The Siren's Son (The Siren Legacy Book 1)

by Helen Scott

  The undead servant who had been attacked collapsed to the floor. Circe made a disgusted noise. “Be gone, you disappoint me.” The thing stood and shuffled out of the room. She clicked her fingers, summoning a leash and collar into existence. “You let Thing Ten”—she gestured broadly with her hand—“put that on you, or curly top will be injured. Again.”

  Dem growled and glanced at Thad, who now had a river of blood dripping down his face onto his shoulder. Alec knew that seeing Thad wounded would make Dem accept the collar and leash.

  “Now back to you agreeing to do whatever I want.” She turned her full attention to Alec.

  “No.”

  Circe sighed. “Again. Really?” She went to flick her wrist and paused. “You know what, let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?” She flicked both wrists, and Thad and Hal were both turned into dogs, with collars and leashes attached. “Take them upstairs and put them in one of the guest rooms. I might have need of them shortly.”

  “Now as for you…” Circe examined Alec. “First we will get rid of this little thing.” His dirk flew from his hand. “Second, I want you over there, hands up and in the restraints please.”

  Alec was pulled backward at first by unseen forces, but as he began to struggle, the remaining servants assisted their mistress with her goal of seeing him trussed up. He felt thick leather cuffs go around his wrists and buckled tightly enough to restrict blood supply to his hands. Panic set in slightly.

  He knew Circe wanted to pay him back for the hurt he had caused her even if he felt it wasn’t as bad as she was making it out to be. He also knew she wouldn’t kill him outright. That would make an enemy of a lot of beings higher up in the pantheon than her, which is something he had a feeling she wasn’t willing to risk just yet.

  “Now tell me, why does your little witch fascinate you so?” Circe sauntered back over to the wet bar, retrieving her wand from behind the counter.

  “I won’t tell you anything.” Alec gritted his teeth, preparing for the worst.

  “Wrong answer, my darling.” She flicked her wand, and his clothes were replaced by a pair of boxer shorts that didn’t belong to him and a painter’s drop cloth had appeared under his feet. “This could get messy, and I hate cleaning up afterward.”

  The tip of her wand glowed like it had just come out of a forge. When she traced it across the skin on his chest, he couldn’t help but scream as the heat cut through his flesh, burning every ounce of skin it touched.

  Chapter 17

  Ellie lay on the couch in the library, crying her eyes out. She knew she had just run away to cry like an old-school princess, but she couldn’t stand this feeling of betraying her heart to protect herself. Besides, it’s not like she could be in love with him.

  They had known each other, what, a week or more? She’d lost count. She trusted him, but love? That was something else entirely. The full moon was tomorrow night. After that she could go back to Granddad’s store. She was ready to just box everything up and ship it back to her tiny apartment in Inverness and go through it all there. This place was messing with her too much.

  Something startled her. Ellie realized she had fallen asleep, and she quickly sat up. Her head felt like it was full of cotton balls, and her mouth was drier than the Sahara. Venturing out of the library for a drink was not something she wanted to do as she might run into Alec.

  She checked her watch and realized she’d been passed out for hours. The house was startlingly quiet. There were no sounds that Alec was up and moving around at all, just the heavy ticking of the grandfather clock in the hall. Maybe he got an early night? It was getting late.

  Ellie carefully padded into the kitchen, retrieving the biggest glass in the cabinet and filling it with water. She sat at the table drinking it, staring out at the ocean. The waves lapped at the rocky shore below in such a rhythmic way it was enough to make her nod off again if she wasn’t careful. She turned away, looking for ways to keep herself awake so she could finish her water and find some food, when she saw the note.

  E-

  Gone to rescue Dem & Thad w/ Hal. Back ASAP.

  Don’t worry. Stay safe.

