Chapter 38 #2
"You're building quite the list, Kaelan. This daughter—she's the personal interest, isn't she? The reason your claws keep extending?" Her voice was silk and poison, probing for weakness, for leverage she could use later.
I said nothing. My silence was answer enough.
"I don't track individual humans." Serath's tail flicked with something like regret—regret at losing a potential sale, nothing more.
She spread her webbed hands in a gesture of helplessness that didn't quite reach her calculating eyes.
"Too many of them, too short-lived to bother learning their movements.
But..." She paused, one clawed finger tapping against her chin, considering, her silver gaze going distant.
"There are others who might. The shore-walkers. The ones who move between worlds."
"Shore-walkers?" I kept my voice carefully neutral, though I knew of them already. I wanted to hear what Serath knew, what she might offer.
"Sirens who've learned to take human form.
They live among the land-dwellers, gathering information, building networks.
" Her tail flicked with something like disdain, the purple scales rippling with the motion, and her lip curled with distaste.
"Unnatural, if you ask me. But useful, if you need to find specific humans.
There's one in Thornhaven itself—goes by the name Coral among our kind.
She runs a tavern near the docks. Caters to sailors, merchants.
.." She smiled thinly, her silver eyes glinting with dark amusement.
"The kind of men who buy and sell omega flesh. She hears things."
"Coral." I repeated the name, committing it to memory alongside the rest, filing it away with the precision of a predator cataloging prey. "In Thornhaven."
"Tell her I sent you. She owes me a favor—a real one, not the unspecified kind you were too clever to agree to.
" Serath's smile widened, showing more of those yellowed teeth, her eyes crinkling at the corners with something that might have been respect.
She wagged one clawed finger at me in mock admonishment.
"She'll help you find your humans. And perhaps.
.. she can provide details about Marcus that I cannot.
Port gossip. Rumors. The things that only land-dwellers know. "
I inclined my head—the closest I would come to thanking her. "The kills I owe you. Where do you want them?"
"The warm currents, three leagues south of the reef.
Fishermen from the coastal villages sail there regularly.
" Her silver eyes gleamed with anticipation, hunger flickering across her ancient features for just a moment before she schooled her expression back to neutrality.
Her tongue darted out to wet her thin lips.
"Fat, slow targets. I'll expect payment within the month. "
"You'll have it." I turned to leave, my dark tail cutting through the water as I angled away from the trench. Her voice stopped me at the edge of the abyss.
"Kaelan," something in her tone made me pause—something almost like warmth, buried beneath decades of calculated coldness.
I turned back to find her watching me with an expression I couldn't quite read, her ancient body hovering at the lip of her trench.
"This daughter you're hunting for. The one who was sold.
" She drifted closer, her ancient eyes searching my face with uncomfortable intensity, seeing things I'd rather keep hidden.
"She's yours now, isn't she? Pack-bonded. Mated."
I didn't answer. I didn't need to.
"Be careful." Serath's voice dropped lower, and for a moment, she sounded almost concerned—almost like the young siren she must have been, centuries ago, before time and survival had stripped away everything soft.
Her silver eyes held something that might have been genuine warning.
"Vengeance is a current that can pull you deeper than you intend to go.
I've seen it destroy stronger sirens than you. "
"I'm not seeking vengeance," I kept my voice quiet, controlled, my dark eyes meeting her silver ones without flinching. "I'm seeking justice."
"Is there a difference?" She held my gaze for a long moment, her silver eyes ancient and knowing, and then she turned and disappeared back into the darkness of her trench, leaving me alone at the edge of the abyss, her question echoing in the cold water.
I considered the question as I swam away, letting the current carry me back toward warmer waters.
Vengeance was personal—a wound demanding repayment in blood.
Justice was something else. Something colder, more absolute.
Vengeance could be satisfied. Justice never could.
Maybe there wasn't a difference. Maybe Serath was right, and I was swimming toward a depth I wouldn't be able to escape.
I found I didn't care.
The journey back to our territory took the better part of two days, and when I finally reached the cave system, my pack was waiting for me.
