"We are blessed with the fact that you have appeared to us in your full form, my Lord. I am Velda, Elder of Hefeta, and one of her six remaining grandchildren in the world."
The God's words in response were silenced, kept quiet near Velda's ears.
"Josephine," Oren called from behind me, breaking the Summoning circle as his beast like form took up my line of vision, and though I was more wary of him in this state, it wasn't due to his transformation, but rather the reminder of what he'd been able to do to me like this.
Kidnap me. Drug me. Chase me through a forest and plunge his claws through my back.
The blood loss had me stumbling, falling backwards into Oren's arms as the god's attention was elsewhere entirely, as if he couldn't believe what was happening around him.
Like the mortal world was too bright, too raucous, too loud for him to comprehend.
Like he'd been at peace this entire time, and we'd ripped him from that to pull him into our own personal kind of hell.
Oren's body towered over mine in a much more menacing way than it did before, and in the waning light of the dying fire and the dim light of a menacing moon, Oren's stature was so imposing that I almost took a step back in the remaining fear leftover from his initial kidnapping.
Almost.
But there was something concerned in his burning golden gaze that brandished a hint of warmth from him as it seeped into my body.
"What now?"
What now...that seemed to be the question on all the rest of the Siren's faces as we looked toward the god and Velda conversing, though she seemed to be the one doing most of the talking.
He mostly just gazed around distractedly, as if he hadn't been in this world in a very long time.
Oren's grumbling breaths, bedraggled as if they were too laborious to inhale and exhale, prompted my attention, each breath punctuated in the air by a curling cloud of steam similar in color to the smoke that poured from my mouth as I sang.
There was a pack slung across his shoulders, filled to the brim with looked like enough supplies for a multi-day trip.
"Going somewhere?"
There was a water skin in his oversized hand.
I went to reach for it but he jerked his hand backwards just as my body was beginning to feel the effects of the blood that I had just spilled for the sake of summoning a god who looked as if he didn't want to be here to begin with.
"Can I have some water please? I feel like I'm about to keel over," I said almost jokingly, though there was no room for humor in Oren's face.
"You could have died, Josephine. Summoning himâwas it worth that?"
One more glance to the god behind me and I couldn't help the shrug of my shoulders in answer to his question.
"I suppose we'll just have to wait and see."
"Come. I have something I want to show you."
"What, and miss the ceremony for our dead?"
Like Everworld I would miss the sacred prayers Inala had told me about in the moments leading up to the Summoning. They'd sounded both mystical and sereneâa balm to the soul after the gore of the day's attack.
At least with a god in our midst, if there were anymore attacks, we could be sure that he would defend himself, and us in turn, seeing as though he was inside the walls of our home.
When I'd started thinking of Hefeta as my home instead of just a place where I'd come from, I had no idea, but I rather enjoyed having a place to call my own.
Instead of being a wanderer.
On the run, always. Looking over my shoulder in fear of when the hammer would drop on top of me and take me from my family.
I hadn't had any idea that the beast standing before me would be the one to do it, in the end.
"You won't miss it. They're too busy with the god to start the rites regardless. Please?"
One glance at his outstretched hand and the claws sharp as daggers extended toward me and I shivered in remembrance of just where those talons had been but I reeled in the shocking pleasure I received from that memory and instead inhaled a sharp, shaky breath before taking a step toward Oren...
and promptly tripping over my own two feet.
"I've got you," he grumbled faintly into my ear.
My limbs were a dead weight, the roaring in my ears rushing past any and every sound that I normally would have been able to hear had it not been for the monumental loss of blood that should've been rushing through my veins.
Instead, it creeped along inside of me at a crawl, my golden life force depleted and in desperate need of replenishing.
"Waterâplease," I croaked, feeling Oren's beastly hands wrapping around me tightly.
"This isn't water."
"Anything, I'm so thirsty."
"Well then this won't help, I promise. Come with me, I can take you to a fresh stream near my cabin."
And then I was in his arms, face outstretched toward the open sky, Aluma, the goddess of the moon, winking at me up there in the night.
Her waxing fullness was almost at its peak, but we couldn't wait one more day for the brightness of the full moon for the Summoning like we should have.
My uncle had warned that these were the first of his forces, and they weren't going to slow down anytime soon.
Inala had relayed his message to me, their intent clear.
They weren't just here for the Sirens, but for me, his niece.
