“Did Cordelia see reason?” Locke asked, his arms folded across his chest. “Will the sirens join us?”
I hated having to be the one to deliver the news, though not one of them looked hopeful. I pulled on my shirt and replied, “I warned you that the sirens wouldn’t change sides easily. I tried to point out how allying with the rebels would leave them in a more desirable position, but it’s hard to know whether my words had any effect. I fear Cordelia is more likely to divulge my efforts to Warrick than she is to take my warning to heart.”
“You did what you could,” Asher said, finally sliding his axes into his belt. “If the sirens choose to sell their souls to the devil, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
He was right, of course, but despite feeling joyful that I was free of the house and all it held, there was still a part of me that felt responsible for them. A part that wished I could have made them see reason.
CHAPTER 14
~ Raine ~
Darian’shairdriedaswe made our way through the city, his sheet of silver strands gleaming like silk under the warm sun. No one had spoken as we made our way down the streets, picking our way between the buildings, and avoiding the few outliers that were prowling the streets in the daylight. Every now and then we’d pass a space where a house had been raised to the ground or a wall had been destroyed leaving the building leaning toward rubble, and I didn’t need to ask the others to know what had happened. Warrick’s outliers were making a mess of the city.
It wasn’t until we’d made it past the last outskirts of the city and entered the forest that I felt as though I could breathe easily again. Darian and Asher walked on either side of me while Kade scouted ahead, and Locke walked behind, his cloak pulled low and his dark gaze alert and watchful. I turned my attention to the side, observing Darian’s face. He’d seemed relaxed when he’d returned from the House of Saceris, but I knew it couldn’t have been easy for him. Dealing with Cordelia, his ex-lover, had to be hard enough, but I still remembered what he’d told me that day when he’d taken me to his private garden in the mountain. There was a part of him that longed to be with his own kind. With the sirens. I tried not to think about how that thought made my gut twist.
Waiting while my siren had visited his old house alone had been hard, and my inner dragon had damn near forced me to shift and hunt after him. It wasn’t until he was before me again, and I was sure he was unharmed, that I managed to calm myself. It was a good thing too because if Cordelia had hurt him, my dragon instincts would have forced me to visit the House of Saceris after all.
“What will happen if Cordelia and the sirens don’t decide to join the rebels?” I asked quietly.
“The sirens won’t fight us,” Darian answered, turning his head my way. “Not unless Warrick forces them to.”
I wasn’t surprised by his answer. From what I’d learned about the sirens, they cared about perfection and beauty. Violence, however, wasn’t high on their list.
“And what are the chances that Nic has convinced Mabel and the high house of Shadows to join?” I asked hopefully.
“Low,” Asher answered bluntly. “But don’t worry sweetheart, we’ll get you through this.”
I gave him a sly look. “You mean, my dragon will protect you.”
He grinned. “As long as you’re incineratin’ the fae or the outliers, I’ll happily watch.”
I frowned then as I pictured myself in my dragon form tearing apart the fae. No one had spoken about the fact I was part fae, and I wasn’t sure how they felt about it. So far, they’d acted the same toward me, but how was I to know that they wouldn’t wake one day and detest me as well? My heart squeezed.
Asher stopped and spun me toward him. “Hey. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“You did,” I replied sadly. “But I don’t blame you for it. You’ve been enemies with the fae since the curse was created.”
He lifted my chin and ran his thumb along my jaw. “But we were friends with the fae once. King Adrien’s the one who ruined that, and we have him back at the camp. This doesn’t change who you are. And it doesn’t change that you’re ours.”
Theirs.A puff of smoke left my mouth and went into Asher’s face as my chest eased again, and Asher coughed.
“Fuck, sorry,” I said, fanning the air to try and make the smoke disappear as Darian laughed.Damn dragon.
In Asher’s moment of distraction, Darian pulled me toward him instead. “Don’t apologize, lovely. We happen to adore your dragon. And contrary to what you might think, after our recent visit to the fae realm I don’t hate the fae either.”
“They tried to kill us,” I pointed out, while my inner dragon preened at the praise.
“They did,” Darian agreed, but Prince Azaren also showed us how this all truly is King Adrien’s fault. If it weren’t for him, we might still be living harmoniously, and all this talk of war would be nonexistent.”
Asher crowded my other side and draped his arm over my shoulders. “Dar’s right, Sharachi.”
I cleared my throat, trying not to become overwhelmed by what they were saying. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized how worried I must have been about the fact I had fae blood in me. As I went to ask more about our intentions with the fae, Kade stopped abruptly, his furry ears twitching as he turned his attention to the left. The rest of us did the same, Asher’s hands flying to the axes at his sides, and Darian reaching for the stars across his chest. I strained my hearing, trying to pick up what Kade had identified. The steady thud of a heartbeat and the soft pad of feet sounded in my ears.
“I hear it,” Locke muttered, his wings flaring behind him like he was preparing to launch into the air.
“Stay here and keep Raine safe,” Kade growled to Asher and Darian. “We’ll check it out.”
Oh, hell the fuck no.I’d had to deal with Locke leaving to help the gargoyles, and just now Darian facing Cordelia and her pod of venomous sirens alone. I wasn’t going to be staying behind this time.
