The Fall (The Siren Series)

by Higginson, Rachel

  “Hermes sends a Fury into this house and takes her at will. Can he not extend his reach to someone you hold so valuable?” Veda questioned sensibly.

  Nix shared another strange look with my mother. “No,” he said simply. “He cannot touch her.” And then to me he ordered, “Go, Ivy. Keep the legacies upstairs.”

  I didn’t wait for him to change his mind.

  I moved quickly to the staircase at the back of the house and kicked off my heels before sprinting up to Exie’s room. I burst in the room, ready to unload everything I had just been through on my oblivious friends when shock made me stop short in the doorway.

  Exie, Sloane and Evaleen were all crowded around Anaxandra on the bed. They were comforting her while she sobbed into her hands. Her arms and legs were covered in bruises- so many that I almost didn’t believe they were real. When I opened the door she had popped her head up to see who it was and had to squint through swollen, black and blue eyes. Her bottom lip had a gruesome gash across it and her right cheek was stitched closed.

  She looked horrific.

  “Ana,” I gasped. I fell at her feet, placing my hands gingerly on her bare knees. She was dressed for the part, and had obviously tried to cover her bruises, but to no avail.

  You couldn’t cover something like this.

  It wasn’t possible.

  Empathetic tears flooded my eyes and words clogged in my throat. I looked up at Eva for some explanation but she was absentmindedly rubbing Ana’s back and staring out the window with a blank expression on her face.

  “What happened?” I croaked to anyone that could answer.

  A pained sob wrenched from Exie’s throat and she held her sister tighter. Their blonde hair wove together and created a curtain around their faces. I had a guess what this was about but I wanted to hear it from them.

  “It’s the guy Nix has been making her go out with,” Sloane said. “She spent all night with him. She came home like this.”

  “Did Nix sell her?” I whispered. Sloane shrugged. I looked at Ana and shook her knees. “Ana, did Nix sell you to Ky?”

  She cried harder.

  “Eva,” I pleaded. She didn’t look at me. “Eva, did Nix make the deal? Did he sell you both?” Eva stared out the window and said nothing.

  My blood boiled beneath my skin as utter despair filled my entire being. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that Nix would sell these two beautiful creatures to such sinister evil. I examined Ana’s extensive bruising and cuts again. From where my hands clutched at her battered knees the bruising deepened the higher up her leg my gaze traveled. For the first time, I noticed raw gashes on the insides of her thighs. They had been cleaned and had some kind of oily salve on them, but they reached from her outer thigh to the inner parts where I couldn’t see anymore. They climbed like ladder rungs up her legs and disappeared beneath her short skirt. My stomach rolled and I had to stumble into the bathroom so I could be sick. Tears came in waves of racking sobs. I couldn’t even imagine the horror that had happened to her- physically, I could not fathom what had done this to her or how it had happened.

  When there was nothing left in my stomach I wobbled back into the room and looked at the beautiful, desolate girls in front of me. How could something so lovely be reduced to such ugly desperation?

  I looked at my friends and their sisters and knew I needed answers. “Did they pay money yet? Did they pay for Ana and Eva or is this just a taste?”

  Sloane’s chin trembled when she answered, “They haven’t paid yet. The deal hasn’t been finalized.”

  I sunk to my knees and sat back on my heels as more unstoppable tears flowed over. Ana’s pain was obvious. I could take one look at her and see what Ky had done to her. Evaleen’s agony lay hidden beneath the surface. I remembered Crete’s open groping of her while we stood in the middle of the party. What could he have done to extinguish her light so completely? What private trauma had she endured at his hands?

  I didn’t ask her. I was too selfish to make her open up. While I was almost certain that she wouldn’t tell us no matter how much I begged, I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to handle the truth. I wouldn’t be able to hear her explanation and still maintain whatever good pieces were left of me.

  And so I didn’t ask. I chose to be a horrible person and let her carry that by herself. I argued that I was only seventeen, that I wouldn’t be able to handle the truth any more than she’d be able to speak it to me… but the truth was I was a coward. I was a selfish coward.

