Page 135 of A Storm in Every Heart
He looks sad, like I’m the problem here—I’m the one being difficult and putting him in a position he doesn’t like. “Unfortunately, I want this too much to let you ruin it.”
“I’m ruining your plan because I won’t just bend over and happily let you rape me?”
His nose wrinkles and his lip tips up in a sneer. “I think you’ll find you’re very happy to obey me when the alternative is watching your precious prince bleed out on the stones in front of this castle. Or perhaps you’d like to see what I’ll do to your cousin when he arrives?”
I bare my teeth. “That’s not much of a threat when I know either one of them could kill you without even trying.”
“Would you like to test it? Do you really want to know where Kastian is now? He’s in my dungeon, waiting for me to decide what to do with him. If you like, I could have him brought up here right now and we can fight it out, but I’ll warn you, he's already been fed enough sedatives to knock out a dozen trolls. I doubt he’ll be in the best condition to fight.”
I swallow, trying to force my heart back down from my throat. My voice shakes with anger, but I push past it, infusing my tone with more persuasion than I’ve ever used before. “Throw yourself off this tower.”
Magnus shakes his head wearily. “Let’s not do this again, Odessa. Your powers cannot affect me, and the sooner you realize that, the sooner we can focus on what’s really important.”
“How is that possible?” I demand.
“Surely you know there are some exceptions to the siren powers. Like so many other things in nature, the siren song is really only intended to carry on the species. It’s no different from a ram growing horns to fight off other males, or the Fae’s wings appearing around their bonds, to warn anyone else to stay away.”
“What’s your point?”
“Siren compulsion doesn’t work on women or children, non-compatible species, like trolls or dragons, direct relatives of sirens, or anyone who is soul-bonded—since they would be physically unable to betray their bond.”
“So you’re bonded? Then why would you want to marry me, you shouldn’t be able to?—”
I break off mid-sentence. What I was going to say was: “you shouldn’t be able to consummate it,” but I can’t make myself say it. Even thinking about that is revolting.
Actually, come to think of it, I can’t consummate a marriage either—it’s said that to betray a soul-bond is painful enough to kill you. Would that still be true if he forced me? Probably. That might be painful enough to kill me regardless.
“You misunderstand,” Magnus says, invading my increasingly panicked thoughts. “I’m not bonded, I just can’t have children. It’s one of the reasons I’ve felt no need to take a wife before now. I have no concerns about having an heir.”
My brow furrows. I’ve never heard about siren magic not working on infertile men, but I guess it makes sense since all of those other exceptions are true. Only, Magnus has a daughter—Lyra—so what’s going on here? “If you never wanted a wife before and can’t have an heir; and it’s not about the alliance with Vernallis, why would you suddenly want to marry me now?”
“Are you familiar with the history of land-born sirens?”
I blink, startled by his suddenly businesslike tone. “No.”
“Allow me to educate you. Many years ago, before you or I were born, this continent was one large kingdom. The king lived in the north, in what is now Thermia, and didn’t often worry about what was happening in the south, so eventually the people of what is now Hydratta wanted to break off from the rest of the kingdom and govern themselves.”
“That’s nice,” I hiss, “but I don’t really have time for a history lesson.”
“You have time for whatever I want from you. You’re not leaving this tower any time soon,” he snaps, his true personality showing for just a moment before he covers it with a saccharine smile. “As I was saying, Hydratta decided to become its own kingdom, but then suddenly the king who ignored them didn’t want to let them go, so he sent soldiers from the capital to force Hydratta to surrender. What the soldiers didn’t know was that the new rulers of the island had anticipated this and they had asecret weapon. Their new queen was the daughter of a siren who was captured by a fisherman.”
My stomach lurches as if I might be sick. I think it’s the word “imprisonment” that’s getting to me. I always assumed that my mother stayed on land because she chose to, but this other ancient siren was obviously not given the same choice.
It seems like, if Magnus has his way, I won’t get a choice either.
Magnus carries on with his story, unbothered by my darkening expression. “Due to her mother’s imprisonment, the siren queen was born on land and raised to be loyal to the Fae. So, when the soldiers marched on Hydratta, she used her powers of persuasion to send them all marching into the sea.”
“That’s horrible,” I snap. “And it has nothing to do with me.”
“I disagree. See, over the years, there were many attempts to breed landlocked sirens for their powers, but the practice was difficult and dangerous. Most who tried it ended up becoming obsessed with the sirens they tried to hold prisoner and dying. Eventually, history forgot about what the sirens could do, until I saw you, and I knew that the legendary first Queen of Hydratta could be reborn.”
“You’re insane,” I bite out, “and whatever you’re imagining isn’t going to happen. I’m not staying here. Maybe I can’t compel you, but there’s a hell of a lot of people in this castle I can affect.”
“You could, but you won’t, because you know if you do that I’ll murder Kastian and make you watch.”
I suck in a breath, unable to hide my horror, and Magnus pounces on my reaction. “But it doesn’t have to be that way, Odessa. We could work together, you and I. Just think about it for a moment. Can you imagine the possibilities of a ruler with the ability to influence anyone and everyone? Picture a queen who could ask her subjects for anything and they would behappy to oblige. There would be no unrest in the kingdoms, no need for wars, no pointless diplomatic arguments.”
“There would be no independent thought, you mean,” I bite out. “But there’s an obvious flaw in your fantasy. What about the women and men like you? They wouldn’t be affected.”
