The Fall (The Siren Series)

by Higginson, Rachel

  They couldn’t touch me because I was flying above them all.

  I stumbled to the bathroom and didn’t bother even glancing at myself in the mirror before I dove into the hot stream of the shower. I hadn’t taken the time to scrub my makeup off before bed so I knew it would be a horrid mess and I could feel how tangled and wild my hair had become through the night. I felt like Medusa with hair of snakes that would strike and spit at anything that dared to look at me.

  And then I would turn them all to stone.

  I took my time getting ready for the day. I had no motivation to face my mother or Nix. The courage Ryder had imparted into me last night still thrummed through my veins and leftover rebelliousness made me question whether I would ever leave my room.

  I styled my hair in loose waves around my shoulders. I took care with my outfit and dressed in high-waist gingham short-shorts and a blousy, spaghetti-strap tank top to fight the scorching summer heat. I made up my face like my mother taught me to with mineral-based powder, a bronzer, a blush, accentuating eyeliner, four steps of eye shadow and fifty swipes of mascara per lash. I glossed my lips and then slipped on my turquoise studded gladiator sandals. The last step was to dig out my tattoo concealer and cover the two places on my body that would only fuel Nix’s ire. It had taken me an hour but I was ready.

  I was beautiful.

  And I was starting to feel empty again.

  I placed my hand on the door handle and sucked in a strengthening breath. I turned the knob slowly and then I forced myself out of the sanctuary of my room.

  Nix was already here. He faced the wall-length windows that looked out over the drive and downtown Omaha. He was dressed impeccably in a stylish suit that tailored to his body effortlessly. His dark hair lay perfectly on his handsome head. His olive-toned skin almost glittered it was so healthy and flawless; and his hands crossed over his chest with casual arrogance.

  He seemed perfectly at ease in my apartment, a statue of a god looking down from Mount Olympus on the wayward human population below.

  It was the tension in his broad shoulders that made my confidence flee and my courage dip. A sick, acidic feeling rolled through my belly and I immediately regretted believing I would be brave enough to face him after what I pulled last night.

  My mother entered the room from her bedroom across the living room. I felt her presence but couldn’t tear my eyes away from Nix’s back.

  What would he do to me?

  Ava didn’t say anything to me or acknowledge me in any way and her silence only amped up the tension in the room. Finally and without addressing me she spoke to Nix. “Are you ready?” she asked.

  He pivoted to face me. His dark eyes were black with a rage I couldn’t entirely comprehend. They drifted over me from head to toes and back up again. If possible, his expression darkened even more and his body tightened with aggressive pressure.

  Speaking to my mother in a snarling voice, he said, “We’ll meet you downstairs, Ava.”

  Out of fear and desperation I finally glanced at my mother who granted me a sorrowful look of pity before obeying her boss. She snatched her purse from the side table in the entryway and disappeared from the condo.

  My gaze swung back to Nix even while I would have chosen to look anywhere else. But he was danger in this moment.

  He was uncertain punishment. If I wanted to protect myself I had to keep an eye on him and watch his every movement.

  He’d never actually physically hurt me, but he’d sent others to carry out his dirty work. My mother had slapped me before. And in a traumatic episode last fall, that I tried to bleach from my memory but couldn’t, he had sent me on a job that ended with me being “punished” by one of his business associates. Taylor, under Nix’s orders, had beat the ever-loving hell out of me and tried to strangle me.

  I couldn’t say how far he would have taken his assignment, but when I’d escaped the hotel room and Taylor’s fists, it had felt as though he wouldn’t stop until there was a dead body to present to Nix.

  I shoved those thoughts from my head and forced my mind to focus on the present. I couldn’t get caught up thinking about other things when there was something so vile and treacherous in the room with me right now.

  He prowled over to me. That was the only way I could describe it. He measured each step with careful, precise intent and held me captive by the feral, dominating expression that twisted his face into a hard mask of hateful resolve.