  “We’re supposed to go downstairs,” Ana whispered. She sounded like a child with her voice small and her body shaking uncontrollably.

  I glanced at Eva to see that she had started to cry silently with the mention of joining the party. My heart ached painfully in my chest. What could I do for them? How could I save them?

  I scooted forward on my knees and closed the door behind me. Continuing to scoot toward them, I knelt before them and decided I would tell them my plan. I couldn’t give them specifics of course, but I would share enough that they would be ready. If I had complete access to my trust, then I could take them with me. We could run away together. I wouldn’t have to leave them behind and they wouldn’t have to endure another second of this sickness.

  “I’m going to tell you a story,” I told them. Anaxandra continued to cry, but Evaleen wiped her eyes and gave me half of her attention. Exie and Sloane sat up immediately, their ears perked with interest. I continued, “I will start with what happened downstairs and why we have been asked to wait up here. The Fates have decided that I am someone important. Nix has already claimed me and my mother is clearly keeping secrets from me. But the most important thing we need to know is that Nix plans to attack Olympus. Apparently, Zeus and Hera are alive and living there with other gods and goddesses. I’ve decided that they must be the good guys, while we are on Team Evil. Anyway, Zeus knows Nix is going to attack him, but Nix doesn’t care. He’s assembling an army. That’s why there have been all these out of town guests. That’s why Hades is here, that’s why Ares is here.” Ana and Eva both flinched at those names, but I couldn’t think about their fragile states right now. There was too much to explain. “Just now, downstairs, I met a Fury. Nix called her Eryn, but her real name is Tisiphone or something. Hermes, who I think I remember as the god’s messenger, sent her and then poofed her away before Nix could hurt her. But she delivered this super dramatic message about how Zeus was waiting for them and that there would be war and all this. So, I have concluded that both sides are preparing to go to war. And while our side has the Fates to see the future for us, the good side has the Oracle of Delphi. Which, fun fact, the Fates are apparently mortal enemies with her. And also, Nix hates Hermes, but I’m not sure why. I also learned that I am a key to all of this and that Nix can’t take over the mountain without me.”

  “That is all terrible news,” Sloane snapped. “Ivy, that’s all terrible!”

  “If we were going to stick around, you’re absolutely right. It would be terrible. Nobody wants to get involved in a bloody war that may or may not take place on a mythical mountain! I agree, everything I just told you is horrible news. However…” I waggled my eyebrows at them and finally Ana looked up at me. I captured all of their attention and then confessed. “I have a plan to get us out of here.”

  Anaxandra shook her head at me wildly. “No! Ivy, don’t! It’s only going to get you killed. Please, stop planning whatever you’re thinking and just listen to Nix. He will kill you if he finds out.”

  “He won’t kill me,” I assured her. “He needs me for his plan! Remember? I’m the key!”

  Evaleen spoke for the first time and when she did she carried a haunting reminder with her… something that rang eerily familiar to me. “There are worse things than death.”

  My emotions cracked again and I started sniffling. “Don’t you see? This is why I have to keep planning… this is why I have to keep trying! I have to get us out of here! I can’t see you girls like this
anymore. And Exie, Sloane… I can’t let us become this! We have to get out of here.”

  “How will you get us out of here?” Eva demanded in a crazed voice. “We have no money! We have no friends! We having nothing except what Nix gives us and we are nobody except what he tells us to be. There is no leaving, Ivy! There is no escape!”

  I shook off her insecurities, hating how my own inner voice agreed with everything she said. “I’m telling you, I have a plan. I have money. I have enough money to get us all out of here.” My voice was the barest whisper and they all had to lean in to hear me.

  “You don’t even have your trust yet. And when you do get it, Nix will seize it. That’s what he did to us. You’re no different, even if you are his,” Ana explained.

  I cleared my throat and leaned in. “I’m not waiting until I’m eighteen. I have a plan now. I need just a few weeks and then I’m out of here. You can come with me or not, but I’m going to leave. It’s for your own good to come with me.”

