Page 120 of Rise of the Siren Queen
“I’m fine,” came her clipped reply. “Furious. Disgusted. But fine. The bastard had the audacity to touch me.”
“He’ll pay for it,” I vowed, voice cracking with restraint. “We’ll makeallof them pay. I swear it.”
Her lavender eyes met mine across the room, burning with shared fury. The water pulsed with her power, rippling through the current like an approaching storm.
They felt it. Draven. Thalor. They noticed the shift.
“Rein it in, witch,” Thalor spat, gripping her throat harder.
Her magic surged higher. Defiance danced in her eyes like fire.
“You heard him,” Draven chimed in, tone razor-sharp. An icy dagger bloomed in his hand and kissed Elora’s throat.
“Rein it in, or I’ll slice your redheaded friend wide open.”
The ice cut a thin line across Elora’s skin. Blood bled into the sapphire water. Sienna faltered, her power dimming under restraint, fury warping into helplessness.
And then, chaos.
A crash. Splintered coral. Broken doors.
I turned, and my heart dropped. Ronan. Kieran.
No. No. NO.
“You shouldn’t be here,”I warned, voice low and desperate. “Get out. You’re playing into his hands.”
Both men paused, scanning the room, seeing too much. Feeling too much.
“Ah, the cavalry,” Draven drawled. “Now the party can begin.”
He pressed the blade deeper into Elora’s skin. Crimson unfurled like petals in the water.
Ronan trembled with rage. But it wasn’t loud. It wasquiet. Terrifying.
“I’m going to kill you,” he said, so low it sounded like a promise written in stone.
They couldn’t attack. Couldn’t move. Elora. Sienna.My grandmother.All at risk.
“Your little redheaded tried,” Draven said, tilting his head toward Elora. “But I got to her first. Didn’t I?”
Ronan lunged, but Kieran caught him. Held him back. Just barely.
“Now that we’re all acquainted,” Thalor said, voice thick with venom, “Ronan, would you kindly restrain your rebellious princess?”
He wanted Ronan to bind me. The man who would’ve destroyed kingdoms from inside on my behalf.
“No.”
The word came not from me, but from my grandmother. Her voice, frail but clear. Her gaze never left Ronan.
“Remember your duty.” Ronan’s hands shook.
“I won’t do it,” he said, voice hollow.
And I hated him for it. Hated how duty could make someone you love betray you. Because at this moment, he was choosing duty instead of Elora.
Draven’s mask cracked. “Then you are welcome to watch while I finish breaking your precious Elora,” he mocked. “I would make it a painless death, but your defiance earned her a few more rounds with my dagger and my warriors.”
