All happiness fizzled out of him and he said, “Yes, we have much to discuss.”
“First, I need food,” I told him.
He smirked and gestured at a building to the left. It had a simple sign which had a drawing of a bowl with steam on it. Mr. Bloomswort and his wife had owned it when I was last here.
Colton pushed open the door and I walked in, inhaling the familiar aromas of spices and seafood. It was empty, which was good because I needed to talk to Colton privately.
Mr. Bloomswort hobbled from the back, a bit grayer than I remembered, but not much different. His eyes widened and he bowed. “Princess.”
I hurried to him and hugged him. “No bowing, sir.”
He patted my cheek fondly. “It’s good to see you.”
“She’s come for food,” Colton told him.
“Coming right up! Take a seat,” Mr. Bloomswort said and went back to the kitchen.
The tavern looked exactly the same, even the same tables.
“You look good, Jo,” Colton commented.
I looked up and smiled. “Thanks. So do you.”
“What are you doing back? I thought you were banished?”
“It’s sort of complicated,” I said and sighed. “And I’m not sure which story to believe.”
“He’s very powerful,” Colton said.
“Who?”
He smirked. “Your betrothed.”
I pretended to gag, and Colton roared with laughter.
“Shit is so complicated,” I told him.
“I can imagine. I’ve been trying to keep the citizens out of it all, which basically equated to us not leaving this town.”
“Thank you, for keeping them safe,” I whispered.
“Jo, he’s not just a siren. He uses magic unlike any I’ve seen before,” Colton whispered.
I nodded. “He’s controlling my dad.”
Colton sighed and ran a hand through his already disheveled hair. “Shit. I thought he was, but hoped it really was dementia.”
Mr. Bloomswort brought out an appetizer of oysters, then went back to the kitchen.
I ate one, as did Colton.
“What are you going to do?” Colton asked.
“Wait for the cavalry to arrive,” I mumbled.
“Cavalry?”
“They’re making my mates participate in the Gauntlet.”
“But, you became mates while banished. They shouldn’t have to participate.”
“I know!” I said and groaned. “I think he’s got the Elders under his control too. Or at least, mostly.”
“So, your mates are coming here?” Colton asked.
I nodded.
“And you think they can defeat him?”
I sighed and ate another oyster. “Yes, but I’d like to be the one to do it. If I could be sure I could defeat him alone, I would do it before they arrived. However, I know better and will wait for them to back me up.”
“Will they be able to pass the Gauntlet?”
I laughed. “They’ll pass easily. They’ll probably play around to have more fun during it.”
“What can I do?” Colton asked. “You didn’t come here to see me.”
“No, but it was a nice surprise to find you here,” I said and smiled at him. “I need a teacher.”
“A teacher? In what? You’re a null.”
I smirked. “Nope, I’m an empath.”
His jaw dropped. “Oh, fuck.”
“What?” I asked, my brows furrowing.
“Do you know anything about empaths?”
“Only what Trident Douche told me,” I said, using Deryn’s nickname for Brayden.
Colton laughed, then said, “Wait here. I’ll get someone who can teach you.”
I nodded and watched him leave. Nico would have yelled at me for being so trusting of Colton. I couldn’t explain it, but I just knew he was on my side. Maybe it was an empath ability.
“Here you go,” Mr. Bloomswort said and set a platter of fish tacos on the table. “Want some water?”
I nodded. “Yes, please.”
I ate all of the tacos and drained my water before Colton returned. He came in, then held the door for the woman he brought with him. The woman was so tall, she had to duck to step through the doorway. I’d forgotten that most sirens were tall. Somehow, I’d gotten the short stick.
Though she always had been a tall kid, she was no longer lanky, but curvy and gorgeous now. She had dark eyes, dark hair, and a rack that made me feel inferior for a moment.
“Jojo!” she said, smiling.
“Leona,” I said and stood.
She hugged me, and I hugged her back.
“You two hungry?” Mr. Bloomswort asked.
“Yes, sir!” Leona boomed, releasing me and sitting at my table.
“I thought you were getting me a teacher?” I asked Colton.
Leona frowned, then stuck her lip out in a pout. “I’m not good enough for you?”
“You?” I asked. “You’re an empath?”
All three sirens in the room shushed me.
“That’s not publicly known,” Leona explained.
Well, this trip just kept throwing surprise after surprise at me.
Leona eyed me. “I’m pretty shocked you’re an empath, too. I never even got a hint of it from you when we were kids.”
“Probably because you spent most of the time trying to catch the boys,” I teased.
“While Colton was trying to look up skirts at all the girls’ underwear,” she accused.
“I’d ask about your underwear, but I see the bloodstones,” he said and sighed dramatically.
“I’d have to be wearing some to comment,” I said and winked.
He groaned and clutched at his chest, flailing backwards dramatically. He sat back up and asked, “Would you be interested in a third mate, possibly?”
I smirked. “I have four already.”
Leona and Colton blinked in shocked silence.
“You think they can pass the Gauntlet?” Mr. Bloomswort asked as he set fried fish nuggets and calamari on the table.
