“I’m not your fucking toy, Ezra,” I snarled, before deliberately ignoring the stranger who looked all too amused at the display before him.
I made it through the foyer and halfway up the stairs before the siren spoke.
“Trouble in paradise?”
CHAPTER 12
Ezra
I was in absolute agony. All the muscles in my body tensed as I watched my bond through the back windows like a fucking creeper. There was no helping it. I couldn’t stay away. Something deep inside, an uncontrollable instinct, compelled me to get as close as I possibly could.
Which wasn’t much considering Rani was avoiding me. She could hole up in her room, duck around corners, and ignore me all she wanted… but it didn’t hide the truth. She was getting worse. Her crimson hair was dull and flat, the ends curling over sharp collar bones and protruding shoulders. Worse even, was the growing emptiness I felt coming from her side of the bond.
Our connection was still very new, but her body—hersoul—was screaming so loud I was sure anyone nearby would be able to hear it. I’d given her two days. Forty-eight torturous hours to wrangle her shit after the djinn attack, but she only grew weaker and more distant.
She’d gone backward. Rani’s walls were solidly back in place. Full concrete. With barbed wire and little red lasers everywhere.The trauma of another djinn attack? Seeing the monster in me come out to play? It pushed her over the edge, and I wasn’t sure how to get her back.
Gods, I’d even spanked her with the blood of our enemies splattered between us. Could I be anymore of a fuck-up?
Me being a shitty bond with no idea what he was doing aside, her time was up. Something had to give. Rani was going to get better, I swore it. She would learn how to be a proper siren if I had to superglue her in a fish tail and seashell bra, then make her singUnder The Seaover and over until she believed it.
“If I had known things were this bad, I would have come sooner.” Cova’s booming, annoying, completelystupid-sounding voice filled the room. “I don’t know how you let it get like this.”
I clutched the windowsill in an attempt to control myself. My fists clenched and froze solid as my hatred for myself mixed with the absolute need to make the siren heir shut the hell up. I was very familiar with the overwhelming dread screaming in my ear that I could lose her. I didn’t need him pointing it out as well.
“She doesn’t have much time.”
I blew out a breath, wrangling the last bit of my control, then turned to face the blue-haired freak who poked at all my worst nerves. I needed to get control of my temper, but that was easier said than done when the last of my sanity was hanging by the barest of threads.
Cova huffed at my silence and pressed forward, like I was dense. “Are you fucking listening? Your. Bond. Is. Dying.” He emphasized each word like I had no intelligence, and it took a considerable amount of strength to not simultaneously punch him in the face and break down crying. “Can’t you see the damn signs?”
That was it.
Lunging, I caught the siren by his neck and pinned him to the wall.
“Of course I see the godsdamned signs,” I growled. “Do you think it's easy for me to watch my bond waste away, knowing I can donothingabout it?” I pulled back enough for him to look me in the eye. “She eats but loses weight faster than I can blink. I thought we made progress after some training, but then the pool happened, and she clammed up. Then the djinn attack, and I was such a fucking idiot, and—”
“Wait… wait,” he wheezed, my hand squeezing his airway. “Go… back…”
I released him and buried the urge to crow when he rubbed his neck. “The part about the pool,” he coughed. “That should have helped.”
“How?”
My entire body vibrated with the need to tear him apart. To smother my pain in violence. To silence my worst fears that he brought to life by opening his giant-ass mouth. Unfortunately, the asshole was the best option we had to teach Rani about all things siren.
“Our connection to water is linked to our very cells,” he said with only a slight wheeze. “We need its rejuvenating properties to fuel our magickandbodies. And no one needs it more than a new siren.”
And, of course,mysiren refused to go near it. Now I wondered how far her fear went. Did she avoid the shower? What about drinking water?
“New sirens need contact with the oceandaily.But the older we are, the longer we can go without it.” He shook his head and looked out the window, at my bond making her way back inside. “Anyform of water should stave off the worst of her symptoms, but not indefinitely.”
Pieces of a puzzle I didn’t know I was collecting started to slide into place. I knew water had something to do with her magick, but not that she needed it just to survive. Dammit. I’d been doing everything wrong. My pushing and planning and protecting had done jack-shit.
“She wouldn’t have this level of degeneration if she were using the pool,” he continued. “I’m surprised she’s not drawn to it.”
But I wasn’t. Not after seeing her reaction. And the ocean? Ever since her transition, Rani avoided it. The sight, the smell, fuck, even the word made her eyes go distant. Had I known how detrimental the lack of saltwater would be to her, I’d never have let it go on this long. But now the question was, how did I fix it?
“She’s terrified of the water,” I finally said, each word tough to get over my tongue. I felt like I was betraying my bond’s confidence by even saying it out loud. “Ever since… whatever happened that night… she’s refused to go near it. Or talk about it.”
