I’m unsure she actually sleeps, but for our first week, she stayed the whole night. Body still, just inches from me. Then feet.
Tonight, she has left me to enter the black crevices of the ocean floor. They plunge deep, deep down, even farther than I’d have ever thought the sea could go. I’ve seen sirens going into the crevices. They come and go.
But I do not ever go there. I’ve never been invited. My curiosity is strong, but I don’t follow. And if I am going to break the rules, it’s not there I’m going to try first.
I’m alone for the first time in a long time, tonight. Bluff was right. Make her feel like she’s in control. Make her comfortable. Because that’s when I’ll get the little bits of freedom I’ve craved.
I SUCK IN A BREATH of air as soon as I hit the surface. I gasp as the view hits me. Bright lights scattered across a black and blue sky. It’s incredible.
I haven’t been outside of the water at night since... well, since I can remember.
Which isn’t very long, I realize. What did I do before that? Who was I?
I shake my head from those thoughts and push forward towards the ship now blocking out the moon beyond.
A hiss sounds from under my feet, and my heart begins to race. The silhouette of a woman rises from the water before me, and I scoot back.
“Don’t leave the water,” the woman whispers.
“What?” I ask, realizing it’s not the Siren Queen. It’s just another siren, another solider. Her hair is dark, with freckles scattered across her cheeks.
“She hasn’t noticed your absence yet. But if you leave the water, she’ll feel it. She’ll know and she’ll come.”
My eyebrows pull down. “How do you know that? Why would you tell me?” There’s something in it for everyone. What’s in it for you?
“No one wants to be a slave, Whitley.”
I blink. That name again. She knows it too. Did she know me before—
“I’ll go and get him for you.”
She dips back below the water, and moments later a shadow scurries up the side of the ship in a flash. How do I have these friends I’ve never even met? Or is she a friend of his? Another wave of jealousy rushes through me.
Why does that keep happening?
Bluff
I groan as someone shakes me from a rather wonderful dream. “What?” I grumble.
“You have a visitor,” a voice whispers.
I open my eyes to realize it’s still dark. The only light comes from the near-full moon above. Another reminder we only have a few more days before the battle.
I blink the sleep from my eyes as I register the face before me. “Azalea?”
“Yes. But I’m not the visitor.”
“You’re not?” There’s a joy in her voice, an eagerness that makes me sit up straight. “What’s going on?”
I can just make out her smile in the starlight. “She came to see you.”
“She...Whitley?” My stomach does summersaults.
“No, the Sea Witch.” She rolls her eyes. “Of course, Whitley.”
I swallow. “Where is she?” my voice is barely audible.
“In the water. I told her to stay there because your mother would feel it if she left the water. You must take great care...”
I shake my head. She’s right, but damn if I can’t think past, she came.
“It’s a risk just for her to be here at all...”
“How? How did my mother not notice her gone to start with?”
“She’s distracted. She’s in the deepest depths, planning something. She could come back nearly any time. But Whitley coming here, well, I suppose that’s probably a big deal so it... might be worth the risk.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, hoping my tentative trust comes through in the words.
She bows her head. “Even the smallest shifts in magic could alert her. Be careful. Even heightened emotions could do it...”
I swallow. “Noted,” I whisper. Then I stand, heart throbbing as I walk to the ship’s edge, pull myself over the railing, and throw my body into the black waves below.
Whitley
My lips spread into a wide grin as something crashes into the cool water. He comes up, his silver hair glistening, dripping water down his cheeks likes he’s crying.
“Whitley,” he says, his eyes intense in their connection to mine.
I just smile in response.
I swim around him, and he twists to remain facing me. “Is that siren a friend of yours?” I ask him gently.
“She used to be.”
I narrow my eyes. What does that mean? “What kind of friend? And why did it ‘used to be’?”
He stops turning with me, ending our dance prematurely. I continue until I am facing him again. His soft eyes narrow. “Why?” his voice is soft as a whisper.
I bite my lip and look away. “I’m simply curious.”
He smiles, one eyebrow flicking up. “You’re jealous?” he asks.
I dip my lips below the water, rolling my eyes at him.
He keeps smiling. “She is nothing to me. An ally, at best. But even that, I’m tentative to trust.”
My heart continues to pound. How does he have this much of an effect on me? Just a week ago he was a writhing body on a pirate ship. I didn’t even look at him except to see how he reacted to my power. Now... my body is pulled to him like the waves to the moon. We twist again, locking eyes.
“Why did you come?” he asks.
“Why did you?” I ask, tilting my head.
“One part to find out what was so important that you’d come visit me. Curiosity, I suppose.”
“The other?”
His eyes turn intense. “Because I always want to see you.”
I blink, my stomach flipping. Well then. “I came for the story,” I say, a blush crossing my cheeks.
I almost expect him to be disappointed, but instead his grin widens. He turns, looking for something. Then he swims off. Panic bubbles in my chest until he reaches a rope connecting to the ship and leans against it. I join him, staying in the water as she uses the rope for support. “Not a good swimmer?” I ask him, teasing.
