“It’s a great view, but I figured you would be sick of the water after spending an hour outside,” Zia commented as she came around and sat down beside Leo.
Leo shrugged.
Rolling off the chair perfectly to stay hidden, Leo made his way back to the secret spot. Zia remained in her chair. She had to stay strong and keep him away from her. They were way too close. His words would be hidden from anyone trying to spy on them. She remained where she was.
“I don’t know why you’re acting like you are, but I need to say something.”
Zia didn’t move from her spot. She stared straight ahead, trying to keep her face from his view.
“I can’t give you a reason why, but I know we’re meant to be together. I get that Siren and Mavkas aren’t supposed to be mates. I get that we’re supposed to stay within our clans. But that doesn’t matter to me. I never wanted a mate in the first place, but there’s something about you. I can’t stop searching for you in this place. I can’t stop wondering if you’re okay and what you’re so scared of. And I can’t stop caring. I want to. I don’t want to bring someone into my messed-up life. I don’t want to tell you that I’m falling for you days before I’ll likely be executed. I don’t want any of that, but I want you. I can’t stop it, and I can no longer keep pretending you’re just some girl showing me around this place.”
Zia had left her chair and was in front of him. Without a second chance to speak, she leaned forward and kissed him. Leo was slightly stunned but quickly gained his composure to kiss her back. All too soon she had to pull back from him. It was a mistake to do that, but she couldn’t help it. He didn’t understand at all. He wasn’t the problem; she was.
“I get it,” she said quietly. “I didn’t want to fall for you either. And I get that this can’t be.”
Zia let Leo pull her back to sitting beside him, tucked under his arm. She was only going to get a moment with him and she’d savor it for the rest of her life. There was no way she was getting free of the Mavkas, no matter how much Leo liked her. She couldn’t tell him the truth, and therefore she was stuck, but she surely wasn’t going to let him get stuck, too. She was going to keep him safe.
“You talk about not wanting me to have your fate, but I promise you the fate associated with me is much worse. I wish I could tell you more. I really do.” Zia gazed up at him with her big, sad eyes.
“I know you can’t talk to me, but I have a different idea. Do you trust me?”
Zia nodded. She didn’t just trust him, she was pretty sure she loved him. That was what made it hard.
Leo took her hand and placed a finger into his mouth. Using his sharp night human teeth that he normally used only to feed on day humans, he poked a hole in her finger. Zia hadn’t been expecting that, but she waited. Then, still holding her hand to his mouth, Leo cut along his own finger, being careful not to spill any blood before pressing his own cut to hers. Zia really hadn’t expected that. They were in a place filled with night humans and blood would draw everyone to them. He had expertly kept it a secret as he made a blood connection between them.
Zia’s eyes widened in surprise when she felt him in her head.
Leo waited for Zia to yell at him, but she didn’t. She continued to stare at him. He smiled as he felt her inside his own mind. There was so much he wished he could share with her, but he was afraid she would bolt again. It was better to make use of his time for what he needed.
‘I wanted to be able to talk to you, and since you said you can’t tell me what is going on, Sam and I thought you might be able to show me,’ Leo explained, worried since she hadn’t said anything.
‘This might work,’ Zia replied. ‘I don’t know why I didn’t think of it.’
Because you were too busy acting weird, Leo wanted to say, but kept his mouth shut. Unfortunately, his mind wasn’t shut, and a hurt expression crossed Zia’s face. Leo immediately felt bad for thinking it.
‘Sorry.’
Zia shrugged. ‘I’ll show you what I can’t tell you if you promise one thing,’ she told him. Leo nodded. ‘You won’t get mad at me or anyone else involved. Anger won’t make it better. My fate is my fate, and it can’t be changed. I’ve accepted it, so I need you to also.’
Leo raised an eyebrow. What was she keeping from him? Why would he get mad?
‘Promise?’ she asked a second time.
‘I promise not to get mad,’ Leo replied.
