I released the breath I had been holding as soon as his voice echoed in my mind.
Liam grumbled but relaxed with the siren prince’s absence, turning toward Audrey and me, “I’m sorry that he?—”
“He spoke in my mind,” I muttered. All three of them froze, and it was the first time I had seen Fergus look genuinely concerned about anything all night.
“What?” Audrey asked, resting her hand on my shoulder.
“Drustan, he—” I shook my head, barely comprehending my own words. “He spoke in my mind. He talked to me.”
Liam’s nostrils flared, Fergus’s eyes widened, and Audrey stood stock still.
A beat of silence filled the hallway before Liam finally grunted out, “How is that fucker stillalive?”
Chapter 10
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Audrey muttered the next morning after Fergus’s birthday. She had bags under her eyes, and her hair was a mess, similar to mine. We stayed out late, taking the train back to Sammara and sailing myKnotty Boythrough the gates again. As soon as I got home, I popped two gummies and knocked myself out. I had a nice little, slightly groggy, afterglow from the marijuana.
“It doesn’t, and yet Drustan is—hold on,” Liam stepped up behind Audrey when she reached for a new bag of coffee. He rested his hand on the small of her back and only released it when he handed it to her. “And yet, Drustan is not only gifted with whismerra, but he’s also not afraid to use it.”
When he stepped away, he glanced down to stare at her exposed ass cheeks, because her tiny sleep shorts rode up with her stretch. I cleared my throat, and his gaze snapped up to mine. An embarrassed blush coated his cheeks as he sauntered back to our small folding kitchen table.
“Telepathy is a no-no?” I asked, rubbing the last sleep out of my eyes.
“Whismerric sirens haven’t existed in thousands of years,” Audrey yawned as she waited for the coffee to brew. “Long ago, itwas decided that any siren who developed whismerra at the age of maturity was to be executed immediately. The governments of Hyvenmere considered whismerric sirens to be too powerful to allow. They claimed that they disrupted the balance of nature and needed to be eliminated. They created a narrative that painted whismerric sirens as threats to the peace of Hyvenmere. So, after the fae, nereid, and siren governments agreed on this barbaric and, what I consider to be purely evil law, the gene ended up completely wiped from the pool.”
“What’s the age of maturity?” I asked with an uneasy churn of my stomach.
“Twenty-six,” Liam replied to Audrey’s ass. I propped my chin on my fist, staring at him, waiting until he felt my attention. I sat on our couch, facing the tiny kitchen in our condo. Eventually, Liam glanced at me again and looked down at the table, sufficiently caught.
“So, sirens didn’t develop this gift until they were fully grown adults?” I asked. They both confirmed my statement with nods.
“If Drustan has this whismerra thing, and he felt comfy-cozy talking to me with it, does that mean that the law is no longer in effect?” I asked. Audrey walked over to me to give me a cup of coffee first, and when she turned around to give Liam his, I made sure to stick my tongue out at him.
He stuck his tongue out at me as soon as she looked away to take a seat next to him at the tiny folding table.
“I doubt Ilia is eager to execute his only heir,” Audrey hypothesized. “But he’s also historically traditional about things. A hundred years ago, Ilia tried to push males and females to take on specific roles and identities in a typical lifestyle that ancient Hyvenmerian society used to have, but it did not go well for him.” Thank god. I privately wished that my realm would shut that shit down immediately, too.
Then I widened my eyes when I realized what Audrey said. “I’m sorry,howold is the Siren King?”
Liam smirked. “Oh, that’s right, I forgot human lifespans aren’t as long as ours.” He chuckled to himself and then answered, “He’s two hundred and fifty-one years old.” I released a low whistle becausedamn.
“How old are you?” I asked Liam.
“Thirty-five,” he replied. I sighed with relief, because thankfuckAudrey wasn’t crushing on a man old enough to be her great-great-great-great-grandparent.
“I think we should assume Ilia knows about Drustan’s whismerra.” Audrey scrubbed her cheek with her hand as she sipped her coffee, both elbows on the table. “Because Drustan wouldn’t keep something like that from his own father, then share it with Van the second they met. This also means we need to assume Drustan knowsexactlywhat we discussed with Fergus, and that Ilia now knows that I’m officially a threat to his role as the prophesied one, too.”
“We should also assume that Drustan has, again, confirmed to his father that Vanessa is a weakness of yours,” Liam added with annoyance laced in his voice. “Which would have already been confirmed the night Ilia sent Sergei and Leon to take her. Unfortunately, Drustan now knows how easy it is to manipulate Vanessa.” I frowned at my coffee mug. I already put that together myself, but the fact that Liam and Audrey seemed to understand just how out of control I was during those heated moments with Drustan in the hallway made me feel embarrassed. I didn’t want to be a liability to them, but rather someone helpful. I immediately panicked, worrying that Audrey wouldn’t want me to go with her to Hyvenmere anymore or would start keeping secrets from me again to protect me.
We hadn’t had the formal conversation yet, because Audrey didn’t want to overwhelm me with everything all at once. Butbased on everything everyone had told me about Hyvenmerian politics and Audrey’s specific role, I started to put together a narrative on my own. If Ilia didn’t want Audrey around and wanted to close the gates between realms for good, it would make sense for him to send his men after me. Holding me hostage and forcing Audrey’s hand was something that human dictators did all the time. This was also me hoping that Ilia didn’t have any desire to kill me once he got a hold of me. But Liam had a point. Ilia now had irrefutable evidence that I was important to Audrey. A powerless human. A pawn to weaponize to get his way. The concept made my nerves flip in my stomach, and a bit of anger simmered in my chest at the situation.
Then I had an idea.
Liam grumbled as he sipped his coffee, before nudging Audrey’s leg with his under the table in solidarity. After letting everyone enjoy their morning brew for a few moments, I raised my hand. The two of them turned to me, Audrey with a slightly more amused expression as she asked me, “Yes, Van?”
“Can I make a request, as the powerless human who wants to be more help than hindrance?”
I told Audrey that I wanted to train with her and Liam. Liam had mentioned that he trained Audrey the day the solvyrn attacked our boat and, based on how skilled Audrey was when confronting the beast, I figured I should familiarize myself with her skillset.
