I cough, spitting water and saliva onto the pebble beach, shoving my hair out of my face. Water drips from my ears and clothes as I sit up and regard the surrounding scenery, waiting for the memories to flood me. When they do, I shoot Hera, the siren, a fiery glare.
"You really dropped a bomb on me and then knocked me out," I snap, picking myself to my feet.
The wind lashes at my hair, howling and wailing like a thousand lamenting ghosts. A bitter cloud of swirling misty air coats the sky, making my red hair bright and striking, like a flame in the night.
"Were you going to finish your story about my mother?" I ask, pulling out my dagger. "How do you know she took the shadowteeth blood?"
Hera grabbed the wooden boat, jerking it from the pebbles and into the lapping water. "I will tell you aboard."
My eyes narrow, and I let out a groan, traipsing up to the small waves. The frigid water bites at my ankles like yapping dogs. Hera grabs the oar, and with surprising strength, pushes out into the depths with one stroke. My curls fly around my hair like a mane as I examine her. Her hooked nose, so like my own, sends a strange feeling into my chest, like I'm looking at a mirror. She only wants to protect her family and her home. Have I not always wanted the same?
Her dark, tight-knit curls flutter around her face too, as she peers down into the navy sheet below us, searching for the shadowteeth. "I gave your mother shadowteeth blood when she was pregnant with you," she says, a small smile forming on her sharp face. "I remember spotting her from the river in the kingdom, hand in hand with your sister, who was tiny. Sweet little redheaded girl. She was on the farms, trying to barter with a farmer to give her some Concave food. Her face was pale. I could see her ribs. It looked like she was only days away from death. She needed food to get through the pregnancy, to stay for you and your sister. So, I snuck into the farms, blending in as a farmer myself. I offered her the shadowteeth blood and a single potato. She must have known I was from beyond the walls, that I was not human. Because she accepted it. Anything for my children, she said to me."
A lump forms in my throat, and I press my lips together to stop the quiver.
"So, you could say you owe me for saving you and your mother's life," Hera says, baring her teeth and pointing her chin.
The shadowteeth groans somewhere below and the water ripples. "I understand. Thank you for saving her." My heart aches at the thought of my sister being motherless at such a young age. Without me, I wonder if she would have survived. I bite my lip as the wave of grief hits me and I try not to let out a cynical laugh at the irony of my own thoughts. She is still dead. Probably would have survived without me.
She tosses me a jar for the shadowteeth blood. "Ready to see her?"
I fight the urge to roll my eyes as I spin my dagger. "The shadowteeth blood must have flowed into me when my mother was pregnant with me. It has healing abilities. Maybe this is why I was immune all this time?"
Hera shrugs. "That's the story our ancestors have passed on for generations since the initial outbreak in the old world. Now, please make haste. We don't have all day. I have a long to-do list today."
I heave a sigh and grab the oar, slapping it on the surface of the water until the shadowteeth roars and the boat rocks. My heart hammers as I ready myself on the edge of the boat. Her violet tentacles fling from the water, which drops on us like a river down rocks. I smack my lips at the salty taste of the water in my mouth. Her head, large as a wagon, rises from the velvety darkness and I leap, swinging my arms, propelling myself forward.
I grunt as I land on her thick, scaled flesh. Her eight arms flail about and her roar bores into my bone marrow like a disease. Hera screams as a limb swings around, almost knocking her clean from the boat. The icy water claws at my skin, burrowing into the flesh would on my shoulder, and my clothes cling to me like a second skin as I spin the knife and jab the shadowteeth's skin, gripping her scales as she writhes in pain, howling with the power of a hundred lions. Her shimmering blood oozes out and I catch it in the jar. It smells of algae and fish at the same time. I release another grunt as I jump off the shadowteeth, sinking into the icy water. For a moment, the world around me stills. The shadowteeth groan falls silent and distant. Only memories of my childhood flash across my senses. My sister and I giggling and chasing one another. The rich smell of my mother's baking bread and my father's deep belly laugh as he told us scary stories of the forest and beyond the walls. How on earth did my life get to this point?
But my lungs burn, and I kick, bursting into the surface and gasping.
"Gods, Elle!" Hera shrieks. "I thought you drowned."
She hauls me into the boat as the shadowteeth grumbles and moans, sinking back into the depths of the lake. Still panting, I shove the glistening jaw into her hand. "I hope this brings Theseus home," I say, trying to hold back any sarcasm from my tone.
Her demeanour changes, from soft and concerned for my wellbeing, to a sneer with malice glinting in her eyes. "I hope you bring us Edward Mallory." She lunges at me, her teeth sharpening to fangs. I cry out as she shoves me against the side of the boat, pushing my head overboard and leaning towards my neck, above to tear it out.
