“But we will when we get to Triton and talk to my mother.”
“You’re certain she’ll help us?”
“Of course she will,” Celia said. “Sirens are trying to take over her kingdom.”
Evan’s thoughts turned to Declan and the story he had told her just before the Sirens attacked them. Queen Astraea had once been in love with him, so there was a good chance she would be willing to risk sending a force after him if the opportunity presented itself.
A knock on the patio door drew her attention back to the room. She looked back and forth between Judas and Malcolm, but both seemed confused. “Do your guards knock?”
Before Malcolm could respond, the door opened and Andrus stepped inside, flanked by two others. His smile widened as he said, “Well, well, well, looks like I hit the mother lode. Two princesses and the nobleman I’ve been looking forward to killing. The only thing that would make this better is if we found that troublesome old man.”
Evan couldn’t control her relief. With everything else going on, she’d all but forgotten her uncle Caspian. Now with one slip of Andrus’s tongue she at least knew the Sirens didn’t have him.
Evan kept her eyes on Andrus as the other Sirens entered the room. She took a deep breath, trying to remain calm, and stood.
“Now Princess, you’re not thinking about trying to run again, are you? I’d hate to have to hurt your friends. One song from me and your humans will fight to the death. So don’t tempt me.”
“What do you want with me?” she asked.
“Don’t flatter yourself, kid. You’re nothing but a pawn to use against your mother.”
Evan laughed bitterly. “My mother won’t be persuaded because you have her children. She’s not foolish enough to endanger our people.”
Andrus tilted his head and smiled. “Bothers you, doesn’t it?”
“It’s the right choice,” Evan said, pressing her lips together.
“Sure it is,” Andrus said, taking a step closer to her. “But I’m sure it still hurts to know you mean so little to her. Don’t worry though, we have other ways of dealing with her.”
Evan pressed against the counter as Andrus took another step towards her. He was right in front of her now, his warm breath on her cheek as he said, “Oh, Princess, I’m going to take such good care of you. You’ll forget all about Prince Gideon once we have some quality time.”
“Leave her alone,” Will said.
Andrus turned, his eyes taking in Will and Lucy. He hadn’t seemed to notice them before, but now his silver eyes shimmered as he pieced together who Lucy must be. “Weren’t you listening to what I said? One note from my song and you’ll kill your own daughter at my command.”
Will shook his head in defiance, but Evan knew Andrus was right. She said, “Let them go, Andrus. They’re no use to you.”
His eyes slid back to her. “No use? Oh, I’m sure I could find something to do with them. Trophies for my wall, perhaps.”
“I will leave with you right now of my own free will, but only if you leave them alone,” she said.
He laughed. “You’ll leave with me whether you want to or not. You may not have realized it yet, but there’s no one here who can stop me.”
“Don’t bet on that.”
Andrus spun towards the voice behind him, dodging just as a trident sliced across his cheek. The blow knocked him off balance and he stumbled. The other Sirens moved towards the man in the doorway. He ducked and spun out of their way. Three other men ran through the door, surprising the Sirens and drawing their attention from the first man. He moved towards Andrus, swinging his trident.
Celia ushered Will and Lucy towards the exit, Malcolm and Judas had moved to the far corner by the fireplace, but Evan was stuck in the middle of the fight. She scrambled onto the kitchen island just as Andrus fell where she’d been standing.
“Stay down,” the man said, his trident mere inches from Andrus’ throat. “Or don’t. I’d love a reason to shove my spear through your neck.”
When the other Sirens were marched out, the man’s comrade pulled Andrus up and bound him. The man reached his hand up to Evan and she took it to climb down.
“Thank you,” she said.
“My pleasure, Princess.”
She looked into his eyes, black as night, with a pinprick of color in each. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment as the shock wore off and she realized who it was.
He stood there in his navy scale-suit, staring at her as he fought back tears. His emotions were so clear on his face, she didn’t need her gift to know how he felt.
Rafe traced his finger down her face, his lips quirking up in a smile. “I thought I’d lost you.”
Evan recoiled instinctively. She caught the hurt expression on his face, though he masked it quickly. She felt herself grimace. She hadn’t wanted to hurt Rafe, but from the moment she found out about his betrothal, her feelings for him had changed. It took being away from him to realize it, but her heart was closed off to him.
“How did you find us?” Evan asked.
Rafe looked at her, his brows furrowed. “We heard your cry.”
“What are you talking about?”
Rafe met eyes with the other guards, who shrugged in turn. “Princess, we heard a call for help. It echoed through our heads. Only one of royal blood can call to us in that manner. It’s a gift from Poseidon.”
Evan looked to Celia, who shook her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Rafe’s brow creased. “We’re trained to recognize it. How could it be that your parents never told you how to use it?”
“Perhaps they thought they’d never need it,” Judas said. “The Sirens have been silent for many years.”
Evan shook her head. “There must be more to it than that. But if neither of us used it—”
She looked around the room, her eyes finding Lucy, who was smiling and waving at the guards. Evan thought back over the last few minutes, realizing that even when the Sirens were threatening them, Lucy had remained silent, without even a whimper.
