Page 50 of Siren's Treasure

“We’ll cut off Tobias’s bonds first with it… and then I have until sunset to…” she stuttered to a stop, meeting his eyes.

Immediately, he knew she was keeping something back from him. Whatever this secret was had stood between them from the beginning and served as the last defense between him and her heart. “Why sunset?” he demanded. “What happens then?”

A faint smile trembled and failed on her lips. “We have until the sea drowns the sun. We’ll figure this out.”

That wasn’t enough! How did he get her to trust him? What good were a few stolen kisses when she kept her secrets locked away? He’d grappled with the tormenting question over and over again, and now he had to press her harder. “Thessa… you’ve got to tell me how to end this curse. You’ve touched the blade, and now you must answer its… its demands. It asked for blood!”

The shadow crossing her face confirmed what he suspected—ending the curse would demand something far more terrible than love.

Her voice sounded hollow. “Circe is coming for us. The blade’s purpose will come naturally.”

He was left to no doubt of her meaning. She was going to face Circe with this weapon. Cold dread slammed into him like a cannonball to the chest. How? He’d only barely taught her how to defend herself with a dagger. And now she was expected to take out the enemy of her people with it?

Just a few seconds earlier, he’d thought that enemy might be himself. It could be worse… but would Undine’s Blade just accept any nasty’s heart that threatened the people of the sea?

Her gaze lifted to the circling dragon. “Please! Let’s help Tobias while we can! He’ll stay this way forever if we don’t get to him before—before…”

Raggon nodded with grim resolution, his every thought consumed on why she’d refused to tell him of her dark fate in the first place, because Thessa wasn’t meant for facing Circe, that’s why! Her hand was crafted for healing, not bloodshed. And now somehow, they had to tempt the dumb creature that Tobias had become to their sides, cut off a collar that had partially become part of his tough, gleaming flesh, before they faced the most terrifying being in existence.

And they only had until the sea drowned the sun. What could possibly go wrong?

Chapter twenty-three

Tobias was impossibly numb-skulled as a dragon! Thessa’s gaze wandered to Raggon, whose shoulders were quickly sagging in despair as they did everything to coax the ornery beast to join them in the lagoon.

His brother’s glistening black body wrapped around the heart-arch, squeezing the colorful limestone like a python. The obsidian scales caught the sunlight in iridescent blues and purples, its tough hide a cruel reminder of the creature’s predatory nature, though perhaps crueler was how it dragged along the copper whistler as its toy. Tobias blinked down at them past the waterfall with unsettling gold eyes, vertical pupils narrowing to slits when the light shifted.

They hadn’t changed to that deep mahogany brown when Tobias had come to himself for that brief instant on the ship, but stayed frustratingly blank like a dumb beast.

Sterling screeched down at them from a nearby branch. “Man the cannons! Brother overboard!” The bird’s voice carried anuncanny echo of Tobias’s inflections, as though some fragment of the young man remained in the creature’s heart.

Precious hours slipped through their fingers while they tried to entice the terrifying creature away from its perch. They flashed the gleaming metal from Undine’s Blade in the sunlight, letting its enchanting glow catch the dragon’s attention—which only earned them a nod from the massive horned head; they created fascinating clanging noises by striking river stones against hollowed logs and the metal from Raggon’s remaining belt buckle—sounds that by all right should bring the armies of Circe against them.

An inevitable clash between them was meant to be, and still Thessa’s every instinct screamed against it. The hilt of Undine’s Blade stung her hand in a disturbing way, cold with the call of blood that it demanded of her.

“Sister! Sister! Strike down the enemy of our people!”

She never would’ve touched it so soon had she not been trying to keep Raggon away. The moment her hand had brushed the mermaid hair fringing the hilt, it writhed against her skin like fiery ice, sending tendrils of numbing waves into her arms and chest that threatened death… and something worse, it spoke to her as nothing had before.

“Pierce the heart of the enemy through before night descends upon you!”

The wait was over. The once welcoming beams of the sun dipping in the sky was now a threat—the enemy of their people was to die at sunset.

All while Thessa had never harmed a barnacle spat!

Meanwhile Raggon paced the water’s edge, focused like a circling tiger shark, calling to his brother, whistling, imploring, cooing. That ended with an angry shout and throwing his belt buckle into the lagoon. A loud, perhaps even amused, snort from above followed the splash.

Nothing was working! However, the intrigued dragon craned its neck to watch these funny humans with nostrils flaring, sampling their scent on the humid air. Each movement of its massive head sent ripples of muscle beneath the glossy scales, causing the copper whistle clutched in its talons to clang with a hollow, echoing rhythm.

Raggon cried out in defeat. “Tobias! Are you in there… at all?” His eyes glistened with emotion as he stared up at the creature that had once been his brother. “Please,” he begged. He stepped closer to the water’s edge. “I know you’re still—” His foot slipped on the moss-slick stone. A sharp yell escaped him as he caught himself on a jagged crystal embedded in the rock.

An echoing howl followed his—this was louder, more primal, and infinitely more terrifying—an ancient sound that vibrated through the very stone beneath them. The dragon swept down from its perch. A thunderous crash shook the ground as it landed on the jungle floor, sending a flock of scarlet macaws scattering skyward in a panicked cloud.

Thessa held her breath. Massive kapok trees splintered; mahogany trunks cracked as the powerful wings knocked into every obstacle as the heavy steps pounded all the closer.

Tobias would crush them with his love!

“Avast! Man the lifeboats!” Sterling swooped frantically overhead, adding to the din.

---