“Aren’t you supposed to be babysitting her?” Gemma asked. “If she hasn’t fed yet, she’s dangerous. ”
“Trust me, Gemma—she’s plenty dangerous even when she has fed,” Penn said in a way that made her blood curdle. “If you don’t like what she’s doing, you can stop her. ”
“She’s not going to listen to me,” Gemma countered.
“She’s as much your problem now as she is mine,” Penn replied coolly. “Remember that. ”
“How is she Gemma’s problem?” Harper asked sharply. She’d probably been trying to bite her tongue, but Penn had gotten to her. “You’re the one that made her. Don’t you have any sense of responsibility?”
“Not really, no. ” Penn shook her head. “Liv can kill anyone she wants. She could turn this party into a bloodbath, and I wouldn’t care. You’re the one with a superiority complex. If you don’t like what she’s doing, deal with it. ” She smiled widely at Harper’s apparent shock. “Hell, if she wanted to have a feast tonight, I’d probably join in. ”
Daniel arrived back, just in time to keep Harper from freaking out on Penn. “Here you go, ladies. ” He handed the water and the wine to Harper and Penn. “The bartender wasn’t going to give it to me, but when I told him it was for you, he obliged, so hopefully it’s to your satisfaction. ”
Penn took a sip, then moaned. “Mmm. You always know how to keep me satisfied. ”
Daniel cleared his throat. “It was more the bartender that’s trying to satisfy you, not me. ”
“This is getting gross, and I think Liv is going to mount Aiden, so I’m going over there,” Gemma said. “Mostly so I can be not here. ”
She didn’t think Penn would kill Harper right in the middle of the room, and she really didn’t want to be a part of that ridiculous conversation. Besides that, Liv and Aiden were getting out of hand, and since Penn had no plans to intervene, Gemma knew she had to do something before Liv lost control.
“Oh, yeah?” Aiden whispered, his lips hovering just above Liv’s as she pressed her body against his.
“Hey, you two,” Gemma said, loudly and forcefully so they’d pay attention to her. “I don’t know if you realize this, but you’re standing in the middle of a crowded room, practically making out. So maybe you should cool it. ”
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Aiden slowly turned toward her, and he had that familiar glossy look in his brown eyes. It was the same one she’d seen in Sawyer’s before, and it made her stomach knot up. Sawyer had been so completely under the sirens’ spell, he’d been unable to save himself. Gemma had tried, but it had been too little, too late, and Lexi had murdered him.
“Jealous, Gemma?” Aiden asked with a lazy smile. “You could always join in. ”
“No, she most certainly cannot,” Liv hissed with an ugly venom.
“Sorry. ” Aiden shook his head. “I don’t know why I said that. You should get lost, Gemma. ”
“I wouldn’t have joined in anyway,” Gemma said. “What I’m saying is that you’re drawing a lot of attention when you should probably be keeping a low profile. ”
“Why? I’m the star of the play,” Aiden said, and that wasn’t the siren spell talking. That was the kind of thing Aiden would normally say. “Everyone should look at me, and Liv is the hottest girl in the room. ”
“Aw. ” Liv giggled.
“Liv, you had your fun,” Gemma said. “Come on. You should spend some time with me, so we can get to know each other. You said you wanted to be friends, right?”
“I’ve already made a new friend, Gemma,” Liv insisted. “And if it’s bothering you so much, maybe we should just get a room. ”
Gemma knew what it was like to be new and ravenous—an uncontrollable hunger gnawing just beneath the surface. Romance and fear both stoked the beast within, but really, if Liv hadn’t fed yet, then anything would make her hunger flare and spark the transformation.
The one and only time Gemma had allowed herself to become the monster, it had been terrifying, and it had turned into a bloody mess. She’d actually been unable to stop it, and she couldn’t let Liv get to the point of no return. Because then it wouldn’t be just Aiden that she’d have to worry about—everyone in the ballroom would be in danger.
“We’re in a hotel, so we can just go right upstairs. ” Liv bit her lip as she looked at Aiden.
“Yeah, we could have our own room in a matter of minutes. ” Aiden smiled and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Then nobody could tell us what to do. ”
“No, that’s a horrible idea,” Gemma said firmly. “You can’t do that. ”
“Gemma, we’re doing it. ” Liv tried to step away, but Gemma moved and blocked her path.