  “He’ll kill us, Ivy. He won’t let any of us go,” Evaleen’s words were a harsh whisper of consuming fear.

  So I threw her own words back at her, “Eva, there are worse things than death.”

  “Like staying,” Sloane coaxed her.

  “Like staying,” Exie echoed.

  “How soon?” Anaxandra asked and for the first time since I’d walked into this room there was a spark of life in her eyes.

  “Soon,” I promised. “A couple weeks.”

  She sat forward and seemed to gather some courage. “What do you need us to do?”

  I looked at her broken body that housed a fragmented soul and knew that I was making the right choice. I knew I had no option but to take them with me. And it would be easy. I would get my trust and we could disappear, all of us together. “Nothing,” I told her. “Just be ready to do exactly what I say, when I say it.”

  They all nodded and we settled into quiet. We weren’t exactly peaceful in our silence, but we were more at… ease or something. Ana climbed into the center of Exie’s bed and curled up into a ball. Eva moved to sit by the window where she just stared out at nothing. Sloane tried to comfort her sister but she wouldn’t respond to anything Sloane had said and Exie just curled up behind Ana and wrapped her arms around her older sister.

  I thought about Honor, and what she would do for me if Nix sent me on jobs that would make me come home looking like this. Would she soothe my aching soul like these girls did for their sisters? Or would she devise a plan to help me leave?

  I was sure she would do whatever I needed.

  But I was determined to never put her in that spot. I wouldn’t let her get to a place where she had to take care of me or worry about me. I would save myself and then spend the rest of my life making sure she didn’t need to be saved.

  We stayed in that room all night, until the early morning hours. Exie and Anaxandra eventually fell asleep on the bed and Eva drifted off at the window. Sloane stayed awake next to her, stroking her hair and watching her closely.

  “She will never heal from this,” Sloane whispered to me when the sky had started to lighten and the night stars began to disappear. “She won’t talk about what happened, but I know she won’t ever be the same. He broke her. In one night, he broke her.”

  I looked at Eva in peace while she slept. The worry had smoothed from her face and her body finally relaxed. “We were already broken,” I reminded Sloane. “All of us are broken.”

  “Then what happened to Evaleen? What did he do to her?”

  “He gave her incentive to leave,” I whispered.

  Sloane looked at me for a very long time through the dim room. She studied my face and pondered my words. Finally, she nodded once and looked back at her sleeping sister. “You’re right,” she said.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I’m kidnapping you for breakfast. Getchya ass down here.

  That was what I woke up to three days later.

  With you? I asked Ryder. My fingers didn’t really work on the screen though and I had to jab at it for several minutes before my bleary eyes could make sense of the words.

  With the three best looking guys you know. Seriously, I’m waiting. Throw on some clothes and break out of prison.

  It’s not Saturday. That was my brilliant response. But truthfully, it was only Thursday and Ryder’s big breakfast mornings happened on Saturdays.

  My phone rang immediately.

  “Hello,” I garbled into the phone.

  “You’re very smart, Red,” Ryder teased sounding chipper and upbeat. “It’s not Saturday. But it is summer break… for all of us. So we’re mixing it up a bit and I’ve been ordered to do whatever it takes to get you to come over.”

  “Mmm,” I thought about it for a moment. “Whatever it takes?”

  His voice dropped to that low, rumbly tone, where it moved like sandpaper over every single syllable. My tummy fluttered as he promised, “Whatever it takes.”

  “Then I have a demand,” I told him gravely.

  “I’m listening.”

  In the most serious voice I could pull off, I said, “You have to streak up and down Farnam all the way to Wohlner’s and back to The Grey Plume.” That marked almost one city block. Wholner’s was a trendy, upscale grocery store on the west corner of my block and The Grey Plume was a super swanky restaurant on the east end.

  Ryder let out unexpected laughter, “Streaking? You won’t even let me kiss you without complaining but now you want to see me naked?”