  -A

  She almost dropped her glass. They had gone after Circe, even when they knew they weren’t ready. Now, judging by the fact that she had fallen asleep and Alec was nowhere to be found, they could be in serious trouble. Ellie knew Alec wouldn’t be gone for long if he could help it. She had to help them, but she didn’t know how. She was restless with the need to do something, so she paced the kitchen.

  There was no way for her to tell when the note was written. Maybe they only just left, or maybe they’d left hours ago. Shit. She didn’t know what to do. Hell, she didn’t even know how to get off the island. What if she was stuck here now? Anxiety blossomed in her chest like a flower in the sunshine. Hal had said Hecate was here, so she was trapped too, so at least Ellie wasn’t alone. Right? Screw this. Finding Hecate was step one. Then figuring out how to get off this island would be step two. Step three would be finding the boys, if she was lucky.

  When Hal had left, he pulled a book of some kind as a lever to open a door. Ellie went over to the bookcase and began pulling books over, righting them when they didn’t work. As much of a hurry as she was in, damaging books was not something she could do. Finally she pulled on Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, and the bookcase slid open, swinging backward to reveal stairs going down. Ellie fished her phone from her back pocket. It was pretty useless since she came to the states, as it wasn’t internationally enabled, but it was charged and the flashlight app worked just fine. She flicked it on and headed down the stairs.

  The tunnel was creepy. She had been expecting something dank and covered in spider webs, but it was exactly the opposite, which is precisely what made a chill run down her spine. The clean walls and lack of spider webs made it feel like she wasn’t really underground; it was only the slightly musty quality to the air that belayed the feeling completely. As she meandered along, the tunnel split in two, one continuing straight on and the other making a fairly sharp right turn.

  Stuck for a moment, paralyzed with indecision, she decided to go with her gut and take the tunnel that turned right. After following it for a while, she was starting to seriously doubt her gut’s instincts when at last she saw a glimmer of light. She picked up the pace and found a huge cavern awaiting her at the end of the walkway. Inside was a tall, slender woman, her jet-black hair streaming out behind her, and her robe/dress thing plastered to her skin as if she were standing in gale force winds. Ellie took a step forward, when suddenly two dogs were running full tilt toward her.

  “Stop!” Ellie called out. “No!”

  The dogs stopped inches from her. The larger dog proceeded to smell the fingers of the hand she was holding out defensively, while the smaller one circled her, sniffing her shoes.

  “They won’t harm you,” the woman called out. “They just didn’t expect to meet you so soon.”

  Ellie looked down at the dogs. There was more intelligence in their eyes than she was used to. “Shall we go over to your mum?” Ellie kept her voice low and calm so as not to startle them. With all the magic she had seen recently, it wouldn’t have surprised her in the slightest if they morphed into people right there in front of her. They turned around and trotted off toward the woman. Ellie followed, allowing some distance between them. As she approached, she realized how tremendously beautiful the woman was; her oval face was framed perfectly by waves of ebony hair, accentuated by gold earrings and a gold headband or tiara. Ellie wasn’t quite sure what to call it. Dark blue eyes stared at her from above high cheekbones.

  “Are you Hecate?” Ellie’s voice sounded sharp to her ears as though she were a child again.

  “I am. I take it you are Ellie?” Hecate’s voice was silky smooth, with a low husky quality to it. Her dusky red lips smiled prettily at Ellie.

  “I am.” Ellie tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear.

  “You’ve never me
t a goddess before, have you?”

  “No. Sorry. I didn’t even know gods and goddesses—or even magic for that matter—was real until a few days ago.”

  “I see. Well it is customary to bow or curtsy, but please do not feel as though you have to do it. It is an old custom, and we have long since outgrown it, although the siren brothers still adhere to it.” A hint of a smile played around the corners of her mouth as though she was amused by Ellie’s very presence.

  Ellie couldn’t tell what Hecate meant. Was she telling her she was supposed to curtsy or not?

  “You don’t have to curtsy to me,” Hecate said as though she were reading her mind.

  “How long have you been down here?” Maybe she could get a read on how long ago that note was written.

