Page 41 of Cursed By a Siren's Kiss

“—He did,” I answered, cutting Kipp off. My tone held anger, and I didn’t understand what Proteus was trying to imply. This was not why I’d brought Kipp and his crew to this island.

“You have no idea what type of bond it is, I’ll wager,” Proteus added, his lips pressed together tightly as he watched Kipp, ignoring my interruption completely as he continued to interrogate Kipp.

Bristling at his words, Kipp’s jaw tightened. “I know what it is,” he replied tersely. “I won’t let anyone use it against us.”

“So, you meant to tie your soul to hers forever?”

Proteus’ words were like a punch to my gut, knocking the air from my lungs as I replayed them within my mind. Truly, I couldn’t have heard what I thought I had. My head whipped to where Kipp sat next to me, an animalistic growl emanating from my chest as I demanded, “What does he mean?”

Kipp shook his head, not even daring to look my way as he answered, “Not forever. Just until we get what I want.”

“Oh, children,” Proteus muttered as he finally allowed himself to sit on the bench across from us. A sad, faraway look passed behind his gaze as his fingers pressed against his temples, as if a headache now plagued him. “You have no idea what you are playing with. The binding you have done is not breakable, or reversible. It is one only the fates themselves can gift. How you were even able to perform it in the first place baffles me.”

Some of the fight seemed to have left him as his shoulders drooped, yet he still replied defensively as he said, “A powerful seer told me how it could be done.”

“Let me guess,” Proteus said with a smirk as he shook his head disbelievingly. “An old woman prone to spitting when she speaks? Only one eye? Am I right?”

I groaned, realizing exactly who Proteus implied. He meant a fate. Kipp opened his mouth but thought better of it, snapping it shut.

Leaning back, Proteus added, “I get it. Centuries of desperation will make even the smartest and deadliest of us incompetent and prone to mistakes in our desperation.” He sighed before his gaze darkened. “But not at the expense of my young friend here.”

I turned to Kipp, my knee brushing into his as I glared up at him. “Tell me you didn’t get the binding spell from a fate, Kipp.”

Kipp’s lips remained sealed as he turned his gaze to mine, the dark ripples of inky black bedding into his irises. The darkness sat just below the surface, but I didn’t care. His stupidity would cost us greatly, and I feared there wasn’t much to be done about it now.

“Interesting,” Proteus said, “and you say a sea witch did this to you?”

Kipp hadn’t said anything about the sea witch. This was information Proteus was only privy to thanks to our mind link.I replied quickly, hoping Kipp wouldn’t question how Proteus knew more than what we’d spoken.

“Not just any sea witch. Circe,” I replied, my gaze boring into his, the seriousness evident in my tone and words.

Proteus laughed then. “Your mother’s little sister! Well, isn’t that just rich?”

“Her sister?” I asked, leaning forward, shook by this revelation.

“I forget,” Dionysus called as he came around a set of thick hedges into view. “The young were never told these things.” He paused, taking a seat on the other side of Kipp. He didn’t seem to care that the darkness brewed within him like a wicked storm that could ruin us all.

“Where is my crew?” he asked. “They left with you, yet you’ve returned without them. Where are they?”

Dionysus smirked. “They are preoccupied at the moment entertaining my dryads.” He shrugged. “They will be fine.”

“Enough with the pointless banter,” I interjected, cutting through the tension crackling between us. “We didn’t come here to be questioned by you. We came for answers.” I wasn’t in the mood for his teasing, or his games.

Proteus raised a brow, his playful demeanor shifting to seriousness as he watched me, knowingly. “Straight to the point as always, Lia.”

“We need information, and I know that you can provide it,” I stated firmly, locking eyes with Proteus. “We need to find Circe, and I don’t care who she was to my mother.”

“Are you going to tell him who you are?” Dionysus asked, flicking a thumb toward Kipp as I glared at him.

“I know who she is,” Kipp replied through gritted teeth. He fought for control over his darkness, but it clearly costed him greatly to do so. Every muscle in his body sat tensed and coiled as he held himself at bay.

“Really?” I asked, turning toward him. He couldn’t know. I hadn’t told him everything, only what he needed to know. “Who am I then?”

He barely looked at me as he said, “The golden ring around your eyes means that you are royalty, and only from the direct line. It shows your claim to the throne. You can only be the daughter of the late siren queen.”

I flinched at the memory of my mother’s brutal passing, and I could have sworn the darkness retreated a fraction from his gaze as it softened. I’d lived with the constant reminder of her death in the scar along my thigh. We’d been pushing through the sea, racing from a school of sharks maddened with bloodlust when some sort of power seemed to have seized my mother, giving the sharks the opening that they required to tear her to pieces right before my eyes.

Dionysus opened his mouth as if to add the other half of my heritage to the table, but with a warning glance, he shut his mouth with an audible snap.

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