Page 78 of Ensnaring the Siren

“Made?”

“Our pod dies out if we don’t move forward.” Her next words were said so quietly, he almost didn’t hear them. “It wasn’t just Surface Dwellers.”

Dread lanced down his spine, a step away from rage. “Nireed, were you…”

Tears sprung to her eyes. “No,” she whispered. “My sister. She carries such scars. And your sister—Lorelei and Cure Creator saved us by developing a special cure.”

He’d about read that. The study implemented a little used, little researched treatment method—injecting a virophage into the body, essentially co-infecting a patient with another virus, weakening, and deactivating them both simultaneously. Neutralizing the excessive aggression in merfolk, the lack of control, that was the whole point of the study.

That’s why…

All the things he knew about Nireed, and extant mermaid science, were finally coalescing in his brain. She’d told him that she was a part of the study, but never why. He’d assumed capture, but that wasn’t it, was it? “They needed a test subject, and you gave them one.”

A small, pained smile twisted Nireed’s lips. “What happened to your mom, my sister, and the others like them, that is my people’s greatest shame. It needed to stop, no matter the cost. I went into that tank willingly.”

And left it on death’s door.

“Nireed, I’m so sorry.” When he reached for her, she rose from the water and embraced him. The hurt, the anger, and all the other emotions of the day were still there, sharp as ever, but in that Pandora’s Box of dark feelings was another that squeezed his heart and made him hold on to Nireed tighter as he cried like a baby.

Reid buried his nose in her wet hair, not caring a smidge that she was soaking his clothes. And in return, she didn’t comment on his tears, just gently stroked her claws through his hair.

“Your sister was angry too.” Nireed’s breath was warm and comforting against his neck. “She negotiated a deal with our pod leader, a mermaid to study in exchange for a cure. I didn’t have to go, but she was right. Things had to change. To this day, Lorelei harbors a lot of guilt for what the study eventually came to, even though what happened to me wasn’t her fault. I think it’s because, at the start, a part of her wanted revenge. And not just for her origins, but because her entire crew had been devoured.”

The Osprey. It wasn’t just a storm.

Startled, he pulled back to meet Nireed’s tear-filled eyes.

The world didn’t know this.

“You might be thinking right now that what’s happening to us with Nautic is deserved. That the world is righting itself of past wrongs. But we’re trying to be better.”

His voice broke. “I know you are. You’ve a right to defend yourself.” But when he looked down at her mouth, all he saw was blood.

“Reid, why do you smell like fear?”

“I…” He stood on trembling legs, dimly aware that he’d unceremoniously dumped her off his lap.

Reid remembered that case. He was the rescue swimmer onboard the plane dispatched from the air station down in Cape Cod. The detachment in Haven Cove hadn’t existed yet. They’d gotten the call in the middle of the night and booked it up the coast, racing against time and grim odds. They arrived on scene early in the morning, but by then it had been too late. The crew was gone, more than thirty people lost at sea.

All that was left of any of them was a bloody immersion suit and some debris.

Except his sister. Lorelei Roth’s name had been plastered all over national news, the maritime mystery of the year, because she was the tragedy’s sole survivor.

And now he knew why.

The storm couldn’t kill her, and merfolk didn’t eat their own kind.

“Did you eat my sister’s crewmates?”

Nireed looked away from him then, hunching in on herself. She looked so small and lost sitting at the edge of the diving platform. It made her less threatening, but these dark truths, one after another after another, hung over them like a shroud.

And yet, none of it stopped him from wanting to reach out and hold her.

Like all those people’s deaths didn’t matter.

“I have to go.” Reid stumbled onto the pier, his vision going blurry at the edges. “I’m sorry.”

“Please don’t run.” She turned toward him, eyes panicked and pleading. But he couldn’t stay.

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