Page 9 of Siren's Treasure

Her answering smile sickened him. The morning light caught her fangs—they glittered like shark’s teeth. “Indeed?” she asked. “And I’ve prepared a room for you. Nothing is too good for the future king of Sylphoria.”

“King?” he echoed. What was she saying? She’d taken that right from him when she’d stolen his father’s kingdom.

“Why, of course… once you marry their queen.” The deadly promise from her velvety soft voice slammed into his gut with the force of Maddox’s sword.

His hand went to his stomach where he’d been sliced, hadn’t he? Other than a rip in his shirt, he felt nothing. Was he going mad? But no, a memory tore through the cobwebs of his mind as he remembered what had healed him—that siren’s incredible voice! The mermaid had thrown him into a dreamy haze, so that he didn’t know reality from fantasy, though Circe’s strange gaze on him felt very real.

Raggon swallowed down his retorts. Not for a moment did he believe this cruel sorceress meant to make him her consort. She’d throw him away as soon as she used his name to gain more political footing in his country, but why did she need him for more leverage?

His gaze roved over her beastly guards with their unwashed braids dangling over roughened patches of scales, hide, and bristling fur. What rebellion did she need to quash? The people who’d stayed behind on the island now reeked of wet animal and rotting seaweed.

“Do you like my army?” She reached for him. He stiffened, unable to move as her eerie eyes danced with cruel amusement. She ran one long-nailed finger along his chest. “They are… strong.”

She’d use her spells to transform him into one of these bestial soldiers too. He watched one of the creatures flex its clawed hands at a buzzing fly. “Not necessarily blessed with brains,” he muttered.

“That’s how I like my men,” she purred. Her knobby fingers switched directions and traced along his jaw, her nail prickling ice across his skin. “You know what happens if you’re in the Typhon’s Kiss too long? You’ll become one of them…” His heart raced as the truth hit home—no wonder he felt so strange. The metal was slowly drinking in his essence. “But I say we get you out of those manacles,” she said. “A woman like me has refined tastes, and I prefer you the way you are.”

A bitter laugh escaped him, sharp as the tang of blood on her breath, and one she’d better beware. He wouldn’t be her toy. “Sorry, you’d be better off making me brainless.”

Her cackling laugh made him wince in pain. She whipped away from him. He noticed the cloak draped over her shoulders rose unnaturally against her back, making her appear almost hunchbacked. She motioned to her beastly army. “Bring him.”

Growling low, Circe’s beasts yanked Raggon forward, taking him from the waves and the seductive call of that treacherous mermaid.

Chapter six

Thessa’s lips burned from that kiss! Try as she might, she couldn’t banish thoughts of how she’d betrayed her people by succumbing to his charm… if even for an instant.

More than an instant—Oh! That—that devil! There was fire in his touch. She was part of the Sea Sovereignty. She had her family name to protect! She couldn’t go and have feelings for—for humans.

A school of fish scrambled out of the way to allow the princess through. She waved back at them, her heart thundering against her ribs as she raced through the frothy crystalline waters. The iridescent seaweed of her laced vest danced around her.

Her father was close to death. She should be there! What sort of daughter was she? Faithless, inconstant—to lose herself in the blue-eyed gaze of a human? That roguish way he watched her had made her breathless. What would’ve happened had he not been half-drowned? More than anything, she longed to run her hands through hair infinitely blacker than a storm.

No more!

Nephele had warned her to be careful when interfering in the wars of humans.

“Depths take me!” she muttered. And this man was the worst of them! A pirate! She could just hear her sisters’ tittering laughter.

Girl, that happens when a man flirts with a maid.He’d jumbled every sensible thought from her brain with his soft touch and strong hands. Really strong… and they were surprisingly gentle against her skin!

“Ah, Tides!” she groaned. Her sisters would never let her hear the end of this—or worse, they’d go tattling to Father. He was a human, after all! Her ooey-gooey memories faded as the blast of reality wiped the silly grin from her face. All union between their kind was destined for failure.

Just ask Aunt Undine… she’d dissolved into seafoam after her prince’s betrayal, after that heartbreaker had drained away her youth and devotion like water through a sieve.

Don’t fall in love with humans… so why wasn’t her heart listening to her? Silly heart!

Fine then! Thessa never had to see that swaggering troublemaker again! Her heart sank like an anchor at the thought. Well… perhaps she could spy a little… from a distance.

A shimmering rainbow of magic spun around her father’s palace, a masterpiece of polished coral and mother-of-pearl that sparkled with all the colors of the deep. Though today, the usual guards were absent from their posts, and the sweeping courtyards were eerily empty. The strange plague that had struck her father touched them all.

Her throat constricted as she passed through massive gates of intricate sea-glass mosaics. What if she was too late? Her father might’ve already drawn his last breath. Why had she been sofoolish to intervene in the matters of humans? Their ships were always sinking or exploding; what was one more death?

Yet nothing could make her regret savinghim.

“Nephele!” Her cry echoed through the silent halls, past swaying fronds of jewel-toned anemones that decorated the classical Greek columns. “Nerissa! Thalassa!” She called for each of her sisters as she swam faster through the haunting stillness. “Galene? Aktaia?”

No answer came.

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