“No, Liv, I don’t think you realize what you’re saying or how dangerous it is. You shouldn’t be up there alone with him or any guy. ”
“I don’t think you realize how dangerous I am, Gemma. ” Liv ran her tongue along her teeth, so Gemma would notice that her incisors had gotten more pointed.
Her wide eyes had gone dark, and Gemma realized dourly that Liv knew exactly what kind of monster she was. Gemma had never learned how to transform on command because she never wanted to risk even letting a little bit of the monster out, but Liv already seemed to understand and embrace it.
If Liv took Aiden up to that hotel room, Gemma was certain that he wouldn’t come back alive. And if Gemma stood in her way, she wasn’t completely sure that she’d stay alive, but she had to do something.
“You had your chance, and you weren’t into it,” Aiden said. “You don’t need to be a cock block. ”
“Aiden may be a huge jerk, but I can’t let you do this,” Gemma said, her eyes fixed on Liv. “I won’t let you hurt him or anybody. ”
Liv stepped closer to her. “You think you can stop me?”
“I think you need to get yourself under control, or I won’t need to stop you,” Gemma clarified. “Penn will take care of you the same way she took care of Lexi. ”
“Please. ” Liv scoffed. “She hates you, not me. And I can get rid of you without lifting a finger. ” She smiled, then commanded, “Aiden, get rid of her. ”
Aiden grabbed Gemma’s arm, but she instantly got free and glared at him.
“Get your hands off me, Aiden,” she snapped. “I am doing this for your own good, but if you touch me again, I will break your arm. ”
“Is everything okay here?” Daniel asked, approaching them.
“Yeah, it’d be great if Gemma could just get out of the way,” Liv said.
“Well, she’s not going to. ” Daniel stood behind Gemma and crossed his arms over his chest. “But more importantly, Penn wants to see you over there. ”
“She does not,” Liv insisted with a whine in her voice, and Gemma glanced back to where Penn stood on the other side of the room. She had that devious smile, the one she got whenever she seemed to enjoy watching Gemma suffer.
“She does,” Daniel assured her. “And she asked me to come over here to get you, and if she has to come over here herself, well … that wouldn’t be good at all. ”
“Ugh. ” Liv groaned. “She’s worse than my mother. ”
Aiden tried to follow as she walked away, but Daniel put a hand on his chest and stopped him.
“Dude,” Aiden said, giving him a hard look.
“I think it’d be better if you stayed back and cooled off,” Daniel said, and he let his arm drop when he was sure that Aiden wouldn’t follow him.
Gemma glanced back, watching, as Liv pouted to Penn. For her part, Penn looked annoyed and not at all happy to see Liv, then she turned and trudged toward the door, with Liv trailing behind her.
“This is the worst party ever,” Aiden muttered, and walked off in the direction of the bar.
“It totally is,” Gemma agreed, and ran a hand through her hair. Then she turned to Daniel. “Penn didn’t send you over to retrieve Liv, did she?”
“No, she didn’t,?
?? Daniel admitted. “Actually, she told me that Liv was your problem, and she hoped that Liv ate Aiden’s heart in front of everyone. ”
“Well, that’s pleasant,” Gemma muttered. “I can’t believe she let you come over. ”
“She was too busy exchanging insults with Harper to really notice that I was even leaving until it was too late. If she had, she probably would’ve threatened me with dismemberment or death. ”
“Probably,” Gemma agreed, and glanced around. “Do you think I can get out of here now? The sirens are gone, and I made an appearance, right?”
Daniel smirked. “You certainly did. ”
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“I think I’ll just grab Marcy and get out of here. ”
“And I’ll get back to Harper. ” Daniel took a deep breath and headed back over to his girlfriend.
Marcy was still standing near the appetizer table, talking with Kirby. He was smiling, so it couldn’t be going that bad.
“How do you feel about turtles?” Marcy was asking Kirby when Gemma walked over, and she was really sorry that she hadn’t heard the beginning of the conversation.
“Like the reptile?” Kirby asked.
