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And after what she almost made us do before Echo broke her song, I’m starting to understand exactly why the siren Conclave scares the shit out of people.
Water keeps rushing around our boots for several seconds before soaking into the ground, and nobody seems in a hurry to say anything. We’re all staring at the empty patch of gravel where an ancient siren just stood, still trying to wrap our heads around the fact that a few minutes ago we were ready to walk willingly into enough fucking water to drown us because she made it sound like a good idea.
Raze looks down at his soaked clothes and runs a hand over his face. Maul is breathing hard beside him, while Sentinel’s wings are still spread wide behind his back, water dripping from the feathers.
Ruckus is the first one to recover enough to speak. “Did that bitch just try to fucking drown us?”
Wreck looks at the water running around his boots. “Pretty fucking sure she did.”
“We’re in the goddamn mountains,” Ruckus rebuts.
“I’m aware,” Raze grumbles, wringing out his shirt.
Ruckus throws a hand toward the tree line. “Then where the fuck did she get an entire fucking ocean?”
Sentinel crouches and drags two fingers through the water before rubbing them together. Apparently, that isn’t enough information for him, because the idiot touches them to his tongue.
His eyebrows shoot up. “Salt.”
Ruckus stares at him. “You fucking licked it?”
Sentinel smirks. “That’s what you took from that?”
“You just licked mystery siren water off the ground. Who knows what you’re going to catch from that woman’s water! I know I wouldn’t push my luck by licking her wet stuff.”
Sentinel straightens. “It’s seawater.”
“Like that makes it safe? She tried to drown us in that seawater. Who knows what hexes or spells she’s put in it!”
Sentinel’s eyes widen like he now thinks he’s cursed, and a couple of brothers laugh, but there’s too much adrenaline left in it for the sound to last.
My attention is already somewhere else.
Echo is still holding my hand, staring at the spot where Thessaly disappeared. Her fingers start shaking against mine, so I tighten my grip and move in until my shoulder presses against hers.
She leans into me without looking away.
Something shifts between us, familiar enough now that I don’t have to think about how it works. I push the question toward her and hope she hears everything my fucking voice can’t give her.
You okay?
Echo looks up at me, and some of the tension finally leaves her face.
“Yeah.” Her gaze moves over the collection of soaked, angry supernatural bikers standing around us before returning to the empty tree line. “But I think I just really pissed off the Conclave.”
Raze wipes seawater from the front of his jeans. “Good.”
Echo turns toward him, and he looks from her to the place Thessaly disappeared, his jaw tight. “They pissed us off first.”
Echo’s hand is still locked around mine.
I look down at her.
She’s staring at the water running over the gravel, all the color gone from her face. And suddenly Thessaly disappearing in a fucking wall of seawater isn’t the part bothering me.
It’s the fact that Echo doesn’t look surprised.
Silence stretches through the yard until Echo’s fingers tighten hard around mine, and her breath finally shudders loose. “They’re not d-done.” Her voice cracks on the last word.
