Chapter Thirteen
Liss paced along the edge of the swimming pool in the WatchTower. It was great, having one inside with the blustery November winds dropping the outside temps way below freezing. There were blue cushioned lounge chairs, a big TV, and ferns thriving in the corners of the steamy room. Afternoon light poured in from a skylight that in no way reflected Buffalo’s dreary skies. Was it the sky from the Nephilim stronghold?
Regardless, she still didn’t want to be there. “You know, you don’t get paid sick days in bar jobs. I might lose this one over you making me call out today.”
Maisy was sunk chin-deep in the burbling hot tub. “Stop whining. You know that if the situation were reversed, you’d tie me down to one of these loungers to keep me from going in. Safety first.”
“But I’m fine.”
“Maybe,” Eva said from her lounger, without bothering to open her eyes. She was wrapped in a blue and white striped towel, having just dragged herself out of the water. Dragged was not an overstatement. Her friends’ energy levels would make a sloth look like a jumping bean.
They’d stayed up all night, watching over her. Which Liss appreciated. Sincerely.
It was selfless and awesome and wholly unnecessary, since she’d been safely locked in a cell. So she was a little over dealing with the massive exhaustion and crankiness they’d brought on themselves.
Especially the level of snark they’d laid on her about staying under “watch” for the full forty-eight hours and skipping her bartending shift.
Liss was 200 percent certain that command had come from the three male Nephilim . And that they’d been too chicken to fight with her about it and foisted the task onto their women.
“I feel fine. Bursting with energy from that amalgamation of blood coursing through me.” And probably that she’d slept for sixteen hours straight once they were back in Buffalo.
Liss rounded her shoulders beneath the straps of the red bathing suit Maisy had grabbed from their home along with other supplies for her lockdown. Yup. No wings. All was well. It’d been a full ten minutes since she last checked.
That was progress. Proof that her panic was under control.
“Good for you. That makes exactly one of us.” Maisy’s voice dripped with sarcasm thicker than whipped cream frosting on a strawberry layer cake.
“Not my fault. I didn’t ask to get attacked. Didn’t do anything stupid to cause it. And are you seriously blaming me because you chose to sit up all night with me?” Huh. Guess now that the immediate gratitude had worn off, she was knee-jerking back into fighting with Maisy.
“Gee, what were we thinking?” Eva propped herself up on one elbow. “How very helicopter mom of us to think you might not want to wake up terrified and alone or in pain. Next time you come back from near-death, I’m going to fly myself and Maisy to…that incredible beach in Thailand surrounded by cliffs. We’re going to soak up some rays and have a beach day while you possibly whine and contort in agony.”
Maisy raised her hand. “Um, Eva? Liking the spirit of that rant, but you went a little dark there at the end.”
“I grew up in Hell. Deal with it.”
Oh, yeah. Her friends definitely needed a nap.
“How’s this? I will stop complaining about missing tonight’s shift—which I know came down from the men, so you are absolved—if you two agree to chill here and close your eyes for a few.”
“C’mere.” Eyes still shut, Evangeline groped at the side table till her hand connected with the box of lancets they used to check her blood every two hours. “Let me stick you one more time.”
“Seriously?”
Eva cracked open a gray eye. “What color is my blood?”
“Silver.”
“What color is your blood?”
Liss sighed. She’d been schooled in this twice already. She moved next to Eva and stuck out her hand. “We don’t know unless we check.”
“Correct.” Eva pricked her finger, then held up the lancet for Maisy to see. “Human red.”
Ewww. “I prefer to call it fire-engine or candy-apple red.”
“You can call it closing-the-deal-on-the-third-date red for all I care.” Maisy boosted herself out of the hot tub and wrapped herself in a towel. “It means we can snooze for a bit.”
Liss pinched the tip of her finger. It’d be smart to wait until after Maisy napped. Her mood was currently less than ideal. Except that Liss couldn’t wait. Not after Maisy had literally saved her life. That dropped the responsibility of apologizing firmly in her lap.