His niece that had slaughtered his brother.
The niece that he should have loved as his own flesh and blood, but refused to keep safe, instead choosing to focus on the contents of my heritage instead of the love my two parents clearly held for one another.
An amusement filtered through my blood as I remembered the last time I'd been in this situation with Oren.
"You're not going to kidnap me again, are you?" I asked, delirium painting the contents of my words.
His jaw ticked, in anger or in amusement I couldn't tell, before he answered.
"Justâclose your eyes and rest a moment. We'll be at the creek soon and you'll have fresh water. I'll get you in my cabin and feed you some hot bread and stew and you'll sleep in my bed. You'll be good as new in the morning to perform the ancient mourning rites for Sabira and the fallen Sirens."
"Good. I don't want to miss them. I'm glad you're alright and that you made it through the battle. How did your wounds heal so quickly?"
My cheek fell against his chest as I attempted to stare up at him, but the metal of his chest plate was getting in the way.
"I'm immortal, remember? It's how your wounds closed up so quickly, too."
I glanced down at my arms, noticing that instead of deep, gushing slices, only pale pink lines remained where I'd forced my blood to leak out down onto the ground to form with the rest of the Siren's in order to summon Nicos.
"We really did it, didn't we? We actually summoned a god."
"Yes. That, you did."
His thundering steps jostled me until my eyes closed of their own volition and I was suddenly deposited on the ground where Oren pulled the water skin out of a pocket I didn't know he had and dumped the contents of it on the ground.
It smelled sickly sweet, something mixed with alcohol burning my nose.
"What is that?"
"Nothing, just a concoction Yuni had brewed for before the Summoning to get us all in better spirits after the attack. Nothing you need to worry yourself about."
Except I watched, and Oren cleaned out the water skin in the creek not once, not twice, but at least five times with the rushing water before bringing it to his lips for a taste test, then rinsed it out another three times for good measure before allowing me to bring it to my own mouth.
I tasted nothing other than the rich minerals and refreshing coolness of pure water.
After a few quick gulps, I glanced up dazedly to watch as Oren's face pulled taut, the beastly imprint of his fur that stretched along his arms and face moving with the motion as well, almost like he disapproved of me sitting there, drinking from his water skin.
"Did you...want some?"
"No."
His gruff reply startled me into silence.
"What's wrong? Why aren't we back with the other Sirens? Surely they need taking care of as well. They lost just as much blood as me, if not more. Not to mention the Sirens that lost their lives today; they didn't have the luxury of being whisked away from the danger just because of the color of their blood."
"It's not that, it'sâit's this god, Nicos. I'm worried about what he'll do once he comes to his senses."
"Comes to his senses? You're saying there is an old god out there with my people, whose power is going completely unchecked, and you stole me away from the danger yet again?"
My temper flared, but with no energy behind me to back it up, all I could do was lean up slightly on my bent legs as the night air whistled through the thin fabric of the ceremonial gown I'd been trussed up in.
"I don't care about the rest of them! They clearly don't have a clue what they're doing, and they're going to be far too busy with Nicos to help me get what I want. My priorities have shifted, Josephine."
"What are you saying? That you don't want to break your curse anymore?"
"Not if it means putting you at risk, no. I don't."
"Why not?"
"Because, it's more now!"
His words came out as more of a roar than an actual sentence, but I understood him all the same.
"What? What's more now?"
He crouched down next to the creek bed beside me, his sharp fangs flashing in the moonlight.
If it weren't so menacing, I would've thought the sight alluring...enchanting, even.
"Come away with me, Josephine. Let me take care of youâshow you what you mean to me."
My head was suddenly spinning, but it wasn't from the loss of blood.
His scent of cinnamon was no longer as appealing as it used to be. It was slowly becoming overpowering, making my stomach rumble with nausea.
I glanced into the water skin and found it tinted with deep red.
My mind spun as I tried to latch onto his words, but suddenly the fatigue was worse than it had been only moments before.
What had been in that water skin?
Oren grew frantic, his face filled with a frenzied panic that alerted my entire body to the danger that was directly before me.
"I don't need anyone to take care of me, least of all the beast who stole me away in the night that I can hardly get along with for a few moments at a time."
The deafening growl he released made the hairs on my arms stand at attention.
"You were getting along with me well enough in my cabin before the Summoning."