I nodded. “They enjoy challenges.”
“Explains why they ended up with you then,” Colton teased me.
I threw a piece of calamari at him, which he caught and ate with a smile on his face.
“You see Sam?” Leona asked.
I nodded. “He’s off on an errand for me.”
“So, what do you know about empaths?” Leona asked while eating fish nuggets.
I set the book Brayden had given me on the table and opened it to the page on empaths. “This is all I know.”
Leona and Colton inspected the book and Colton asked, “Who wrote this?”
“Trident Douche.”
Leona looked at me with a quirked brow, then burst into laughter. “Brayden!” he gasped and pounded the table with his fist as he continued laughing.
Colton shook his head as he read it. “He doesn’t know about empaths. The other info is right, for the most part, but not the stuff about empaths.”
Leona pulled a pen from her pants pocket and scribbled out some information Brayden had written, then wrote a full page of notes. I tried to read it, but she tore a blank page from the back of the book and continued writing information down.
“Wouldn’t it be easier just to give me a book that is already written?” I asked.
“They don’t exist. All empath books were burned decades before we were born. It is now past down from empath to empath verbally,” Leona explained.
“Why?”
“So outsiders won’t find out what we can really do. If they found out, they would capture us and make us work for them,” Leona said.
“Why are you writing it down for me, then?” I asked.
She smiled. “You’re my princess. Who better to break tradition for?”
“Will you also teach me?”
She nodded, writing furiously. “Trident Douche is likely on his way here. I’m giving you what I can, so you c
an read and prepare for our training session tomorrow.”
“Where am I supposed to meet you?” I asked.
“My house,” Colton said. “Same place I grew up in, you remember?”
I nodded.
“Tomorrow, after breakfast,” Leona said. “Read this all tonight and prepare mentally. Okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed and felt my nerves building again. I really wished the guys were here.
Leona closed the book with the new pages inside and gave it back to me. I tucked it into my jacket, glad for its small size.
Not even a minute later, Brayden walked in. He glared at Leona and Colton’s backs before walking to me with a smile. “Jolie, you should have let me know you wanted to visit. I was worried something had happened when I couldn’t find you. And Captain Stevens was shouting nonsense about you having wings.”
I pulled my wings out behind me, fanning them as far open as they would go. “It wasn’t nonsense.”
All present stared at my dragon wings with wide eyes.
“Plus, I wanted to visit with some of the townspeople I knew from when I lived here. Despite you being my best friend…”
Colton and Leona’s eyes hardened, and their jaws clenched.
“…I did have a few others I played with. Leona and Colton were two of them.”
Brayden scowled at the backs of the two sirens, who hadn’t bothered to acknowledge him.
“I didn’t know you played with the commoners,” Brayden said.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” I said with a pleasant smile. “It has been over twenty years since we last saw each other.”
“True,” he said and smiled warmly, “which is all the more reason for us to get to know each other again.”
Colton tensed, and I kicked his shin under the table while never breaking eye contact with Brayden. “Yes, we should. Let’s meet for breakfast tomorrow,” I suggested.
His smug smile was aimed at Leona and Colton who couldn’t see it. “Sounds great,” he said.
I batted my eyelashes. “Could you pay for my food? I don’t have any currency.”
Brayden looked at the plates. “You ate all of that?”
“I burn a lot of energy with my double connection to the four alphas,” I said, then stood and patted my flat stomach. “I should lay off, so I don’t get fat.”
“You look perfect,” Brayden said with a leering smile.
I never wanted to gag so much just from a look before. I held my smile in place while Colton and Leona avoided eye contact.
Brayden put the money down, golden coins with a clam stamped on them, then pulled open the door for me.
I hugged my two friends, tucked my wings in to get out the door, then winked at Brayden. “Race you home.” Immediately, I flew up into the sky and raced to the castle. I found a maid and asked her to fill my tub with warm water, so I could take a bath. Then, I locked my door and secured it with a ward, just to be sure. Safe, I slid into the warm water and began reading Leona’s notes.
Chapter 8
I survived breakfast with Brayden, managing not to throw up despite his lewd glances and comments, then hurried back to my room. I needed to get to Shelnam without Brayden finding out.
How?
Pacing back and forth, I tried to think of a plan. I could turn into a wolf, but there weren’t wolves in Atlantis, so I’d get a lot of attention. Same problem with a dragon and even a fox. And, I hadn’t tried turning into a fox yet anyway.
Nico hadn’t taught me an invisibility spell, so that wasn’t a possibility either.
I didn’t know the staff or whose side they were on, so trying to use them wasn’t a great option. I wished Sam was back.
I tapped my bonds with each of my mates and they tapped them back. At least they were okay, for now. While I felt mostly certain they could pass the Gauntlet, I was a little worried. I knew Brayden would participate and he’d cheat however he could.
I should just kill him before the Gauntlet even started. To do that, I needed to get to Leona for my lessons.
Screw it, I’d fly there again and if Brayden tried to stop me, I would kill him. This was my home, my kingdom, and I wouldn’t let him back me into a corner.
