Chapter Twenty-Six
PISCES
“You’re late,” the song wraith tells me as I come to a stop in an alleyway behind a coffee shop and some trendy restaurant.
I put a sleeve-covered hand over my mouth to try to quell the smell coming off the dumpsters nearby. “You’re surprised I didn’t rush to meet with you in a trash-filled back alley?”
The song wraith looks around, unamused. “I forgot you fae sometimes have overactive senses.”
“Can you not smell it?” I ask, genuinely curious.
I don’t know much about wraiths and don’t have access to the kind of books that would educate me on them.
And it’s not like I can ask my friends more.
They might not think it’s odd for me to learn about the being that turned me, but I’m not a great liar.
Shaun would know something’s up. It’s like he can smell a lie as easily as I can smell the rotten fruit discarded to my left.
“These upcoming shows are very important.” The wraith ignores my question. “You need to make sure to feed beforehand. And you should use your lure.”
“Lure?” I ask, even though I know what he means. Sirens can lure prey out to them. I’ve never done it before because I’ve never needed to. But apparently I can lure an unsuspecting fae out and feed off them. It honestly sounds a bit unethical.
There’s another reason I haven’t done it before.
“I don’t know how.”
The song wraith glares at me. “Figure it out.”
He takes a menacing step forward. But I’m past being scared of him. He can’t do much worse than he already has.
“Pisces, in order for our deal to work, I need you at your strongest. The lure will increase your ability to connect to your fans tenfold.”
“I get it, but I’ve never figured out how to. I’m not saying I won’t. I’m saying I can’t.”
The wraith shakes his head at me, annoyance flickering across his face. “It’s instinct. You don’t need to know—” he taps his head, “—you need to feel.” He taps his heart. Or where his heart would be. I’m not sure if wraiths have hearts. “You’ve done it before, you just don’t realize what you did.”
I’m about to ask what he means, but the wraith dissolves into nothingness. Fucking prick.
I’ve been sitting at the edge of an artfully human-made pond, trying to figure out how to use my lure. All that I’ve managed so far is luring a duck over to me, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because it thought I had bread. It left as soon as it realized I had nothing to offer.
I ponder what the wraith meant when he said I’ve done it before.
In all my time being a siren, I’ve never consciously used my lure.
I’ve talked at length to my friends about it, but seeing as I’m quite possibly the only siren in existence, they had no idea how it worked.
Evan and Shaun went to the fae council, searching in its vast libraries for any information on sirens, but since sirens are so closely tied with wraiths, a lot of the information was restricted.
And what they were able to find, well, we questioned the validity of it.
All of the books they could find had been written by Born fae, and not the open-minded kind.
When had I done something to get someone to appear—
The wraith. I’d lured the wraith, hadn’t I?
When I went out and sang the song he used to turn me.
I focused on him and he appeared.
Meaning my lure could not only bring me a fae, but one that I focused on.
Did it work on humans? Could it work on the dead?
Leighton’s face jumps into my mind, and I don’t stop to think if it would be a good idea or not.
I start singing, letting all of my anguish into my song, letting my heart ache for what I used to have.
Except that the ache is noticeably weaker.
My mind wanders to a unique set of eyes that I can’t seem to erase from my mind.
The blue-green eyes that caught my breath when I first saw them.
Wondering what happened that changed them.
I finish my song, pondering if it worked.
Minutes tick by and nothing. No one shows up.
The grassy area by the pond is as quiet as a gravesite.
It didn’t work.
I get up, throwing a stone into the pond at an angle, watching as it skips across the surface. If the wraith needs me stronger, then he’s going to have to fucking help me. So whatever, I give up.
I head back to the house, my thoughts running rampant. What type of realm is Leighton stuck in? If time moves differently there, is she even herself anymore? Will she remember her time there when the wraith brings her back?
Will she still hate me?
I still hate her. The pain she inflicted on me was almost worse than I could inflict on myself. But it’s my fault she’s gone. I have to atone for that.
And a sick part of me wants her back in a romantic sense. The part of me that would rather leave this world than have to keep walking around in it alone.
But I’m not alone, I remind myself. The faces of my friends filter in and out of my mind’s eye. A shuddering sob escapes me quickly as gratitude for my friends hits me in waves. I’m not alone.
I turn down the street the row of townhomes is on, stopping short when I see a small figure walking slowly towards me.
It’s Bliss.
And she’s wearing a thin set of silky pajamas, her legs and arms bare in the tank top and shorts.
“Bliss?” I call. She doesn’t answer me, but she does come to a stop right in front of me.
