chews his food before drinking the blood (that I’m mentally pretending is wine) and folding his hands. “Yes, two more have arrived this month. My brother has found another as well. Same condition.”
“Are they still alive?” Natalia asks. “Perhaps I can take one and run tests.”
“I have one, and we have found nothing. The magic, if it is that, is unlike anything we have seen,” Vero cuts in. “But if you think sirens can find something witches cannot, please take ours. It is a bother to contain.”
“I do not want the—” Maddox looks at me and pauses. “It must not be killed, any of them, or you will face my wrath.”
“You do have a heart after all,” Vero jokily chuckles in a teasing manner, and Maddox simply says nothing, his eyes on me.
“Do you have a hobby, little human who does not speak?” Natalia asks me after a brief moment of silence. Business talk over then.
“I like to paint and play the violin,” I answer. I can’t see any point of saying nothing, not when it’s clear my silence isn’t making them trust speaking around me. “I hate dancing, love white wine and calling my mum for long chats. I hate cooking but love baking cakes. My ideal day out is sitting at a beach, feeling the waves brush against my toes while I read a book. What else do you want to know?”
“Oh, I do love music and the sea of course. It’s a siren thing,” Natalia explains with a big smile. Any other circumstance, I think we might get along. “I will bring instruments for us to play together when I am next here, and maybe Maddox could show you the sea. The magic in the waters around the island is enchanting.”
She seems so lost in her own mind with every word that I almost feel myself wanting to smile at her.
I turn to Maddox. “What does the prince of all evil like to do?”
He smirks. “Fuck women, paint women and in general murder pretty things. Anything else you want to know?”
Nope.
“Have you shown her your paintings, Maddox?” Vero asks, cutting into my staring match with my plate as I feel all their eyes on me.
I raise my eyebrows as I look at Maddox. “Can you actually paint anything other than naked women?”
“Yes. Painting is not a talent simply for humans,” Maddox counters with a cruel smile. “And after this, I will show you my work.”
I really, really don’t want to be alone with him. And he damn well knows it. I’ve just managed to dig myself into a corner.
“Do you have family, Riona?” Natalia asks me as she drinks some water.
“Do you?” I reply, crossing my arms and leaving my food as I’m not eating it. The people continue to dance around us to no music, but by this point the floor is covered in blood, the metal smell of it filling my nose, making me want to be sick.
“I have no family, it is the way of the sirens,” she almost softly explains. “When we are young, our parents give us to another clan, and they give a child up of their own in return. Therefore all clans are at peace. It is our way. No one family, everyone is family instead.”
I frown at her, feeling sorry for her a little bit.
I’m sure sirens aren’t all nice, and they must do terrible things, but that is a cruel thing to do with their children.
“At least they don’t carve your face like they do our females,” Vero chuckles. Sabina lifts her hand, and it glows red for a second, and then a burst of hot air hits me, Vero and his brother. Screaming, I fly across the room and slam into something hard and warm, taking my breath away and hurting my back a little. Blinking a few times, I feel his hands around me, holding me close to his chest even as I realise it’s him. Maddox.
He caught me.
Maddox lifts his eyes above my head. “Careful…friend. Riona is mine.”
“Ouch,” Vero grumbles nearby. I look over to see him and his brother standing still, like nothing happened.
I turn my head back to see Sabina stand up off the chair and hiss, like a frigging cat, but it’s downright scary. “I was proving a point to Riona. We women witches may not be beautiful on our outside, but we are far superior to our male counterparts. I must be leaving.”
“Leave and take with you my warning. Anyone touches