Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
QUINN
A urelia leads me to the room that once belonged to my mother and takes a seat on the bed. It’s been made, and all traces of my blood have been wiped clean from both it and the floor. I can’t be certain who did it, but a good part of me wants to believe it was this woman.
My aunt.
In a matter of weeks, I went from believing my entire family was dead, to finding out my sister was alive and now I discover I have even more family I’d never been told about. I’ve felt alone in this world for so long—until Abby, of course—but this is different. The blood that runs through my veins runs through the veins of the stranger now seated on the very end of the bed, staring off into the same nothingness threatening to swallow me.
“I see my sister in you,” she says after a while, though she still doesn’t look at me. “Your eyes, your nose. You walk like her, too. Like you always know exactly where you are going, even in a place entirely unfamiliar to you. I think it is safe to say you are just as stubborn.”
She’s waiting for an answer, so I move to the side of the bed and take an awkward seat next to her, neither of us making eye contact. “I never knew her to be stubborn.” To be fair, she died when I was nine, and given all her many secrets, I may not have known her that well at all.
“She was very stubborn unless it came to duty. She obeyed our mother in most things. Until she met your father.”
I snag a pillow and hold it on my lap as if it were a child’s toy, wrapping my arms around it and clutching it against my chest. I don’t care if the action makes me look weak or vulnerable. Without something to hold on to, I feel as if I might fall apart at any moment.
“I wasn’t told any of this,” I say after a while. “That she was married to another man and prophesied to birth Tideus’ Chosen. I didn’t even know she had a sister.”
“Sisters.”
She said that word far too casually to support the weight of its meaning, and I whip my head around to look at her for the first time since we’ve been alone together. “I have another aunt?”
How much family do I have here? Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents?
“She is gone.”
My face falls and my shoulders sag as a wave of disappointment hits me like a tumultuous sea battering against a rocky shore. This shouldn’t feel as if I’ve lost another person, but it does. It might not be the loss of her, but rather the absence of a chance to have something I didn’t know I could. To feel like my family is bigger than myself. Bigger than Kaylee, and Abby, and all of Rosewood.
I understand Abby’s tears more now after her father died at the hands of that witch queen, Imelda. Not the bastard who sat upon the throne, but the father who watched her grow and protected the secret of her parentage with his life.
“Do not mourn for her. She does not deserve it.” It’s not her words that pull me from the depths of heartbreak, but rather the sudden touch of her warm hand on mine. It was brief, and the touch was so light that I’m not quite sure it was even there to begin with.
Either way, the sensation of her skin on mine is enough to remind me I have reason to be angry at this woman and just because she entered this conversation with the mention of my mother does not excuse her. I pull in a breath and steel myself. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were? Were you ever going to?”
The rough sea churning inside me bubbles into a pool of liquid fire, just like the ones that are said to flow through the land of dragons. I’m her flesh and blood. Whether she thought me an enemy to her people or not, I had a right to know who I was to her.
A right to know what I am to this place and its people.
“I do not know if I would have,” she says, no longer looking in my direction. “It is easier to pretend that I have no family left.”
Her honesty softens me, but it doesn’t quell the storm within. “I had a right to know.”
“Perhaps. But perhaps I also had the right to my secrets, just as you have a right to yours.”
I snort a laugh. “What secrets?” She had me all but beaten upon my arrival here as she asked me questions designed to reveal any secrets I might have had.
When her eyes finally meet mine, there’s something genuine in them. “You have a connection to the dragon.”
“Jade? That’s no secret.” I’m not even sure why she cares.
“It is to someone who does not understand. Merrick refused to explain it to me unless I first told you of our relation.”
So that’s what Merrick was talking about. I’d known his conversation with her in the dining hall had been for my benefit. From the briefest moment where his eyes had met mine when he entered, to the volume of his voice; carefully calculated so that I would overhear him with my heightened senses. It was clever, but I didn’t understand it at the time.
His words flit through my memory, banishing some of the confusion that veiled them. ‘Enough is enough, Aurelia. Jade’s body is healing, but I fear for his mind and soul. He may need you when he awakens, but you know what must be done first. You have to tell them!’
I’m not sure why Merrick put that stipulation on sharing knowledge with her, but part of me is glad he did. Even if my family is none of his business and involving himself is inappropriate on some level, I’ll have to remember to thank him.
“It’s complicated. You’ll probably have questions, but let me finish before you ask them.”
She nods once and waits for me to continue.
“The first part has nothing to do with me. At least not right away. Years before I’d ever met Jade or Abby, Jade and his uncle—Merrick’s father—were sentenced to die. The man was executed. Whipped until death in the city square as the people of Lunae were forced to look on.”
“You said not to interrupt, but I know all of this.”
