by Hazel Grace
Except, to my utter frustration, she knows my sister’s name.
“Kelaya was killed with my mother and brother. And his name was Gathan,” I seize. “You could’ve gotten any of this information from—” I wave my hand in the air. “—whatever kind of magic you witches do.”
She eyes me with exasperation. “Tobias is Gathan. I took him to his Uncle Declan, which—” She looks over at Tobias. “—isn’t your uncle. Just some fool I paid to keep you safe until you were old enough to take care of yourself.”
“What makes you think either of us is going to believe this tall tale,” Tobias chides. “This is the dumbest shit I’ve heard in a minute.” He looks over at me. “Beside the fact that a Viking got taken by a bunch of women.”
I take a step in his direction. “Says the weak fuck who can’t pull his head out of his ass when clearly she doesn’t want you.”
Tobias squares on me. “Yeah? Explain to me how I’ve been—”
“Besides both of your stubbornness that you get from your father,” Taysa cuts in. “I’ll explain everything that you need to know because both of your lives are going to change.”
“Make it quick,” Tobias carps. “I have a tide to catch.”
Taysa chuckles and forks a piece of cheese. “You’re not going to sail off today, Son.”
He tenses. “Don’t call me that.”
“Both of you sit down or this will go a whole different way.” Her dark eyes flicker with warning, and I’ve seen unimaginable things lately so this can play out in so many ways.
Tobias and I look at each other before he moves to pull a chair out. Following his lead, we’re both seated in front of her—eager and anxious to hear this bullshit story that’ll make no sense.
“You’re both aware of this veil that the girls keep talking about, how no other creatures besides a Siren, and myself, can pass it. No one can find it. Except for the two of you.”
“Davina showed me the island,” Tobias voices. “Shit was no surprise or anything I randomly fell upon.”
She extends her index finger at him. “But I allowed you to get past it. Coursing through your veins right now is my magic. Both of you are my sons, spawned from the same father who is Oryn the Great.”
“This idiot is no Viking,” I carp. “But nice try.”
“You’re not much of one either, apparently,” he retorts back. “Don’t you people kill others with branches or anything you can get your hands on? You’re failing pretty quickly on that feat.”
Taysa’s eyes turn into slits. “And you fight like brothers. I needed heirs to succeed me after I die as well as when I’m alive. I knew I should’ve had more daughters.”
I place my palms on the table, about to stand. “Well, amazing story, thanks for that.”
“I will summon you to that chair, Dagen—” She pops another piece of cheese into her mouth. “—if you try to move again.”
“Then why separate us?” I challenge. “If he is my brother, why did you take him from the village? Makes no damn sense, isolate us just to allegedly make you stronger or whatever.”
“Because I needed him to be something different. You’re a Viking, Dagen, through and through. Your loyalty proceeds you, but I needed your brother to be something diverse.” She looks at him. “The Prince of the Black Sea.”
“And?” I press. “Who cares?”
She leans back in her chair. “Two sons who rule the land and the sea.”
“It’s just a name,” Tobias voices. “Men gave it to me.”
“Because you’ve earned their respect. How do you both think you were able to get past the veil? Dagen’s men became ill and died on their own because no human is capable of setting foot here due to the spell I cast over the island. With my being able to stride through the veil, so is my bloodline—the both of you, my sons.”
“So you wanted two sons, with names on land and sea, and so what?” I snap.
“You’re familiar with the golden cuff you stole from Davina and her sisters. I sent you here to obtain it for me.”
“I’ve never seen you a day in my life,” I retort.
“You didn’t need to,” she conveys. “You do whatever your father tells you to do, and I told him to send you here. I knew the girls would keep you here while Tobias brought me the other cuff.”
My head snaps to him as he says, “I don’t have a magical cuff.”
“Do you remember the day Davina’s mother was killed?” He nods slowly. “You found something on the deck of your ship, randomly, more than likely thinking it was a piece of junk.”
He shrugs, raking his hand through his hair. “I remember it, but I don’t know where it is.”
Taysa removes her hand that is underneath the table and displays a duplicate of the same cuff I stole from Davina’s cove.
“This is one of Queen Kiherena’s royal cuffs. It holds a quarter of the power of Lacuna. The other one is in Davina’s hold. Brought together, they hold half the power of the sea—a goddess.”
I glare at him. “How is it that you didn’t know about this?”
“Did you just hear what she fucking said?” he seizes. “It randomly showed up on my ship. How the hell was I supposed to know what it was?”
I point at the both of them. “You two are in this together.”
“Fuck you,” Tobias sneers. “This is the first time I’m ever meeting her, but you said you have already. As well as you trespassing on this island without any—”
“Enough,” Taysa bellows. “Another reason why I kept you apart. Brothers are either enemies or best friends. It would’ve been a pain for me to bring you two together if you weren’t separated.”
“Let me guess,” I rebuff, pulling my attention away from Tobias and directing it at her. “You want to become this goddess.”
“You raised these girls,” Tobias scolds. “You can’t take their right. Besides, you’re a witch, it wouldn’t just be given to you.”