“Um, before you do, there’s one thing we need to clear up.” She paced, carefully avoiding the wet footsteps. “I was a raving bitch, and I’m sorry.”
Maisy paced away an equal number of steps. They were apart almost by the length of the pool. “Are you sorry for being a bitch about it? Or actually sorry that you said and thought those things?”
Crap. Specific apologies were the worst . They made it a lot harder to get to the forgiveness. “Can’t we just hug and say this fight’s over? Called on account of near-death? After all, I just took all the blame. What more do you want?”
“I want to know if you genuinely believe that I’m not on your side anymore.”
Oh.
So they weren’t going to sweep it all under the rug.
Great.
Evangeline had to be thinking wistfully of her days down in the Fallen Angel enclave. Sure, it was in Hell. But the Fallen’s lives had to be less messy than this total Titanic -level disaster she and Maisy had devolved into right in front of her.
What if this fight cost her Eva’s friendship, too?
What if it laid bare the fact that Eva saw her solely as human—and thus “less than?”
How had everything been simpler last night when Liss was locked in a cell?
“If I do it without yelling or snark, can I be honest?”
“Might as well.”
“Not always . Which might have evolved organically the more serious you got with Rhys. But it isn’t prioritizing a boyfriend over a best friend. It’s prioritizing the fate of the world over a best friend. Which I get makes me petty and small. My feelings, however, don’t respond to commands or pleading. Or logic.”
“You’re not petty. And I don’t see you as less than for being human. Everything we do is to protect humans. That makes you the highest priority. Just…the big picture ‘you.’ Not the actual ‘you.’” Maisy dropped her finger quotes. Crinkled her nose. “As I hear it, I regret saying it. Because you’re immensely important to me.”
“I know.” Liss winked. “I mean, I do know that, deep down in my heart. Just like I know that the fate of the world is, in fact, of greater concern and immense responsibility. I respect you for doing everything in your power to fulfill this duty that you never asked for.”
Maisy inched closer, hands extended. “Thank you. For understanding and agreeing to stick with me through all this weirdness. Because you don’t have to. You don’t have to keep risking your life. You could so easily peace out and ghost us.”
“Nah. You’d probably send an actual ghost to hunt me down.”
“I know I’ve screwed up. Been inconsiderate. And I’m sorry. But what you said still stings.”
Liss met her halfway. They couldn’t go back and undo the changes their lives had undergone. All they could do was acknowledge them and figure out how to move forward.
“Correct. I think I just had to blurt it out.”
Maisy’s double squeeze felt warm. Familiar. As if it were pushing out all the anger and resentments they’d so stupidly held onto. “This is your window. Blurt it all out. Then us two mega-powerful beings will nap and you can luxuriate in the hot tub. We’ll call it a reset.”
There was one more little thing to get off of her chest. “I’m scared, Maisy. All the time.”
“Me, too.”
Liss clasped her hands at her sternum. Just below was where knots formed every time they talked about the world ending. “I go about my life, and then, all of a sudden, it’s like a vacuum sucked the air out of my lungs.”
“I’ve never once seen you flip out. Well, not since we killed that first demon in our backyard. Even then, you attacked him first and only went catatonic after the danger had passed.”
Liss couldn’t take the bravery win. She’d been in shock. And survival mode, simultaneously. With a healthy dollop of this can’t actually be happening to me .
“You opened the door to this utterly cool world I got dragged along into with you. But it’s scary. Having so many conversations that end with one of our friends calmly stating, yeah, we could die .”
Maisy toyed with the ends of her ponytail. “I’m serious—you can opt out any time, Liss. Still live with me for free, but stop sitting in on mission planning. Stop belly dancing with witches. Close your eyes to all the, um, extras.”
“I can’t. Even as useless as I am, I can’t stop trying to help. I can’t shut my eyes to it all. I won’t abandon you like that. I won’t turn my back on the world. I’m not thrilled about the things I’ve learned. But I can’t ignore or un-know them. I have to help. No matter how small the capacity, I have to make whatever effort I can.”
