Page 47

My mind spun, chest tightening with every cycled memory of that night at The Undertow: Jake's body in one hand and his beating heart in the other. His body sinking into the water, along with my chances of finding Preston.

Until now.

What were the chances of Ethan, this impossible boy with no darkness, also working where Jake had? It was insane to imagine. Jake and Preston—rotten to the core and radiating with entitled darkness—working alongside Ethan, pure and impossibly clean.

This cannot possibly be a coincidence, I thought, staring blankly back at Ethan's nervous face.

He'd been honest with me. About everything, even under my compulsion. Maybe he could give me exactly what Jake couldn't? I had to keep him around.

“I–uh, sorry…that probably ruined the mood,” Ethan apologized. His face looked more pained and uncomfortable than mine did, which I was relieved about.

Before I could reply, pain tore through me, and the tug in my chest pulsed, pulling me towards the exit, and I knew I had to go. I stood up abruptly, eyes wide and thoughts unsettled. “I—I just remembered.” I winced as the ache stabbed at me again. “I have to go somewhere. I’m meeting someone…for a thing.”

Shit, not again, I thought.

Ethan’s face twisted into hurt and embarrassment as he stood up to meet my gaze. “Did I say something wrong? I’m really sorry if I did,” he apologized sincerely.

I shook my head, stumbling over my feet towards the exit, the tug of darkness strong in my chest. “No, no, you didn’t—I just–” Twisting pain. I needed to go right now. “Sorry, I really have to go.” But I couldn't just leave and never see him again, not after learning about his connection to Preston. He was my only chance at getting what I needed.

Ethan fumbled his way through the crowd, following close behind me, weaving through the strangers who looked on. “Wait! Can I see you again? Or, can I give you my number?” he called out, straining his voice against the roar of the crowd.

My mind raced. Phones were things for people with normal lives, and mine had drowned long ago. I stopped abruptly, turning to face him as I reached for the door. Ethan, a second behind, collided with me, our bodies pressing against each other for only a second before righting ourselves. “I don’t actually…have one,” I said quickly, “Off the grid kind of girl.”

Ethan blinked. “Oh. Okay…”

The hunger was clawing at my insides now, but I forced myself to focus. At that moment, I said the first thing that came to my mind. “Pike Place,” I said quickly. “Monday night. 7 o’clock.” It was one of my favorite places to go with Dad. I wasn't sure why I said it, but there was no time to think about or change it now.

Ethan's face lit up. “Wait, really?” He shook his head. “Ok, yeah, I’ll be there!”

“Don’t be late,” I said, throwing open the door, the tug of darkness practically yanking me through the threshold, and out into the rain-soaked streets of downtown.

The man’s body went slack in my hands, slowly sinking beneath the black waters of the Bay. A replenishing rush of power flooded through me as soon as his heart’s depravity siphoned itself into me.

An investment Banker in his mid-forties. He’d trailed me shortly after leaving The Gray Gull. His darkness was thick with perversion—entitlement wrapped in charm, rotting beneath the surface. It hadn't taken much for him to come to me in the alleyway, slipping his wedding ring into his pocket as he approached. I didn't even have to use my magic.

As his body fully disappeared, so did the ache of hunger, only the hollow emptiness remained. But, despite the momentary reprieve it gave me, it did nothing to silence my racing thoughts from tonight.

Ethan Ward. Pike Place. A path to Preston.

I hadn't made plans with someone in a long time. Even before I died, socializing just wasn’t something I prioritized. Between taking care of the shop and my father, it always fell low on the list of basic human needs. But after weeks of dead ends, I’d finally found what I’d been searching for since the night I killed Jake McKinney—a connection to Preston Willows.

Looking down at my arms, I watched as the glamour faded, my siren’s call to return to the holding cell of Elliott Bay. Something I could now simply call home, I guess?

I dove down into the brackish water, swimming deeper until the light of the pier faded above me. The vigorous power of my tail cut through the water as it propelled me further, sea life shifting the deeper I went. I’d slowly begun to learn the different species over time, and many of them I recognized from my time in the shop.

Dad…

The shop was not something I tried to think about, but the memories of what had been stolen from me were inescapable. The ghosts of Dad and my old life were everywhere: Laughing together out by the docks behind the shop, the same one I avoided swimming by now. I couldn't bear to see it, empty and sullen—just a husk of what it had been.

My chest tightened, and I shook the thoughts from my mind, diving deeper until the sounds of the surface began to dissipate, and the pressure of the water slowly pressed tighter around me.

That weight of the water had become a sort of comfort to me. As sad as it sounded, I couldn't remember the last time I hugged someone, and this felt like the closest thing to it.

Hours between hunts were some of my loneliest, but also when my mind was quiet enough to sort through my thoughts. Alone in the darkness, with only the distant creak of boats passing overhead and the soft rush of water flowing through my gills.

All I had was time now, and as I let myself float in the darkness, thoughts of Ethan flooded my mind.

As much as I tried to ignore them, to focus on Preston and the plan I should be forming, I couldn’t. Instead, my mind kept snagging on Ethan’s adorable nervous energy and the way he’d stumbled over an introduction like he’d never spoken to a woman in his life. My face warmed, and I chewed my cheek as the phantom warmth of his hand bloomed back to life.