“Why didn’t she kill us? If she hates us enough to kill our mate and set our world on fire, why didn’t she kill us when she had all those chances?”
It’s a question that doesn’t seem to have an answer, and I don’t really expect it to. The sea air is comforting, and the monster in my arms is soft.
She is mine,I think absently.My monster. Diablos can’t have her.
Where are these thoughts coming from? Why am I feeling so possessive?
I remember the way she looking the last time I saw her, so small in the dark, fighting to swim and evade the creatures of the deep.
“Lirin,” Reed snaps. “Put her down and take a walk.”
I stop the low growling and then hesitantly set her down on the couch where she curls up into a tight ball, and I walk out to the ocean. I wade in and then dive, disappearing under the waves. The cold feels so good compared to the harsh, dry heat of the world. I open my mouth and sing, hearing whales and dolphins echo back.
I look down at my body, at my tail. It’s long, muscular, and powerful but covered in hard, iridescent scales that shimmer blue-green. My fingers are webbed with deadly claws instead of fingernails. I’ve got gills, and my teeth are sharp.
I hate this body. I have spent so many years wishing I could do anything to get rid of it. We have this one chance. We can do it. Except…Mei.
Twelve months with human legs, and if we fail, we return to the Black Death Oceans as Sirens forever. That was the deal we made. To find the Fae who did this to us, who made us into these creatures. A deal with a stranger, someone whose face we never saw.
We have less than two months left.
That desperate deal with Diablos should never have been made.
I scream under the water, letting out all my frustration. I race for the surface and send myself flying through the air before crashing back down again. Her face as she glared at the monsters. The exhaustion and determination before shecollapsed in Nightmare keep flashing up every time I close my eyes.
“Lirin,” Brio says sharply.
I still, the waves bring us closer together, and I press my forehead to his.
“What’s going on in your head?” he asks.
“So many, many things,” I murmur with a broken chuckle.
He’s silent for a long moment and then lifts his arm and presses his palm to my cheek. “You got really upset over her.”
“She keeps saving me, Brio, and I don’t understand why.”
Brio surprises me by laughing. “Do you not?”
“No, it makes no sense.”
“You’re thinking about it way too hard,” he says dismissively.
“We fucked up, Brio. Like really badly. Any one of us could have died, but she got all of us out. She was smart and capable and not violent or an animal like we’d presumed. She’s capable of courage, strength, wisdom, empathy, and heart. Tonight, we all could have died, and she might have died trying to save us. This place, this world…it’s more dangerous than we give it credit for. And yet, there she was.”
Brio waits for me to finish talking.
“What if she is our mate?” I whisper. I surge towards him. “What if we were wrong? What if it was always Mei?”
He rears back. “We talked about this. You can’t say anything to the others. We don’t know for certain, but what we do know is that she killed our mate or who we thought was our mate and set the sky on fire. That’s enough reason to hate her.”
“But is it?” I stress. “Is defending herself really a reason to hate her?”
“We go back, Lirin!” Brio says sharply. “In two months or less, we will be forced to go back to the Black Death Oceans, and we will never be able to walk again. Fins and tails forever. Thosebodies forever. Never leaving that space between worlds. Slaves to the whim of others. Do not forget yourself.”
I shudder.
“Alone, with no one to speak to, doing the forgotten bidding of the Fae lords and ladies who punished us or our new master. What was it you were there for? Oh, that’s right, you dared to say no to a lady,” he sneers the word, “who commanded you to her bed. Your father fought for you and died. We have a chance to escape.”
