Siren Song (The Fated #1)

35 | Haunted Dreams

She wanted to see Kain.

Even if they couldn't talk, just the idea of seeing him felt as if it could calm the confusion and stress swirling through her.

It didn't help that the last time she'd dropped in to check on him--the day after the wolf girl had joined their little band--he'd been unconscious with dull bandages coating his body. He hadn't seemed on death's door, but the knowledge he was out there somewhere, injured had been chilling.

"You know, it isn't fair to the others if you constantly watch the same person."

The hand that grasped her wrist was gentler than she might've expected. That, of course, didn't stop Iliana from jerking away, nearly tripping in her haste. Koun stepped back, his shoulders brushing the tall, black silhouette she'd been about to touch. His amber eyes met hers, and his lips quirked in amusement as she scowled.

"Could you not?" Iliana demanded. "You're going to give me a fucking heart attack one of these times. I'll die. Fat lot of good I'll do you all when I'm dead, right? So just don't."

Koun chuckled, lazily crossing his arms over his chest. "God of healing, child. You wouldn't die."

"Bleeding fates, can't you just--don't touch me. Don't do your weird." She waved her hands in the air in a gesture meant to encompass everything about Koun, "god blinking thing and scare the shit out of me. Okay?"

He rose a brow and the air seemed to drop several degrees. Iliana's stomach knotted.

"Ah... please," she added. "Please don't do any of that shit?"

"I'll make an effort," he replied, amusement lacing his voice. "Only because you asked so nicely."

"Great. Thanks," she retorted, voice clipped. "Now, if you don't mind..."

She stepped towards him, reaching for the silhouette. Koun leaned in the same direction, blocking her from touching the shadowed figure.

"Did you forget what I said, Iliana? You've four bonds, not one."

She glowered. "Do the gods often dictate how their gifts are used?"

"I'm not dictating...I'm simply pointing out that you've yet to test two of the charms, and haven't touched the wolf's since you realized who the serpent linked you to," Koun said, amusement once again clear in the quirk of his lips, and the smile in his eyes. "I didn't give you this gift so you could stalk a friend."

"Why did you give it to me, then?" she demanded.

"For information. So you aren't simply being pulled along, clueless. So that you get something out of this whole mess."

Iliana weighed his words. How did you even reply to an explanation like that? The gods had been the ones to interfere with her fate for some unknown reason. Why should Koun care what happened to her as long as whatever it was they were doing ended how they desired? Inna obviously didn't.

"Why?" The word fell from her lips, trailed by silence as Iliana tried to grasp the line-of-thought her mind had fallen into.

"Why?" Koun prompted.

"I was no one. I still am." The words she thought so often sounded somewhat hollow spoken aloud, despite how true they were. Here she was, telling a god that had confessed to altering her life, that she was no one. It felt off. "If--if this anklet was what started all this, whatever this is, you all decided to give it to me when I was six. Back then, I...I was an orphan. Practically a street rat. I could've fallen off the docks during one of the jobs I took, and the only person who would've cared was Mara.