“I looked into the Amazons. To see if they’d train you.”
Well, that was unexpectedly cool. “You wanted to send me to Wonder Woman camp?”
“You were so disappointed when Aradia told you that becoming a witch was out of the question. Amazons are a little magical, but mostly just ripped and fierce.”
Wow. Having her art program axed at the high school and being let go used to be Liss’s worst rejection. “The Amazons didn’t think I was good enough? They wouldn’t let me in?”
“Stop with the pity party. There are no Amazons. It’s apparently just a legend. And a few good movies.”
Unicorns were real. Eva’s grandfather was Lucifer Morningstar. And yet buff chicks who kicked ass weren’t a thing? “Really? Everything else that we thought were legends turned out to be true.”
“Not everything. It turns out that Noah’s Ark isn’t real. Neither are Santa’s tiny elves.”
“But the tall, handsome warrior elves are real?”
“Of course.”
“That makes living in a world without Amazons a little easier to swallow.”
Evangeline draped a towel across her legs. “You babbling straddles the line between being inane enough to make me drowsy, and squawky enough to keep me awake from sheer annoyance.”
“Sorry.” Liss tucked the towel in. “Nap time is officially commencing. Anything you need me to do?”
“Besides not turn into a rampaging hybrid beast that wants to snack on us?”
Geez, Eva really got snarky when she was overtired.
Maisy pushed a pint glass of lemon water toward Liss. They’d been harping on hydration due to her losing most of her blood volume. But Liss felt like she’d topped off two ginger ales and three cups of water ago. “Will you turn on some music? Something new age to lull us to sleep?”
Liss knew that her friends had gone above and beyond. They’d left Buffalo at eleven p.m. to arrive at the Nephilim stronghold at seven a.m. So they’d essentially stayed up all night—albeit the Turkish day—and then stayed up a second night straight. Not to guard her, in case she turned into something snarly, since she’d been safely locked up. No, they’d done it simply to make sure she wouldn’t be scared and alone.
So she decided to break all her own rules and help make it up to them in the only way she could. “I’ll do you one better. I’ll sing you to sleep.”
Evangeline draped an arm across her eyes to shield them from the sunlight. “How about just a recording.”
“Hey, I’m the classically trained offspring of two opera stars, remember? I can manage a lullaby. Let me do this to help make up for your sacrifice of last night.”
Eva’s arm dropped and her eyes flew open. “You know, I’ve never heard you sing.”
“And you probably never will again after this. Liss doesn’t sing. Ever. She hates it. But I heard her once at a Christmas Eve carol service, and she’s fantastic. This really is a gift. Thank you.” Maisy patted her shoulder in gratitude and then sat on the edge of the lounge chair, looking up expectantly.
Evangeline tilted the back of her chair until she was upright. “Now I’m curious. I want to stay awake through the whole lullaby.”
Liss’s mother had not been the lullaby-singing type. Nor had she ever tucked her daughter in. That would’ve taken away from meals with friends, fans, important conductors, or prepping for a performance.
But Liss did know the classic lullaby from the opera Hansel
Two my head are guarding,
Two my feet are guiding;
Two are on my right hand,
Two are on my left hand—
Liss broke off the song. Evangeline’s chin dropped to her chest. Her neck made an audible snap. And Maisy fell over sideways on the lounger. Her arm was stuck under her at an awkward angle.
Nobody fell asleep that fast without being drugged. Nobody fell asleep in such weird positions.
They didn’t look asleep.
They looked dead .
Liss didn’t bother trying to think through how to help them. She didn’t have a clue. She grabbed her phone and called Zavier.
“Too lazy to walk up a flight of stairs and come find me?” It was his usual sarcastic drawl. Which, under any other circumstances, she’d be thrilled to hear, instead of all that guilt-laden sincerity he’d spoken with the day before when she woke up. “Unless—shit, did something happen?” His tone turned as sharp as his favorite dagger.
