Siren Rising (Guardians of the Four Realms #5)

1. ZARA

ZARA

Congratulations Son of Two Realms. You’re about to become the King of the Underworld

“Well you could show a little more enthusiasm. It’s not every day a son inherits an entire realm from his father you know.” We all looked at Gabriel in stunned silence.

“I’m not about to become the king of anything, let alone the fucking Underworld,” Seth finally snarled, “so you can run back to Luci and tell him he needs to beget another heir.”

“You signed the contract,” he said with a frown. “There’s no going back on it now.”

“No one can be held to a contract they didn’t even know they were signing.” I turned to Seth. “We’ll get the best lawyers we can find to look it over. There’s always a loophole somewhere.”

“I think you’ll find blood contracts are a little different from pen and ink ones, kitten,” Gabriel said, smirking when he saw Seth’s jaw clench as he called me ‘kitten’ again.

“And besides, there’s nothing to look over.

Seth here made a verbal contract with the Prophecy and sealed it with blood.

‘I accept this sacred charge’. I believe those were the exact words used.

I can give you a couple of weeks to get your affairs in order here in the mortal realm, then it’s off to the Underworld with you.

Like I said, Luci’s getting antsy, so two weeks is the best I can do I’m afraid. ”

“For the last time, I’m not going to the Underworld. If my alleged father wants to discuss that further, he knows where he can find me.”

“He can’t expect us to just abandon our lives here and go and take his place,” I protested. “It’s bad enough that the gods created the guardians to clean up their mess, without you lot doing it too.”

He gave me a sympathetic look. “Not lives plural, kitten. Only Seth can visit the demon realm. You’d be destroyed if you tried to pass through the gateway.”

I felt the last shred of hope I’d been holding on to crumble. This was it then. The duty Morpheus and Lachesis had warned us about.

“Look, I hate to info dump and run, but I’m late for dinner and Michael gets really pissy if we’re late when it’s his turn to cook.

I’ll come back in a few days and let you know when the coronation will take place.

But I strongly suggest you start making whatever arrangements you need to here, because you can believe me when I say there won’t be any getting out of this.

” A flare of golden light accompanied the last words as he disappeared.

Seth and I stared wordlessly at each other until I couldn’t stand it any longer and threw myself into his arms, sobbing. When I finally pulled myself together, thankfully we were alone. At least nobody had stayed to witness my meltdown.

“There has to be a way I can come with you if you have to go. I can get an amulet or something.”

“I’m not going anywhere near the Underworld until I know a lot more about it.” His voice was hoarse with suppressed emotion, and I could feel the waves of anger coming off him.

“You’re not?” I felt a little bit better at the vehement way he’d said that. I’d been half expecting him to just accept everything Gabriel had told us and be prepared to do his ‘duty’.

“Of course I’m not. If its current king wants to negotiate terms with me, he’s going to have to come to me. Now we know that the Oracle isn’t the mystical, all-powerful being we thought she was, I’ve no intention of just blindly following her orders and abandoning you here.”

“But how are we going to contact your father?” I hated how shaky my voice sounded and took a few deep breaths to steady myself.

“It sounds like Gabriel is planning to come back in a fortnight and take you by force if necessary. Unless we can find a way to contact him and make him set up a meeting before then.”

“He said he’ll let me know the arrangements for my coronation, so I’ve no doubt he’ll be back. In the meantime, though, I suppose it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start putting some contingency plans in place, just in case I have to go there.”

My heart sank. So he hadn’t completely ruled out going then, just not until after they’d negotiated the terms.

“Not that I have any intention of spending the rest of my existence there,” he added hastily, obviously seeing I was about to have another meltdown at the mere thought of it.

“How could you walk away from being a guardian here anyway? Would the others just cover for you until you came back?” If you came back was what I was thinking, but I wasn’t going to jinx it by saying that out loud.

“If it comes to that, they may have to,” he admitted. “But hopefully it won’t. And there’s nothing any of us can do about it right now anyway, so I vote that we forget all about duty and destiny for the rest of today and do something normal for a change.”

He was doing his best to hide how worried he was, for my sake presumably, but he couldn’t. Not from me. And frankly, I didn’t feel the least bit inclined to do anything normal right now.

“I second that suggestion.” I jumped at the sound of Eli’s voice. Shit.

