayed his people.
He’d inked loyal, honorable men with the same controlling spell the Shark had used on Ari. The same spell the Shark had used to drown Fyerin and the other Calbernan’s he’d murdered in his quest for vengeance against House Merimydion.
Calivan had inked them with a spell they could not resist and sent them to murder his sister’s son.
Worse, he’d sent them to murder the claimed mate of the first Siren born in twenty-five hundred years. He knew exactly what Dillon Merimydion’s death had done to his mate, Alysaldria—and Alysaldria wasn’t a Siren. With the strength of her gifts—the strength of the ties that now bound them—Gabriella wouldn’t be able to survive Dilys’s death, any more than Dilys would be able to survive hers.
And for the harm Calivan intended towards Gabriella, Dilys would show his uncle no mercy.
With a savage snarl, Dilys raced across his uncle’s laboratory, heading for the door at the back of the room. Half of Ryll’s men departed, escorting the ensorcelled queen’s guards out of the vicinity. The rest followed Dilys.
“Moa Myerielua,wait!” Three of Ryll’s men put on a burst of speed, catching up to Dilys and blocking his path to the door. “It could be a trap, my lord. Let us go first.”
“Ono.That’s my mate in there.”
“And ourSirena,our futureMyerial,the hope for all of us. Who will not survive if you are slain.”
Dilys tried to shove them aside, but three more grabbed his arms from behind while three more ran around them to throw open the door.
The instant they did, blinding light flashed and a powerful explosion rocked the room. Glass vessels shattered. Magical artifacts went flying. Dilys and his men were flung backwards by the force of the blast. When Dilys got to his feet, four men—those who had been closest to the door at the time of the blast—lay dead or dying, their skin bubbling and melting off their bones.
The sight drove Dilys’s anger even higher, and not just because of the men murdered before his eyes. That explosion had been meant for him. Which meant Calivan hadn’t even intended to give him a warrior’s death.
“CALIVAN!” he bellowed. “You traitorous coward! Leave off your sorceror’s tricks, release my mate, and come out and face me like afarkingCalbernan worth his salt!”
“I don’t want to kill you, Dilys,” Calivan called out. “I didn’t want to kill her either. But I can’t let her take the Sea Throne! Alys will Fade!”
Dilys walked closer, careful to keep clear of the corridor opening in case his uncle had more unpleasant magical surprises in store for him. He gestured Ryll over to the opposite side. “It’s over, Calivan.Nimaknows what you’ve done. She knows you were involved in the deaths ofMyerialSiavaluana and Sianna. Of Nyamialine. Even if you succeed in killing me, your life is forfeit. And without both you and me,Nimawill Fade anyway. Is that what you want? To be responsible for your own sister’s—your own twin’s—death?”
“I won’t be! I’ve seen to that. I found a way to keep her Fade at bay. Between an elixir to hold her to life and the power I’ve gathered in these stones, she’ll have strength enough to live for decades—maybe even centuries!”
“And do you think that’s what she wants? To live at the price of all the blood on your hands? Do you even know your sister at all?”
“You don’t understand!” Calivan cried.
“I understand enough. Now, release Gabriella and come out to face me, Uncle. I will give you a warrior’s death. A fight, just the two of us. Fang and claw only.”
“You think you could take me fang and claw?” Calivan’s voice was sharp. “You think because I was forbidden a warrior’s life that I am easy prey?”
“Ono,Uncle. I know you are not. I merely thought to offer you the honor denied Fyerin and the others who died at Nemuan’s hands because of you.”
“I am not to blame for Nemuan’s actions!”