“Do you want to hear this or not?” I wait until she nods once more before I continue. “When it came time for Jade to be executed, Abby intervened. If Merrick has not already told you, then you’ll have to ask him for his reasons, but he struck a deal with Imelda that would spare Jade’s life. What he didn’t know was that Imelda would put a curse on both Abby and Jade. A curse that mimics a mating bond. Abby was compelled to save him, and the two had loved each other in secret for years after. It was powerful magic that even time seemed unable to dilute.”
There’s a rigidness to Aurelia’s face, though she doesn’t interrupt this time.
“Eventually, Jade and Teagan helped Abby escape the abuse of her family. They fled into the woods, but no one could have accounted for the monster that hunted there.” I pause and prepare myself for the hardest part of this story. “ Me . You see, Imelda had cursed me too, five years earlier. She came to my home posing as a traveler. For reasons I didn’t understand, my father locked her away. I was foolish, and when I’d slipped away to see her one night after everyone else had gone to bed, she manipulated my mind. I freed her, and together we went to my chambers.”
Aurelia’s hands ball into fists in her lap. She’s no stranger to Imelda or her treacheries, but I’m surprised she seems to care so much about my history with her. Enough to warrant this reaction, anyway.
“I was entranced by her, though I know now that it was just the way she fucks with the minds of men.”
“Not men,” Aurelia says suddenly. I can’t even say I mind the interruption this time because if the information I have on Imelda’s powers is wrong, I need to know. “She is able to influence anyone attracted to women. Dragons are immune regardless, but some men are unaffected. Just as some women are affected. She is a risk to anyone who could be drawn to her sexually.”
I nod, so she knows I understand. That actually makes a lot more sense than it having to do with gender alone. Being able to influence minds already open to her is much more plausible.
“She got me down on the bed. I thought… Well, I think you know what I thought, but she never touched me. Unless you count driving her fingernails into me. I was paralyzed. I couldn’t even scream when she poured what felt like liquid fire down my throat.”
“Dragon blood,” she says, voice nearly a growl.
“Yes. It turned me into a beast and led me to mindlessly slaughter my father, brother, and more than half my kingdom. Since meeting Abby, I’ve learned to control the wolf inside and can turn at will now. Or, at least, I could. I haven’t tried since the tether that tied he, Abby, and I together snapped.”
“That is why your bond returned. It was not true to begin with.” She turns to me and I’ve never seen her face so soft. “Thank you for being honest with me. Even if I do not deserve it.”
“Whether or not you deserve it is determined by your actions. Do I have any other family here? Please, tell me.”
She studies me for a long moment and then sighs. “Your sister is a seer, yes? She gets that from her grandmother. It is why I took your warning seriously when you arrived. If she inherited even a fraction of my mother’s power, she should not be ignored.”
“Is my grandmother…?”
“She was lost in the slaughtering.” Before I can respond, she adds, “I did not bring you here to fill in the branches of your family tree.”
Anger fills me again. “Then why?”
“Imelda did not come here for war. It was a demonstration of her power. A message to us.”
My brows crease together. “What message?”
“It does not matter. What matters is that this is not over. She will return, and when she does, it will not be to deliver a message. She will not stop until her son has plunged the world into darkness and all of us are dead. I tell you this away from your mate because you said you will obey her in all things. If she wants to fight, you will fight. I care not for you as a nephew. We are not family in anything more than blood, but in honour of that blood, I want to give you a chance to decide for yourself. If you do not want to risk your life and your mate’s life, leave this place. Take her away from here.”
At first, I’m too stunned to speak. I don’t know how long it takes me to recover, but when words finally pass through my lips, they’re barely audible. “You’re asking me if I want to run like my mother?”
Whatever softness was in Aurelia’s eyes has turned icy again. “Yes. Your parents chose freedom so that you and your siblings would survive. You can do the same. Leave. Abandon your crowns. Start a family and hope war does not find you.”
The words Evan had silently spoken to me through the veil flash back to me. ‘Live for her.’
I shake my head. “When I first learned of my mother’s betrayal, I couldn’t understand it. Now I do. I want nothing more than for Abby to be safe, but I will never take the choice away from her. If she wants to leave, we’ll leave.”
“But you already know she will want to fight.” I can’t tell if she’s trying to protect me or if she just wants me gone.
I nod. “If I’m being honest, I don’t think I’m ready to leave this place either. I want to understand it and where I came from.” Even if the woman beside me wants no part in that.
“You may think me cold for not giving you the answers you seek, but just as you are not ready to leave this place, I am not ready to venture out of the fortress I have built around myself. There is a place you can go that holds much of our history. If you refuse to run, then when you are healed, I suggest you make the journey. By land it is tedious.”
I expected more of an argument than that. Perhaps she really doesn’t care whether I stay. “Is Erwyn going to murder me while I sleep?”
She rolls her eyes. “No. Though I suppose for that, I do owe you an apology. I wanted to warn you, but they returned early. He was supposed to be far out at sea, training Teagan in our ways. I should have known that, as our best hunter, he could not resist returning early with a kill.”