“It was Lucy,” Evan said.
Celia turned to her daughter, her face showing surprise. “Lucy baby, did you ask these men to come help us?”
Lucy nodded and pointed towards the beach. “Water.”
“She didn’t want a drink,” Will said, chuckling, “she was telling us they were coming.”
Rafe walked over to Will and Lucy, bowing in front of the little girl. “Thank you, Princess. You saved your family.”
Lucy smiled and hid her face against Will’s neck. “I think it’s time for her to go back to bed.”
“Not yet,” Celia said. “I’d like to say goodbye.”
“So soon?” Will asked, his voice catching in his throat.
Celia nodded. “We knew I’d have to go. We just didn’t know when.”
“Sis, you don’t have to,” Evan said. “You should be here with your family.”
Celia met her eyes. “You’re my family, too. You’re going to need all the help you can get. Plus, they’ll be safer with me gone.”
“We should get moving, Princess,” Rafe said. “The others are waiting.”
“Others?” Judas asked.
“Yes, my lord. The other guards were left to secure the beach leading to the house.”
“How many are there?”
Rafe clenched his teeth, as if the answer was painful. “Seven, Lord Corinth.”
“Poseidon’s crown,” Evan swore. “So few?”
Rafe nodded. “We were fortunate to escape with as many as we did. We were heavily outnumbered.”
“What happened to the others?” Malcolm asked.
Rafe eyed Malcolm for a moment, as if deciding whether or not he had to answer the human. Finally he said, “I can’t say for sure. We escaped the castle once we were sure the Princess was gone. Some of our number had already been taken away; some fell at the hands of the Sirens. There are a few we have yet to account for.”
“Declan?” Evan asked.
Rafe looked at her, his eyes sorrowful. “I don’t know for sure.”
“You think he’s dead.”
He nodded.
Evan’s mind raced with thoughts of how she could’ve stopped his death, but ultimately she knew there was nothing she could have done. Taking a deep breath she said, “What do we do now?”
“We need to get back to the castle. Once your mother has you safely at home, we can make any preparations she requires.”
“Alright,” Evan said with a sigh. “Let’s go.”
They stood on the beach, the waves lapping at their feet. They were dressed in discarded scale-suits that Malcolm had collected through the years. There was a vast array of house colors: Evan in Protean red, Celia in Glaucan green, Judas is Benkes purple, and the guards in their Triton navy.
Evan watched as Malcolm and Judas spoke quietly to one another, their heads bowed close. She wondered if they would ever return to whatever they were before Judas left to save his mother.
Her eyes moved to Celia, Will, and Lucy. Celia was holding Lucy, whispering into her hair as the little girl clung tightly to her neck.
Evan felt someone step close to her. Rafe.
“So, I guess I was wrong about my theory.”
“What theory?”
“That Lord Corinth was trying to get his hands down your dress.”
Evan laughed. “Dead wrong.”
There was an awkward pause as they looked at one another, then Rafe motioned to Celia and Will. It was clear Celia was telling her husband everything in her heart without speaking a word.
“You never looked at me like that,” Rafe said.
“I’ve never looked at anyone like that,” she said. “Not really.”
“Neither have I. I’ve never let anyone close enough to know me that well.”
“What about your betrothed?”
Rafe shook his head. “Lilika is a good woman, but I’ve never felt that strongly about her.”
“You love her?”
“I care about her,” he said. After a moment he said, “I know it must be hard to believe, with everything that happened between us, but I care about you, too.”
“You’re right, it is hard to believe.”
He clenched his teeth for a moment, letting the hurt from the comment pass. Finally he said, “Ev, I know you love me.”
“I did.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Did?”
Evan nodded towards her sister and said, “I didn’t love you like that. And I deserve that. You do, too.”
Rafe nodded. “I could be that for you.”
“In secret, while you marry someone else?” Evan asked. “I’ve had that offer from the other side with Calix—that’s no life for anyone.”
With a sigh Rafe said, “It’s all I have to offer. You can have my love, but it will always be a secret.”
“I need more than that. I want to be someone’s everything,” she said, her mind straying to Gideon.
She turned away from Celia and Will, away from Rafe, and faced the water. She relished the cool water against her feet as she stepped out into the surf. As she breathed in the salty air, she felt a sudden rush of emotion. Grief, devotion, fear, and love seemed to battle for dominance as she struggled to make sense of the feelings that were awash inside her.
She turned back to those still on the shore. She knew these were the feelings of her friends, flowing out. Her gift had returned as she entered the water. She took a deep breath and forced down their emotions to keep them in check.
She would save her friends and family from the Sirens, she would protect her kingdom, and nothing was going to get in her way. With a smile, Evan turned towards the water, took a few steps out, then dived into the sea. It was time to go home.
Twenty-Three
Evan had spent the last day and a half underwater. She was holed up in a small cavern of coral reef under the kingdom of Protea. The cavern held a small pocket of air, barely the size of her closet at home, and it was here she sat with her cohorts.
There were ten of them in total. She sat between Celia and Judas while the seven guards fortified the space. It was a small portion of those who had escorted her from Triton to Protea days before, and her companions assumed the worst of their missing numbers.
