Dirty Lying Sirens

Chapter Forty-One

Madeline

Coughing up water, I lay on my side as best as I could. The slant of the deck had me wanting to slide down and roll onto the square, but I kept myself mostly in place despite my bound hands.

Eris faired no better. He was more banged up than I was about our wild descent into Atlantis, and I could feel the other sways that had brought us down somewhat safely. It was a miracle that we survived it at all.

"Madeline!"

Someone called to me, but it was fuzzy. Far away, like I was listening to them underwater even though I was in the open air again. My vision took a heartbeat to focus when it landed on Caspian.

"Caspian," I murmured, sinking my weight into him as he scooped me up off the deck and climbed us down onto the stone square. Plenty of hands reached out to help him, some familiar and some not. A few faces focused beside his. Ashana, Jacinta, Amara. Tanis.

"He took me," I managed.

"Shh, it's okay," Caspian soothed, even as his arms tensed at my accusation. "I'm here, it's going to be okay now."

Shouting in rapid Atlantian that caused me to miss almost all of what was said burst from the side of the crowd. It parted to meet the commanding presence of Helena Ateo. I balked at the sight of her, and Caspian had to steady me. This woman wanted me dead, I knew it, and she had ordered Eris to do who knows what to get rid of me.

Caspian, helped me stand on my feet while he kept an arm around me to stay upright and Ashana, bless the old siren and her cane, stood between us and Helena. Thankfully, Caspian murmured the rough translation to me as they argued.

"She is partly responsible for my son's injuries!" Helena snapped. "I demand to shackle her until a trial!"

"Absolutely not," Ashana replied. "She is a siren, will recover in the House of Sirens, and your kin will stay far away from her until we can sort this out."

"She must know what provoked my son!" Helena demanded. "He would not act that way if she hadn't coerced him somehow!"

More bickering erupted, but Caspian stopped translating. "This is nonsense and filth, you don't need to hear it. We need to talk though, now."

His face was hard, stone, as his eyes darted around the crowd, even as his hold on me was soft. I spotted a glimpse of Eris being lead off and up the stairs of the senate building, and an imposing man striding forward straight towards us.

He exchanged words with Caspian, and the two erupted in a flurry of heated debate in rushed Atlantian. Words were thrown around and I barely caught any of them, getting me nowhere.

"Caspian," I demanded, putting my hand over the one he had around my ribs. "English."

"Madeline, this is my uncle, Senator Dimitris. Uncle, this is Madeline. Maddie, he is going to let us use his office to talk, but with the investigation underway, he's demanding witnesses and a clerk."

"Investigation?" I asked. 

Caspian frowned. "Shit, that's right. You disappeared. We need your side of the story, but I've already started the process with Calix and what he did to you. Can you tell us what happened?"

I hardened my posture. "Yes, take me wherever, I'm happy to tell you everything."

"No!" Helena spat, lunging between Ashana and Caspian to throw a hand at me. Dimitris caught her wrist, glared at her, and hissed something in Atlantian that sounded a lot like a command to be silent.

I couldn't let it go on, they needed to know why she was attacking me. Heat rushed through my veins as I knew I was about to pull the spotlight and drop a bomb on this island, but they all had to know what was happening and why. Even if Helena succeeded in hurting me now somehow, the truth would be out there.