I put the book in a bag and marched determinedly out of the castle. A few guards looked at me, but none tried to stop me. I flew as fast as I could and landed on the far side of town to avoid as many townspeople as I could. I knocked twice on Colton’s door, then pushed it open.
Colton and Leona sat at the dining table with papers scattered across its top.
The house hadn’t changed, except all of the pictures save for one were gone. He still had the same dull brown couch, the same seashell chandelier, and the same picture of four dirty, smiling kids, hanging on the ice box. I put up a ward, then walked past Leona and Colton to the ice box. Sam, me, Leona, and Colton stood together, all covered in mud, and smiling like idiots.
“You remember that day?” Colton asked.
I nodded. “It was my last day here.” Not that we had known that at the time.
“We’d played for hours in that muddy creek,” Leona said and chuckled.
Something small and shiny in the background caught my eye. I squinted and leaned closer, then used Fox’s power to enhance my eyesight.
There, in the background of our picture stood Brayden, glaring at us with shining eyes.
“Oh, shit,” I whispered. I pulled the picture down and set it on the table, atop some of their papers. “Look.”
“What?” Leona asked.
“We see it every day,” Colton said.
I pointed at Brayden. “Brayden with glowing eyes.”
They leaned forward and then Colton grabbed a magnifying glass and they both cussed.
“Do you think he is the reason I was banished? Sam thought so, but could it be because of him?” I asked softly.
“If so, why let you come back now?” Leona asked.
Suddenly, it clicked. “Because he can’t claim the throne unless we’re mates,” I whispered. “He’s going to go after my mates. I know he is.”
I started to head for the door, but Leona stopped me. “We need to train first. You’re a loose cannon right now.”
“He’s going to kill them!” I shouted.
“You said they’re strong, right?” Colton asked.
I clenched my jaw, but replied, “Yes.”
“Just give me a couple of days. Colton and I will come with you afterwards to help,” Leona promised.
I checked the bonds, and everything felt fine. “Okay,” I agreed.
“You read my notes?” Leona asked.
“Yes.” I didn’t understand all of it, but I’d read it all.
“So, we can sense emotions, including sensing when someone is using a false emotion to hide their true emotions. We can also manipulate other beings emotions.”
“Just like sirens,” I commented.
“Yes, sirens can manipulate emotions, but they can’t sense emotions. Empaths can, depending on their power level, manipulate more than one being at a time. One more thing we can do that sirens can’t? Manipulate our own emotions to empower ourselves.”
“Really? That would have been nice to know all these years,” I said.
“Your ultimate power though, is addiction,” Colton said
“What?” I asked.
“People crave happiness. Generally, empaths are happy people and people want to be around us. They will crave happiness like a drug because being happy releases chemicals in your brain that drugs do and, they end up craving you,” Leona said.
“How do I prevent someone from being addicted?” I asked.
“You have to lock down your powers. It sucks, but it’s the only way. Luckily, it’s not hard to lock them down,” Leona explained.
“Okay, none of this sounds terrifying, though. Colton made it seem like I was going to self-destruct.”
Leona smirked. “Because I haven’t told you our ultimate weapon. Mind ma
nipulation.”
“Like sirens?”
He smiled wide. “Better. We can make people see whatever we want them to.”
“Hallucinations?”
She nodded. “And I think you’re powerful enough to pull it off on a mass scale.”
My eyes widened. “So, I could make a group of people think they’re seeing one thing, while another is happening?”
Leona and Colton nodded.
“Blue rupis,” I whispered.
“What does that mean?” Colton asked.
I gaped at him a moment, then remembered they didn’t have internet or electronics. They all made a trip to the mainland at least once in their lives, but they couldn’t use any of that stuff here. “Oh, guys. I forgot how sheltered you are here!”
“We’re not sheltered,” Colton scoffed.
“You’re missing out on hundreds of video games! We’ve got to figure out how to get internet down here,” I said, considering how we could possibly accomplish it.
“I think we have more pressing matters to attend to right now,” Leona said.
I sighed and rubbed my face with both hands. “You’re right. Teach me everything.”
We made it four hours with no distractions, then my stomach wouldn’t shut up. After a quick meal at Mr. Bloomswort’s tavern, we returned to do more training.
My training consisted of me trying and failing to manipulate Colton’s emotions. I did figure out how to shut down my powers, which was a huge relief to everyone. Five more hours of training left me mentally and physically exhausted. I kept nodding off and Leona decided to stop the lessons for the day.
“I haven’t learned anything,” I argued, trying to sit up with arms made of lead.
Colton pushed me down on the couch and shook his head. “You’re done for the day. Go to sleep. We’ll stay here and make sure Trident Douche doesn’t show up.”
Leona draped a blanket over me, then she and Colton returned to the kitchen table to go over the papers they’d been looking at when I arrived. I hadn’t even thought to ask about them.
“Baby, open your eyes,” Rhys whispered.
“Rhys?” I asked and opened my eyes. I stood in a dark room with no furniture and no windows. There was no light source, yet I could see. Rhys, Deryn, Fox, and Nico sat in front of me.
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