“You know they are reptiles. ” Marcy nodded her approval. “That’s good. Some people think they’re amphibians. ”
“Who thinks that?” Kirby arched his eyebrows in confusion.
“Too many people,” Marcy replied wearily.
“Hey, Marce, sorry to interrupt, but I think we’re heading out now if you wanted to join us,” Gemma said.
“Oh, cool,” Marcy said. “I guess we’re heading out then. ”
“Okay,” Kirby said, but when Marcy started to walk away, he stopped her. “Um, did you want to exchange numbers, then? So we could watch the Finding Bigfoot marathon together?”
“Yeah, yeah. ” Marcy smiled and pulled out her phone. “That’d be great. ” They exchanged numbers, with Kirby fumbling a bit as he tried to type it into his phone.
“Wow. I’m impressed,” Gemma said as they walked away.
“Why?” Marcy asked.
“You got his number and made a date. ”
“What can I say? I’ve got mad game,” Marcy said.
TWELVE
Musings
Brian dropped a pancake onto Harper’s plate, and she mumbled an offhanded thanks. While she appreciated his making her breakfast, her attention was focused on Thalia’s journal.
After they’d come home from the party last night, both Gemma and Harper had gone through it. They’d taken turns reading it aloud, with Harper lying in her bed and Gemma sitting in the old recliner in Harper’s room.
Lying down had been a bad idea, but they’d made it almost halfway through before Harper had fallen asleep. She’d been so worn-out from trying to catch up on her schoolwork that she’d barely made it past midnight.
Gemma, meanwhile, appeared to have stayed up most of the night. When Harper awoke in the morning, Gemma was passed out in the chair, with Thalia’s journal lying open on her chest, opened to a page very close to the end.
Harper was careful not to wake Gemma when she took the journal from her, then covered her up with a blanket before coming downstairs for breakfast. Now Harper was rushing to read through it and catch up to where her sister had left off.
“Is there anything useful in there?” Brian asked, sitting down at the kitchen table across from Harper.
“What?” Harper lifted her head to look at him.
“Is there anything that might help you?” Brian pointed to the journal.
“I don’t know. ” Harper leaned back in her chair. “I think so, but it’s complicated. ”
“Was she really a muse?” Brian asked.
“Yes, she was. She was the very last one,” Harper said. “She’d been living underground, in hiding, because something was coming after the muses and killing them. She doesn’t say what, but based on what I know now, I think it might have been the sirens. ”
“The sirens want to kill everything, so that makes sense, but what do you mean? Based on what you know now?” Brian asked.
“It’s how she describes them. ” She flipped back a few pages. It was toward the end of the book when Thalia seemed to grow more afraid, writing more about what was after her and what it meant.
“Beware of the songs,” Harper read aloud. “I tell my love that nightly, reminding Bernard that he can never trust the charms of those that come from the sea. Their songs will enchant him, but he mustn’t let them. If they come for me, I won’t be able to protect him, not like I once did. Now that I’m mortal, I can fall for their songs as easily as he, so I must ready him for their poison. ”
“He’d say things like that. ‘Beware of the songs. ’ I wish I’d paid more attention to Bernie’s stories. ” Brian shook his head sadly. “But I just thought they were stories. I didn’t put much stock in them. ”
“What did he tell you?” Harper leaned forward and rested her arms on the table.
“I’ve already told you as much as I can remember. ” Brian pushed his pancakes around in syrup, but he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to take a bite. “When he had a few drinks, Bernie would tell me to watch for sirens. He said that his wife wasn’t afraid of anything, but she was afraid of them. ”
He set down his fork and stared off. His brow furrowed as he tried to remember more about Bernie’s stories.
“He said he knew they would come eventually,” Brian said at length. “He told me to beware of their songs. ” He shook his head. “No, that wasn’t it. It was … ‘Beware the ones that sing, for their songs are poison…’ Or something like that. ”
“Did he talk about it often?” Harper asked.
“No. Actually, he only mentioned it a few times when we were at the bar, and even then, it was only a sentence or two in passing. Usually just a drunken warning about being wary of the singing temptress.