“I can swim fine, but I’d like to be comfortable for this. And it also works as an anchor. If we go too far from the ship, she’ll be alerted.”
“Very well. Go on, then.”
He laughs. “Where did I leave off?”
I raise my eyebrows. “You really don’t remember?”
“More that I’m wondering if you do.”
I purse my lips. “They’d just leapt into the water, aiming for an island to escape the pirates.”
He nods. “Ahh yes. Right. It was a hard swim. And, well, sirens are always a threat.”
“Isn’t she part siren?”
“Yes. And so is he. But the leader of the sirens had plans that were not in the best interest of our heroes.”
I suppose I can understand that. “How?” I whisper.
“She would keep them apart, for one.”
My stomach sinks. “Why would someone want that?”
“Because they’re powerful together. Though, at this point, they didn’t know that. If they had...” He shakes his head.
“Were they in love? I thought they were fighting a whole lot, before.”
“They weren’t in love—yet. It did not take long on an island together before the boy couldn’t resist her anymore and he fell. Hard.”
I find myself drifting closer to him, my fins grazing the rope by his feet. I watch his chest rising and falling. “Is that the end of the story?” I ask.
His shoulders deflate. “No,” he says like a gasp. A strangled, painful sound. “It’s only the beginning.”
“Something bad happened?”
He swallows and looks down at his hands beneath the rippling water. I narrow my eyes as I watch him. This is more than a story, I realize.
Maybe I already knew that. But watching his reaction tells me without a doubt that this means something to him. It mean
s a lot to him.
I bite my lip and don’t wait for him to tell me. I put some of the pieces together myself. She’s not a siren...yet. That word again. Only this time, I don’t like it. I’m not sure what that means but...
The sirens wanted them, to keep them apart. Because they’re powerful together. I swallow.
“Tell me,” I say, Pain shoots through my chest with each breath.
“They spent several days together, falling deeper and deeper in love,” his eyes connect with mine, striking with emotion so strong it hurts. Is that his magic again? Like when he calms me away from my anger at the Siren Queen? This feels like that.
“He gave up fighting it, because she was the most amazing person he’d ever met. He realized his fear was stupid and it was just taking away from his happiness now. If he had the chance to be with her now, why not take it? Even if he knew it would end badly...”
“He knew?”
He nods. “There was a prophecy that told him the girl he fell in love with would have the power to control him. Enslave him.”
More pain. Rippling over every inch of me until I can’t see straight.
“But he didn’t care. If it happened, at least he’d have been happy for a few days before the nightmare came.”
I grip my stomach with my sharp fingers, fighting the pain clenching my muscles. I close my eyes and hold back tears. The pain. The emotions. I don’t understand.
“The Siren Queen came,” I whisper.
He sucks in a breath, and I know I’m right.
“She took her away from him.”
“Yes,” he whispers. Is he in pain the way I am?
My eyes fly open, an angry determination fueling me now. “What were their names?” I spit.
He blinks, fear filling them.
“What were their names?” I say again, louder.
“I think you already know,” he whispers.
Bluff
Blood pounds through my veins, throbbing with its intensity, causing my vision to blink in and out.
She knows.
“Bluff,” she whispers like a prayer.
I look in her eyes and want to cry as the emotions roll over her body. I don’t want this pain for her. For the first time, part of me wants to let her sit in her violent ignorance. Where she doesn’t have to face what’s happened. What she’s been forced to do.
What she will continue to be forced to do. For the next week.
She’s broken the spell too early. We can’t fight yet. I suck in heavy breaths. But then I look into her eyes, and for the first time in weeks I see her. My soul flies. Wounded and scared, but free.
“Whitley,” I whisper as I reach for her. I grip the back of her head and pull her in until our lips collide. She kisses me fiercely. Desperately. But it ends soon, as she presses her forehead against mine.
Tears fill her eyes and flow down her cheeks as she closes her eyes. “No,” she groans.
A sob breaks through my chest. “I’m sorry.” I pull her in tighter.
She’s still confused, still uncertain, but I can see the recognition in her eyes. It’s coming together. She’s piecing it together. The pain is sharp and terrible.
She falls into my arms and sobs into my shoulder. “I don’t understand,” she says.
I don’t know how much she knows, how much she remembers, but she knows the story was us. She knows I love her. She knows who she is, at least a little bit.
A form rises from the black water beside us, and Whitley jerks in my arms, trembling.
“She’s coming,” Azalea says in a panicked voice.
Shit. My muscles clench, and I pull Whitley in tighter, anticipating what will happen next—when I must let go.
“Listen to me,” I say with a strained voice, pulling her so we’re face to face. “Listen!” I tell Whitley. “She can’t know you know. Remember, she has to be in control.”
“No!” she says, “No, I won’t keep doing this.”
“You must,” I force out.
“We can fight. Together we’re strong enough. I know it. I can feel it.”