All four of them—Riven and Vale flanking the entrance like guards, their bodies tense with anticipation, crimson and silver scales gleaming in the bioluminescent light, while Thane curled protectively around Lily in the nest's center, his tail wrapped around hers.
She looked up as I approached, her dark hair swirling around her face, and I saw the question in her eyes before she spoke it.
"You found something." It wasn't a question. She could read me through the bond, could feel the grim satisfaction settling in my chest like a stone finding the seafloor. Her fingers tightened on Thane's arm, her whole body leaning toward me with desperate hope.
"I found everything we need." I swam to her side, letting the others close ranks around us, feeling the familiar comfort of pack surrounding me.
"Marcus operates out of Thornhaven. He runs three ships along the eastern coast, and he'll be making port in Saltmere within the week.
But there's more—he doesn't just buy omegas.
He sells them. He's part of a network—private auctions, wealthy buyers. "
Lily's expression didn't change, but I felt her emotions spike through the bond—anger, disgust, and beneath it all, a cold determination that matched my own. Her fingers curled into fists, her knuckles went pale, and her jaw tightened until I could see the muscle jumping beneath her skin.
"Good." Her voice was ice, cold and sharp, nothing like the gentle warmth I usually heard from her. Her dark eyes glittered with something ancient and predatory, something she'd learned from us. "Then we don't just destroy him. We destroy all of it."
I didn’t say anything for a moment, sensing her hesitation through our bond.
"And my parents?" she asked quietly, and I felt another shift in her emotions through the bond—the anger giving way to something older, deeper. Something that hurt. Her voice cracked slightly on the word, and she looked down at her hands, unable to meet my eyes. "Did you find them?"
"I have a lead. A shore-walker in Thornhaven—a siren who lives among humans, who hears things.
" I reached out to brush a strand of copper hair from her face, the gesture gentle despite the violence we were discussing.
Her skin was warm beneath my fingers, her pulse quick at her throat. "She can help us find them."
"I want to come." The words came out fierce, certain, her dark eyes blazing with determination as she lifted her head to meet my gaze.
Her whole body had gone taut, her tail lashing once behind her with barely contained energy.
"I need to look into the eyes of the people who sold me and see if they feel anything.
And if they don't—if they've been living their comfortable lives without a single thought for the daughter they sold—then I need to see that too. "
"Then you'll come." The decision settled in my chest like an anchor finding the seafloor, heavy and immovable. I cupped her face in my hands, tilting her chin up so she had to meet my eyes, letting her see the promise there. "All of us. Together. We end this as a pack."
We left that same night, swimming hard for Thornhaven, the five of us moving through the dark water like shadows. The journey took us three days, following currents and coastlines until we reached the busy harbor where Coral made her home.
We found her in the shallows outside the city, waiting for us as if she'd known we were coming.
She was a small siren with scales that shifted between deep coral pink and soft sand, and her dark eyes held the strange dual quality of someone who had learned to exist in two worlds at once.
Her body was slim and graceful, her features delicate, but there was a sharpness to her gaze that spoke of survival.
"Serath sent word." Her voice carried oddly through the water—too human, somehow, shaped by years of speaking above the surface.
She floated before us with her arms crossed, studying each of us in turn with cool assessment.
"You're looking for Marcus. And for a pair of humans who sold their daughter. "
"You know where they are?" Lily pushed forward, her whole body tense with desperate hope and simmering fury, her copper hair swirling around her face.
Her hands were clenched at her sides, her tail lashing behind her with agitation.
Coral studied her for a long moment, something like sympathy flickering in her ancient eyes.
Her expression softened slightly, though it didn't lose its sharpness.
"The parents—Harrow and Maren Ashford. They live in a village called Millbrook, about two days' travel inland from here. He bought a farm with the gold from selling you, I’m going to assume.
She works at the local inn." Her lips curled with disgust, her delicate features twisting with contempt.
"They have a comfortable life. New house, new clothes, new status in the community. All bought with omega blood."