“Maybe? Definitely. Something’s wrong. Get to the pool. Now.”
She stood, frozen in place. Going near them wasn’t an option. Clearly, the worst had happened. Zavier’s blood—or whatever the loogaroo had poisoned her with—had turned her into a friend-killing monster.
Was it a pheromone she gave off? Was it her breath? Liss trembled, clutching the knot of the towel at her hip. Should she run away, right now? Before she accidentally killed the men, too?
Zavier flew through the doorway, Rhys and Gideon right behind him. They took a split second to notice Evangeline and Maisy. Then Rhys and Gideon zoomed to her friends. Zavier aimed at her.
“Stop!” Liss yelled. “Don’t come any closer.” She stumbled backward until coming up against a big potted fern. “I…I did this. I don’t know what I did, but it’s my fault. I don’t want to hurt you. I’m so sorry.” Tears streamed down her face. She grabbed another towel to cover her face. Could that prevent whatever she’d done to the women from happening to the men?
Rhys and Gideon murmuring to each other was a background blur. It didn’t matter what they said. She’d done the unthinkable. Hurt the people she cared for most in the world. Liss wouldn’t blame them for grabbing her and tossing her out into Niagara. That might be the best solution. She clearly couldn’t risk being around any people.
And how could she bear to live knowing she’d killed them?
A big hand squeezed her shoulder. “Liss, it’s okay.”
“Get away from me,” she screamed.
“Liss, they’re fine.” Zavier pulled the towel off her face. “Look for yourself.” He curved his arm to pull her into a sideways embrace.
Too scared to hope, Liss opened her eyes. Maisy now lay across Rhys’s lap. She was smiling at him. And Evangeline was looking right at her, brows drawn together into a serious frown.
They were alive.
Liss drew what felt like her first real breath. More tears flowed, but these were of relief. It was almost too much to process in such a short time. The zigzag of emotions made her limp. Zavier’s body was the only thing keeping her upright.
“You’re sure they’re all right?” She directed the question to Zavier, trusting him to not downplay the seriousness of whatever had happened.
“Yes. You still are the only one of us who almost died in the last twenty-four hours. You get to keep the medal.”
“Very funny.”
He flew them over to the other women. Maisy reached out to grab her hand. “Stop crying. It isn’t a good look on you. Your cheeks are as red as your suit.”
“I’m sorry.” It flew out of her mouth, as uncontrolled as a hiccup. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean…” Liss didn’t know how to apologize for something she still didn’t know how or what she’d done.
Rhys put his hand on top of Maisy’s. “Relax. Everyone’s fine. Nobody’s mad.”
Not sure that was correct. Eva still had that beady-eyed squint going on. Liss broke away from Zavier and crossed to her lounger, kneeling beside it. “I’m sorry, Evangeline. Truly.”
“I heard you.”
“Eva!” Gideon looked at her, aghast. “That’s harsh.”
She shook herself, blonde hair cascading over the straps of her pink suit. “Oh. I was thinking.” She grabbed Liss’s hand. “Didn’t mean to come off snarky. I was working the problem.”
“That’s an easy one.” Liss thudded her fist against her sternum. “ I’m the problem.” Even though her friends did, indeed, seem recovered from whatever she’d done, there was still the issue that she had knocked them out. If it had lasted longer, would they have died? Guilt burned like acid in her throat.
The men did that triangulated stare thing that always made her wonder if Nephilim were a teensy bit telepathic? Or was it just that they’d been inseparable since birth and knew each other’s thoughts inside and out.
Zavier pulled her to her feet. “I don’t think there’s any problem. The correct word you’re looking for is ‘gift.’”
Eva nodded. “That’s exactly where I was landing.”
“We’ll need to test the theory.” Zavier pointed. “Rhys, I say you have the short straw. You’ve got the most buttoned-up mind of all of us.”
“Feels like there’s an insult in there somewhere…”
“Most definitely.” Zavier flashed his wolfish grin.
