I watched as her face contorted with a mixture of relief and disappointment as she realized she was still human.
“Don’t you like my tail?” I asked.
She didn’t answer my question. Instead, she said, “Why are you smiling so hard even though I didn’t change?”
The song of the sirens had all but finished now, and the cavern was silent once again, but I couldn’t stop grinning. The human might not have changed, but I realized now that she was changing the rest of us. Locke didn’t see it, but I did. And so did Kade. It wasn’t just the bond. This female was like a missing piece, the fifth point of our star. Raine was ours, whether we had a house or not, and I didn’t want to let her go. If it weren’t for the fact that she was more vulnerable as a human, I wouldn’t have cared if she ever turned into a monster.
“Because, my lovely Raine, I’m starting to see what you truly are.”
Her brows lowered in confusion. “You already knew I was a human.”
I moved closer to her, my fingers gently lifting her chin higher so she was peering at me. “You’re precious.”
Shock flashed in her eyes, and her lips trembled imperceptibly, the movement so small I almost missed it. “You and the others aren’t what I expected.”
“Neither are you, little human,” I said, and without thinking, I pressed my lips against hers. Before she had the chance to react, I pulled away, the hand that gripped her chin falling to my side. I half expected her to curse at me, but she looked as surprised as I felt, her cheeks flushed and her arms dangling awkwardly at her sides. Slowly, her hands curled into fists as she seemed to regain herself, and I smiled, loving the effect I’d had on her.
~ Raine ~
DarianandIwalkedback from the garden in relative silence, only the sounds of our footsteps echoing along the tunnel. My mind whirled as I thought of his cool lips pressed against mine, and how badly I had wanted more.Precious.That’s what he’d called me. Goddess, what was happening?
Swallowing, I forced myself to forget how sweet he had tasted and instead focused on what I’d learned about the siren. Cordelia was a fool for breaking his heart. When Darian had spoken about her, the pain in his eyes had been real. He’d loved her, and she’d betrayed him.
When we entered the common room, disappointment went through me when we found no one else was there. I didn’t know if the others were in their rooms or not, but I hoped they were. I hadn’t forgotten the worry that had been in Darian’s eyes when he’d told me they were preoccupied with another matter. My gaze snagged on Kade’s closed door, and I felt Darian’s presence as he stopped behind me.
“If you wish to stay with him, go ahead, but you should know that Kade doesn’t have to be your only ally.”
My head twisted as I turned to peer at him.Ally?Was that what Kade was to me? I could still feel the smoothness of Darian’s tail and the dampness of the water from back at the garden. I realized what he was really saying was “I don’t have to be your enemy,” and the thought made my head spin.
“You’re welcome to stay in my room,” he added when I didn’t respond. “Despite what you may think, taking a female against her will isn’t my way. I have a spare couch, and you’re welcome to it.”
My heart pounded hard at the thought of staying in his room. I didn’t doubt he was being honest. Of the many things I’d just learned about the siren, it was that he valued honesty. Craved it, even. But I hadn’t seen Kade all day, and a part of me wanted to make sure he was all right. Plus, exhaustion still made my body feel heavy, and if I went to Darian’s room, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to sleep.
“I’ll think about it,” I said, giving him a small smile, and disappeared into Kade’s room.
CHAPTER 4
~ Kade ~
Iclosedmyeyesand inhaled, my nose wrinkling when I detected the faint scents of death and decay lingering among the smells of pine and earth. Wherever there was an outlier, the scent of death remained, and my face hardened as I thought of how I’d left Raine back in the washroom. My Mahare. The outlier that had once been here was dead, brought down by the gargoyles in the city, and Darian was there to watch Raine, but I still hated the thought of being so far away from her.
I stepped over to Locke’s side, not at all liking the entire situation we were in. The Taratun council should have been dealing with this shit, but as usual, the bastards were ignoring the problem and hoping the threat would somehow resolve on its own. The whole bunch of them were useless.
Warrick was the only one who showed an interest, but from what Locke had told me, his experiments hadn’t revealed any answers. I scowled as I thought of all the outliers we’d captured and brought to him in the past.
“Deer is the strongest fresh animal scent I can identify,” I said to Locke with a soft growl. My wolf side didn’t care about the outliers. That animalistic part of me only cared that I was too far away from Raine, and the urge to shift so my paws could eat up the distance between us was making my skin itch. I tried to ignore the feeling and said, “It’s likely it was a deer that was turned into an outlier.”
“Well, that’s better than it bein’ a buffalo, right?” Asher asked from where he stood with his arms folded over his broad chest.
“Yes,” Locke said, not looking away from where he was staring at a set of heart-shaped deer tracks on the ground.
Lifting himself, Locke straightened and brushed leaves from his black leather coat as he turned toward us. “The last outlier attack was mere hours ago. The two scaled monsters were larger than the tallest ogres and trolls in Katakin. Then there’s also the incident of the outlier that took out over a dozen members of the House of Thorem just yesterday night. Borren was not happy to hear so many of his demons had been killed. The occurrences of outliers are becoming more frequent, and we need to find out why.”
“I say let the Taratun deal with this. Who cares ’bout a few dead demons,” Asher commented, his tone devoid of emotion.
But I knew him better than that. When we’d been striding into the forest and Locke had told us of the attack near Asher’s old house, the House of Thorem, I’d seen the way Asher’s face had pulled tight. There was a part of him that still cared, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. Borren, the alpha of the House of Thorem, deserved death for leaving Asher to deal with his crazed mother by himself until it was too late, but many of the other demons hadn’t played any part in the events that transpired. Asher didn’t want them all dead. His heart was too soft for that.
“This world is already falling apart,” Locke said coldly. “If outliers overrun the city, it will be the lower houses who suffer most, and the city will fall into chaos. No matter how much we hate this place, none of us can leave. The curse won’t let us. And if the city falls, so do all of us.”
