she claims the girl is fine, I can’t ignore the sick feeling now lurching in my gut. “What are you saying?”
Setting her glass onto the rounded table between the two armchairs, Marlena rises to her feet, throat bobbing through a swallow. “Tinksley, apparently, made a deal with Persia to care for N’Isabelle through her voyage. The girl was to be left in Aester’s care until Tinksley could come pick her up.”
“Talk. Faster,” I grit, hyperfocusing on every move she makes now that she’s uttered my girl’s name.
“I told Pan. Pan agreed. He laid low in the cove until the day came around. Once Persia had made it on the ship and was out at sea, he did exactly what we told him to do; kill Aester as his sacrifice, and give us the little witch.”
Takes every godforsaken molecule of self-control I possess not to rush her and rip her throat out. All I see is red. “Do you understand the words that just came out of your mouth? Do you realize who you’re talking to?” I snarl, downright fucking scandalized she’s just admitted this to me so brazenly, so nonchalantly.
Is she stupid, or does she want to die?
“I need to be free! I’m dying out there, Captain. We all are!” she stresses, holding her ground. “Finding sustenance is becoming harder and harder. Not a soul dares to sail our expanse of the ocean and—”
I'm on her before she can so much as blink, shoving her back into the door, my hand all but strangling her throat with such force her eyes bulge. “You want to be free? YOU WANT TO BE FREE!” I roar, boring every ounce of my rage into her. “I should kill you—then you’ll really be free.”
Sputtering.
Pale, flawless skin slowly turning blue.
She can’t breathe. Can’t do a thing about it, either, other than paw at my hand.
That’s the only good thing about sirens on land: their magic is useless. Well, no, it’s not their magic actually, it’s them. Sirens exert a great deal of energy when they’re free of the water. Their time is limited and they have to be fully sustained to even make the transformation. If they were to use their magic, their time would be cut short...by a lot.
That’s why she’s just standing here, taking it.
Because she can’t exhaust me.
Please, those blue eyes plead. Please, don’t.
I won’t. I should and I very well can, but I don’t. I wait just a smidge longer and, right as fear peaks, I loosen my grip and set her down on her feet. I want to know the rest of this story.
Gasping, Marlena grabs her throat, chest heaving through ragged breaths as she glares at me in disbelief.
In betrayal.
I lift my chin.
Don’t give a fuck if she feels betrayed. She’s gone and betrayed me—all of us; let her feel it. Might be good for her anyway. There’s still lingering feelings on her part, and I don’t have the time for that.
Tinksley is my time.
And time is precious.
“You have less than five minutes to wrap this up,” I growl. “Make it quick, Marlena, before I decide to drag you to the dungeon and let the brood show you how unfair I can really be.”
“Fuck you,” she spits, inhaling breath after breath in an attempt to calm her nerves.
“You did and you weren’t the best,” I toss back. “Now get on with it. Tick, tock.”
Oh the power my words have. They clearly sting given how she flinches, how she shakes her head. If I’m not mistaken, I note her eyes well with emotion, but she quaffs them down, pulling in another fortifying breath.
“He killed the witch and gave us the girl. We cloaked her to nullify any locator spells and put her in a slumber. She’s in the caverns, perfectly safe.”
“And her mother?”
“Same. But the spell won’t hold them both that long. I need you to be at Persia’s side when she wakes and convince her to—”
“Ehhh!” I lift an outraged hand. I’ve heard enough. “Time’s up. You can go ahead and show yourself out now because I’m not doing shit. If she slaughters the lot of you when they awake, then so be it. Otherwise, I better not see your face around here until the next meeting. Your last meeting, I should add. You thought you could betray my trust because you’ve had my cock inside you? Wrong, very wrong, my dear.”
Her tears fall freely now as she storms up to me, beckoning me to see reason. “You’re really