“Hang on. Test what?” Maisy asked.
“And why?” Liss shuddered. “I don’t want to go through that again.”
Gideon came over and laid his hand on her shoulder. There was a lot of touching going on. And if they thought it would calm her down? They were right. “The most obvious answer—which is always the way to go with paranormal weirdness—is that you’re a Nereid .”
“A what?”
“A sea nymph. Do you remember the story of Odysseus?”
“He had his crew fill their ears with wax so they couldn’t hear the Sirens. Their song would’ve made them steer their boat into the rocks. But he tied himself to the mast so he could listen to them without any danger.”
“Right. Nereids are like Sirens, but they aren’t dangerous. They help sailors.”
Maisy circled her index finger in the air. “Let’s take this one step at a time, for us humans. The myth of Odysseus, that Homer wrote about, actually happened?”
“Sure. Homer got it all right. Calliope, one of the Muses, gave him the down-low. All he had to do was write it.”
“And yet somehow, Amazons had to be the ones that aren’t real? I mean, I know I shouldn’t be surprised anymore by finding out myths are real. But I am. And it’s very cool.”
“ Nereids are sea nymphs,” Rhys explained. “Not mermaids—people-shaped. Granddaughters of one of the Titans, Oceanus.”
Liss’s pulse kicked into triple time. “Wait, a Titan? The evil things we’re trying to keep locked up for time and all eternity? Am I evil now?”
“No.” Zavier’s certainty slashed through her panic with that one word.
Rhys doubled down with a shake of his head. “Absolutely not. Nereids aren’t evil. They’d help guide ships. They could also control the seas, calm them down for safe passage. And they were known for their beautiful singing voices. Which both lull the waves and put people to sleep.”
“You’re not actually a Nereid .” Gideon flashed a warm, reassuring smile.
“Good. Because I still feel like me.” But Liss was also still confused.
“Somewhere, way back, a bunch of generations ago, your great-whatever grandmother was a Nereid . That latent power got passed down and diluted in your DNA, until by this generation, all you were left with was the talent of beautiful singing. Zavier’s angelic blood woke up your power.”
She was horrified. “Put it back to sleep.”
All Liss had wanted, for months, was to discover that she had some power, any little smidge at all. Not to do selfish things like time travel or turn dirt into gold so she could quit her slew of jobs. She’d wanted some way to help her friends in their increasingly epic battle against Evil. Oh, and be able to defend herself against demons. That’d be super helpful.
But her parent’s self-absorption—to the point of rejecting her completely when she refused to follow in their footsteps—made singing utterly repugnant. She’d actively avoided it. Been much happier by doing so. The thought of a power dependent on singing made her want to claw back open that hole in her veins and drain out all of Zavier’s blood.
“Liss, this is an awesome thing. Nereids are nothing but good. You can sing as long as you want—it won’t kill anyone. Just put them to sleep.”
Yeah, Gideon sounded sure. But he didn’t know squat. “You’re just guessing. You don’t know. I don’t even know if I could do it again.”
“That’s why we should run a test. We’ll all leave the room. Maybe being this close to water is helping you, too.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Liss. If you’ve transformed, there’s no turning it off. Ignoring your powers won’t make them go away. You’ll have to learn how to use them. Or else they’ll pop out under stress and you won’t be able to control them. Better to know. For sure.” Zavier squeezed her hand, then hustled everyone out.
As soon as the door clanged shut, Rhys lay back on a lounge chair. “Sing anything. While you do, think about putting me to sleep. That’s all it should take.”
Rhys had been the one to introduce Liss and Maisy to this world of angels and demons. He’d been their grumpy guru. Liss trusted everything he said about it. And yet…she still had to double check. The bad possibilities were too scary to not . “You promise you’ll wake up?”
“Yes. But I don’t know how long that’ll take without intervention. As soon as I’m out, go get everyone. Once they verify you knocked me out, you can wake me up.”
“By singing something else?”