“They’re not dead,” Evan said, her voice sounding far surer than she felt.
They’d spent the last hour quarreling over their next move, and Evan was no closer to convincing them of her plan than she had been at the start.
“Evan, we’ve been through this,” Rafe said. “Even if they’re alive, it’s impossible for us to get in the castle. And we somehow managed it, we’d still have to figure out where they were held, avoid all the guards, and find a way to get them out. It isn’t feasible.”
“Our best option is to swim for Triton. We’re wasting time sitting here,” Judas said.
Celia sighed. “I’m sorry sis, but I agree with Judas. We need to see if mother already has a plan in motion.”
“We’re better help to her there. Once she knows you’re safe, she’ll feel more confident taking action,” Rafe added.
Evan bit her lip. Declan was here, in Protea. She didn’t mention his capture, but it was all she could think of. He had been her truest friend since she was a child, and she couldn’t bear to think of leaving again without discovering what had happened to him.
“It’s settled then,” Judas said. “We’ll leave for Triton as soon as the sun sets. The Proteans rely on the light from above more than we do, so hopefully the darkness below the castle will hide us from their eyes.”
Evan sighed as the others began preparing their things. They’d been able to send a couple guards to the market for food and supplies, but it was a risk they’d only been willing to take once.
Rafe walked back towards Evan and nodded towards the ground beside her. “May I?”
“Sure.”
They sat in silence a moment, both dreading the conversation they were about to have. Evan bit her lip while she waited for Rafe to start talking. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, delaying the inevitable exchange.
“Ev,” he said, “I know you don’t like this plan. I know you think we should be able to do more, but we can’t.”
“It feels like we’re running.”
Rafe nodded. “Maybe we are. But we don’t have enough manpower to handle a rescue. We need to get backup if we’re going to get our people back.”
“I know,” she whispered, her voice catching in her throat. “I’m not stupid. I know this is the right choice. I just keep thinking of that trident hitting Declan. He didn’t run. He stood his ground to defend me.”
Rafe sighed. “This is what Declan would want us to do.”
She nodded. “But it isn’t what he would do.”
“His life was devoted to protecting you. The least I can do is complete the last command he gave me.”
“To keep me safe.”
He nodded. “Declan was always good to me. I wish there was more I could’ve done.”
“He isn’t dead.”
“Ev,” he said gently, “you saw it.”
She shook her head. “It happened too fast for me to know for sure. Maybe he was only injured.”
Rafe closed his eyes. It was the same argument they’d been having for the last day. Evan wasn’t sure why she was so insistent he was alive; in fact, she was the one who saw him get struck by the trident, the one who should be most certain of his death. But accepting it felt like she was betraying him and that was something she couldn’t do.
Rafe was standing beside her now. She had been so consumed with her thoughts of Declan, she hadn’t noticed him get up. He was staring towards the mouth of the cavern, his eyes trained on something she couldn’t see.
Evan stood up, her eyes searching the black waters. “What is it?”
He slowly shook his head. “Just a feeling. It’s nothing, probably.”
She
put her hand on his shoulder as she followed his dark eyes. Rafe kept his emotions guarded, but she knew him well. He couldn’t hide the nervous tension coursing unbidden through his body.
“Tell me,” she said.
He pursed his lips. His body was so still, Evan felt like she was watching a statue. Finally, he turned to her and said, “I sent Meego to tell the others the plan. It shouldn’t have taken this long.”
“It’s only been a couple minutes,” Evan said. “I’m sure it’s fine.”
Rafe turned his eyes back to the front of the cavern. He raked his tongue along his teeth; Evan recognized the gesture as worry. She saw him do it every time he had been anxious about getting caught alone with her.
A trident shot through the dark.
Rafe pushed her out of the way, the trident grazing his arm as he did. He yelled, “Go!”
The others ran for the back of the cavern. Their first night there, they had found a small tunnel barely wide enough to squeeze through. The passage led into the water under the castle. Celia and Judas were already climbing into the water.
Rafe grabbed Evan’s arm and pulled her to the hole. “Go as deep in the water as you can. The darker it is, the easier for you to get away. The Proteans aren’t used to the water pressure like you are.”
Evan climbed inside but hesitated. “What about you?”
“Griz and I will hold them off as long as we can. Now go!”
He shoved her head under the water. Evan sputtered for a moment but relaxed as her gills took over. She dropped down into the tunnel, her eyes searching the water above for any sign of Rafe.
Seconds ticked by, feeling like an eternity. She knew she should go, but she was too worried for Rafe to think about herself. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing another person she cared for simply so they could protect her.
There was a splash in the water above her and Evan could see an arm floating in the water. The scale-suit was navy. It was only there a moment before being jerked away.
Above her, the water was stained red.
She dove down through the passage. When she reached the end of the tunnel, she paused, gazing into the dark water below. There was still enough light that she could see shapes moving in the darkness. She stared, counting the shapes. One for Celia, two for Judas, but who was three, four, and five?
Black Sea Bright Song Page 18