‘Okay,’ was her tentative reply.
Leo waited as patiently as he could. She was acting strange, but not the sort of strange that might make him mad; just strange enough that it piqued his curiosity. Before he wanted to know what she was hiding, but now he needed to know.
Leo watched Zia remember her past.
Zia was swimming. That was how most mer stories started, nothing strange there. Breaking the surface of the ocean, she giggled at the sunlight. Not typical of the Mavkas, but still not strange. She turned around and smiled at the Mavkas, Lan, who seemed to be her constant shadow for the entire time Leo had been there. Dipping under the water, Lan pulled her down into his arms. Zia watched him smile as he leaned into kiss her.
Pulling back from the memory, he glared at Zia. ‘If this is a story about you falling in love, I’d rather not see it.’
Zia shook her head vehemently. ‘I didn’t fall in love. I thought I had, but it was all a trick. Lan tricked me. Because I didn’t understand what love felt like, I fell for it. I knew the moment I was trapped here, but by then it was too late.’ Zia froze as she stared at Leo. ‘I can tell you. My words aren’t stopped in my head. Their power doesn’t work in here. I can tell you everything.’
Leo hadn’t been expecting that. His problem had been solved the moment he had connected with her and had wasted precious minutes watching something he didn’t need to see.
‘So tell me the truth. Why can’t I be with you? Why are Sam and I in danger? Why the heck do you like me one moment and hate me the next?’
Zia grinned at him. ‘I’ll tell you everything, but can we make it back to the chairs without breaking the connection? I feel Lan heading this direction.’
Leo made a sour face at the mention of the mer he had just seen about to kiss her.
“Come on,” she said out loud to get his attention, and it worked. Her voice was softer outside their heads, and it melted Leo’s heart. He wanted to know more. She was ready to give him answers, and there was no way he was breaking the connection now.
A little clumsier than Leo wanted, they both made it back to the chairs facing the ocean. Leo kept his free arm wrapped around her, holding her in place so that she couldn’t bolt and stop the story he was desperate to hear. He wanted answers, and he wasn’t letting her slip away.
‘Last year when I was sixteen, I was dropped off by my parents to find my way home like all the Siren do,’ Zia began.
‘Wait, what do you mean “like all the Siren do”?’
‘No questions until I’m done,’ Zia replied as she shook a finger at him for interrupting him.
Sighing, he let her continue.
‘I was dropped off not too far from home, but got mixed up in my directions. Instead of heading south west, I went south east. I didn’t notice for quite some time, and when I finally did, I was far from home without food, drink, or blood and was completely lost as to what to do. That’s when I met Lan. He brought me back here and got me all situated and promised to return me home. I was the first outsider who had come to the Mavkas home in decades. It was like I was a celebrity. I needed to get home, but was a little mad that my parents hadn’t left me where they said I’d be. I decided to take a couple days and enjoy the Mavkas.’
‘Just answer this,’ Leo said, finally interrupting her. ‘Are you a Siren?’ She had an orange tail, but her story was making him think otherwise.
‘I was a Siren coming of age,’ Zia replied. ‘And I was foolish enough to think the feeling I felt growing for Lan was love. In two short days, he convinced me to make a bl
ood oath with him that I’d come back. He said we couldn’t bind without permission from our clans, but it would be like a binding. We would be connected. He said I was everything to him, and I believed him. Turns out that the Mavkas keep witch-enchanted objects on hand. Lan was busy making me feel things that weren’t true just to get me to do the blood oath. On the day I was to go home, it all changed. Everything inside of me felt like it was off, but I did it anyway. I made the blood oath, but didn’t know that by making it I was cursing myself to stay here forever. That blood oath was just a plan to keep me.’
‘Keep you?’ It wasn’t making a lot of sense, but Leo was getting a little angry.
‘You promised to keep your cool. Remember?’
Clenching his teeth, he nodded. Zia wasn’t an object to keep. She was a person.