“It would be given to me,” she fumes, tapping the gold piece of jewelry on the table. “Whoever kills a goddess, gains their power. Except I can’t have it in the sea, Triton would find it.”
“You killed the queen?”
“And since I wasn’t around to obtain the cuffs, it goes to the closest bloodline of mine.” She locks eyes with Tobias. “Which would be you.”
Abruptly, he stands, palms underneath the table as though to flip it, but he freezes. Jerking with his strength, the table remains still.
Taysa ignores his temper tantrum and gapes at me. “I told your father that if he sent you to retrieve the cuff and bring it back to me, I’d release the dragons.”
“There were dragons?” I ask. “Those weren’t just a myth?”
She shakes her head. “Not a myth, but I wasn’t going to give them to your father. I was going to give them to you.”
My brows deepen. “My father is the leader of—”
“Not anymore. He’s an old fool, to say the least.”
Now I want to flip this table over.
“Tobias, sit down,” she orders. “There is more to this story.”
“I think I’ve heard enough,” he seethes.
“Sit down, you idiot, and focus,” I berate.
He snaps his head toward me. “Make me.” I’m about to stand on my feet, but Taysa slams a hand on the table, rattling everything on it.
“Enough. Sit down.”
Tobias slowly does as she demands while keeping his jaw tightened.
All of this—it’s too much. And we’ve both played pawns in this old bitch’s game.
“What’s next?” I hiss. “You want us to rule under you when you get these two cuffs together? Because good luck trying to get them from the girls.”
The slow smirk that appears on her face is directly aimed at me, I already know what she’s hinting at. I haven’t paid my price yet for the other cuff. Tried but failed, was tortured and got to fuck the woman of my dreams, but it doesn’t mean she’s going to get me to do a
nything unless she threatens Davina.
Which she will.
Her face says it all.
“You’ll get it for me,” she announces.
“Not going to happen.”
“For their safety, you will. If I don’t receive the second cuff, I will send your clan and every Hunter in the sea for these girls until I have it. They’ll think you are the one to blame, and you’ll be dead within minutes.”
“Still not going to happen.”
“This is insane,” Tobias roars. “You think you’re just going to summon us all of a sudden to do shit for you? You’re right, you should’ve had more daughters.”
“I will kill Davina in front of the both of you unless I collect what I want. And it won’t be a slow death, don’t test me in my ability to torture someone.”
“Sorry, old lady,” I dismiss. “But seven against one, you didn’t plan those odds out very well.”
“That, and how would we know that you’ll stay true to your word?” Tobias asserts. “You’re betraying the girls you raised.”
“A contract,” she says softly. “You rule above the sea—” She looks at me. “—and you’ll rule the land. Beneath the sea is mine while you both rule under me.”
Tobias scoffs. “You’ll have to go through Triton first.”
She waves a dismissive hand. “Let me worry about that. Together, we’ll rule the world.”
“I think the asshole next to me and I can agree that we’re not following you anywhere,” I reiterate.
Taysa lands an impassive look onto me. “I heard your cries at night, Son. You missed what was taken away from you but be careful who you trust. Your father knew I was alive, as well as your brother—still living and breathing while he let you believe otherwise. So when I tell you he’s weak, he is. You’ve grown up into everything I could’ve hoped for. Winning over your clan will not be a problem, especially when the dragons are under your power and control. You’ll save your people from the Highlanders and become a hero, a legend.”
“I won’t betray my father,” I growl, clutching my hands together to keep from ripping her across the table.
“Even after what he’s done to you?”
I shrug. “I don’t believe you.”
“Which part?”
“All of it.”
Pressing her lips together, she bows her head. “Your upper left arm, there is a birthmark. It looks like a triangle with a straight line going through it. You were a stubborn child who loved leaving pinecones under the elders’ beds and a little blonde girl kissed you at four and told you that she thought you would grow up to be a burly man with no skill as a fighter.” She averts her gaze to Tobias. “At least she got the last part right.”
I don’t shake my head, but I want to.
Everything she says is true. That little girl is married now to one of the fiercest warriors in the clan.
“You, Tobias or Gathan—whatever you want to be called now—you followed Dagen around like a shadow. You broke your right wrist while jumping off a small cliff thinking that you could fly because your brother said that you could if you got enough height.”
On cue, Tobias and I look at each other—we’re brothers.
Both of us know it, those small details would only stem from a mother who knows and tended to us—who was there. My father couldn’t and didn’t give much information about the dragons to the elders because apparently there was more to the story.
He made a deal with a sea witch, and that would’ve never gone well with the clan. I knew my father was desperate for a solution but not to the point where he’d send me on a suicide mission with the possibility of never coming back.
“Dagen,” Taysa digresses carefully. “To keep Davina and her sisters safe, you will obtain that second cuff for me. Betrayal can be looked at from so many different sorts of angles, but there is only one validity to it. Yours will be to save her after I kill her father for the whole sea and take what I’ve been working for, for over two decades. The cuff or the death of all seven.”
The look on Davina’s face is slowly splintering every fragment of my heart.
