Fire Brand

by Kristen Strassel

  Go Team Siren.

  The buttresses of the castle loomed over the city. It had a pulse, like it was a living, breathing thing that watched over all of us. It probably offered comfort to many of the Kingdom’s residents, but as an outsider, it reminded me how different things were on the other side of the wall.

  Maybe I wouldn’t make a good Queen for Asher, I thought as I followed Penelope and Teal along the cobbled street. I had to watch where I was going, the stones were jagged and the crowded sidewalks were in need of repair.

  Asher was hiding something from me. He owed me nothing, but thinking back to when he’d talk about Chronopolis, his hopes and dreams for its people, there’d been a sadness in his eyes. He knew he was losing his city. At the time, I’d recognized it as vulnerability and an advantage. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter, because all I wanted was his lips against my bare skin, and the ash that sifted through my fingers after we’d brought each other to climax.

  “Do you think we can get into the castle?” I asked.

  Penelope rolled her eyes. I didn’t expect anything less. “Avila, we’ve got to be smooth. Mobbing Asher like he’s in a boyband won’t get him to put a ring on it.”

  “I’m not interested in finding Asher.” I knew that would get their attention. “I’m looking for members of The League.”

  “Oh.” Teal looked toward the castle with the most reverence I’d ever seen on her face. “What’s the plan?”

  “Asher is looking for a Queen to satisfy some ridiculous requirement from The League. They’ll keep making him jump through hoops until they’ve completely turned him into a sock puppet.”

  “I’m sure someone’s already got their hand up his ass.” Penelope smirked when I smacked her shoulder. Telling her how much he liked that would only give her ammunition she didn’t need.

  “Do you want to hear my idea, or do you want to smack talk the King? It’s treason if anyone overhears you. They’ll lock you in a dungeon and deny you water until you wither into nothingness.”

  Alarm spread over Teal’s face, but Penelope was having none of it. “That’s an old wives’ tale to scare us into being good little girls. You know as well as I do that we’d be able to convince a guard to free us, no sweat. He’d be dead before he could be punished. But sure, tell us the plan.”

  “We lure members of The League away from the castle. They can’t have strength in numbers if they’re dead. We know how much they hate change and newcomers. It’s the only way to get Asher out of this stupid arranged marriage nonsense.”

  “Why doesn’t he just stand up to them and say no?” Teal’s gaze gave me a headache. “He’s the King. If he really wanted something, he could make it happen.”

  I hated how right she was. But if he’d really rejected me, I’d be stone already. Which meant, as far as I was concerned, he hadn’t rejected me.

  “And I’m the Queen.” Once a Queen, always a Queen. “I’ll make this happen.”

  Teal nodded, her demeanor changed, like we were back on the court. “Okay. Let’s hope no one in The League took swimming lessons.”

  Penelope grabbed my arm, preventing me from starting my mission. “If you get caught, it’s treason. This goes way beyond talking shit. It’s murder.”

  I laughed. “How many people have you killed?”

  “I couldn’t even ballpark the figure. Those men deserved their fate. The League pisses us all off, but that’s technically not wrong. Annoying as fuck, but it won’t stand as defense. Asher’s chosen them over you before, remember that.” She didn’t let go of me right away, but she didn’t make eye contact. Instead she frowned in the direction of the castle.

  “We didn’t do anything wrong, either. And we were overthrown. We lost almost everything, and no one stood up for us. Taking out the invaders one by one isn’t making any difference. The Sirens of The Bay need to make a statement. Asher, The League, and anyone else who’s paying attention needs to know we’re worthy of respect, and we don’t take no for an answer.” I wriggled away from her grasp.

  “You’ve got big, brass lady balls and I like that.” Penelope called after me, her heels clicking quickly on the cobblestone to catch up with my determined strides. “But don’t forget the consequences. For all of us.”

