Page 6 of Veil of Monsters

Felix’s eyes light up. “No one will touch you either. Being here is risky, and I wanted to tell you that I’m yours, Nerelyth. From now until the end of my time, until the goddess has me at her side. Even in death, my soul will long for yours. I know you might not want this right now, but we are immortal, and I will wait for you. I will heal your heart, Nerelyth, so you can love me fully.”

I lean in and kiss him, unable to do anything else to show him I feel the same way and I don’t need him to wait. He’s surprised, and he doesn’t kiss me back straight away. When he does, he completely commands the kiss. His kiss is still gentle, exploring, as he holds me to him. He tastes amazing and I want more. As I touch the buttons of his leathers, he breaks away. “Kissing you here is a bad idea because all I’m going to want to do is strip you of these clothes and find out what’s underneath them so I can worship every inch of you.” He cups my cheek, arching my neck so that I’m looking up at him. “We’re not safe here and I’m not letting the female I love—”

He pauses, like he didn’t mean to say that, not yet. “Tell me the end of that sentence when we are out of here. I want to repeat it to you.”

Felix’s eyes soften and he nods once, leaning down and kissing me softly. “Thank the goddess we met. I was waiting for you.”

I close my eyes for a second, breathing in his scent. We might not be mates, we might not have destiny or fate on our side, but I believe anyone can make their own. I want to make mine with Felix, and I’m more sure of that than ever before. I fell in love with him the moment we met. I fell deeper every time he fought for me. “I was waiting for you, too.”

Clearing my throat, I move away from him to get some clarity in my mind. “I never planned to date a Wyern.”

He grins at my joke. “You and your pink friend have that in common. We need to get back to our royals and make sure they are safe.”

“Agreed.” I nod, looking around. “Though we haven’t got any weapons on us, and my magic is weaker than I would like.”

“What’s the chance of your father killing me on the spot or his guards attempting it before we can get out of here?”

“The chance of him killing me, I’m guessing. I kind of insulted him last time I left here,” I admit. I don’t regret my parting words, but I regret that I’m now in an awkward position with Felix where my father might kill us both.

Felix smiles at me. “Your father deserved it, from all I’ve heard. We need to find a guard. The quicker we can knock out an armed one, the better. We both need weapons to get out of here.”

“You’re very confident that you could take out the sea royal guard so easily,” I muse.

He shrugs his shoulders like it’s not even a question. “I was a nobody when I was born in a Wyern city. My mother and father are farmers, along with four of my siblings. My twin and I, well, we were born different. We both decided that being farmers wasn’t the life the goddess wanted for us, so instead, we trained. Eventually, we were able to leave the farms and train with the soldiers. We rose up the ranks by our skill alone until we both met Emerson. I knew straight away the rumors of him being the greatest king the Wyerns have ever had were true. His father was a shadow compared to him. I believe I can disarm a royal guard because I trained hard to make sure I could. I don’t have magic, but I have never needed it.”

Admiration builds in my chest. “Your parents must be proud.”

“You can ask them when I bring you home as my new wife,” Felix says with a wink, and I shake my head at him, unable to stop the big smile from stretching my face.

I change the subject. “I have my powers and I can help, but we should move.” I glance at the door. “We need to get out of here and to the portals. There’s a room full of them, but they are likely well guarded.”

“I’m checking first.” He goes to the door, which is made of pearl beads that make soft bell-like noises every time that you open them. Someone fitted them thousands of years ago as a way of making alarms almost throughout the castle so that the guards can always hear when someone’s opened the doors. It’s better than having wood doors, which are near silent when they’re opened. Felix pops his head out of the door, looking down the corridors. The bell noise rings softly, but Felix’s shoulders relax. “It’s clear and quiet. I can’t hear anyone.”

Felix steps out first, and I follow him. We head right down the familiar pathways that lead us past the throne room. There isn’t another way around it. There’s a portal room not too far from there, and the other one is on the other side of the castle, where the chances of bumping into someone are great. I walk down, pausing as I see two guards dead in the middle of the corridor. We look between each other, and neither of us says a word as we quickly take their swords. I take a second to close their eyes, wondering how they died. There’s no blood or marks on them. “What in the name of the sea killed them?”

Felix is looking them over too. “Something internal. Drowning perhaps. It doesn’t matter. We must move, Nerry.”

They could have been drowned, I guess, but it would take a lot of water to drown a siren and a lot of magic too. There’s no scent of magic in the air around them. In fact, there’s no sound. It’s silent here. Way too silent. “We should see more guards by now. My father usually has a constant rotation of them near the throne rooms. This is unusual.”

“I know. Something is wrong,” Felix agrees, his whole body tense. He stays close to me. “Do you want to check on your father?”

Part of me wants to say yes. “No, because he’ll kill you.”

Felix doesn’t question me anymore about my decision, and we quietly walk further, coming around a corner to the throne room. The guards are killed, splayed across the ground. I can hear people inside the throne room, the only sound throughout the sea. “Can we get around the throne room? I have a bad feeling about this.”

“No. The castle was built like a maze, and it makes it so that you have to go certain ways,” I whisper back. “Plus, they might have moved the other portals since I escaped in them last time. The only portals that don’t move are the ones next to the throne room.” We both look at the six sirens by the door, none of them marked with clear indicators of how they died. I frown. Whoever killed them is likely going after my father next. Felix looks down at me and he nods once. He knows I need to go check on him. I may hate my father for decisions he’s made, but he’s still my father. This is still my old court and I have a small sense of loyalty to the people here. I need to make sure he’s still alive for them, for my sisters.

It’s likely the portals are heavily guarded and they’re going to be hard to travel through without my father’s permission. I can face him. I can hope time has made him reasonable. We keep close together as I peer around the thick door. My stomach drops when I see my father’s dead body floating in a puddle of water in the middle of the throne room. His eyes are wide and facing me, his throat slit. His blood pours all over the stones, mixed in with the water, until it looks almost like a red tree spreading across the ground. A sob echoes in my throat as Felix takes my hand.

“Do come in. Mind his body. You can just step over it.” I flinch at my sister’s cold voice as it echoes its way to me. Tears fall down my cheeks as I move into the doorway, holding my head high. “Sister, we’ve been waiting for you to wake up for a while now and find your way here. Bring the Wyern with you.”

I look at Felix, who gently places his hand on my back, his lips leaning down to whisper in my ear. We are giving away too much with the simple move, but I need his strength to make my legs move. They are locked in fear. “Together.”

“Together.” Even when I feel like running in the opposite direction with him, we both walk in. We’re in danger, but we can’t outrun it. Felix stands steadily at my side as we walk into the throne room, down the steps, and past my father’s dead body. I want to reach out to him, to close his eyes. A sob builds in the back of my throat. He wasn’t a good man. He definitely wasn’t a good father. But I’m still mourning him. I still wish he hadn’t died like this.

My sister is in a long gown, wearing my father’s crown. The new Siren Queen, no doubt. At my sister’s side is a male I’ve never seen before, but he’s oddly familiar. He sits on a throne next to her, one mimicking the same as hers, like they are married. The crown on his head is pure black, different from anything I’ve seen, resting on his blond hair. His eyes are black, empty, and he gives off nothing but a chill to the air. He looks so familiar.

I turn to my sister. “Did you kill him?”

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