There’s something interesting that happens to you when you love someone. It’s like you’ve given them your heart. Access to all the parts of you that are the most breakable. The easiest to wound. The softest and squishiest organs, exposed to harm, and the only thing keeping you from being hurt is your trust in the person you’ve picked tonothurt you.
“Julian, answer me.”
I trust Julian. I pray to a god that probably isn’t listening anyway, but stillI beg them to help me not be wrong.
Forty-Four
JULIAN
I’ve never wanted to kill Rosanna but right now I do. What the fuck is she doing?
Why is she here?
“Julian, answer me,” Maris whispers. There’s command in her voice that wasn’t there before. I can hear it even if she’s not aware of it. She doesn’t realize the power her voice holds. Her will. Rosanna isn’t lying about what Maris is. How the fuck did I not know it?
I look at Maris. She’s pale and shaking. For all the danger Rosanna poses hanging off the side of her house, it’s not her that Maris is concerned with. It’s me. A myriad of emotions rise in me. Maris isn’t my mate. It’s her blood, the Siren’s Call that calls me to her. Everyone knows the legend of the Sirens, the mythical and murderous women of the sea that lured sailors to their death with their beauty. With their voices.
Maris is the perfect embodiment of the mythological siren. In all my time I’ve never met a siren. Sirens were only figures in stories. An old wives’ tale, but here she stands. I know what Rosanna says is the truth. I felt her power when she made me let her go.
I didn’t understand Maris for what she was because I didn’t believe she existed.
She swallows hard and holds out a shaking hand to me. “Julian. Please.” All it takes is the break in her voice and the shaking of her hand for me to understand she didn’t know. Maris never knew what she was. Her parents are dead. She’s the only one here. Who would have told her?
No one.
I step forward and take her hand. I pull her to me. Maris melts into my arms and buries her face in my chest. I can feel her hands twisting in the material of my shirt as she pulls me tight. She can’t stop shaking.
Maris lifts her head to look up at me and there’s tears in her eyes. “What’s happening?”
“She’s not your fucking mate, Julian! NOT. YOUR. MATE,” Rosanna screams from the window. Maris starts to look Rosanna’s way but I stop her.
I catch her face and make sure she keeps her eyes on me. “Don’t listen to her.”
“But she-”
I shake my head. “She’s bitter. She’s only here to cause chaos,” I look at Rosanna and see my maker baring her fangs at me, “the only thing Rosanna is good for is chaotic bullshit. She’s lying to you.”
“The only one lying is you. Are you really that desperate for a replacement wife? I thought I taught you what happens when you love a human, Julian. I killed her last time, remember? Ripped her head right off in front of you.”
She’s right. She did kill her. Louise had been the woman I’d been obsessed with in Paris. The attraction hadn’t been love but it had been as close as I had managed to come after Claire.
Until Maris.
“Come with me,” I nudge Maris away from the window and towards the stairs that lead upstairs. “She can’t come in unless she’s invited. As long as you’re in the house, you’re safe.” Maris looks doubtful, even more so when Rosanna rips off part of the window and chucks it inside at us. I bat it aside and move in front of her and shield her from Rosanna. “Ignore her. I do.”
Maris goes with me, but we only make it a step when Rosanna says something that stops me in my tracks.
“I killed them all,” she croons. “Because you are mine. You’ve always been mine, Julian. As much as you try, that halfbreed siren isn’t going to give you what you need. Only I can.”
“What did you say?” I look at her over my shoulder.
Rosanna giggles. She slams a hand against the house, no doubt digging her fingers into the siding. She leans back and tips her head up so the rain hits her face and laughs.
“Rosanna!” I take a step towards her. “What do you meanall?”
“Julian. No,” Maris grabs my arm and pulls me to a stop. For a second, I don’t know if it’s me or her that’s controlling me but I stop all the same.
“Answer me, Rosanna.”