  I held my arm up, the tattoo was brighter in the sun. The flames came to life, like it was possible for the ink to dance under my skin. “How can I forget? The clock is ticking. Come on.”

  We weren’t exactly incognito. Sirens attracted attention everywhere they went whether they wanted to or not. Men approached us, calling out to get us to take notice of them. Some were bold enough to try to grab us. Adding to the commotion, the women they’d been with admonished them, demanding to know what the hell they were thinking. After all, we looked like any other human woman to them, not the testosterone magnets that we were. Way to get started on the right foot. Too bad we couldn’t have warned the commoners to shelter in place while we overthrew The League.

  Chronopolis was an ancient city, its streets little more than cobbled cattle paths. And it was much bigger than it looked from my usual vantage point. As the swarm of men grew around us, I wanted to give up, and go back to where I belonged. I was convinced some of the male bodies blocking our progress worked for The League, like they knew what we planned to do.

  There was no way. Our talk of anarchy hadn’t been shared above a whisper.

  As much as men loved us, Teal and Penelope felt the same way about them. They’d stop to talk to anyone they were interested in. For good and for evil. Even though I wholeheartedly understood the sentiment, I was a woman on a mission. A Queen in need of her crown, and her King.

  “Focus,” I grumbled as I hooked Penelope’s arm.

  “Hey! Penelope!” Her potential suitor protested. He no longer held her attention, and of course, he followed us.

  “I think he works for The League,” she muttered under her breath, turning back to flash him a grin that guaranteed he’d follow her to the fiery gates of Hell if necessary.

  “Dump him.” I glanced at him, and he was already under Penelope’s spell, he heard nothing but her song. It would make him crazy with need until he had her. He’d surrender his soul to her, and she’d suck it out of him along with his last breath, ultimately landing him on the ocean floor. There was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. “He’ll screw everything up. We need to act on our own.”

  “You knew this would happen as soon as we set foot in the city,” Teal chided. “It happens every time we leave the boat. If he can help us, we should let him. You know he’s willing.”

  I stopped and took a deep breath, needing to find center. The city was too noisy, as was the crowd that closed in on us, and I could barely hear my own thoughts. It was dangerous. The castle cast a shadow over the road. So close, yet so far away. Penelope’s guy would tell us anything we wanted to know. But in my heart, I knew it was a trap. We were on a fool’s mission, but like one of the men we lured to their deaths, I couldn’t stop myself from going to Asher.

  It was supposed to be the other way around. Damn it. He was supposed to be seduced by my song.

  Things quieted as we approached the castle, our group of admirers dropped away with every step. That wasn’t a good sign, but I was glad to see them go. The walls around the building were still sturdy, they hadn’t been rocked by cannon fire like the ones that were supposed to protect the city.

  Two guards stood in front of the gate, totally overdressed in full armor. I wondered what a bitch that would be to get out of when they had to pee. If we alarmed them, they didn’t let it show.

  “Go talk to them,” I urged the girls, giving them a subtle shove in the guards’ direction.

  Penelope resisted, leaning her body weight against my hand. “Now you want us to take care of things? After telling us we were fucking up your grand plan?”

  “Yeah. It will be better this way.” I swallowed hard. “The two of you are in it for the thrill of the chase. I—”
I didn’t exactly know what I was after. I looked down at my wrist. The damn thing still hurt.

  “We’ll get you into the castle, but after that, we follow your lead. This is your show,” Teal said before approaching one of the guards.

  “That’s all I need.” I followed her to the guard and waited for the inevitable.

  Chapter Eight

  Asher was in desperate need of an interior designer. He should’ve included that on his Queen application. Someone with an eye for anything but abandoned chic. The entryway to the castle looked more like an unfinished basement—dark, dank, and cold. The last part was refreshing after the heat of the crowd that had surrounded us until we were securely inside the gate. Even though I knew exactly how Teal worked her magic on the guard, it still surprised me that he actually fell for it. And upset me that I didn’t have that effect on Asher anymore.

