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She heard me.

Flux steps forward before either of us decides to push this any further. “I’d probably rethink the dog comment.”

Thessaly finally breaks eye contact with me and turns toward him. “Was that a threat?”

Flux’s mouth pulls into a lazy grin. “Nah.” His eyes flick toward me. “That was professional advice.”

She straightens her shoulders and changes tact. “The Conclave is aware Echo has taken up residence here. We’re also aware her voice remains, under ancient covenant, the Conclave’s property by birthright. Whatever arrangement she’s made with your club changes nothing about that fact.”

She is not property, I mouth the words, knowing damn well nothing’s coming out. Echo’s eyes snap to mine anyway, and from the look on her face, she understood every fucking word.

Thessaly’s mouth curves, and it isn’t kind. “Careful. Even silent, that sentiment could get someone killed.”

Echo’s grip on my hand trembles, her siren vibrating beneath her skin, pushing against a leash she’s held tight for twelve years. “You want to leave?” Raze’s voice drops into something ancient and final. “Now, before this stops being diplomatic.”

Thessaly looks around the yard, and this time she actually takes in the brothers standing behind us. Raze at the front, Wreck a few feet back, and the rest spread across the gravel, nobody moving, nobody giving her an inch.

Then her eyes come back to Echo.

Her mouth tightens.

Yeah, she gets it now.

She didn’t come here for one runaway siren. This woman came onto Kings’ territory to face an entire fucking club standing behind her.

“This isn’t finished.” Thessaly takes a step back toward the tree line, her attention staying on Echo. “Consider me coming alone your one and only courtesy.”

Echo’s fingers tighten around mine.

Thessaly’s pale eyes slide to me. “Enjoy her while it lasts.”

My hellhound slams forward so hard that heat flashes beneath my skin. I take a step, but Maul’s arm comes across my chest. “Not worth it.”

Thessaly smiles. That makes it considerably more fucking worth it.

Then something splashes behind her. Every head in the yard turns as water snakes through the mist between the trees.

What the fuck?

There’s no creek up there, no river, no fucking anything that should be sending water rushing downhill toward our gates, but here it comes anyway, spilling over rocks and roots in fast-moving streams that join together as they reach Thessaly.

Nobody moves while the water curls around her feet, circling once before climbing higher. It slides over her ankles and winds around her calves without soaking a damn thing, twisting upward in thick ribbons that move like they’re waiting for her to tell them where to go. By the time it reaches her knees, there’s enough water wrapped around her to knock a grown man off his feet, but Thessaly stands in the middle of it completely untouched.

Echo sucks in a breath beside me, and Thessaly keeps her eyes on us as the water climbs her legs, twisting around her body in clear ribbons that move like they’re fucking alive. Mist pours through the trees behind her and spills across the gravel, thickening around her feet until the bottom half of her body starts disappearing into white smog. “Until next time, Echo.” Something changes in her voice on the last word.

It’s subtle enough that I almost miss it, one note slipping beneath another, then another, until I’m hearing layers that shouldn’t be able to come from the same throat. The harmony rolls across the yard, beautiful in a way that immediately puts my hellhound on alert, but before I can figure out why, the sound is already inside me.

It slides down my spine and settles into whatever has been stirring inside me since the clearing, its warmth making my next breath come slower.

My shoulders loosen, the tension in my jaw eases, and even my fingers start relaxing around Echo’s.

Fuck, that’s beautiful. The thought slips through so easily that it takes me a second to realize how strange it is. Thessaly is standing in front of our gates after threatening Echo with my hellhound ready to tear her apart less than a minute ago, and somehow all I want now is to stand here and listen.

Her voice keeps moving through me, the harmony rising and falling until I can feel it vibrating behind my sternum. There aren’t any words anymore, nothing I can grab hold of and question, only that haunting melody filling my head and smoothing away every reason I had to distrust the woman making it.

The yard starts slipping farther away.

I can still feel the gravel beneath my boots and the cool morning air against my skin. I know my brothers are standing around me, and Echo’s hand is still wrapped around mine.