“Is that his role here? Hunter?” She may not want to fill in the gaps of my family history, but that doesn’t mean she can’t help me understand the ways of these people.
“We do not have roles in the way you are thinking, though if we did, I suppose he would be to us what your father once was to Lunae. The leader of our warriors. We had no need for such a thing before the slaughter. We were a peaceful people, only hunting in the sea for food. As the most skilled with a weapon, he took it upon himself to train those who survived to fight. He is not a wicked man. He treated your mother well and believed Evander to be his son. His world crumbled in more ways than one when she left us.”
“If your mother was a seer, how did she not know?”
Aurelia is quiet for a long moment. “Sometimes I wonder if she did.”
“Do you think she knew about me?” I don’t expect her to answer, but I ask anyway.
“What have you heard?”
Well, it’s not an answer, but maybe she can at least confirm the things I think I know. “A woman named Tess—I’m not sure if you know her—said she delivered me in secret here, in Marien.” Possibly in this very room, though I don’t say it. “Immediately after, she took me to Lunae to be with my father because if Erwyn found out about me, he would have known that both Evan and I were not his.”
Aurelia sighs. “Tess moved between Marein and Lunae freely. I did not know of your existence for some time, but when I found out, I felt for your mother. There was a change in her and losing her baby explained it. I understand why she chose her family. There are moments I wish I had done the same.” There’s a faraway look in her eyes now, and the anger that sparked inside me cools.
“Did you lose someone? When Lunae attacked?” I shouldn’t ask. This topic can’t be easy for her, or any of the sirens, for that matter.
“We all lost someone that day.”
“I’m sorry.” There’s nothing else I can say.
“It is not your fault.”
“That’s not why I’m apologizing. I’m just sorry it happened at all.”
Her eyes run up and down the length of me, as if only truly seeing me for the first time. “Your mother was kind, too. Si was the best of the three of us.”
“Si?”
She nods, and the faintest of smiles appears on her lips. “Our name for her. Si was the youngest, Mel was the oldest, and I was between them. The rebellious sister. It is funny to think that I ended up here, fighting for Marein, when all I ever wanted to do was leave it.” She shakes her head, as if willing a thought to disappear.
“What is it?”
“I just cannot believe Si was able to keep you a secret.”
“Because your mother was a seer?”
“Yes, but there are other reasons.”
I wait for her to find her words. She keeps teetering on the edge of giving me some of the answers I long for, so I’m not about to risk interrupting anything she wants to say. I doubt I’ll have another chance once we leave this room, and her cold demeanour returns in full.
“She was not only able to hide her pregnancy, but she delivered you here. Out of the water.”
“Sirens don’t normally do that?” That’s not something I’d ever thought about. Not that I’d known sirens still existed and that my mother was one of them.
“When two sirens have a child, it’s easier to deliver in the sea. We can do it on land, but it is harder. If a siren chooses a human or a dragon, it’s safer for the child if they are delivered on land. There is no guarantee the child will be like us. Evander was born at sea and nearly drowned. He was human, like your father—and like you. The fact that your mother delivered you on land with only the help of one healer and no one heard her…” She shakes her head again. “I wish she had told me. I am sure she feared I would tell our mother and she might have been right, but she should not have had to go through that without someone by her side. Your father was not with her, of that I am sure.”
My mind wanders to when Kaylee was born. Evan and I sat on the floor outside our parents’ chambers for what seemed like hours as our mother screamed. “I remember when my sister was born. It made me glad I would never have to do that.”
Aurelia laughs, though it sounds sad. “You may change your mind when it is your mate, though she may have an easier time, as you both are human.”
“Am I human?”
“The wolf in you is a curse. Even if it made a difference, at least you do not have wings. Si is lucky she fell in love with a human and not a dragon. Many siren women have died bringing a dragon into the world. As have their mates.” The way she says that last sentence makes me feel that the person she lost was her mate. If that’s true and she survived it, she must be more wounded than I realized. She lives only for her people now, and that makes her stronger than me. If I were to lose Abby, I would let the bond take me. Not even for my people would I endure that loss.
I don’t want to push her down that path, so I say the first thing that comes to mind. “Should I call you Auntie Aurelia?”
She doesn’t laugh, but I can almost swear her lips twitch ever so slightly.
“Absolutely not. Call me Aur—” She stops suddenly and sighs. “Your mother called me Lia. It… It would be nice to hear that name again.”
Lia? Like the journal? If that book came from Marein… If my mother brought it back with her to keep her sister close…
Oh, Gods.
I swallow the questions, attempting to force their way out. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Abby how that final journal entry ended. How Lia’s mate tried to take it all upon himself. Every last drop of his mate’s agony until his heart gave out. He’d dropped dead beside her at the same moment their son took his first breath.
Their son— a dragon.