about Persia, does she know yet?”
“Marlena said they have her, too.”
“What?” I shoot backward. “Why? What do they want?”
“To be freed from the waters.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There’s a spell, one which unbinds their kind from the water. They can come and go as they please, no limitations.”
“So they want Persia to do it?”
“Persia’s help would be beneficial, but no, they want the girl to do it.”
I don’t like how that sounds, not one bit. Persia is powerful—very powerful. Yes, Izzy will supersede her one day, but I doubt her magic can rival that of her mother’s right now. So why her? “Can Izzy even do that?”
“According to Marlena? Yes. I believe her, too. That little girl is...well, gifted doesn’t quite cover it. I mean, you know. You know her better than I do.”
I do, and Persia’s told me of all the trouble she likes to get into, but to cast a spell on her own? That’s news to me.
“What happens if she casts it?” I hope he’s not about to say—
“She can die. It’s a powerful spell.”
No. No, no, no.
“How has Persia not slaughtered them yet?”
“They’re both in a slumber. Won’t last much longer from what Marlena explained before I kicked her out.”
Her name is really starting to irk me. I know sirens can be vile, but I never had an issue with them. Not until right now anyway.
“Did she want your help?” I blurt sourly, welcoming the heat that begins building in my veins once more.
Better I be angry than a blubbering mess.
“She did, and I declined.” He seems quite proud of that tidbit, flashing a quick smirk. “She’s betrayed us, Tinksley. I don’t give a damn that she wants to be free. She could have gone about this in a different manner. Instead, she chose trickery and deceit, covertly so as you can see. I rarely give people chances and I’m not about to start with her. Betrayal isn’t something to be taken lightly.”
He’s right, it’s not. After all of this, there’s no way I’ll ever forgive Peter. What love I have for him can’t eclipse such an offense. “What’s going to happen to them? Izzy and Persia I mean?”
“I’m working on it. I may not be able to bring back Aester, but I’ll get them out of there, you have my word,” he vows, cupping my face, his thumbs wiping away what remains of the wetness clinging to my skin.
I can’t quite define what it is that passes between us as we sit there, me in his lap, his grip warm and secure, in this room within his home that I’m meant to call my own through these final days, but my heart warms—or the pieces of it, I should say. He must feel it, too, at least something similar because I note the intent in those icy blues before he so much as inches forward.
“Hook, don’t,” I whisper, sucking in a heap of air.
“Why not? I’ve been fiending for another taste since I left you in the garden last night.”
“I know but—”
“But what?” He’s reeling me in closer, gently, ever so slowly.
“But we can’t. It’s not fair.”
“Not fair to who?”
“To both of us,” I admit, lips tingling in anticipation. “I have days left with—”
“Don’t remind me, please. I can’t bear thinking about it,” he rasps.
My eyes snap back open at the ache of his tone, heart imploding anew at the imagery before me. “Which is exactly why we can’t have a repeat.”
It’s better off this way.
Peter
“Did you think about me while they had you?” my little dove asks me as we lay in her bed, naked, post-coitial glow wrapped around us.
She’s not so little anymore.
The woman Wendy turned into… Jesus. She’s perfection.
Chocolate brown waves that hang to her waist. Sky blue eyes. A dimpled smile that could kill the most restrained bastard.
Don’t get me started on her body.
“Every day,” I reply, hating that I have to lie to her.
But what am I supposed to say? After I killed my mother, I got dragged to an alternate realm filled with supernatural beings and was cursed, so now I don’t age.
Yeah, unlikely.
I told her the truth about my mother, that she’d been murdered. My version ends with her assailants taking me with them after the deed was done.
Locked me away so I’d never utter a word.
“I thought about you, too, a lot. Since the case was never solved, I always wondered if you were alive out there somewhere.”
Definitely out there alright.
Tilting her chin toward me, I peck a kiss