  “Oh, I don’t know. Is there trouble with the brothers?”

  “Yes, how did you know?” Ellie was immediately suspicious.

  “Don’t fret; it’s all over your body language. You are clearly worried about something, and since the only thing worth worrying about related to this island are those four boys, I took a leap of faith and guessed it had to do with them. What’s happened?”

  “After they met, Demetrius and Thaddeus went off in search of Circe. They had tracked one of the undead creatures to a mausoleum in Cambridge. I don’t think they meant Cambridge, England, though, so I assume there is another one nearby.” Ellie proceeded to relate the recent events to Hecate, leaving out Alec’s decree of love.

  “Well, they aren’t as smart as I thought they were if they went off half-cocked like that.”

  “I think there were some heated words exchanged, which led to the going off half-cocked.” Ellie smiled a little. Hecate was surprisingly down-to-earth for a goddess.

  “Men are always so easily manipulated when it comes to fighting.”

  “I was wondering if you might know how to get off this island?”

  “Hmm… They have it quite well warded against things coming in, but we might be able to figure out a way to get around the wards that will allow us to leave.” Hecate’s eye sparkled with life as though she was relishing the challenge. When she doubled over, Ellie’s heart almost stopped. She rushed to Hecate’s side, grabbing her arms to prevent her from falling. The dogs reappeared and snarled at Ellie, forcing her to back off.

  “I… I apologize for my guardians’ reaction. Circe has drawn quite a lot of my power. It is difficult to try to prevent her from doing so. Sometimes it causes me quite a lot of pain. She’s up to something.” Hecate righted herself and clutched at her chest, right above her heart. “Boys, stop snarling at Ellie, she was just trying to help.”

  “Are you okay? Can I get you anything?”

  “I just need a moment to breathe.”

  Ellie stood stone still waiting to see if Hecate was going to collapse again. It was only when Hecate’s hand lessened its clawlike grip on her chest that Ellie started to relax. While she was breathing, Hecate leveled an analytical gaze at Ellie, who was suddenly suspicious of what the goddess of magic knew about her. She had no idea what the boys had told her and didn’t want to overstep what she should or should not be telling Hecate.

  “That happens every time Circe uses your powers?”

  “It happens whenever there is a big draw of power. Since she has mixed my power in with her own, I can’t tell what she would be doing. I believe every time she raises the dead, I get a tingle in my left hand though. It’s quite disturbing.”

  “How do you know she’s doing that?”

  “Necromancy feels a certain way, like your skin is breaking out in goose bumps over and over again; that tingling sensation is what I feel when I raise the dead—something I have only done very rarely, as it is a very unpleasant sensation. Not to mention that raising the dead never has the outcome one wants. Either way, I feel that sensation in my left hand sometimes when Circe draws on my powers.”

  “Is that what you felt now?”

  “No, just the sensation of her drawing a lot of power.”

  “Okay, well, let’s get off this island, and then we can try to find the boys.”

  “I can find them now if you can provide me with something of Alec’s? Then when we figure out how to leave, we can try to get close to their location.”

  “Let me go and grab something.” Ellie was immediately moving back to the tunnels.

  “It has to be something that means a lot to him or has been on his person a lot recently,” Hecate called after her.

  “Okay, I’ll be right back,” Ellie said over her shoulder without stopping.

  She jogged out of the cavern, down the tunnels and into the house before stopping to realize she actually had no idea what she was looking for. The best place she could think to look was the basement. The closed doors to the art studio and darkroom area suggested Alec felt the rooms were personal and he didn’t want them on display to his brothers. She headed downstairs and flung herself into the art studio.

  The best thing she could come up with was the paintbrush he had been using most recently. The easel stood facing the wall, which was painted a bright white, reflecting the light all around the room, making the room seem brighter and bigger than it actually was.

