Page 11 of Siren's Treasure

“I will speak!” Father glared through the pain, his warning focused entirely on his youngest. “Hear me, girl! Scylla stole what powers my sister had, so that in the end, Undine could not even save herself.” The years had been long, but the pain still carried in his voice like an ocean current. Poseidon might rule the seas with a terrible fist, but he loved his family with that same fierceness. “And like a fool, I tried to step in—I gaveUndine a dagger to drive into her unfaithful suitor’s heart, but in the end, my sister could not find the strength to turn that blade on that—thatenemy of our people…”

“Undine’s Blade,” Thessa whispered.

“It is crafted from the tip of my trident.” His voice was heavy with ancient grief.

Thessa’s gaze drifted to the broken prongs of his mighty weapon that Nephele now held in her delicate grip. All these years, she’d supposed the missing piece was lost in the scales of some legendary sea monster. Where was it now? The legends never revealed the blade’s final resting place.

“The curse of mermaid hair makes up the hilt—my own sisters lent their magic to the blade.” A groan escaped him. The tragedy from all those years past still cut as sharp as it had back then. “Undine could have ended her curse by killing that unworthy prince, returned to her true form and joined the Divine Sovereignty of the Seas where she belonged,” her father said, “but no, our sacrifice was in vain… and I will never see her again, not even after I leave this world.”

Undine’s spirit had been lost to the seafoam after she’d lost her bargain against Scylla. Her selfish prince never returned her love, and she’d died of a broken heart—truly a lost soul, scattered across the endless waves.

“Father, no one faults you for wanting to rescue your family from the… humans.” Thessa’s voice quavered. “Now I ask you to… take pity on me… I am as desperate as you were to save my family. I only wish to keep you alive.”

A trembling smile crossed his lips. “My dear. Even if you held all the power in your fingertips to heal, you could never bring back what is lost.” He drew her closer, and she let herself melt into the strength of his embrace. His heartbeat, though weaker now, still drummed its familiar rhythm beneath her hearing. Hesmoothed back her coppery hair. “You will only be safe when I am gone.”

What? The sorrow in her heart turned cold with confusion. Why? His stern expression made it clear that the conversation had reached its end, and she was to obey.

Phosphorescence stung her eyes. “I love you, father,” she whispered.

Nephele’s hand found hers, comforting and steadying her. “We will let you rest, Your Majesty. Come, Thessa.”

She barely registered that her sister had laid the trident next to their father and was guiding her away from him, so lost was she in his words, though when Thessa cast one final glance back, she noticed how still he lay. Would this be the last she saw of Father in this life?

They swam through corridors of polished nacre, past hanging gardens of jewel-toned anemones, until they reached Nephele’s chambers. Her sister’s rooms were a marvel of luxury, with shells of gold and pearl inlaid in intricate patterns across the walls.

“What did he mean, Nephele,” Thessa demanded, twisting through the room in agitation. “Why does Father say I will only be safe when he is gone?”

Nephele’s hands flew to her mouth. “No!” the word was muffled through her fingers. “You will never hear it from me!”

So, she knew! “You cannot keep this secret from me, sister! I will find out…from Scylla if I have to! I will swim over to the Sea Witch’s lair and demand answers.”

“No! You won’t venture one league near her!” Nephele sounded terrified.

“For Father, I would!”

Her sister’s composure shattered like a delicate shell. “Then you would break his heart! Have you no decency? After everything he’s done for you!”

“Nephele.” Thessa was at a loss. She settled against the soft moss of her bed. “Just tell me!”

Her sister sighed, throwing out her hands in surrender. “It’s just that Scylla is the trickster he says. When she came to offer her services to heal Father, she attempted a shameless bargain. Nerissa told me everything—how the Sea Witch came in all her terrible glory, with tentacles black as midnight and eyes that burned like lava. She was fearful, Thess, writhing and cackling like a mad creature, and you know what offer she tried to make? She’d heal Father by returning what was lost, but for a price that he refused to pay. He threw her out like she deserved!”

Confusion and curiosity warred within Thessa like opposing currents. “What was her price?”

The secret seemed to overwhelm Nephele, and she rushed forward to wrap her arms around her youngest sister. “You!Thessa, she wants you.”

Chapter seven

Snarling threats low under their filthy breath, Circe’s beasts forced Raggon to march across the beach after the Land Witch.

These sister witches were the terror of Everrgold—Circe the Land Witch transforming men into beasts, while her sister Scylla the Sea Witch dragged entire ships to their doom. Their mutual hatred was perhaps Everrgold’s only salvation—without it, they might have joined forces and left nothing alive.

Raggon grimaced as Circe’s minions prodded him forward—he preferred the quick death Scylla offered to Circe’s twisted games. They crested the first dune when his childhood home came into view through the thinning morning mist. The sight knocked the breath from his lungs.

The palace rose proudly against the deep jungle—just as he’d remembered. Its alabaster spires caught the golden light like fingers of flame. But Circe’s touch corrupted everything. Sharp iron spikes now crowned the once-graceful towers. The gentlegardens where he’d played as a child had been transformed into a maze of thorny vines that writhed in the sea breeze as if tortured. The nostalgia twisting in his gut, was laced with a deep and abiding sorrow of what had become of his memories. His mind latched onto the only thing left—Tobias.

Oh, Smiley! You’d better be alive, kid!If he wasn’t, Raggon would spend his life avenging his younger brother.

A stench of brine and decay rolled off the water in a moat that encircled the palace grounds. Also new… and unnecessarily putrid. He held his breath. Another whiff of that rot, and he’d lose the contents of his stomach.

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