"What the hell?" I bark, thrashing beneath her.
She pins my arms against my side and growls. "You now belong with us. We want Edward. He will surely come running when he realises, you're our little prisoner."
Her strength overpowers me as if she is made of stone. But I still grip my bloody dagger. With a curse, I twist my wrist and drive the blade into her thigh. Her shriek slices into the sky as she falls back, gripping the wound as blood streams between her fingers.
As she winces, I scramble up and plunge the knife into her chest. Her eyes bulge. Hatred and betrayal seeps into her golden irises. I know I will pay for this later. Hera goes limp as she slumps against the side of the boat, her head rolling to the side. Her eyes, lifeless for only a few precious minutes, stare at the sky. A tear slips down my cheek, mixing with the lake water coating my skin as I jerk the dagger from her ribs, the terror grazing my spine. I grab the oar and row to shore, feeling the panic rise in my chest.
After ditching the boat, and Hera in it, I make to run to the southern wall and into the bunker. But I draw to a stop. My stomach knots as I hasten back to her. Even though her skin looks human, her scales glint in even the dull light. Vomit fills my throat as I cut a handful of the scales from her arm. Fresh, temporarily dead, blood dribbles out. I tuck the scales into my pocket. Biting back the sickness, I break into a run, kicking up pebbles in my wake as I cross the beach, the shadowteeth roaring along with my thundering heart. I almost slip down the stairs into the bunker.
"Elle!" Hera shouts above the torrent of the wind.
Terror wraps around my throat as I throw the door open and crash into the bunker, resting against it for a beat, gasping for air. I smirk at the jar of shadowteeth blood in my other pocket before I press on and make my way to the palace.
A few Convex folk spot me as soon as I emerge from the forest and practically carry me into a wagon themselves. The black feathers of a Mercuree bird dart across my head, shooting over the river towards the river, likely to deliver the message of my return to Edward. It will please him when his shadowteeth hunter has returned.
Ruben paces the palace steps when the wagon pulls up, his turns sharp as blades and his demeanour as dark as the night itself, as if he drips with the cosmos. His bright eyes snap up and the darkness recedes, replaced with relief. He hastens down the stairs.
"Elle."
I grab his face and pull his lips to mine, letting out a small groan as his scent curls around me. Home. Home. Home.
"Are you okay?" he asks, pushing me away for a moment to examine me. "You're covered in blood and muck."
"Shadowteeth and siren blood. Possibly a little of my own."
I startle when I catch Edward's cold, bitter gaze on us from the shadows of the palace foyer, beyond the opened double doors. He glances away when he sees me staring. My stomach knots when he turns and disappears into the gloom.
"Let's get you cleaned up," Ruben says.
"I will do it myself," I say, suddenly fearful of how Edward might retaliate.
I'm still meant to keep my loyalty to him. Curses pop off in my mind as I duck past Ruben and hurry into the palace and into my room. After a long, hot bath of scrubbing the dirt and blood from my skin, I grab the siren scales I put in a jewelry box, and snatch the jar of shadowteeth blood from the dresser. I clutch both to my chest as I exit the room and halt at once. Two beefy guards stand outside the room, glowering at me. I huff and stomp forward.
"What's with the guards again, Edward?" I bark as I enter the parlour, circling the round marble table, and storming up to him.
His chin tightens and his face is drawn, eyes distant. "You forget your loyalty to me. That loyalty forbids you from kissing boys."
"Oh, you're odious." I slam the jar onto the table and he startles. "No word of concern or curiosity for where I've been the past 24 hours?"
"You are perfectly capable."
I release a harsh bark of laughter. "Unbelievable. The siren was wrong. My being hostage would not have dragged you from the comforts of your father's palace."
He swallows and his Adam's apple bobbles. "Good thing my brother would come running for you."
"The sirens don't want Ruben, idiot. They are with the Red Movement. And the Red Movement wants you. Your head. On a stick."
He curls his lips. "Charming."
Loud chatter and laughter echo down the hallway and the double doors swing open. Ruben, Aston, and Ajax enter the room.
"Are you okay?" Aston asks, dashing up to me, wide-eyed.
"She's alive!" Ajax says, voice dramatic and animated. But the concern still tightens his face. They both pull me into hugs and take turns spinning me around to make sure I'm okay.
At last, we all sit around the table, drinking wine from goblets. "We can't take the army into the siren lair below the lake," I say, then place the container with the scales on the table. "But we can use their trick on them and lure them out. I have the siren scales and I can swim into the lake."