Chapter 10 #2
I had no idea what that meant, but while there was weight to the knife, it felt comfortable in my hand. “Okay.” I pointed at her with the knife, making her grin. “Now fill me in. Why is Liam moodier and more annoying than normal?”
“I can hear you, Van,” Liam replied while continuing his exercises.
“I know, Liam.” I rolled my eyes before leveling Audrey with a look. “I’m going to keep asking about it. The more secretive you are, the more my curiosity is piqued.”
She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth.
She nodded and leaned against the old, folding table on which all the blades were displayed.
“Drustan, Fergus, and Liam used to all be friends.” Audrey looked sadly over at the fae, who was now stretching his arms as he sauntered toward us.
“What happened?” I asked. I refused to step aside as Liam reached forward to drop his sword on the table. My form of dominance—never stepping aside for a man.
“He killed my parents,” Liam grunted before taking one of the spare seventy-two-ounce water bottles we brought from our condo and chugging half of it in one go. “That’s why he was sent to the Gravhune.”
“Oh my god,” I whispered. I had been assuming Drustan slept with Liam’s high school girlfriend or something. I didn’t realize—oh my god. Liam’s parents were the former Fae King and Queen. Drustan murdered the leaders of an entire country.
“Yeah,” Audrey sighed, resting a hand on Liam’s forearm as he settled in to elaborate.
“Why did he do that?” I asked.
“Because Drustan is a monster,” Liam replied.
“Okay—but—like—” I shook my head, suddenly feeling restless. I decided to pull my ponytail out and start braiding my hair to keep my hands busy. “Why?”
“No one knows,” Liam sighed. I could see so many emotions pass over his expression as he paused in thought. Anger. Hurt. Pain. Rage. Sadness, “…He just…snapped. No one saw it coming.”
A psychotic break, maybe? That would explain why everyone referred to Drustan as mad, even though he didn’t seem so during our brief interaction together. Beyond barely reacting to getting stabbed, that is.
I frowned, but Liam continued speaking, staring at his water bottle as he did, “Our families were close. Being children of political leaders, we were pretty much raised together. Me, Fergus, and…Drustan.” Liam’s lips grimaced just from uttering his name.
“This was a little over a decade ago. Right as the three of us were becoming adults. Everyone was at my parents’ estate.
The nereid royals with Fergus and his siblings.
The siren royals, who were just Ilia, Drustan, and Drustan’s cousin; the female he brought to Fergus’s ball.
” A weird, very inappropriate relief filled my core at the knowledge that the woman was Drustan’s cousin, and I forced myself not to dwell on that piece of information as Liam continued, “Everyone was celebrating my sister’s future on the throne.
After we had gone to bed, I suddenly woke to the sound of my parents screaming.
” Rocks formed in my gut, watching Liam inhale a breath of what looked like determination as he lifted his gaze to continue the story.
“After finding their guards disemboweled in the hallway, I stormed into their chambers with Fergus. We found Drustan standing over my parents’ bed with—with—” Liam’s lips twisted in disgust as he scraped a hand down his face. “…their hearts in his claws.”
I blinked at him, throwing a shocked look toward Audrey. She gave me the barest nod of confirmation as she squeezed Liam’s forearm in a small attempt to comfort him.
“…In his…claws?” I asked. Drustan didn’t have claws. He had normal, slender, human-like fingers with veins that circled up his wrists, down his forearm—
“Sirens have a specific…form.” Audrey sighed as she dropped her hold on Liam’s arm. In response, he scooted closer to her, as if missing her touch.
“And it involves claws?” I pressed.
“Yeah, black claws. Almost as long as their fingers themselves. Their eyes turn jet black, too. Sometimes black veins appear under their skin; it’s very…unsettling to see.”
“You’ve seen it?” I asked her. Drustan’s eyes had gone all black a couple of times during those fleeting moments in the hallway of Fergus’s palace. I suppressed a shiver from the memory of those dark eyes.
“I’ve seen other sirens show it to me, like, as a party trick. But it’s still nerve-wracking to witness.”
I hummed at that, letting a few quiet moments settle between the three of us. The sound of cars in the distance, driving along PCH, echoed in the worn walls of the warehouse.
“Seems like a fair reason to get sent to the Gravhune,” I muttered. Drustan killed two people—political leaders. “And he wasn’t supposed to leave?”
“Nobody expected him to live long enough to,” Audrey replied.
