Page 49 of Rise of the Siren Queen
The matching skirt, light and teasing against her thighs, did nothing to ease the raw pull in my chest.
Different from yesterday. And yet, the effect on me was exactly the same, something unfamiliar, somethingdeadly.
I shouldn’t have been looking at her like this.Shouldn’t have wanted her like this.
All I could think about isundoingthat careful composure. Shattering that regal, untouchable air. Tearing her from her world of control and seeing what she looked like when sheburned.
A dark, wicked part of meachedfor it.
It wasn’t justdesire,no, this was something else, something deeper, somethingdangerous. Lust, yes, but woven with possessive feeling, something I couldn’t acknowledge.
Her lips twitched, the barest hint of amusement sparking in her gaze. Was she aware of what she was doing? Did she know the effect she had on me?
Or worse… Was sheenjoyingit?
“It’s rather easy, really,” she said, voice calm, unbothered. As if this was just another conversation. As if she didn’t feel the thick, charged air between us. “I just cloak myself with invisibility and shift.”
I narrowed my eyes. There was something too casual about her tone, too smooth.
Cloaking. Shifting. She spoke about it as if it were effortless, as if the very fabric of reality bent to her will without resistance. I wasn’t sure if it unnerved me or intrigued me more.
“Easy for you, do you mean?” I muttered. There was no way it was as simple as she made it seem.
“Actually, all sirens, tritons, and even hybrids have invisibility powers,” she explained, voice measured, like she was humoring a child. “Usually, when you use invisibility, no one can see or hear you.”
“Then why did I see your shadow yesterday?” I asked, my voice laced with a curiosity that bordered on insanity, twisting my thoughts in endless loops. If she thought she could move unseen, slip in and out like a phantom, she was wrong. I had sensed her.I would always sense her.
“It must be because of your ancestors.” Her tone shifted, losing its usual cool detachment. She studied me, her gaze heavier than before. “I take it you don’t know your lineage?”
A slow smirk pulled at the corner of my lips.Ah. So we are gettingto something real now.
“You’re powerful, Adrian,” she continued. “And to the council, that makes you dangerous. Your presence here incites fear among them.”
Fear. Good. It should.
“But not to you?” I pressed, letting just enough frustration seep into my voice to keep her on edge. “You don’t fear me?”
Why not you? Why aren’t I dangerous to you?
Tell me what you’re hiding. Just tell me.
She sighed, the sound harsh. Finally, finally a crack in that carefully constructed mask of hers. “Fine,” she muttered, her reluctance slipping through. “I’ll tell you everything I can, although I can’t reveal certain truths about my kingdom.”
I dragged a hand down my face, feigning exasperation even as satisfaction curled in my chest. She was bending, shifting under my pressure. “We had an agreement,” I reminded her sharply, pushing just enough to see how far she’d bend before she snapped.
Her eyes darkened. “It’s take it or leave it,” she spat, irritation slipping through at last. “My orders were to take your memories and release you. But I made this agreement to give you the benefit of the doubt. So yes, I’m telling you truths, but not all of them.”
My grin widened, slow and deliberate.There it is.
Ihadgotten under her skin. The cracks were showing, and I wanted to pry them open, to see what lay beneath that regal restraint.
But then her words settled in my mind, and my amusement twisted into something colder.
Take my memories?
“How would you take them?” I asked, curiosity flickering to life before concern could sink its claws in.Would it hurt? Would I even realize it was happening?
Then it hit.
