Siren - Hazel Grace Page 0,25

up like a prisoner. My people, we don’t let intruders walk or swim freely, you’re tortured until you speak. You starve unless you open your mouth. You become pieces of the sea afterward.

Maybe he’ll see that we’ve evolved over the centuries to be less murderous and more peaceful. I can’t say that we don’t still sing men off boats to their deaths and drown them in the ocean because Sirens still do that. We need to keep fear instilled in humans because they are getting too courageous in their ways.

Hence the man standing in front of me.

“Blood,” he mutters. “The moment this last chain falls, I’m running out of here.”

I continue at the lock.

“You heard what I said, right?”

I look up at him from under my lashes to confirm I have and back down to the clamp around his wrist.

“You’re a stubborn thing,” he comments. “Something we have in common, I guess.”

We have nothing in common.

He’s a brute, I’m a killer when need be.

He’s a human, I’m a creature of the sea.

He’s cocky, I like to think I’m logical—most of the time. This one doesn’t seem like it could fully work out in my favor.

I hear the lock click, the steel opening and dropping to the ground. I expect him to do what he said he’s going to do—run.

But like a stone wall, he stands there.

We both know how this is going to work, he’s going to try and escape, swim off the island, possibly get himself killed, but it won’t answer the questions I have floating in my head.

He might come back with more men next time if he makes it to his ship. It’s possible they can get past the veil just like he did, which is another inquiry. That might be the most important question of all. Getting through our defenses and arriving here.

The choice is his if he wants to live or die.

I glance up at him, his rugged face studying me. Probably wondering why, after everything he did to me, would I let him go.

Again, he doesn’t know me. It’s how I keep humans and creatures on their toes.

Turning on my heels, I let him decide his fate and the path he wants to choose. My sisters and I will find out how he arrived here.

Even if I have to go back to our old ways.

She’s delusional. Utterly and crazily insane. The little vixen just unchained me and, pretty much through facial expressions, said she didn’t care.

I don’t know how long I’ve been here, I’ve lost count of how many moons and suns have cast and fallen altogether, but I do know it’s been over a few of them. The little hellcat must not understand that, to get information, you need to make your prisoner weak—mentally and physically.

I wasn’t quite there yet.

Achy, yes, but about to have a mental breakdown—not even close.

She glides out of the room, and I cautiously follow, waiting for one of her brutes to attack me the moment I leave.

Instead, they’re standing outside the door, looking straight ahead as though this didn’t just happen.

The teal mesh of fabric that she’s wearing sweeps over the continuing white tiled floors as it opens up into a large foyer with a large double-wide staircase of gold and the recurring white. The ceiling is all glass in here too, letting the sun beam down and light the room in all its cleanliness.

I’ve never seen a place so pristine. So majestic and beautifully built. Double doors appear to my left, alluding to the outside, where it continues to be bright.

“Blood,” I call, regretting the neediness in my voice. We both know I’m not getting out of here alive or at all.

I can’t swim back home. There are sharks in these waters, and I’m going to guess there isn’t going to be a boat ready for me to leave. So that still leaves me at a standstill.

Davina turns around, the sunlight protruding off her angelic face and high cheekbones, green eyes locking onto me.

“What do you expect me to do?” I ask.

She shrugs.

Shrugs.

And turns on her heels to continue out of the room. I march in her direction, grasping her arm and spinning her around. Immediately, I’m sliding across the floor on my ass because the little hellraiser is strong as fuck and apparently doesn’t like to be touched.

“Do you have a boat ready for me?” The two men outside my previous room stand on either side of me, but I keep my attention on her.

She shakes