  “When was the last time you were in here?” Penelope’s whisper bounced off the stone walls.

  “It’s been decades.” My memory of the castle was tainted from my dream state visit to Allendra. “I don’t think anything’s changed, but I don’t remember my way around.” I didn’t remember it being so depressing, either.

  “Does anyone from The League live with him? For his sake I hope not. But since they have him by the balls…” Teal tried a door, and her face lit up when it opened. “Office. I’m kind of relieved. I’d be a sour old puss if I lived here, too.”

  “Asher’s quarters are nicer.” Or at least they were. This couldn’t be the main entrance. If it was, Asher was in bigger trouble than we thought. “They’re on the top floor.”

  “How often did he bring you here for a play date?” Penelope asked with a grin when she opened the second door.

  “He didn’t.” My face burned, knowing what was coming next.

  “Really? The booty calls were always on the boat?” Teal started the tongue lashing off slowly.

  “I don’t see why that’s an issue.” If the boat’s a-rockin’, don’t come knockin’, and all of that.

  “Sit.” She motioned to a dusty old chair that at one time had been beautiful. I sunk down on the frayed golden fabric, running my fingers over the delicate flowered embroidery instead of meeting either of my friends’ disappointed gazes. “You’re going too far, Vee. I’m worried about you. You haven’t mentioned hearing from Asher since he placed that ad. I get it. I’ve been with guys who are amazing in bed, but you can’t get hung up on them—“

  “It’s more than that.” It was useless. They saw nothing but me pining away for Asher. And him acting like I didn’t exist. I almost mentioned his letter. But as Asher felt the need to work behind the scenes, so did I.

  Teal ran her hand through her hair. “You’re infatuated with him, and it will cost us what’s left of The Bay.”

  The possibility she was right pissed me off the most. “Then why did you agree to come here with me?”

  “Because you’re our Queen and we love you, and you haven’t been yourself since Asher put up his Help Wanted sign.” Teal offered her hand, and I stared at it before taking it. My best friends thought I was crazy, but they still had my back. “This trip will prove one of us right, and then we can move on from there.”

  I had to get my shit together. “Start singing your song. Take the first man who comes to you into one of these offices and—“

  “They’ll know we’re here.” Penelope shook her head. “They outnumber us. We have to stay hidden.”

  “We’ll go upstairs and take them one by one, like we always do. Drop them in the moat. It will do.” Teal was thinking much more clearly than I was. “You too, Avila. We can’t do all the dirty work.”

  What if I couldn’t do it? I didn’t say it out loud. This close to Asher, I doubted my ability to lure someone else in. By now, he should’ve been at my feet, begging me to take him. But no, he resisted me, if he could even hear my song. I could barely move from the weight of the thought.

  “Do we split up or stay together?” My voice was small.

  “We always stay together.” Teal put her hand on my back. It was comforting, even as she pushed me forward, into the unknown. This floor of the castle was empty, the hour neared midnight and the members of The League would be done for the day. Or they’d be working on something beyond their meeting rooms, putting their plans into action. Leadership was seldom a nine-to-five job.

  The place was a maze, and I was still a hot mess from last night. I didn’t expect to turn around and retrace my steps to get out of here. It wouldn’t be that easy. The three of us stuck together, touching because our vibration was stronger that way. Besides the time we were on stage performing as Siren’s Song, the vibration was what lured men to us. We didn’t walk around randomly singing. That would be weird.

  “What’s going on in here?” Every room we checked was unoccupied. I couldn’t say empty, because it looked as if everyone left at the sound of a fire alarm. Papers were scattered across tables, coffee cups had been forgotten, and chairs formed an obstacle course around the room. “This doesn’t exactly look like The League has their shit together.”

