Page 51 of Crown and Dragon

“Leave. Go back to the sea,” Marius demanded.

“That crown has no power over me,” the siren whispered.

Her power must have been diminished by her injuries because her voice didn’t seem to affect Tahlia or him at all.

The siren lashed out with her fingers. Each watery digit ended with a claw made of some dark coral that leaked a foul, green substance that would poison Tahlia if she made contact. Marius knew that somehow. The scent of the stuff made the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

A rushing sounded. Tahlia glanced at him, keeping a blade between her and the siren.

What was that sound?

The siren’s arm became a small torrent of rushing water, and the siren encircled Tahlia’s neck, choking her and pulling her close.

“Stop!” Marius lunged forward with his dagger outstretched, but he couldn’t do anything without further threatening Tahlia’s safety.

Tahlia was choking, her eyes panicked and her cheeks red. A shout sounded behind the siren and Tahlia. Durniad tore Tahlia from the injured siren’s arms.

“Get me that crown, siren, and you get your revenge,” Durniad said.

“You want to release her,” Marius ordered. The crown’s power shivered down his spine and throat.

Gaze going blank, Durniad did so, but the siren’s entire body turned into a rushing wave and drove Marius to the ground. He leapt up again, but the crown was gone from his drenched head.

The siren reformed. Tahlia slashed the siren’s waist. Water gushed from the wound. The creature hissed and snared Tahlia’s hair. Shouting in pain, Tahlia dropped her blade. The siren yanked Tahlia out of Marius’s reach. He froze. The siren’s abilities were an unknown. He had to stall and figure this out. Tahlia’s face said she too was trying to work out a strategy here.

“Why are you working with him?” Marius asked the siren, truly baffled.

“His great-grandsire killed my mother’s enemy. My mother created that crown and I owe him a blood debt.”

Damn. Marius couldn’t twist that to their benefit.

With a cocky laugh, Durniad placed the crown on his head. “Drop all your weapons,” he ordered Marius.

To keep up their ruse that they were human, Marius dropped his daggers while the siren dragged Tahlia toward the portal. Marius could not, would not, permit the siren to take her. His body hummed with rage.

“Take me,” Tahlia said, her tone casual. “I’ll call up my ocean pals to rip your face off the second we hit the water.”

“Not if I bind your hands so you can’t make runes,” the siren said.

Tahlia laughed. “That’s what you think. I’m not the creature you think I am.”

The warped grin on the siren’s injured face fell, and Durniad frowned, his brow furrowing with confusion.

A tingling zipped along Marius’s ears, jaw, and down his whole body. He watched as Tahlia’s ears grew back into their regular pointed shape and her irises returned to their slitted, Fae form. He touched his ear, and yes, the Witch’s potion had reached the end of its time limit.

The siren hissed and shoved Tahlia to the ground. Her cheek hit the ground hard and she groaned, immediately trying to pull herself back up.

“Stay on the ground, woman,” Durniad said, not realizing she was part Fae. Would the amount of Fae blood she had be enough?

The siren fled through her portal. The shimmering opening fizzled like water on a hot stone and then it disappeared entirely.

“I don’t know what your backstory is with the siren,” Durniad said, “but I don’t care. I think I’m ready for some entertainment. My grand plan takes off very soon, so I don’t have all day.”

Tahlia glanced at Marius and remained on the ground as if the crown did hold sway over her body. Was she faking like him?

Marius was a living storm of indecision. Durniad hadn’t yet noticed Marius’s ears and eyes. Should he attack Durniad and his men in hopes of grabbing the crown and releasing Tahlia? Or should he keep still in case Durniad truly did control Tahlia? The makeshift king could order her to ram her own head into the wall and end herself.

Swallowing the bitter taste of fear on the back of his tongue, Marius stared at Tahlia. He hoped for a wink only he would see or some other indication. But Tahlia remained still. Her gaze stayed on him, but her look told him absolutely nothing.

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