Page 48 of House of Lilith

“And?”

I shake my head, fighting not to show how concerned I am. “He didn’t see a face. Someone attacked him from behind, threatening to kill him if he didn’t provide information on getting the mermaids to break their contract.”

I see Ricky frown. “The contract they signed not to attack any of the students while we’re here?”

I nod, watching his face fall. And I don’t want to add to his troubles, but this might mean the difference between life and death to all of us.

“Don’t get me wrong, Ricky,” I tell him in the gentlest voice I can muster, “but before we arrived, when I found out about the Sobbing Lake, you explicitly told me the mermaids wouldn’t be a problem.”

“I thought the contract would be enough for them not to be,” he says, a little pensively.

“You no longer think that?”

He gives me something between a shake and a nod, obviously too rattled for me to expect him to think like he usually does.

“Why don’t you tell me everything you know about mermaids in general and I’ll take it from there,” I ask.

I watch him breathe a sigh of relief. “Sure, Boss.” He pauses for a second before he asks, “You’re familiar with the fairy tale?”

I nod. “The mermaid who fell in love with a Scion prince and made a deal with a fae to give her legs instead of fins.”

He shakes his head, but it makes me happy to see his lips curl into a sad little smile. “That’s just what the Scions tell their kids, even now. She wasn’t originally a mermaid.” He pauses a little. “Mermaids aren’tborn, they’remade.”

I frown, which nudges him to go on.

“Just like the rest of them,” he says, “the Little Mermaid was a fae woman captured by Scion sailors and thrown overboard for good luck.”

“What the fuck?”

“Yeah. It’s just that back then, the Scions didn’t know what they were actually doing.”

“What were they doing?”

“They were forcing faes to use their magic to adjust to a completely different environment. Instead of dying, they grew fins and kept living underwater, exacting vengeance with their song whenever they’d come across sailors.”

I feel myself losing the thread of the conversation. “That sounds nothing like the fairy tale I know of.”

He shakes his head. “The Little Mermaid… She wasn’t trying to get closer to some stranger that just happened to catch her eye.” He pauses before he explains, “She was trying to get back to her original form so she could be reunited with her fiance.”

For a second, I stay silent. “Shit, that’s depressing.”

He lets out a sad little smile.

“But what’s their nature?” I ask. “The contract… Would they go back on their word like that?”

He shakes his head. “I’d been persuaded into thinking they wouldn’t. But I don’t know anymore, Boss. They don’t like attention and there’s not a lot we know about them.”

I nod thoughtfully, my concern only growing bigger.

“Does that mean the killer didn’t learn anything useful?” Ricky asks.

I have to fight not to let out a sigh. Instead, I just shake my head. “Apparently not. The professor wouldn’t say a word so he or she made good on their threat. And then, then they foundyouhere.” And I look deeper into his eyes.

He just returns the stare for a second.

“Boss,” he finally asks, in a lower, more anxious voice, “how are we going to get out of this?”

I hesitate, gritting my teeth just thinking about it all. How stupid was I, throwing this party in the hopes of making friends with the Grimms when I should’ve been watching my pack more closely?

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