  He slid right into my personal space, not giving me an inch to breathe or think. I couldn’t move my eyes out of his hypnotic gaze; he had effectively ensnared me- the wounded forest animal in his hunter’s trap.

  He took a step back and I stumbled with him until my back hit the wall. His forearm slammed home over my head and he dropped his face to an inch from mine. “You denied me this?” The words were a gruff question on his full lips. His fingers trailed up my side, over my hip, feather-light touches on my waist. “You’re mine, Ivy. You belong to me. I have restrained myself thus far. But if you continue to push me, I will not be able to continue protecting you from myself. Do you understand?”

  Fear sliced through my skin, cutting track marks into my skin and leaving wounds that would bleed for days and leave scars that would last my lifetime. I nodded with a trembling chin. The top of my head brushed against his jaw and I felt his hot breath on the part in my hair.

  “I want you to say that you understand, Ivy,” his poisonous words demanded. “Say, ‘Yes, Nix, I understand.’” When I hesitated, unable to spit the words out of my mouth, his hand fisted into my silky top and pulled me against his unrelenting body. “Say it!” he shouted into my ear.

  “Y-yes, Nix,” I whimpered. Tears blurred my vision and my nose started to run. “I understand.”

  His hand released my shirt before he could rip it and his hand splayed against the curve of my hip one more time. His thumb rubbed a slow line up and down my stomach and his breathing rasped in and out of his chest, revealing a pounding heartbeat that thumped violently in his chest.

  “There will be more of this later,” he promised.

  I didn’t know if he meant more touching or more yelling, but I didn’t want either.

  Instead of telling him that, I sniffled and nodded my head.

  He slipped his hand to my back and turned me with a swift push. I tripped over my own feet with the harsh momentum, but he caught me in the same step. His hand stayed glued to my lower back and he forcefully guided me from the apartment.

  “Where are we going?” I asked in a small voice.

  He didn’t say anything. He locked my apartment behind us with his own key and then resumed steering me to the bank of elevators that would lead us to the lobby. I looked up at him and ignored the skittering shivers that ran up and down my spine.

  “Nix?” I whispered. “Where are you taking me?”

  Once the shiny elevator doors had closed behind me, he said, “You had guests come from out of town to see you last night, Ivy. In your childish attempts to garner my attention, you were rude to them. We will right that today.”

  My heart pushed against my chest cavity, as if his words filled it with too-much pressure. He made it feel like an overinflated balloon one touch away from popping or a too-full tire that would burst with the sharp cut of a small rock. I rubbed at the sore spot as if I could soothe the pain and relieve the ache.

  I closed my eyes and found Ryder in the safe place of my mind. His eyes were silver with an emotion I wouldn’t let him speak out loud. His lips were parted and wet from my tongue. His hands gripped me possessively and his presence wrapped around me like a healing balm. He whispered sweet promises of a better life, of a life after this moment.

  He told me I would make it.

  He told me I would survive.

  “Nothing I did last night was an attempt to garner your attention,” I told Nix with a stronger voice than I had been capable of so far. “I wasn’t trying to get you to notice me.”

  He grunte
d a masculine sound of disbelief. “Then what was your plan, Ivy?”

  In that simple question, I realized two things. The first was that Nix was an arrogant man. I had always known this, but never understood the extent of his conceit. He couldn’t imagine a world that didn’t revolve around him or a woman who didn’t constantly think of him. His egotism was an asset in most every area of his life; but it could also be a weakness.

  The second was that I had the opportunity for a power play here. It would cost me. Nix would lash out in some way… or maybe in every way. But this moment was mine and I was just foolish enough to take it.

  “My plan was to not go to that party. I didn’t want to go, so I didn’t. I didn’t want to celebrate my birthday with people I cannot even stand the sight of, so I didn’t. I didn’t want your company, not in any way and so I didn’t seek it out. That wasn’t a grab for attention. That was defiance.”