Laughter rolled out of him. “Definitely not. That’d just double down on keeping me asleep. A good old-fashioned shake of my arm ought to do it.”
“Okay.”
He’d said any song would work. But if Liss was going to give this one solid try, she wanted to power-boost with a song about sleep. After a second flipping through titles in her mind, she stopped on The Pretenders.
I go to sleep, sleep
And imagine that you’re there with me
I go to sleep, sleep
And imagine that you’re there with me
There was a thud as Rhys’s long arms slid down the sides of the lounger. His knuckles must’ve hit the metal frame. Liss tiptoed closer to study him. Not that he was the prank-playing type, at all, but now that she wasn’t in panic mode, she wanted to really see the effect for herself.
Thick black lashes that she envied fanned on both cheeks. Those impressive pecs moved in a very slow, steady rhythm beneath a cream fisherman’s sweater. Every muscle in his face appeared relaxed. Funny how much younger he looked without the usual serious, hard set to his expression.
Her bare feet slapped against the multiple shades of blue floor tiles that depicted a mosaic of dolphins leaping through waves. When Liss opened the door, there was no one in sight.
Oh.
Maybe they hadn’t wanted to risk hearing her even a little bit. She went down the hallway to the next door, which took her into a room that held the sauna, steam room, and icy plunge pool.
Sure enough, there they all were. Hands over their ears, too.
Liss crossed her arms and tsked. “You all look ridiculous.”
“Aha. Her attitude’s rebounded.” Maisy gave her a double high-five. “You’re not scared anymore, are you?”
“I most certainly am. Also disturbed. Disappointed. Disgruntled. But I did transition past the sheer panic I started with.”
Gideon opened the door so they could file out. “Is Rhys asleep?”
“As far as I can tell.”
“How do you feel about me getting a bowl of warm water and putting his hand in it?”
Eva beat her to the punch. “I feel aghast that an eighty-eight-year-old man would suggest something so childish. And that I’m sleeping with him.”
“We didn’t so much have a standard fun-and-games childhood. Plus, without Rhys being drugged or magically knocked out, there’s no way to sneak up on him sleeping. We’ve tried over the years.”
“That’s a hard no. This is a scientific experiment.” But as they reentered the pool room, Liss whispered to Gideon, “Maybe as a Christmas present for you. If you ask nicely.”
They formed a loose semicircle around the sleeping Nephilim . He hadn’t budged. His arms still dangled bonelessly.
“I’d call that a successful test. Maisy, you want to do the honors?”
She perched next to him, almost losing her towel in the process. Then she bent over and kissed him.
Nothing.
“This isn’t a fairy tale. True love’s kiss may be good for some things, but not this. Put some oomph into it.”
Maisy kissed her boyfriend again.
Nothing still.
A worm of panic began to inch up Liss’s throat.
“You’re just giving him a really good dream. He’s got no reason to wake up.” Zavier used the tip of his steel-toed boot to kick the arch of Rhys’s foot.
To her immense relief, his eyes flew open. And his hands immediately came up to latch around Maisy’s hips. “I like how this test ends. Can I go again?”
Laughing, she crawled off of him. “We’re being scientific here, remember? Do you feel normal?”
Rhys scrubbed his hands through his dark hair. “Still a bit worked over from the tournament yesterday. But otherwise, same as, what, five minutes ago?”
Gideon clapped his hands loudly, once, then gave a double thumbs-up. “I call it official. Liss is now a Nereid hybrid.”
She couldn’t dismiss it as a mistake any longer. Couldn’t ignore the obvious cause and effect. But Liss was still trying to wrap her head around almost dying yesterday. Suddenly gaining powers—powers dependent on something she hated—was too much to process.
There were probably eight hundred questions that she should be asking: did she have extended family to go meet? Were there other powers she hadn’t yet discovered? Did she have a sort of Achilles heel as a half Nereid ? But she simply couldn’t.
Liss managed to swing her butt around to sit on an empty chair. Her plan was to stay there, in a state of shock, for at least an hour or two. No thinking. No talking. No more drama.