  She walked to the front of the canvas intending only to grab a few brushes and leave, but she couldn’t help peeking at what he was working on. Everything else she had seen in his stacks of canvases was so beautiful that seeing something midprocess was like peeking at a present before you were supposed to open it. Most of the time she could resist, but this was one of the few times she couldn’t.

  Ellie’s eyes traveled up the canvas, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Eyes that were altogether too familiar stared from the canvas back at her. Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized her own smile and the curve of her neck in the oil paint.

  The portrait was of her lying on her back, looking up at the viewer. Her hair curled around the tops of her breasts, the portrait finished before anything personal was revealed. Her face was more beautiful than it could ever be in real life. The green of her eyes was a bright, earthy tone, and her hair was all different shades of dark brown. Alec had painted her with flawless, creamy skin, soft rose-colored lips, and a slight blush on her cheeks. The version of Ellie in the painting looked like she was about to laugh or tell a funny joke. There was a teasing light in her eyes and also shown in the way one eyebrow was slightly raised. The Ellie that was looking at the painting was truly dumbfounded.

  Alec, handsome, sexy Alec, saw her this way? She couldn’t believe it. She had never seen herself as this beautiful or as tempting as the version of Ellie on the canvas was so clearly meant to be. He wasn’t even here, and he made her feel more beautiful and desirable than she had since, well, ever. She could never remember feeling this way.

  As she thought of him, Ellie remembered why she was here and snatched up the brushes, ready to return to Hecate. As she left the room though, she paused. There was another room here that may offer assistance. Cautiously, almost as though the handle might bite, Ellie opened the door to the vault, wondering if there was something in there that could assist them.

  The door swung open easily, and the lights flickered on, just as they had done before. Ellie stepped in and waited for some kind of alarm to go off. When nothing happened, she moved forward.

  Ellie’s eyes scanned the shelves, looking at item after item until she found something she thought would at least prove useful if it came to fighting: a feather from the raven form of the Morrígan. She knew the Morrígan’s legend from Granddad’s stories. A goddess of war and strife in the Celtic pantheon, Ellie would pray for some of her strength and cunning if she was to succeed in helping the brothers. She carefully eased open the glass case, waiting for alarms to sound once again, but apparently the brothers didn’t believe in security on a micro level. She picked up the feather and tucked it into the back pocket of her jeans.

  She began to hurry out when an old lump of stone caught her eye. It was no b
igger than her thumb; the identification card read “Bast, Egyptian Warrior Goddess of Protection, imbued symbol.” Ellie opened the glass case and grabbed the small cat-shaped stone, only realizing as she picked it up that it was a necklace. She quickly looped it around her head and sent a thank-you to each goddess she was asking for help. She jogged back to Hecate, who appeared to be meditating on the floor.

  “I think I have something that means a lot to him, or at least that he’s used a lot recently.”

  “Good. Let’s see if we can get it to tell us where your beau is.”

  “He’s not my—”

  “You’re about to go into battle for him; he’s yours.” Hecate smiled gently at her, wisdom shining through her sapphire eyes.

  “How do we find them?”

  Hecate conjured a map of the New England area on the floor with a flourish of her hand. The state lines glowed along the cement as she chanted in a language Ellie didn’t understand, holding the brushes balanced on her flat palm. She heard Alec’s name a few times, and the brushes began vibrating, rolling off her hand and onto the floor. They rolled around in circles that started big but got smaller and smaller until the ends of the brushes all pointed at the same spot. A graveyard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

  “Well, now we know where he is.”

  Ellie whipped her phone out and snapped a photo. The shimmering lines of the state and the city name with some of the big roads were barely visible through electronic means even though they were bright in front of her eyes. The main one she wanted to remember was Fresh Pond Parkway; she knew if she could find that, then she would be close to the cemetery and close to Alec.

  “Do we know how to get out of here?”

  “My dear girl, those boys might think they are secretive and secluded here, but I’ve always known where they were. I may not have been able to get onto the island because of their wards, but I can certainly get off.”