“Hmm,” he chuckled knowingly. “First Damien, now you?” I hated how much he enjoyed being the center of attention. It was natural for sirens to yearn for attention and admiration.
The fact that Sparrow’s gills and siren-ears were starting to show, was proof enough that he had been using his powers in the last few hours.
Did my brother really shift into his fish-tail here?
“What happened, Sparrow?” I didn’t let my brother respondbefore I strolled in his room, just to see a naked blonde man lying in his bed.
Nathaniel.
“Can’t I enjoy my sweet boy in my siren-shell? Or are you just jealous, big brother? Don’t pretend you’d never wondered how it is to take Gwendolyn in your pure, animalistic vampire form.”
I grabbed Sparrow by the throat and pushed him up the wall. He just smiled, completely unbothered by me.
“It’s urgent, Sparrow. I can’t deal with your attitude right now.”
His expression grew serious as he sensed how important this all was.
“Okay, how can I help you?”
“Gwendolyn and Damien.”
“What about them?”
“They both… disappeared,” I stuttered, almost on the verge of screaming. Because as soon as I spoke it out loud, the realization of my love being gone hit me all over again.
“What do you mean they disappeared? Carnivalland is hidden behind a Veil.”
“Gwendolyn followed him to the Ancient Springs, where he was in his dragon form. She was curious and I let her go. But now both of them are gone.”
“Damien wouldneverjust vanish with her,” Sparrow declared, and I knew he was speaking the truth. But at the same time, I was aware of how much Damien wanted to find his brother, and how much his powers have changed since Gwendolyn came here. Even though he would not want anything to happen to her, he was also not completely in control over his inner dragon. No one knew to what extent his abilities could develop after he had bonded to her, not even him.
“So, you want me to use my siren powers in the springs?” he asked as he brushed a strand of Nathaniel’s hair aside. It shocked me to the core how vulnerable my little brother waswith him near, like he was taking care of him in ways he never even took care of himself.
“Yes… it is the only way to make out if there are traces of any kind ofdark magic.”
The weight of that word seemed to draw the air from the room.
Dark magic wasn’t supposed to be used in the sacred water, but there are always ways.
“It is like they vanished in the wind, Sparrow.”
Nathaniel sat up slowly in the bed, as Sparrow kept stroking over his wrists. He didn’t say it out loud, but he was just as restless as I was, fearing it might have been someone from Aetrum, someone that wanted to destroy not just my bond with Gwendolyn, but also theirs.
“Damien’s magic is evolving… if their bond is intensifying right now, it could awaken powers, new powers no one of us knew about,” Nathaniel said, and he could be right.
“Which already happened…” I confessed. “Damien isn’t fully in control right now. One of the reasons he’s spent most of his time in his dragon form.”
“Then it’s possible,” Sparrow murmured, standing up to gaze out the window, “that he didn’t vanish with her. But something happened, and he took her somewhere only a dragon could reach.”
Nathaniel and I were both narrowing our eyes at him.
“You’re speaking as if you know exactly where they are, Sparrow,” Nathaniel said.
He gazed back at him with a slight grin and nodded slowly.
“I talked with Seth right after Damien knocked on my door asking for help. He wanted to search for his brother. And Seth mentioned a place beneath the cliffs of Aetrum… it is ancient and tied to old dragon bloodlines. It is not even marked on a map. But it is connected to all sorts of sacred waters, including…”
“The Ancient Springs…” I finished his sentence.