‘The spell changed my outer appearance to a Mavkas so no one would be able to know it was me. But I still have my Siren voice. The magic around here makes it duller, but I can control people to some extent. Unfortunately, the blood oath bound me to Lan’s family, and they aren’t affected by my voice. Lan acts like we are bonded, but we aren’t. There’s no love between us.’
Leo was having a hard time wrapping his head around everything. Zia wasn’t a Mavkas, and she wasn’t forbidden to him. She was a Siren. From what he had felt in the last couple days, Leo was certain she was his Siren. She was meant to be with him and not caught in the underwater world of the Mavkas.
‘I can’t leave. They bound me to them and can find me anywhere I go. With an orange tail, all the mer will think I’m crazy if I tell the truth and if they find me. I’m stuck here for life, and they want me to get you and Sam stuck here, too. The Mavkas don’t want to be beneath the Siren, they want to lead the mer world. They think Sam is the perfect way to do that. They didn’t tell me the details, but I know what they want. They’ve all done a great job acting these past few days, but the Mavkas hate Siren.’
And that was exactly what King Longray was looking for. The Mavkas were proving to be a problem for the Siren and had gone so far as to have kidnapped one. Leo needed to tell Sam, and they had to figure everything out. There was no way Leo was leaving Zia behind in the Mavkas world.
8
Sam wasn’t one for going through someone else’s memories, but he had done so today for a second time. Even worse was he was going through someone else’s memories that had been given to another. Leo said Zia was fine with him doing it, but Sam still felt a bit creepy. His father loved to see what he could find, but Sam strongly believed your mind should be your own.
After analyzing Zia’s exact memories three times—memories that Sam was now grateful she had shown Leo—Sam was starting to form a plan. He had very little experience with witch magic, and didn’t know anyone firsthand who had dealt with witches, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him from trying to get Zia back to the Siren clan. The one thing Sam did know was that magic couldn’t trump a bond of real love.
Sam had little hope left of finding a way to save his friend from his father’s wrath. He had searched the whole outside area of the Mavkas, and there really wasn’t much to find. He spent the whole day in the water looking around. It just about drove Cate nuts to have to wait for him, but Sam really didn’t care about that. She had lost her usefulness when he didn’t find anything in her father’s office. Yes, maybe it was a bit cruel, but he really had no intention of pursuing things with her. And now he felt less bad about it. She was likely trying to trap Sam in the same way as they had Zia.
From what he could tell, Zia was trapped by some sort of blood bond. It wasn’t the same as the mate bond that Sam had witnessed several times with the Siren, but something different. As he could see, it involved the same blood sharing, but it didn’t link the people as one. He wasn’t completely sure how it happened, but one thing he took notice of was the knife they used. Beyond the knife, it was a simple blood share, really as uncomplicated as talking to another night human in their mind.
Night humans were all equipped with sharp teeth to feed on normal humans. They rarely had a need for a knife unless doing something ceremonial. Zia had likely just thought it was a ceremonial knife, but Sam figured it had to be the key.
After sleeping on everything, Sam came up with a plan. He would make the most of his time left with the Mavkas and make sure there was nothing else to find, but he was happy to have what he had. It might be enough to convince his father to leave Leo alive. Now he just had to be certain his plan would work. What better way to check it out than to use Cate one more time? Now that he knew he was the target, he knew he could get away with doing more. He was willing to play with them a bit to get what he needed.
Sam nodded to Leo as his friend left. He was positive his plan was going to work, but even if it didn’t, Sam was free to go home and inform his father about everything. Leo already assured him that if he got stuck in the Mavkas home, he wasn’t going to be sad about it. He would have Zia, and that was all that mattered to him. Sam couldn’t quite understand his reasoning. His friend had always had a bigger issue with having a mate than Sam did, but he knew that Zia was the reason. She was what would keep Leo safe and alive as a Siren. He was willing to believe Leo, even if he was crazy.