“It explains that starfish-shaped birthmark you’ve got,” Zavier muttered.
Hands on the armrests stabilized her as she swiveled her torso around to face him. “What?”
Rhys, as usual, stepped into teacher mode. “There were fifty original Nereids . Each one had either a red coral comb in their hair or a starfish on their robe. Makes sense that generationally, it’d transmute into a birthmark.”
“Can I see?” Gideon asked, eyes darting down to her bare legs.
Liss tucked them under the chair. “No.”
And then Maisy clapped her hands over her mouth with a squeak. Great. She’d put two and two together.
As her roommate for years, Maisy had seen her in various stages of undress. She knew all about Liss’s birthmark—and that it was where her ribs and boobs met on the side. Every bra and bikini she’d ever worn fully covered it.
Now Maisy knew that Zavier knew about it. So much for craving some drama-free peace and quiet.
Maisy’s bicolored eyes widened. “You’ve seen it.” Then she scooted closer to Eva. “Zavier’s seen the birthmark.”
“That’s fine. She doesn’t have to show and tell to all of us if she doesn’t want—ohhhhhhh.” Eva finally picked up on the implications . “Oh, wow.”
Unbelievable. “How is who I sleep with a bigger deal than suddenly morphing into a paranormal creature?” From Gideon’s smirk, it was clear that the men already were up to speed.
“Having powers doesn’t change who you are. It’s like when you learn to drive. Now there’s one more cool thing you can do. Sleeping with Zavier could change everything.”
“You didn’t know?” Rhys started to laugh. Then he caught sight of the utter blackness shooting from Zavier’s eyes. “Okay, everyone out. We’ll let Liss process this. We’ll be upstairs if you need us.” He hustled all but Zavier out of the room.
“You told them?”
“They figured it out.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You didn’t tell Maisy and Eva?”
“No. I got in a big fight with Maisy. One that we never settled until today. We weren’t in a ‘sharing’ place.”
“And you couldn’t tell Evangeline before Maisy.”
“Correct.”
“You two don’t look like you’re fighting now.”
“I scared her by almost dying. Then she helped save my life. I think we let the little stuff go in light of all that. It cleared the decks.”
“Why are you upset by this, um, change? Sure seemed like you’ve been wishing for powers since we first met.”
“Ninety percent correct. I wanted any power as long as it didn’t involve singing. Which I never knew was an actual thing. In this case, ignorance really was bliss.”
“You’re a music teacher. You don’t hate singing.”
“I love sharing the gift of music with students. Opening them up to how it can transform their lives, bring joy to them and to others. People like my parents, though? Those are people who let their gift transform them into the worst possible version of themselves.”
“Look, I know they were horrible parents. Lots of people don’t put in the effort that they should. But you’re really going to blame singing?”
“It isn’t a career for them. It is a lifestyle. A lifestyle of being worshipped. Adored. Nothing else in the world is as important—including their daughter—as the next gig, the next review. They are horrible, self-centered, thoughtless jerks. Made that way by their fame from singing. From their so-called ‘gift.’ Same with all their friends. I’ve watched that gift corrupt a person time after time.”
Was it a little silly? A little mono-vision?
Maybe. Probably.
But Liss had sworn that she’d never even come close to turning into any version of that. Beautiful singing that controlled people? It reminded her a lot of the quote about absolute power corrupting absolutely. It would go to her head and make her as terrible as them.
“Well, you’re not going to get rich and famous off of being half Nereid . You couldn’t if you tried. One TikTok post about it, and the government would scoop you up and start running tests at a black site.”
“Thanks. You’re really comforting.”
“Figured the facts would be more comforting than any soothing nonsense I could spill.”
Liss almost laughed. That comment was pure Zavier. And it did calm her down by about, oh, 80 percent. “That is absolutely true. Almost. You know what would be even more comforting?”
He looked around the room absently. “Getting back into the hot tub?”
“Only if you get in with me…”