“She was hurt. I was only trying to help her.”
Ranger X lifted a hand to pause our back and forth. “You’re telling me that you tried to perform surgery on a siren and lived to tell about it?”
“I didn’t justtry,” I said, a little defensively. “I completed it. Pretty good job too, if I say so myself. She would’ve died if I hadn’t stitched her up and saved her from the curse.”
“You saved her from the curse?” Ranger X asked. “You banished the curse from a siren’s body?”
“It’s true,” Silas said. “She should’ve let that siren die, but she didn’t. Her selflessness almost got both of us killed.”
“But if you knew she was a siren, that means she bared her teeth...” Ranger X studied me with newfound admiration. “Sirens only bare their teeth when they’re going in for the kill. Nobody survives a siren bite.”
“She didn’t bite me,” I said.
“Whyever not?” Ranger X asked, good-natured but mystified, like he was talking to a toddler who was telling him a tall, tall, tall tale.
“The siren apologized,” Silas said dryly. “Then left her alone.”
“A siren apologized,” Ranger X parroted in flat-out disbelief. “A siren apologized to you?”
I bit my lip, looked between the two men. “Yes. I saved her life from a terrible curse. Maybe she was grateful. Is it so hard to believe she wouldn’t kill me?”
“Yes,” said Silas and Ranger X at once.
“Not only difficult, but impossible,” Ranger X said. “If she bared her teeth to you, you shouldn’t be alive. End of story.”
“Not this story,” I said.
“How did you save her from the curse?” Ranger X asked.
“Lily gave me some more of the potion,” I said. “A vial for me, and a vial for Silas. I used mine on her, just like how I did for Irina.”
Ranger X closed his eyes, pinched his forehead. “You used your only vial of protection on asiren?”
“Thank you,” Silas muttered, but one glance from me, and he averted his eyes.
“Look, it’s over and done with,” I said. “I saved the siren from the curse. Turns out, I can cure people using Lily’s potion. Can we move on and please discuss the wards now?”
Ranger X just cleared his throat.
If I wasn’t mistaken, Silas gave a soft laugh.
My point was made, and the three of us moved to the shimmering edge of the wards. Ranger X stayed a fewpaces behind, like he wasn’t quite sure where the curse stopped—like he couldn’t sense it like me and Silas.
I wondered if Silas and I shared some sort of magic, maybe on a hereditary level. Was it possible that I was part Hunter?
“Are all Hunters men?” I blurted.
“Historically, yes,” Silas said.
“Why does she ask?” Ranger X asked. “Hunters are not welcome on our island.”
“I was telling her the legend of the Fae Queens,” Silas said easily. “How the Hunters slaughtered them all. Now, we really must get started patching up the wards. X, this is where we part ways.”
Ranger X extended a hand, shook Silas’s hand firmly. “I’ll let you know when Lily has managed to brew more of her Fortifier.”
Then Ranger X turned to me, and again bowed his head. He turned away, walking through the woods.
“Why do you do that?” I called after the powerful Ranger. “Why do you people bow at me?”