I pause. I’d love to believe that, but I don’t. “Not with her army fully assembled. We’re as strong, but not stronger. We can’t win.”
“Then how?” she whispers.
“Five more days.”
She whimpers.
“If my mother still believes she is in control, in five days she’ll call on the Sea King. That’s the battle that matters. The one that ends this, one way or another. She’ll think she can win with us under her control. But we’ll turn on her, and with his help we’ll crush her. It’s the only way. We need him. And I don’t know how to call him. So we need her to do it.”
Whitley slaps the water with an open palm and groans, a cry of pain that sends a shiver through my body.
“This is our biggest bluff yet. We can’t mess it up.”
Whitley
Pain and rage consume my whole body. I can’t breathe as sick realizations flood me. My memories are still hazy, still confusing. Flashes and fragments.
But I remember him.
Him. The only one that matters.
I wince as the images of him writhing on the ground flood through my mind. Tormented by my power. Those memories are vivid. They always had been, I just didn’t know the connection.
“Bluff,” I cry.
“It’s all right,” he says quickly but gently. The look in his eyes tells me he does. He knows what I’m thinking. “I love you—no matter what. But we must go.” He swallows and then his eyes widen, shifting to the dark waters.
Something snaps my head back, a clawed hand knotted in my hair. I cry out as the pain rips through my scalp and a hiss echoes over the glassy waves. I wince as the Siren Queen breathes in my ear.
“On board,” she hisses. “NOW!” She pushes my body forward. I obey, swiftly climbing aboard the ship—easy with my siren powers. The Siren Queen drags Bluff along with her awkwardly, slamming his body onto the deck.
My chest rises and falls with labored breath. I work to control my body and my mind, but they’re spinning. My hands are shaking. I don’t know if I can do this.
How do I lie like this? She’ll look me in the eye and expect to see no emotion. She’ll force me to do something awful—and I can’t.
A stirring of magic swirls in my chest. A slithering feeling, and my first instinct is to push it down, but its calm anger persists. It’s a protective shield preparing to work with me—not against.
I swallow and allow my defense to fall—the magic fills me, moving slowly, gently. It’s not at all like the Siren Queen’s force that drowns me. The muscles in my face relax, and my anxiety dims.
Power puffs my chest out in pride. I look at Bluff and I know him. I love him.
But with the help of my siren magic—I can hide it.
“What did you do?” her voice pierces the night air, directed at a steel-faced Bluff. He collapses onto the ground, a puddle surrounding him. A cool wind blows over my skin. Fear tickles beneath my skin, but my magic puffs out, ready to take this on.
A door slams open, and I spin to see the ugly captain—Stede—marching towards us. “What is it?” he asks. “What’s happened?”
The Siren Queen stammers in her anger. “I found them together. Sneaking off into the ocean.”
“Running away?” he asks, tilting his head.
The Siren Queen looks inhuman in the moonlight, anger clenching her muscles, veins contracting. She turns away from Bluff, still on the ground, breathing deeply as he stares at the water pooling beneath him.
“We’re not stupid enough to run away. Nothing happened.”
“They were conspiring. Making plans to thwart me,” she spits like she’s so certain of what’s happening. Not even considering we’d just met because we wanted to be together. Not that it matters. Look how quickly even something that innocent—a story—could lead to rebellion.
Bluff doesn’t respond, so neither do I. I suspect that no matt
er what we say, she’ll twist it against us.
“What kind of plans do you suspect?” Stede asks, his voice calm.
“He’s trying to break my control,” the Siren Queen says with a calmer voice, but her breathing is labored, her gills flapping creepily. “He’s trying to take her from me.”
Like before, I finish for her.
Stede crosses his arms. “Then test her. Let’s see how well she obeys.”
She continues sucking in heavy breaths, her chest rising and falling. Her head is dipped low, the moon casting shadows over her sharp features. “Yes. Let’s.”
I grit my teeth, unsure what this will mean. Will it be like... A memory slams into me. I hadn’t known what I was doing at the time. I didn’t recognize him.
As he begged for mercy.
I press my eyes closed, and my siren magic curls around my heart, protecting me. I allow it, but know I mustn’t let it gain too much leverage. We can work together, but I am the master. And I must face what I’ve done.
I killed my father.
He begged for forgiveness. He told me he loved me. And I slit his throat.
My breaths are shaky, but I force a steady look to the Siren Queen. Who will she make me kill this time?
She curls her lip as she looks at me. “Kill him,” she says through gritted teeth, then she points a clawed finger into Bluff’s face.
Bluff
Whitley’s face betrays her panic for only an instant.
Kill him.
The Siren Queen just ordered Whitley to kill me.
I shake my head to clear the confusion. How...what? I look to Stede as I sit up straighter, but he betrays no emotion. He stands there with his arms crossed, his face relaxed.
Whitley doesn’t move, her expression neutral.
“Kill him,” she says again. This time, confusion crosses her face.
“You told me we could hurt him, but we needed him alive,” she says coolly. “Would you like to me hurt him?”
Treacherous Love Page 20
