Page 105 of Song of Her Siren

“That’s not close enough.” Helian paced the floor. “It’s still several days away from Cyrene.”

Nikkos and Finn didn’t have days. They needed us now. Resolve stiffened my spine as I remembered the portal I’d created that stretched from the satyr village to the top of the Periculian Mountains after demons had taken the girls. “She will take us to the forest, and then I will summon a portal the rest of the way.”

Helian jerked to a stop. “Can you do it again?”

I shrugged. “I have no choice.” The alternative if I didn’t succeed was unthinkable.

Helian nodded. “Then, let’s go.”

Cassandra said quick goodbyes to Helian and the girls before Shiri followed us into the courtyard where our dragons were waiting.

Shiri and I shared a tight hug. “Goodbye, sister,” I whispered in her ear. “Please watch your back. I don’t trust that bitch.” She knew that I was speaking of Malvolia.

She pulled back, grasping my shoulders, her expression desperate. “I’ll be fine. Go save our mates, sister.” She kissed my cheek. “I love you.”

And I love you, I projected to her through thought while squeezing her shoulders,but my love doesn’t matter if you don’t love yourself first. That’s the key to finding your siren—realizing that you don’t need our mother’s love or our father’s trust. Nobody can protect and love your heart like you can.I splayed my hand over her heart, my throat constricting with emotion.The love that you need for the siren’s call is in here.

“Thank you, sister,” she said aloud while flashing a watery smile. “You don’t know what your words mean to me.” Taking a big step back, Shiri blew the girls kisses. “Come back to me soon.”

Helian grabbed Ember, and I hoisted Aurora into my arms. “I will, and our family will be whole again.”

At least, I prayed we would be. Our family couldn’t bear the loss of Finn or Nikkos. What good was all my magic if I couldn’t keep my loved ones safe?

* * *

Finn

DESPITE THE OPEN WINDOWS, the pungent smell of burned feathers permeated the room as Nikkos lay as still as a corpse upon the four-poster bed. The innkeepers had procured a green witch, a female wolf shifter related to the innkeepers who appeared well past childbearing age, if the gray hairs in her bushy eyebrows and her massive, saggy breasts were any indication. I didn’t know her, but she was kind enough, having lived all her life in the town of Cyrene with a small handful of rebel shifters. I didn’t want to alarm Blaze, but this green witch wasn’t very skilled. She relied on potions and salves, and I was starting to wonder if she had any magic at all. The bandages she’d wrapped around Nikkos’s wings and back were already soaked with blood and would need to be changed soon. She’d drifted off to sleep in a chair beside the hearth, saying she’d used too much magic, though I hadn’t seen the slightest green sparks coming from her hands.

The innkeepers had been kind enough to procure me new clothes after I’d shredded my last ones. Considering they were shifters, too, they were more than understanding. After a hot bath and a filling meal, I sat in a chair across from Nikkos’s bed, my feet propped up on an ottoman while Blaze sat beside his brother, his wings draped behind him, his brow creased with worry.

I glanced over my shoulder upon hearing a rap on the door. I already knew it was Bridget, the innkeeper’s young daughter, for I’d heard her lithe footsteps coming up the stairs. She peeked her head inside, her dark braids swaying in front of her. “Masters Inferni and Lykaios, you have a visitor.”

I shot up with a growl when I heard heavy footsteps outside, my nostrils flaring when I recognized the scent of sulfur and leather.

Blaze stood, tension in his bunched shoulders and raised wings. “Who?”

My growl intensified when the door swung open, revealing a Sidhe dragon rider with pale hair and skin and dark brows who couldn’t have been older than five and twenty summers. There was something familiar about the intensity of his moss green eyes. He was a few inches shorter than Helian but could’ve easily passed for his cousin.

“Lord Inferni, Prince Lykaios.” The dragon rider splayed a hand across his heart and bowed. “I’m Sir Luminae, but you may call me Declan. I’ve come to check on the youngest Lord Inferni.”

My ears perked, trying to pick up any deceit in his voice, but I sensed nothing amiss. Odd. Was he the green witch Ivar had told us about? The sack he carried on his back should’ve been a good indication. It smelled of strong, pungent spices, very much like the sack of herbs Tari carried. Of course, he was nobility. Many Sidhe Fae were, especially if they were dragon riders. And if they weren’t already born into noble families, Fachnan knighted them simply because they were dragon riders.

“We already have a green witch,” Blaze said, motioning toward the sleeping shifter whose double chins were fully resting on her ample bosom.

“I know,” he said on a loud whisper while readjusting the sack hanging from his shoulder, “but as a dragon rider, I’ve had lots of experience healing burns.”

Blaze slowly crossed over to Declan, his lips pinching while he glared at the dragon rider. “How can we trust you?”

To my surprise, Declan turned toward me and cleared his throat. “I wasn’t with the dragons who attacked Lupine. Fachnan had sent those of us with shifter families to the Tribus Point. My aunt married into the Animos pack. My cousins were shifters. Perhaps you knew them.”

Stunned into silence, it took me a moment to find my voice. “I did.”

The two oldest Animos brothers had been loyal friends of our fathers. I remembered well the night they’d brought home a beautiful Sidhe Fae bride with the same eyes as Declan. No wonder his eyes looked familiar. Their match had shocked not just the members of our tribe with their unusual fated mate, but the bride’s father, who’d come a few weeks later to reclaim his daughter, only to be turned away with the threat of violence. The young bride had easily acclimated to our shifter tribe and had given her two mates twin sons and then triplet daughters two years later. I still didn’t know who all had survived the dragon attack. I had hoped the Animos pack had been among the few lucky shifters to escape.

As if reading my thoughts, Declan answered. “They were all killed in the attack. The youngest were only babes.” He cleared his throat, and I sensed the tension and depression radiating off him. “My mother died in childbirth. My aunt had been like a mother to me.” His voice splintered as he abruptly looked away.

“My condolences.” I clutched my chest, pierced by the blade of despair. “The Animos were a brave and honorable pack, and their mate was a truly special Fae.”

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