Chapter 44 #2
“The king has agreed. Well, if she awakes, I suppose,” Cedric said callously as he watched me watch her. Like he didn’t even care. Like he wasn’t holding his breath, hoping the same as I, that she would awake.
“I have a wife.” The words came out thick. For so long, I didn’t have a wife. Or at least, so I thought.
“Catarina is dead,” Cedric said.
“I know she’s one of those monsters but by law—”
“No. Not because she is one of those creatures. Because of the things she has done. Arlo, they kill a person’s soul.”
The same things he’d done. Because I wasn’t there to stop him from doing them. Because I left once before. Selfishly. And now I was back, at the king’s daughter’s bedside, in rapture as she slept.
But how could I not be? She’d been through so much and had somehow become a wonderful woman, not a petulant princess but a humble, kind soul who sat with my men like they were her equals.
She was the opposite of her greedy father, who’d spent the country’s money like it was his own. On tournaments, gorging on food and drink at decadent feasts, bundled in fur and fabrics that could clothe hundreds, all while his people starved and froze.
I wanted to guard her kind heart. Take her away from it all.
From Mother. From the king. Especially from Cedric, who looked at her in a way that made me want to cut him down where he stood.
Was it truly love that made him look at her that way, or was his soul too twisted?
Did he only love her for what she could offer him? How he could wield her?
He put her on my ship to ensure she made it to him.
So he could put her on the throne and be king himself.
I wanted to steal Elowyn away from every single prying eye. Because this world broke so many through suffering. Like Catarina. Like Cedric. Like me. But not Elowyn, not yet.
“Mother forced Catarina to do horrible things.” Bitterness flooded my mouth as I rose. “Same as you.”
“Now so will you both,” he answered flatly, stowing away his emotions, although hate burned deep in his eyes, simmering his words. “Because you didn’t take Elowyn away.”
“Have you tried forcing her to do anything?” I jeered.
“Yes,” he answered, lips pursing, allowing me to see that emotion. That rancor. Cedric tried forcing her to marry him and he failed. Now I would.
The smile on my face was absolutely joyless. “And how did that go, Ced?”
“Why did she jump into the ocean, Arlo? I need to know if we’re going to figure out why she’s in this state.”
Back to his schemes and plotting.
“The sirens, she cared for them deeply. Thought they were her friends. She sees them as people. That siren king—Hylos, he’s called—planned an attack.
Elowyn has a good heart.” I let that part settle.
A good, uncorrupted heart. Not like Cedric’s or Catarina’s.
Not poisoned. Not yet. “She wanted to stop him so that innocent people wouldn’t get hurt. ”
Cedric’s head ticked to the side, his tell that the machinations within his mind were turning.
“What now?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him, but he buttoned up the look.
“Nothing,” he answered.
I didn’t believe him.
Behind us, wood creaked, drawing my attention to the open window, which revealed a tall, slender man crouched in the frame, perfectly balanced.
“Make your intent known.” Cedric said swiftly, his hand falling to the hilt of his sword at his waist.
The man quirked his head as he looked between me and my brother, his features obscured by brown fabric that enveloped him from head to toe, leaving only a strip of stark-white skin and piercing, ice-blue eyes visible.
Fantastic. Could things not get any fucking worse?
“Do you know who she is?” Morvyn asked Cedric, that ridiculous, puckish hint in his voice.
“What do you want?” I demanded.
“Do you care for her too, then?” Morvyn’s words were directed at Cedric, who watched him cautiously as the siren casually perched on the windowsill as if it were a bench, crossing his arms.
“Who the fuck are you?” Cedric spat in a voice I knew to be the last sound many men had heard just before their deaths.
“Her ridiculously handsome siren lover, with a far bigger cock than either of you.”
I just knew that idiot had a shit-eating grin under his disguise.
He reached for the leather satchel slung across his chest. Cedric lunged forward, unsheathing his blade in an instant, standing protectively between Morvyn and Elowyn.
Maybe he did love her, because my brother was never one for rash movements. And this showing his hand was exactly that.
Morvyn cocked his head again, then continued. From the satchel, he withdrew a crimson silk bag.
“What is it?” I asked.
Morvyn’s pale eyes flickered between us. “It fell off her head after the skirmish. Can you be trusted with her secret?”
Yes. Undoubtedly. But I remained silent, because the glint in my brother’s eyes and the sword clutched in his hand told me his answer was the same as mine.
“I’ll take that as a yes. From both of you,” Morvyn remarked as he extended the bag, which Cedric snatched up. “Good luck with that, Tiny Toes. He’s far more handsome than you.”
Infuriating prick.
I rolled my eyes, then turned to Cedric as he held up the bag.
“What is it?” I asked Morvyn again, but he was gone. Vanished like a phantom.
“Where did he go?” Cedric questioned, looking around the room. “And why did he call you Tiny Toes?”
“He’s one of the siren king’s men … sirens? And he’s annoying as Infernum,” I answered.
Cedric looked up at me, searching for answers, but I had none. I didn’t know what Morvyn brought either, or why.
Cedric reached into the bag and pulled out a crown, a large blue gems at its center. I looked at it, then at Elowyn, still unmoving in slumber.
“Why would he want her to have this?” Cedric asked. He stepped to Elowyn’s side.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“There has to be a reason they would want her to have it. It must do something.” Cedric hesitated, his hands hovering over her head. The weight of the crown seemed to pull at him, compelling him.
“Don’t!” I yelled.
But Cedric placed the crown atop Elowyn’s head.
She jolted upright, her eyes wide and filled with storm-blue light, flaring in bolts of fury. A humming sound filled the room, buzzing from her, then she let out a scream that seemed to echo not from her mouth, but from her soul.
Her gaze darted between Cedric and me. The light intensified as she cried out, “Gloriana! Gloriana! Gloriana!” Her voice multiplied, joining with hundreds of others in an eerie chorus of female voices. “GLORIANA IS KING!” she proclaimed, the words ringing with force.
The urge to recoil in fear or disgust surged within me, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Her red curls were ablaze, swirling around her, and then from the crown down, every other lock was drenched in ocean blue. Her skin took on a sky blue tone too.
Elowyn extended her hands as the blue tint washed down the rest of her body like water pouring over her, down her limbs.
Before my eyes, webbing connected her fingers.
Her feet elongated, transforming into sleek, fin-like appendages that shimmered with blue scales, resembling the creatures that sank my ship, held us prisoner, murdered my men, and even took my wife.
Before me, Elowyn changed into the very beings I despised, that had taken everything from me. She changed into a siren.
“You shall pay for this!” the voices shouted in unison, the words roaring like a storm gathering strength.
A ewer beside her shattered, its contents suspended midair, swirling angrily. “You will pay! The queen will pay! The king will pay!” Her voice, joined by the chorus of others, echoed through the chamber. “You all will pay for this in blood.”
I knew it was the truth.
A prophecy.
Elowyn Blackthorn would make the world atone for ever forgetting her, and now I knew exactly how.