Though Sam couldn’t understand Leo’s new feelings, he did understand Zia. She was a Siren. She needed to go home where she belonged, and it was Sam’s duty to bring her back. It was considered weak to not make it home after your coming of age ceremony, but they never factored in another clan taking you away. It wasn’t her fault, and Sam was sure she would be welcomed back.
Ready to do his part, Sam stood and stretched. It was going to be a day of deception, but he was ready to play the game to get his friend and the lost Siren home.
Leo ate breakfast beside Zia, and she talked like nothing else was the matter. How she had acted on and off the days before didn’t annoy him now that he knew she was trying to protect him. He found it sweet because he understood better now that her moods mirrored the stress of the people around her. Lan was off at the far table where he could listen in on their conversation. Nothing like tricking a girl and then keeping tabs on her. Just seeing the other mer made Leo want to punch him in the face.
“Remember, you promised,” Zia said lightly, picking up on the anger Leo had.
“And I wish I hadn’t,” Leo replied as he stabbed his food forcefully, causing the fork to clink on the plate.
“And I wouldn’t do that unless you like sand in your food,” Zia advised, pointing to the food he had stabbed too hard.
The plates were ceramic-like, but made of something more like coral. Of course, Zia was right, and small shards of the plate were in his food now. Leo wiped off his food and continued to eat, trying his best to ignore Lan. It was hard to do until Zia reached over and took his hand in hers. His whole world stopped at her touch. That was exactly the distraction he needed.
“How do you want to spend today?” she asked.
Leo slowly chewed his last piece of food while he thought. He really wanted to just go to their secret corner, but he knew it wasn’t an option. Lan was keeping closer tabs every day as the week went on. The first day Zia dragged him off, they had all morning together without Lan interrupting. Yesterday they talked for only minutes before he was ready to check on them. Leo worried that he knew something was up.
“What do you suggest?”
Zia smiled. “I think we should go for a swim again.”
Leo nodded. That worked for him. Less talking meant it was less likely for them to get caught, and pulling Lan outside was better. Sam claimed he had a plan, but needed to double check everything. Chris wasn’t a problem, but Lan seemed to be the one who was the most suspicious. Taking him outside would work well to keep Sam safe, too.
“I could use a swim. Siren never get sick of being in the water,” Leo told her.
Zia smiled as she understood that he was including her in his statement. “Then let’s go swimming.”
Swimmi
ng was the perfect distraction for Leo. He needed to wait until Sam had everything set up before they could do anything anyway. His friend was off using his Siren voice on Cate to find out the few details they didn’t get from Zia. Sam was certain the knife was the key, but they had to be sure there wasn’t something else as well. Though it was hard to persuade someone with their Siren voice if other people could hear, Sam was getting information out of Cate already. He was pretty good at what he did. Leo didn’t have the same level of control, and he admired how strong Sam was, but then again that was the reason the Mavkas wanted Sam.
By the time they finished swimming, it was already time for lunch. Leo and Zia returned to a full room of Mavkas. Leo searched around for Sam and got a nod from him. Everything was a go to put their plan into action. Reaching out, Leo took Zia’s hand. She looked surprised.
Without asking her or telling her a thing, Leo marched over to where Min was seated on the floor, bringing her with him.
“Since you’re Zia’s family now,” Leo began as Zia still watched, uncertain if she should stick around, “tradition states that a Siren must pick a mate before they are eighteen. I’ll be eighteen next year, so I want to ask permission to have Zia as my mate. I know that inter-clan mates aren’t always allowed, but I believe King Longray would be happy that I finally found someone to bind to. He’s a fair and kind king, and Sam assures me that his father would welcome Zia with open arms.”
With Siren being the higher tier clan in the mer world, Zia would move to live with Leo. While Sam was certain that the Mavkas didn’t have any intention of letting Zia go, he did think that they would jump at the chance to use a mating bond to trick Leo into becoming a Mavkas.
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