“I thought everyone had gone.” I swiped at my face with a tissue to get rid of any tears and snot that were still there, hoping my eyes didn’t look as puffy as they felt, and cringed inwardly at Eli’s concerned expression as he took in the state of me.

“No one’s going anywhere until they’ve seen for themselves you’re okay.

Well, as okay as you can be anyway. Dinner’s in the oven, Phoebe’s making a salad and she’s got Jed playing hunt the wine.

His mind works a lot like yours does, Seth, so you’d better get a move on if you don’t want him finding your stash of the really good stuff.

It won’t be much longer before he tracks it down. ”

I perked up a bit at that little nugget of information. Maybe I could learn a thing or two from watching Jed, because I had no idea where the really good stuff was – apparently I couldn’t be trusted with that information.

“What about my mother? Is she still here?” Seth looked relieved when Eli shook his head.

“She said it was better for now if she left, but when you’re ready to talk she’ll be waiting. Probably wants to get her story straight before you start interrogating her.”

“Maybe. Although to be fair, it sounds like she was as much a pawn in all this as everyone else.”

I hoped that meant he was going to give her a fair hearing. She might not be up for any mother of the year awards, but she’d looked devastated when she’d heard Gabriel announce that Seth was the heir to the Underworld.

“Yes, there’s a lot of that going around lately.”

Dammit. I’d been so wrapped up in our own problems I hadn’t really given much thought to how Eli was doing with everything that had been thrown at him lately.

He must still have some unresolved feelings about the way his own life had been messed with though, because it was very unlike him to sound so bitter.

Granted he had Rachel to love him now, but still, I needed to do better as a friend and not take his strength for granted all the time.

I stopped and gave him a hug as I passed him in the doorway.

“You do know you’re my absolute favourite vampire, right?”

“Tell the truth, you only love me for my lasagna,” he huffed.

“That’s a vicious rumou—oh! Please tell me you made lasagna.” I clasped my hands together like I was praying and fluttered my lashes at him, and he laughed the way I’d hoped he would.

“Just for you, Princess.”

I hadn’t thought I had much of an appetite, but I’d have to be on my deathbed to say no to Eli’s lasagna, and he knew it. The memory of the first time I’d eaten it, at the very first meal we’d shared here at the manor, flashed through my mind.

“Thanks, Fang Man.”

“You helped make her like this,” Seth said dryly, obviously remembering the same meal and giving Eli’s shoulder a squeeze as he passed.

By the time we got to the kitchen Jed had already discovered Seth’s latest hiding place for the good wine, but he refused to share its location with me, telling me smugly that if I wanted it I’d have to put in the work to find it myself, the same as he had.

“But as I’m not completely heartless, I’m prepared to share this bottle with you,” he said as he passed me a glass of ruby red that looked like cabernet but tasted like heaven. Urgh. Heaven? Really? I just had to go there, didn’t I?

Pushing my dark thoughts firmly into the box they belonged in and closing the lid, I sat myself down at the table and sighed with pleasure at the sight of the loaded plate Eli set in front of me with a flourish.

If he was trying to fatten me up he was going to succeed, because there was no way I wasn’t going to finish every morsel of this, and probably come back for seconds if there were any up for grabs.

“I hope Rachel isn’t going to mind you staying here and spoiling us with your cooking, Eli,” I said. “She won’t be cross with you will she?”

“No, she’s busy with a coursework assignment.” He smiled fondly. “I’ll take her some dinner back with me if there’s any left, because she’s probably completely lost track of time and forgotten to eat again.”

“Well, maybe you could entice her away from her laptop and bring her with you next time you’re working from here. I haven’t seen her for ages and her company would be a very welcome distraction from thinking about the Prophecy.”

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to think about it though, Zara, so we can decide what we’re going to do about it.

” I loved the way Jed automatically included himself in that decision making process now, even though he wasn’t an official part of the team.

It was hard to believe that I’d once thought he was the one responsible for trying to control my mind and kidnap me.

“Not tonight though.” Seth had been pretty much silent until now, working his way one-handed through his food while the other hand rested comfortingly on my thigh.

“Tonight I just want to enjoy this delicious meal in the company of cherished friends,” he raised his glass in a sweeping salute, “and be thankful for the love of my beautiful Kaderi,” he finished, putting his glass down so he could pick up my hand and plant a kiss on it.

“There’ll be time enough for problems tomorrow. ”