Something is wrong. Her usually bright and gorgeous eyes are almost glazed over. She looks at me like she’s looking through me. Her teeth chatter and she’s shaking from the cold, her nipples pebbling beneath her top.
Fuck.
My lure did work. I was just too far away and she was asleep.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
What the hell do I do now?
“Bliss, can you hear me?” I take off my hoodie, but it’s not a zipper one, so I try getting it over her head. She pushes me off.
“Bliss, it’s freezing. Wake up.” I give up on trying to get it over her head and instead wrap the arms around her shoulders and tie them together at the front. “I’m so sorry.”
She doesn’t respond, just sort of tilts her head to the side and lets out a yawn.
“Where the fuck are you even staying?” Think, Pisces. Where is Goddess’ Trance’s lodging?
I don’t know. I haven’t interacted with any of them during this festival. I haven’t really been interacting with anyone, too consumed with my plan to get the wraith enough power so he can get Leighton back.
I scan the townhomes, as if one might have a blaring neon sign with her band’s name on it.
And now Bliss, who yeah, isn’t really my favorite person, is gonna freeze to death.
I don’t like her. She’s rude and conceited. And self-centered.
But even with them glazed over I can’t stop myself from staring at her perfectly imperfect eyes.
So I take her hand and lead her back to my townhouse. At least she’ll be warm, and maybe Simon has her sister’s number or something.
It turns out I don’t even need to hold her hand.
She seems to just want to stay by my side.
I lead her to the couch and wrap a blanket around her while I search for Simon, but after not finding anyone in the kitchen, I turn and almost run into her.
Bliss reaches out sleepily and takes my shirt in her hands.
My hoodie has fallen off on the couch and she’s shivering again.
“Bliss, sit on the couch, okay? I’ll be right back.”
Nothing. She just steps closer to me, wrapping her arms around me and snuggling her face into my chest.
My heart leaps at the contact. I run my hands along her bare arms, trying to create enough friction to warm her.
“Well, this is new,” Evan says from the staircase. Shaun and Benny are behind him. They finish descending and gather around Bliss and I in the living room. I meet their gazes over her head.
“She’s sleepwalking,” I explain. They just respond with quizzical expressions, so I continue. “I used my lure, I think.”
“You think?” Shaun eyes the two of us with disappointment.
“I didn’t mean to,” I half lie. I didn’t mean to ensnare Bliss, that’s for sure. “Where’s Simon? I was gonna see if he could contact her sister.”
“Simon’s sleeping off all the alcohol.”
Right, the party. “Too much fun?”
Benny points at Bliss. “Her crazy ex-boyfriend launched Simon into the wall. I swear I thought he was dead at first.”
I jolt, almost knocking Bliss over. I try to go to the stairs to go find Simon, but she’s still clutching onto me. “Is he alright?” I settle for just asking, instead of checking on him myself. “Is he injured?”
“He’s completely fine besides having a wicked hangover tomorrow probably,” Benny explains. “Not sure how, but not even a bruise.”
My relief surges through me, and I find myself wrapping my arms around Bliss again, the contact bringing me even more relief. “What happened to her ex?”
Evan lets out a low growl. “Nothing yet.”
“Grim and Pinkie kicked his whole band out,” Shaun explains.
I look to Evan. “They need to know not to keep messing with us.”
“Agreed.”
Benny shakes his head. “Nothing good will come of that.”
“We have other problems right now,” Shaun agrees, pointing to Bliss. “You need to feed off her to break the lure.”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t think I need to. My siren teeth, they’re not bursting to come out.”
“I read that the lure has to be completed with feeding,” Shaun reiterates.
But something inside me knows I’m right.
I slide my hands over her arms again, feeling the smooth skin.
I let my power reach for her, gently prodding.
The wraith was right. It’s all instinct.
I somehow connect to a wave of hopelessness, of desperation that almost knocks me over, but I can feel it colliding with my power, growing, surging.
The lights flicker as I feed, one lightbulb in a nearby lamp fizzling out altogether.
“Fuck,” Shaun whispers. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
I grab onto her desperation and suck it dry, then I take a step back from her. She lets go of me and slumps forward, since the lure is no longer holding her in a trance. I’m able to catch her before she falls to the floor.
I hoist her up into my arms and head for the stairs. “I’m gonna put her in bed, but we should figure out where Goddess’ Trance is staying.”
Someone murmurs their agreement, and so I take each step carefully up the stairs so I don’t drop her. I lay her in my bed and tuck her in. She curls onto her side, exhausted, but seemingly peaceful. There’s a contentment on her face that eases my worry that I took too much of something.
“Bliss?” I don’t know why I call her name. I guess to make sure she’s asleep. She just burrows more into the bed, letting out a soft sigh that parts her lips.