I blinked at her. “What does that mean?”
“The magic of the Gravhune is cruel,” Liam explained. “You enter the Gravhune, and your own mind turns on you. You see things that aren’t there. You remember things incorrectly; the mental torture begins within minutes of entering the darkness.”
Well, shit.
“People end up taking their own lives if they don’t kill their prison mates first,” Audrey murmured. “It’s where they send the worst criminals. The most dangerous Hyvenmerians.”
Liam nodded, “However…Drustan crawled out after completing his five-year sentence.”
“And you all just like…let that happen?”
“He waited out his sentence.” Audrey frowned, before lifting her hand and splaying her fingers. “The sentence to the Gravhune is five years, knowing that no one has lasted more than one. Drustan, however…”
Whoa.
“He lasted all five years.”
I understood the challenge of fighting your own mind. Having your brain work against you more than most. Of your mind unexpectedly summoning trauma and memories you’d rather forget. I couldn’t imagine having a constant stream of that for a day, let alone five straight years.
What inspires a person to survive the Gravhune?
“He crawled out, looking like hell,” Liam murmured, and I recalled the footage of a mangled Drustan doing so. “And announced that he fulfilled his sentence. How he even kept track of time is beyond me. Time isn’t linear there. It’s part of the torture.”
“Goddamn.” I shook my head in shock. “So what did everyone do?”
“What could we do? He paid the punishment for his crime. Laws between our lands don’t account for whether someone completes five years in the Gravhune.
It only accounts for sending people there.
We had no choice but to let him back into society.
He has since been referred to as the Mad Siren Prince. ”
I widened my eyes. A murderer was just…walking around.
Crashing nereid birthday parties. Pinning me against the wall.
Trying to seduce me. Were his eyes changing to black because he wanted to kill me?
Did they go back and forth because of the mental and emotional torture he endured for five straight years?
“This is crazy,” I giggled the words, though I didn’t actually feel humor in them. “I can’t believe he—he and I—” I felt Audrey’s hand on me before I glanced down to see her squeezing my shoulder.
“He didn’t hurt you?” Audrey asked me quietly. She had already asked me that question several times since that evening, but my answer was still the same.
“No, he didn’t,” I replied. “He just looked…curious?” And horny. But maybe I was just projecting. My fear was present in that moment, that I knew for sure. But, thanks to Drustan, something purely visceral rose in me during those heated stares, too.
“I’m glad we got to you, Van,” Liam spoke up, before sitting next to Audrey against the table. “Sirens are already dangerous, but he…”
“Will rip my heart out?” I tried to joke, but I couldn’t lift my lips into a smile. I couldn’t laugh or giggle. What was funny about a very real threat like that?
Liam nodded once. “That, but also never forget that sirens can weaponize your emotions. Some have a weaker ability to do so than others but based on the wide pupils you had when we found you—” I lifted my eyebrows at that, because I hadn’t realized.
“—We need to remember that he is powerful. Anyone who can survive the Gravhune should be feared.”
I nodded. “Got it.”
“You’ll be better prepared if you see him again,” Audrey assured me, squeezing my shoulder.
“Thankfully, Fergus took the knowledge of me officially slaying an ‘ancient beast’ well, and he seemed convinced that his parents would start to question the Siren King’s title as the Chosen One on their own once they heard about it, too. ”
I nodded again. “And if we can keep the idea of a halfling like you being the Chosen One positive, then the Mellhawn Gates are more likely to stay open for everyone else.”
“I reached out to Hush to let her know how our visit in Vanhirra went, but she hasn’t had time to meet. I assume she’s busy following a lead on the missing siren mothers and children,” Liam added.
Shit. Right. There was so much going on in this other realm.
“What do you think is happening to those missing sirens?” I asked, wanting to change the subject from how dangerous Drustan’s raw animal magnetism was for a human like me.
Liam and Audrey shared a look before Audrey replied, “I wish I knew. If they’re alive, I want to help them.
It would be easier if Hyvenmere officially deemed me as the Chosen One.
If they’re not alive…I want to stop whoever is hunting them down.
” A dark look flickered across Audrey’s face, which was very unlike her.
Or, maybe, this was like her now, and I was still getting to know the Hyvenmerian side of her.
“I want to know why they’d be hunted down in the first place,” Liam added.
It was one of those rare moments when Liam and I agreed on something.