  I rolled over, completely awake now. “I want to see what I’m getting myself into. You can’t expect me to walk blindly into this. I should get to browse before I purchase.”

  His warm chuckle rolled over my skin. “If you want to browse, all you have to do is ask nicely.”

  “Fine. Ryder, will you please streak up and down Farnam Street while I throw some clothes on?”

  More surprised laughter came from his end. “You’re very happy this morning.”

  “I love breakfast at your house.” I forced myself to speak around the frantic beating of my heart.

  “And I love it when you’re happy. Will you come downstairs now?”

  “Give me five.”

  I jumped up from bed and threw on a flower print mini skirt and a black tank top with some pink flip-flops. Everything at Ryder’s was always so casual that I didn’t want to be overdressed. I threw my hair up in a super high messy bun and applied minimal makeup. I grabbed my phone and raced out the door.

  My mother was stewing over a cup of coffee in the kitchen when I raced by. “Where are you going?” she called after me.

  But I was beyond her. I was over it. I didn’t respond or have another thought about her.

  Nix stepped off the elevator just as I jammed my finger on the button. My mouth dropped open in surprise but as soon as he stepped off, I jumped past him and jabbed at the button for the lobby.

  “Ivy, I need to talk to you,” he barked at me while the elevator doors started closing. He held up his arm so that they bounced back, stalling my getaway.

  Grrr.

  “I’ll be right back,” I lied. And I knew I would pay for this one later. “I’m just grabbing some coffee. Can I bring you anything?”

  His eyes narrowed but he slowly lifted his arm. “No, I don’t need anything.”

  “Okay, then, I’ll see you in a little bit!” I was way too energetic. He was going to catch me in my lie. He was going to make me stay. My heart hammered in my chest and my pulse throbbed in my throat. My mouth went dry and I felt a little lightheaded. What would he do to me if I got away with this? What would he do to me if he caught me now?

  Would I end up like Anaxandra?

  Or worse… like Evaleen?

  Some things are worse than death.

  He stepped forward and I knew he caught me. I knew it. My palms started sweating and tears formed in the corners of my eyes.

  But then he pointed at his cheek.

  Oh, god. He wanted a kis
s.

  I leaned up on my tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his rough jaw. He had shaved this morning, but his jawline always kept that rugged coarseness that most women swooned over. He patiently stood there until I pulled away. Then he smiled at me and ran the backs of his fingers over my cheek.

  “Get your coffee. We’ll talk when you get back.”

  I nodded and pressed the lobby button again. He turned his back on me and sauntered down the hallway to my mother’s apartment. The elevator door slid closed and I finally sucked in a steadying breath.

  I wasn’t out of here yet, but I was closer.

  Ryder was waiting for me.

  I played my mother’s warning over in my head, Evaleen’s warning… Some things are worse than death.

  But some things were worth risking even that. Like Ryder.

  Was breakfast with his dad and uncle the most important thing in my life? Was it worth giving up the freedom that was so close? Or bringing down the wrath of Nix?

  Yes. The answer to all those questions was yes.

  Ryder was worth all of that and more.

  Breakfast with his family and him equaled happiness for me. Moments upon moments of pure, uninterrupted happiness during which my soul felt whole again and my heart beat like a normal, human organ. It was a happiness that freedom couldn’t even guarantee. It was big and all-consuming and complete. And I never had moments like that. I never got to feel those things.

  And with my impending escape came my eternal separation from Ryder. That was something I couldn’t even think about right now. I would unpack that later. A future without him might be free… but it was still bleak.

  And I would have the worst of Nix no matter what I did. Was his anger any worse than his sadistic happiness?

  No.

  A huge, resounding, mother-effing no.

  Ryder was waiting in the drive and I literally bounced into his Bronco. We said good morning without kisses, which was extremely disappointing and then I was telling him to “step on it” before Nix caught me not going to the coffee shop.

  The whole drive over, I was a nervous wreck. I kept looking over my shoulder to see if we were being followed and my heart never stopped hammering. I knew I looked like a basket case.