Page 57 of Of Song and Darkness

My skin broke out in a cold sweat. Kai must have felt my quiver. His hate-clouded eyes became clearer, and the harsh features of his face softened when he looked at me.

I straightened up, my eyes finding a particularly interesting knot in the plank flooring to focus on. “You used your sea powers to hunt and kill sea creatures?”

The words sounded even more awful when I said them out loud. Suddenly, the name Blackheart Kai held an entirely new meaning. He wasn’t just a slayer of monsters. He was a murderer with such a devious, spiteful heart that he killed his own kind by luring them to him.

“Yes,” Kai confirmed in a solemn voice. “I told you I was getting what I deserved.”

“How many have you killed?” I asked, barely a whisper, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

Kai straightened but refused to meet my gaze. “So many that I lost count.”

A question hung on the tip of my tongue. If I asked it, it would change everything between us, but I could not go on without knowing the truth.

Anxiety gripped me, and I bit my lower lip. “Have you ever killed a siren that looked like me but had hair the color of a setting sun?” I held my breath, uncertain of how I would react if he confessed to having killed my sister.

Kai's gaze finally lifted to meet mine, and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of discomfort at the raw vulnerability I sensed in myself. It was as though my emotions were laid bare on my face, a fact I begrudgingly acknowledged even as I longed to maintain my composure.

“I’ve killed many sirens,” he admitted, “but never one who resembled you." Kai’s voice carried a weight of truth that settled heavily between us.

Something about the way his dull eyes glistened told me he was telling the truth. A whirlwind of emotions swept through me—relief, contentment, and a haunting sense of sorrow.

Kai’s eyes glazed over with pain. In that moment, it didn't matter if he was the most wicked being to tread the face of the earth. I loved him, and the thought of losing him filled me with an overwhelming dread. Without hesitation, I fell to my knees beside the bed and gripped his hand in mine.

I brushed my fingers across his knuckles. “Tell me what Poseidon did to invoke such rage and hatred toward my kind?”

Kai gritted his teeth as he tried to sit. I bounded to my feet to help him sit up and adjust the pillow behind his back. “It’s not what he did to me. It’s what he did to my mother.”

I sat on the edge of the bed, pulling his hand in my lap. “Who is she, Kai? Who’s your mother?”

Kai looked away like he was too ashamed to make eye contact with me. “Medusa was my mother.”

A sick feeling of dread coated my stomach, making me feel like what meager dinner I had consumed last night was about to reappear. “Oh, Kai! I killed your mother!” My hand flew to my mouth, and I bit down hard, stifling the wail trying to escape me.

Kai shot upright, hissing in pain as he gripped my face. “You did not kill her! That bastard killed her by raping her and putting that locket around her neck.”

I turned sorrowful eyes to Kai, my heart heavy with understanding. “I realize now why she gave up the locket so easily,” I said, the weight of her sacrifice settling within me. “She did it to save you.” I paused to recall her stoic sacrifice, then added, “If Poseidon hadn’t given her that locket, she would have died years ago.”

Kai eased back onto his pillow. “That would have been better for both of us. She wouldn’t have been forced to live the life of a monster, and I would have never been born.”

I reached my hand to his face. “Kai, you can’t believe that.”

Kai pulled away from my touch, the act stinging worse than a slap across my cheek. “You have no idea what I believe.”

“No, I don’t.” I stood, glancing down at him. “But the man I have come to know would not say that and would not take his anger and hurt out on innocent sea creatures.”

“Then you don’t know me at all,” Kai stated.

I walked over to the cabin door, then snatched it open. “I guess I don’t.” Once I slammed the door behind me, I stomped up on deck.

“I take it our patient is in a mood.” Cael smiled as I leaned against the railing closest to him and angrily crossed my arms over my chest.

“A mood is putting it lightly,” I grumbled.

Cael looked back over the water, watching as the sun began its ascent into the sky. “People tend to be a little touchy when they’re dying.”

Cael’s words doused my anger, throwing a bucket of ice water over it. Guilt racked my brain. How could I be angry at him for his harsh words at a time like this? I blinked as a few tears cascaded down my cheeks.

“Kai doesn’t like those,” Cael warned, glancing back at me once more. “He had to deal with his mother’s tears on a daily basis as a child. He loathes them now.”

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