68. Maren
68
Maren
T he Naiad called Pheolix gasped back to life among a myriad of desolated shield weed, glass, and frothy water. The floor inside Selena’s apartments sat flooded; Thaan’s too. Or Cain. Whichever name the Naiad used.
Selena propped Pheolix against the broken cushion of the chair. I wilted against Kye, thoroughly spent, and wiped a thin track of blood from my nose. He drew me in without a thought, pulling me to his chest, letting me use him to stay upright.
“Is it you?” Selena asked Pheolix.
“Only in the cruelest of ways,” he said, his voice thick and raspy. Selena melted into him, sputtering and hiccoughing and weeping, not caring that we watched. His arm wrapped around her back, and his face turned toward mine. Blood from Kye’s punch crusted his mouth, but the color in his skin began to warm. Still ashen and sallow, something about it seemed happier. More at peace.
Kye squeezed my hand. “I’m going to find him.”
He made to pull away, but I snatched his wrist. “Who? Thaan? No, you’re not.”
His mouth opened, but Pheolix aimed his empty stare at us. “He’s already gone.”
Kye glanced at the door. “He can’t have traveled far.”
“He can,” Pheolix said softly. “And did. I can feel him when he’s close. He’s miles gone, now.”
We shared a silent glance. Selena threaded her fingers into Pheolix’s.
“How?” I asked.
“Became a bird, became the wind. He can change form. I don’t know how he does it.”
I wondered how long Thaan had been inside him. How long it might take for the cracks in his flesh to seal, for lankness of his hair to thicken. But as he sent his gaze toward mine, I knew his milky eyes would never be what they were.
Selena delivered a long sigh across his chest, ruffling the edge of his tunic, and I suddenly felt as though Kye and I were imposing on a reunion that deserved privacy. Now able to relax without the threat of attack, I slowed my breath and transitioned back to my legs, bracing for the pain of separation at my ankles. Kye watched the length of my tail split into two, the gold scales disappearing into skin, my fins shrinking into toes.
He swallowed. “Well, a few things make more sense.”
I rocked onto my side, ignoring the sharp sting until I tried to stand. My foot rolled out from under me and I released a yelp as I went down. Kye caught my arms, frowning as he leaned to inspect my swollen leg.
“You need to get off that foot, Maren,” Selena said shakily. “You’ll only regret it if you damage the bone worse. What did you do?”
“Fell on it from midair,” I bit back at her, altogether annoyed that she’d suddenly decided to scold me as though I’d made the choice to break my moon-damned leg. I pointed to my black sea silk dress. “Hand me that please, Kye. And that blue stone on the floor.”
He pulled them out from under limp shield weed and gave my dress a shake, flecking the wall with water, but Selena cast her fingers toward it, sending the water out of the delicate fibers. Kye’s brows rose at her and she pointed a long finger at him. “Don’t ask me questions, human. It’s against our laws to reveal ourselves to anyone not like us. That Thaan forced Maren to as punishment…” Her clear blue eyes slid to mine, something foreboding in their depths.
“Sidra showed herself to humans,” I said, lifting my chin a fraction before pulling the dress over my head.
“She might have walked among them on her legs—" Selena pursed her lips "—but I assure you, she never revealed her Naiad tail to them.”
“It is forbidden,” Pheolix said, startling us all.
Selena tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, dropping to a whisper. “It is forbidden.”
I snorted. But a small chill hit me softly, a flurry of sleet and cold rain between my shoulder blades. Squashing it, I looked at Kye and blew a rough breath from my lips. “Shall we?”
“Wait,” Pheolix rasped, propping himself higher to look for us with his empty eyes. “You’ll want to know that Thaan isn’t here now.” Inside me went unsaid, and he stopped to hesitate. Selena reached for his hand. “Thaan owns my blood.”
I nodded. “I assumed as much.”
Pheolix exhaled slowly. “He named me an Oculos. ”
“Oh.” That changed things. “Will he…un-name you as one?”
Selena chewed the inside of her lip. “He could. But he won’t.”
My leg throbbed. I smoothed my dress over my stomach. “So, he might not be controlling you right now,” I said slowly. “But he could be watching everything you see and hear?”
Pheolix blinked. “I can’t see anything when he’s not here,” his mouth curved in ironic humor, and Selena’s brows knit. “But yes, he could hear what I hear. If he were listening.”
“And will you know when he decides to drop in and listen?”
“I’ll know. But I’ll have no way to tell you until he’s gone again. And he could stay for days.” His voice shrank. “Weeks.”
"I can tell the difference," Selena said. "But I'm not sure that you could."
“In other words, when you’re in the room, we need to keep our mouths shut about shit we don’t want Thaan to hear,” Kye supplied, polished as always.
Selena sent me a look that might have said control your human , but I found myself somewhat at peace with my husband’s tone. I lifted a hand at her, halfway between a shrug and an apology. “Do you need help cleaning this up?”
“No,” she sighed. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Alright.” I turned to Kye, raising an arm to wrap around his neck as he picked me up. “Take me to your tower.”
“How’s this?” Kye asked, tightening the final knot over my splint.
I rotated a hip, sighing with relief at the fixed joint. “Much better.”
He dropped onto his mattress, landing beside my opposite knee and sliding his elbow across the surface, nesting his jaw in his palm. A single dark brow quirked, expectant.