My body begs to pull her into a hug, but I refrain from touching her. From letting myself fall back into her because I can’t for my own sake and because Dagen stands next to me, wearing a stoic expression on his face.
I’ve always had a soft spot for her. Always put her ahead of myself, and I want to keep doing it, no matter how many times the vital organ that keeps me alive breaks, but there has to be a point to where I stop throwing so much of my heart at her for my own sanity.
We’ve told her and her sisters everything Taysa told us, down to every last detail. Davina advised that the cuff was in a cave of some sorts, safely hidden, but it was still a dangerous place for it to be in. Especially since the sea witch still resided peacefully on Merindah and even telling the girls is a risk all on its own.
A chance that Dagen and I decided to take because they needed to be prepared rather than blindsided.
And he and I knew what had to be done.
We’re linked to a witch that, with her power and spellbound magic embedded into our bodies, we can’t be here anymore. It’s why I’ve always been able to walk freely through the island and come through the veil without a problem. It’s also why the asshole next to me can continue to win Davina’s heart, and there isn’t shit that I can do about it.
Atarah, Kali, and Nesrine surround Davina as she stares at the floor in shock while the other girls are still inside the house, carefully standing watch to make sure Taysa doesn’t snoop around keeping tabs on us or what we’re doing.
Even though, with her powers, she may already know where we are. She could be listening right now for all I know.
“This can’t be true,” Davina sputters as Nesrine wraps a comforting arm around her shoulders. She’s shaking, but she’s trying to keep herself together. If I know the woman at all, it’s that she doesn’t like to break down in front of anyone. That she feels uncomfortable letting out her fears around anyone.
“It’s true,” Dagen retorts. “There is no other way, Blood, that me and the pirate are here without being harmed.”
“That’s why we couldn’t read him,” Atarah adds. “Why I always felt like there was a wall between him and I. Taysa blocked us from being able to see the true reason he came for the cuff before telling us.” She shoots Dagen a scowl at the last bit, which does nothing to the Viking but make him stand his ground.
“We need another witch,” Davina alludes. “Someone to break the link.”
“We don’t know another one,” Kali whispers. “There aren’t many around.”
“The Norse witch,” she quips then snaps her head up to Dagen and I. “We can find one.”
I meet her green eyes filling with hope. “We don’t have time, Princess.” Her brows immediately descend, not liking my answer.
“We have to try,” she retorts through furrowed brows. “Why isn’t anyone trying to figure out an answer?” She shrugs Nesrine’s arm off her shoulders. “We need Isolde.”
“She’s in the library,” Atarah mutters. “She’s trying.”
Davina’s hands ball into fists. “What do we do with Taysa? She can’t just roam free with the—she killed Mother.” Her focus lands on the exit of the cave. “She needs to die.”
“She’s strong,” Kali replies. “We have to plan this out.”
“We slit her throat. I’ll slit her throat.”
Dagen chuckles while I roll my eyes. This woman, I swear to Zeus, is going to send us all to the deep end with the antics she comes up with.
“You just can’t walk up to her and do that,” Nesrine counters.
Davina glances over to her older sister. “Watch me.”
“Let’s be sensible—” Atarah places her hand on Davina’s shoulder and gives her a little shake. “We need to make sure that our plan is solid. No mistakes, we can’t afford it. Do you still have the cuff?”
Davina nods. �
�No one will find it.”
“Good,” I settle, breaking into their little argument. “Don’t tell anyone where it is.”
Davina’s gaze falls back on me with a frown. We’ve been through a bunch of shit but nothing like this, and we’ve always had an answer.
It’s just that I don’t think we’ll come up with something she’ll like.
“Do you know of any magic that you have?” Nesrine asks both Dagen and I. “Anything you can do?”
“Nothing but being a warrior,” Dagen answers. “I don’t have anything out of the ordinary but keeping you girls at bay with your mind games. And even then, I don’t know how I was able to do that. It’s not something I can control.”
“Same,” I add. “Besides getting past the veil and Kali’s screams not affecting me that night when I saved Rohana and Davina, I don’t have anything either.”
“We’ll take care of it,” Atarah asserts, pulling Davina closer to her. “We just need you two to stay as far away as you can. Maybe sail away from the island together.”
Dagen looks over at me. “Not a bad idea. Maybe it’ll lessen her powers with us away from her.”
“We can do that,” I agree with a nod. “But we’ll need a distraction, something to keep her busy while Dagen and I sneak back to my ship.”
Kali motions at her bandaged shoulder. “I can tell her that I don’t think my shoulder is healing properly. It’ll only buy you a small amount of time though.”
“We can sail out quickly,” I vouch. “My men will be ready.”
“Then it’s settled for now,” Atarah concurs. “Sail away as far as you can, and you can’t come back until it’s done.” I nod, feeling Davina’s regard back on me, begging me to look at her.
I can’t.
I’m going to save her life for the last time.
Doubt and unease fill my brain, hitting me over and over again, as Davina wraps her arm over my torso. She’s been silent for a while, pondering over everything that happened tonight, surprisingly not arguing with the fact that Tobias and I are leaving in the morning.