  The words came out of my mouth freely, victoriously. My chest swelled to make room for my heavy heart. My hands tingled with terrified anticipation for his retaliation.

  The elevator reached the ground floor. The doors opened but Nix did not move. I stayed as still as he did. For all my bravado, I knew there was only so far I could push him.

  The doors closed and we sat unmoving on the grounded elevator. After long moments, I couldn’t stand the building tension any longer. I chanced a glance over at him and crashed into his furiously calm gaze.

  “What you want is irrelevant. What you think is immaterial. Do you understand that? Do you see how caught you are? The freedom you seek is a mirage. The rebellion you toss my way is a small pest that I will stomp the life from with the heel of my shoe. And you? You are nothing more than a prized mare waiting for me to bridle. You are youth that will age, fire that will fade. Continue to fight me, Ivy, I enjoy the struggle. Continue to disobey me because I delight in the discipline. Push me further because I will relish every second you reveal that bright spirit you possess. But I will utterly elate in the moment you realize there is nowhere else to go and that all of your struggles have been for nothing. When the light finally dims in those exquisite eyes, my victory will be infinitely sweeter.”

  By the time Nix finished, I couldn’t stop the trembling that started in my hands and spread to every single part of my body. I pressed a shaking hand against my stomach to stop the nausea roiling through me, but it was no use. I felt faint with fear and more hopeless than I ever had before.

  “Save the breakdown for later, Ivy. We are keeping people waiting.”

  His tone was just callous enough to snap me out of my impending hysteria. With the same spark that he threatened to destroy, I snapped, “Who is waiting, Nix?”

  He pushed the button that opened the doors of the elevator. As he left me to follow after him, he called over his shoulder with an amused lift of his eyebrows and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, “The Fates.”

  Chapter Four

  Nix pulled up to the valet stand and we climbed out of his tiny sports car so the attendant could take over. He’d driven us across the river into Council Bluffs, Iowa. The trip only took fifteen minutes from my midtown apartment. Omaha and Council Bluffs would have flowed into each other if it weren’t for the Missouri River directly in between, effectively dividing not only the two cities, but Nebraska from Iowa as well.

  I expected such prestigious guests as the Fates to be staying at a posh five star hotel that offered amenities like personal shopping and chocolates on the pillows.

  They were staying at a casino.

  With an all-you-can-eat buffet.

  This seriously discredited the ominous reputation they had in our circle.

  Although, to be fair, it was a very nice casino that could probably guarantee them any of their whimsical desires. And they were the Fates after all. Staying at a casino while on vacation was probably something akin to mixing business with pleasure.

  But still weird.

  Nix and my mother both sighed with tolerated exasperation when we walked through Harrah’s doors and entered the lobby. The casino spread out in front of us while the receptions desks sprawled to the right. It was early afternoon, but the sounds of the casino drifted down the luxurious corridors and caused a buzzing melee of whirring, pinging machines and money being lost or gained.

  It was a Tuesday afternoon but people milled about everywhere and the cloying scent of cigarettes and greed filled my nostrils.

  Nix bypassed the desk and headed straight to the elevators. Ava and I followed quickly behind, my sandals slapping against the polished floor clashing beats with the click of my mother’s heels. I expected her to snap at me to pick up my feet but she stayed reserved and focused.

  She had a moment of regret last fall after my attack. During the following months when Nix had been especially difficult to deal with, she had stayed silent on the side lines, neither offering her criticism nor stepping in to help me.

  Believe it or not, this was actually an improvement from her usual cruelty, but by no means acceptable.

  Honestly, I didn’t know what to think of her closed-mouth policy these days. I didn’t trust her, by any means. That was for sure. And I never would trust her. Not ever again in my life.

  She could fall down on her knees and weep and beg for my forgiveness and she would still never get it.

  She was dead to me.

  On the top floor, we stepped into the hallway and walked down the patterned carpet to the penthouse suite. Run of the mill hotel artwork decorated the walls and bright lines and dots that made up some kind of abstract pattern adorned the carpet. The cigarette smoke had followed us up here and clung to my clothes and hair.

  I didn’t mind the smell of smoke while it was drifting into the air around me; it was the ashy residue that stayed with me and had to be scrubbed off with a loofa and an industrial-size bar of soap that bothered me the most.

  The door opened before Nix could lift his hand to knock. I smiled a little at this because, of course, they would know we were here. They were the Fates, after all. This was the same reason Nix hadn’t called ahead or roused me from sleep earlier. They would know when we were coming and be prepared no matter what we decided along the way.

  Despite the foreboding feeling I had with this meeting, I couldn’t deny the absolute fascination I had with seeing the Fates face-to-face for the first time.

  This was actually a special event. Hardly anyone ever met them in person. Occasionally, someone in our circle would receive a random phone call either warning them of something in the future or advising them of events that hadn’t happened yet. As powerful and important as Nix was, I couldn’t even be certain he had met them before today.

  I stared at the woman that opened the door for us. She wasn’t beautiful but she wasn’t not beautiful either. I found her features confusing. Her over-sized eyes had a pretty tilt to them and were the color of conch shells, pale, peachy pink. Her skin was so pale white she seemed almost translucent, it shimmered in sunlight from the wide windows behind her like fish scales. She was slender and lithe, seemingly floating over the carpet; but this was because her long white evening gown hid her feet. Since it was the wrong time of day to be so dressed up, I wondered if she was floating. Her mass of hair was the only thing about her that wasn’t white, it was orangey-red and so brilliantly bright it could almost be described as crass. It frizzed from her head in spiral curls that bounced and tangled in every direction. With a wave of her elegant hand she gestured toward the sitting area.

  As we walked by, she smiled an angelic expression at me; but as I kept walking… and kept staring, her smile became predatory and sinister. I bumped into my mother in an attempt to scurry away from her. I didn’t like her behind me; the hairs on the back of my neck pricked in warning as if she would reveal fangs and attack me without warning.

  I planned to sit down as quickly as possible in order to keep her in my eyesight, but what faced me on the couch was so much worse. A child sat with legs folded in the
middle of the hotel micro-suede monstrosity. She had to be younger than Honor who had turned twelve three months ago. I might have pegged her at nine, maybe ten? Her rich brown skin made me want to place her from Southeast Asia, but she seemed too otherworldly to have a home on this planet. Her fingers were bloodied with raw tips that tapped out incomprehensible patterns on her bent knee caps. Unlike the first lady, she dressed more casually in cute leggings and a racer-back tunic that should have been childish and appropriate; but her dark, wise eyes argued any thoughts that she might be immature or young. Those black orbs of knowledge followed me around the room as I ping-ponged my way to the opposite couch.

  The first woman had already shut the door and now she joined the child across from me. They both watched me with unnerving intensity. Their eyes never blinked nor wandered to Nix or my mother. They just concentrated on me as if my silence would tell them infinitely more than my words ever could.

  And maybe that was true.

  But mostly, they were scaring the hell out of me.

  Oh, how I wished I could snap a picture of them and text it to Ryder. He would so get a kick out of this.

  The third and final Fate entered the room from one of the bedrooms. She was ancient-looking, with ankle length white hair and enough wrinkles to match every year she’d spent on earth. She was clearly the most placid of the three, but her milky eyes were nonetheless intuitive and her cutting instinct seemed to only hide behind faux-gentleness. Her eyes drifted over Nix and then my mother before finally landing on me. I was just happy she acknowledged there were other people in the room.

  “Poseidon,” the oldest Fate began with the rasping voice of someone who had been speaking since the dawn of time. The history of the Fates had always been somewhat ambiguous. While the gods and goddesses of the Greek Pantheon allegedly lived eternally, both blessed and cursed with immortality, I doubted the accuracy of this legend. And I wasn’t alone.