"Yes, when I was struck half delirious by all the death and blood around me. I needed a distractionâyou were there. It wasn't right, but itâ"
"So you used me, then? Used me to feel something other than anguish over your friend's deaths? Well, guess what? It doesn't matter. Because I used you, too. When we first met, I slung you over my shoulder and brought you here against your will, but look at what it got youâa blood sworn friend who will follow you to the end of the world. Information about your past that you never would've known. I don't care that you used meâwe can be better together. But we have to leave. Now."
"Oren, I can't leave. I can't leave Inala and Erinna, not after what happened to Sabira. There's still so much more I have to learn about my mother and father, about what happened all those years ago when they stole me away from Hefeta. I want to learn more about the god and if he can help us defeat the king of Valencia. I am so tired of running from him, Oren. He's done enough to me. It's been enough. I need to help them defeat my uncle, too, because I'm the only reason he's here. I'm the reason he came today to attack. Me. So Sabira and Minna's deaths? The deaths of all the other Siren's I didn't get a chance to form a connection with? Even those soldiersâall of their deaths are on me. I have so much blood on my hands I doubt the water I wash in will ever run clear. So it's on me to help them."
"You feel guilt for what happened, I understand. But your uncle's actions aren't your own. I don't want to drug you and steal you away into the night again. I'll respect your wishes, but the firstâ"
"What was that?"
Branches and twigs snapped underfoot, but it wasn't from Oren's feet, nor mine.
The rustle of leaves reached my ears as my heart set out at a new pace that it hadn't danced to before.
My mouth opened, the song ready to spew forth from my mouth, but something dreadful reached my ears.
The mechanical lock of a metal collar coming undone, its metallic hiss reverberating throughout the eerily still and silent night.
"Oren, what are youâ"
And then the collar was in place around my neck, locking with a sinister click.
Jagged points probed into my throat, and I could only kneel there on the ground by the rushing creek bed, staring in awe and shock at Oren, who had promised that he wouldn't go against my wishes again.
"This is my last resort, I promise. Those men aren't here to surrender."
Men? What menâ
"Oy, Orenthal's actually done it. Thought we'd have had to knock her silly ourselves. Looks like the winterbane's done its job, though. Nasty stuff. I don't know how you got it down her throat."
A man came into view from the forest that he had appeared out of, dressed in the king of Valencia's finest armor and bedecked with the most brilliant silver.
Another man arrived, pushing past the brambles in the thicket of woods before us.
Dressed similarly to the first, he was definitely a soldier of Valencia.
I couldn't speak past the collar in my throat, but one look at Oren's shocked and stunned face told me all I needed to know.
He had no idea these men were going to arrive so soon, but he knew they were coming, nonetheless.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Just our job, and you played your part perfectly. I'll make sure our king pays you well for it, too. Cursebreaker is just begging for a taste of Adira's power. Your mother sure does a number on her children, doesn't she?"
I paled in realization of what was happening, but my foggy mind was almost too slow to play catch up.
Almost.
The men came forth and greeted Oren with firm handshakes, even as his claws could've punctured right through the gloves on their hands.
"Why isn't she already out, though? That winterbane should've had her on her ass minutes ago."
"I diluted it to make sure it didn't kill her and so she couldn't taste it," Oren said, his words clipped and tone tight, like he was upset they'd interrupted us.
It all suddenly came crashing to a tumultuous head.
His back and forth attitude between protective and careless.
His need to break his mother's curse.
The way that he would hold my eyes, and then look away as if in ravishing guilt.
His easygoing demeanor with the men in Valencia's colors.
His injuries on the battlefield not allowing him to fight, even despite the fact that he healed quickly and had withstood much more in our fights that we'd had than two arrows to an arm or leg.
And then Oren hauled me up against his body roughly, just before my mind swam for the final time.
"Let's get her up on the horse before the others come looking. She's the princessâthey might be distracted by Nicos now, but not for long."
"So they really did it, eh? Well, Amell won't be too happy about that, will he?"
"No. But it'll be alright. He'll finally have what he's been searching for this whole time."
And that was when a little piece of my heart that I thought Oren held broke off and fractured beneath my feet for good.
***
Author's Note:
What did you think of Oren's betrayal?
What do you think is going to happen next?
What do you want to happen next?
Until next time my lovely readers,Kristen :)
***
The World of Irena: