“And get rid of it.”
Torin didn’t hesitate.
He turned immediately, already issuing orders to those nearest him, his voice cutting through the space with sharp precision as he began directing them to sweep the floor.
“Clear it of the carnage left, but more than anything, check the barrels for any trace of the poison.”
He turned back to me and asked,
“Why does it look like you have a bad feeling about this?” I frowned at the question, as the gnawing feeling wouldn’t leave me. It was the timing. The fact that it had been just disruptive enough to demand my attention, but not enough to truly threaten anything. But more than anything else, it felt like…
A diversion.
“I do,” I said at last, my voice even, though something colder had already begun to settle beneath it. Torin’s gaze sharpened at that.
“I just hope I’m not right.”
That was all I gave him. All I needed to. Because the moment the thought had fully formed, it was already too late to ignore it. I turned without another word, already moving, the shift in me immediate as everything else fell away. My focus narrowed to a single point with a precision that left no room for distraction.
“You’ve warded the room,” Torin said quickly as he fell into step beside me, his tone tighter now, edged with something that told me he was starting to see it too.
“Nothing gets in or out without your knowing.”
“I know.”
The words came easily, automatic even, but they did nothing to quiet the instinct that had already taken hold, something deeper than logic. Something that didn’t rely on wards or protections.
Because wards could be bypassed. Rules could be bent. And whatever this was…It felt like it had been planned.
“What are you thinking, Wye?” he asked, quieter this time.
“That I don’t like the timing,” I replied, my voice controlled, though there was nothing calm about the way my thoughts were aligning now.
“Iridessa disappears, my territory is compromised from within, and it all happens just after I claimed my Siren.”
Torin exhaled sharply.
“So, you think they’re connected.” It wasn’t a question.
“I think nothing happens in my domain without reason,” I said evenly, my gaze fixed ahead as the conclusion settled into place with cold certainty.
“And I don’t like not knowing what that reason is,” I added, before breaking out into a run, now that the feeling of dread had gripped me more firmly in its grasp. Which put us outside my bedchamber minutes later, praying to the Gods of all realms that when I opened my door, I would find my girl safely inside.
However, as soon as I stepped inside, calling her name as I did, the shift was immediate. Not obvious, but wrong in a way that settled deep within me. I scanned the room, gritting my teeth in anger when I didn’t find her there.
“Eliza.” Her name carried easily through the space, but the only answer I received was a faint sound coming from the bathroom. I released a premature sigh of relief as I walked to the door, fully expecting to find her showering behind it, as I could hear the water running.
I gripped the handle so hard that it snapped in my hand as I wrenched the door open. My mind was trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
The sight of my Siren, the girl I had fallen in love with, was on the cusp of leaving me. For there she was, just the edge of her form as she stepped through a portal, no doubt of her own making.
“Eliza, don’t!” I said, trying to reason with her despite the fact that her body was already half swallowed by the tear in the air. Her movements were trembling with urgency, as though she knew exactly what she was doing, as if she had chosen it. Yet stranger still, she apologized for it, the last words from her lips,
“I’m sorry.”
Our eyes met for the briefest fraction of a second, and yet it was long enough. Long enough for understanding to strike and long enough for something far more dangerous to follow before the portal snapped shut and…
She was gone.