  “It makes sense, with what we heard last night in the bar. People are stepping up to challenge their authority, and I’d be willing to bet there’s some frustration within the ranks, too. We know how much they like being questioned.” Penelope held the door open, gazing into the meeting room that looked like a teenage boy with hoarding tendencies had slept in it, and shook her head. “I wonder if that’s why they’re so hot for Asher to get married.”

  I was instantly sour at the mention of it. “Why would they care? If they’re losing power, shouldn’t they get rid of him?” If it were me, I’d release him from his obligations, a mercy killing of sorts.

  “Maybe they see it as a way to gain strength and respect if they can align the golden boy with a powerful family. It would shift the focus away from them and give them a chance to regroup.”

  “Or they’ll hook him up with someone who plans to overthrow him,” Teal added.

  “It makes sense.” And I hated it. Maybe coming here wasn’t so smart, since The League seemed to have disappeared, leaving their figurehead exposed. “Did you see anyone in Asher’s court while you were out last night?”

  Teal shrugged. “We were busy with the opposition. The room was full of them. Anyone from The League would’ve turned around before they got in the door.”

  Great. The League was missing. They were usually a consistent pain in my ass, never doing what I wanted. Some of them had to be here. Asher didn’t exactly need a babysitter, but none of them were stupid enough to leave the castle unattended.

  “What if they’re setting him up to fail?” My whisper was too loud as the panic set in. Asher losing his crown would lead to the fall of Chronopolis, and life as we knew it. I’d lived through having my world shattered in a way I couldn’t put together once before and I wasn’t looking forward to doing it again. At least I had the experience to help Asher pick up the pieces, if he acknowledged my existence. As much as I wanted some contact with him, the last thing I wanted was for him to be destroyed.

  “It’s a very real possibility.” Penelope sighed. “It makes tonight that much more important.”

  I didn’t expect her to have Asher’s back. I realized it was more that she had my back, but I’d take what I could get.

  “I think we’ve covered this floor.” I turned back to the girls when we reached the staircase, reluctant to continue. Going through the bottom floor was trespassing, but going through someone’s home felt truly dirty. “Should we continue?”

  Two nos would give us a majority…

  “Come on, say something,” I pleaded. The girls stared past me with wide eyes. My shoulders tensed just before someone grabbed me.

  Chapter Nine

  Even with a burlap sack over my head, I knew I’d been left in the dark. The last thing I saw was the horrified looks on my friends’ faces before someone grabbed me by the waist. Whoever it was, they w
ere huge. I never got a good look at them before they bagged me. All my kicking and clawing made no difference. I was lifted off my feet and taken away from my friends.

  I had no idea if Teal and Penelope suffered the same fate. I chuckled from behind my mask. Spirit help the captors who took those two hostage. They’d release them for their own sanity.

  The good news was my captors made me kind of comfortable. I was able to sit and my shackles had enough slack so I could move my arms. The bad news was that probably meant they meant to keep me here for a while.

  My body was already heavy with defeat and exhaustion. I tried to convince myself I was in my yoga class, and this was just a really long shavasana. I needed to clear my mind of all the panic and outrage of our failure and stupidity. But I’d forgotten everything I learned in my practice. I couldn’t settle down, and deep breathing brought more anxiety than comfort.

  I’d already lost track of time. My mouth was dry and my stomach rumbled. The heaviness dulled the vibrations my life depended on me sending. I concentrated on pushing my signal through these walls, away from my prison. There was only so long any male within earshot would be able to resist me.

  The theory had never been tested without water.

  The longer it took, the more I needed it.

  A creaking noise startled me, and my labored breaths obscured the sound of what had to be footsteps. Heat warmed my chilled body as someone approached. Taking advantage of the only sense I had left, scent, I inhaled deeply.

  “Asher.” My voice was dry and weak.

  “Avila, what are you doing here?” He didn’t give me a chance to come up with a good answer. “The League sentries told me that sirens had been captured trespassing in the castle. At first, I didn’t believe it could be you. But then I remembered who I was dealing with.”