I exhaled slowly. “What do you want to know first?”
“Thaan.”
I nodded. “We can sense each other when we make eye contact. Nerves fire along our spinal cord. But I think Thaan guessed what I was before that, based on what the islanders said. That I seduced and stole sailors. He took your mind before you even made it back to Neris Island based off a hunch. All to arrest me.”
“What are you, if you’re not human?”
“A Naiad. A siren.”
His mouth parted. “A sea maiden.”
“No.” I fought a small smile. “There’s a difference. Sea maidens are myth. I’m not a fish.”
“How does Thaan control you?”
“Sirens govern themselves through loyalty based on their blood. Thaan made me swear mine by slicing my thumb and signing a contract that—" I stalled to gnaw the inside of my lip. “That I’d kill Hadrian. And marry you.”
“Why me?”
“I think he sensed you had feelings for me in Leihani. You destroyed the deck of the ship when you thought I was dead. And you were already there with us, making you convenient. But Thaan had plans to wield Calder for his Naiad war. The King is…”
“Unstable,” Kye said unbothered by using a word I was hesitant to. I still hadn’t gathered how mad King Emilius was. Kye rarely spoke of him, and I’d always sensed the need to creep around the subject rather than dive in.
But I nodded anyway. “And Hadrian—”
“Can’t be sung to.”
“Yes.”
“So, I was just… next in line as his puppet.”
Something flickered inside me, a quiet sorrow at his words. “You’re not a puppet, Kye.”
The corner of his mouth quirked, crescent scar twitching with it. “Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck.”
“Kye.”
“It’s over now? Your contract with him? You’re free?”
My brows knit, but I let his evasion go. “Yes. My blood is free.”
“Completely free?”
“Completely free.”
His smile grew, then quickly dropped into curiosity. “Were you…” He scratched at the stubble lining one side of his jaw. “Did you know in Leihani?”
“No. Not yet. I was friends with two Naiads in Leihani,” I said, wondering at the ease in which I’d just confessed their existence. “But I didn’t know I was one until I met Thaan.”
“And Thaan is one as well?”
I chewed my lip. Thaan had all but revealed himself as a Naiad to Kye. Pheolix and Selena, too. Would there be consequences for confirming what they were? “Make your best assumptions,” I answered slowly.
“You were born this way?”
“I was human-born with Naiad blood.” I frowned, realizing how little sense that made. “Selena woke the Naiad in my veins after I came here.”
“Does it hurt?”
“When I change?” I laughed. “It did the first time. It doesn’t now.”
“What else can you do?”
I leaned against his pillows. “You already know the extent of it. We call seduction incanting , and any human that’s incanted is a vacous . I can call to water in the air or the sea and bend it to my will. I heal fast, unless it’s a broken bone.” I glared at my ankle. “And my sense of smell is sharp.”
Thrust out of the slit in my black dress, Kye ran a finger down my un-splinted leg, sending a warm shiver to my toes. “Can I see it again?”
“I don’t see the harm. Once this splint comes off.”
“Does it pass on?”
I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”
His finger stopped. His eyes flicked to mine.
My eyes widened. “Genetically?”
Kye raised a shoulder, a half-smile on his lips, but something sad in his gaze.
Unsure what to make of that, I swallowed. “Yes. Does that bother you?”
“Not at all. I’m just...” He scrubbed the side of his face again. “Not sure I want children.”
“Oh.” Pillows behind my back, I stretched my spine, suddenly at a need to shift my weight. “I suppose these are the things you don’t talk about ahead of time when you’re forced to marry someone.”
“Do you?” He glanced at me, and I watched his chest still as he waited for my answer.
“I don’t know,” I said quietly. “I’ve never thought of it before.”
“Never?” Kye looked at me as though I’d told him I’d never breathed air. “Not once?”
I gave an uncomfortable laugh, the differences in our upbringing once again thrust before us. “I never thought I’d be married, Kye.”
“Well, you are.” He smiled again, though the scent of worry tinged my nose. “So, I suppose it’s something to think about.”
“If you’re afraid I’ll leave because you don’t want children, you can stop. I’m not going anywhere.” My fingers twitched, and I grabbed the mass of waves behind my neck, twisting my hair into a rope with both hands. “When Naiads mate, they mate for life.”
“Ah.” Kye pursed his lips. “What a relief that we’ve stopped every time we’ve come close. You might’ve been stuck with me forever.”
I kicked him with my good leg. “I am stuck with you, you idiot.”
He grinned at that, catching my foot and folding his arm over it to lean on me, the shadow of his beard tickling my knee. “Leihani, don’t take this the wrong way, but let me explain the meaning of the verb mating to you.”
I shoved him away with the side of my foot. “Get off me, you stupid prat. Naiads mate in two ways. The first is what you’re thinking of.”
He raised a brow, inviting me to continue.
“And the second,” I exhaled, the scent of my own uncertainty now clouding the air, “is by saving someone’s life.”
“Ah,” he said. Golden eyes delved into mine. I spilled into them, a free-fall I didn’t care to try and catch myself on as I tumbled forward. Letting myself plunge headfirst into their depths, catching fire as I dropped. Kye planted a small, beautiful kiss on the top of my knee. “I guess you are entirely stuck with me, then.”