“There was one time, though,” Brian went on. “Me and your mom went out with Bernie, for his birthday or New Year’s or something. You and Gemma were really young at the time. In fact, I think Nathalie was still breast-feeding, so she wasn’t drinking.
“Bernie really got to talking about Thalia and the sirens and muses and nymphs, because your mom kept asking him about it. She was really interested in that kind of thing. But I wasn’t paying that much attention, and I was drinking, and I don’t remember much about it anymore. ” Brian lowered his eyes. “But your mom, she would know … if she could still remember anything. ”
“Did he actually call them sirens?” Harper asked, eager to pull her dad’s thoughts away from her mom. Thinking about Nathalie only ever made him sad.
“Yeah, he did. ” Brian nodded. “Usually, he’d call them temptresses or vixens or harlots, but he did use the word ‘sirens. ’ But the only thing I really remember him saying was that they sing, they were beautiful, and they were deadly. ”
“He didn’t tell you how to handle them or anything?” Harper asked.
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Brian chewed the inside of his cheek, thinking. “No, he just told me to avoid them. ”
“But you said he knew they were coming for him. Why did he think that?”
“I’m guessing it’s because of that book right there. ” Brian pointed to the journal lying on the table. “But he didn’t really specify. He implied that it had something to do with his wife. ”
“They didn’t kill Thalia, right?” Harper asked.
She’d read in a newspaper clipping that Thalia had fallen off a ladder and died, and earlier, Lydia had confirmed that she’d died of natural causes. But Harper just wanted to be sure that Bernie didn’t suspect foul play. If he had, and he was afraid of the sirens, he might have covered it up.
“No, no, I don’t think so,” Brian said. “Bernie talked to me in depth about her death after your mom got hurt since Thalia had an accident, too. He blamed himself for it because he was
n’t there when she fell. He really loved her. ”
“And she really loved him. ” Harper stared down at the pages, covered in Thalia’s delicate handwriting and lovely scrawls. “Their story would be romantic if it weren’t so tragic. ”
“Why?”
“They met in England in 1960 and instantly fell in love. Thalia goes on for pages and pages about how much she loved him and describes every intricate detail of their first meetings. ” Harper flipped through the pages to demonstrate. Portions of the journal were nothing more than sonnets, all dedicated to Bernard. “I think some of it might help Gemma, but I’m not sure if it will help break the curse. ”
Her dad tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
“When Thalia met Bernie, she was a muse, but he fell in love with her, deeply and passionately, and it wasn’t because of her supernatural abilities. He really loved her for her. ”
“How does that relate to Gemma?”
“Well, her and Alex,” Harper explained, and Brian’s mouth turned down in a deep scowl. “Dad, I know this is tough for you. But she really loves him, and I think he really loves her. ”
“Then why haven’t I seen him around lately?” Brian asked.
When Harper and Gemma had told their dad about everything, Gemma had glossed over the part where she had used a siren song on Alex. It wasn’t that she was trying to keep it from him, but it was still painful for her to talk about. She’d rather leave it unsaid.
“Things are complicated between the two of them,” Harper said, brushing over it for Gemma’s sake. “But Thalia offers a glimmer of hope. ” She flipped through the journal, looking for the right page. Then she found it, near the front, right after the passage where Bernie asked her to marry him.
“Perhaps it is the heart that is the most supernatural thing of all,” Harper read aloud. “Not just because of the power it wields over mortals and gods but its ability to remain unchanged even in the face of peril or temptation. No curse, no spell, no creature on earth or in heaven can reroute its true course. What the heart loves, the heart will always truly love. ”
When Harper looked up from the faded pages of the journal, her dad had fallen silent. Though he tried to hide it, she could see the pain in his eyes, and she knew he must be thinking of Nathalie and how he still loved her.
“There are a few other gems in here,” Harper said, trying to change the subject and ease her dad’s sadness. “We may not have figured out how to break the curse yet, but there are definitely plenty of things in the journal to give Gemma hope. ”
“But Thalia knew they were coming for her. ” Brian pushed his plate aside, too interested in what his daughter was saying to eat anymore, and he rested his forearms on the table. “You said that, right? Why did they want to kill her? And how did she know they were coming for her?”
“I don’t know why they wanted to kill her, exactly. They might’ve just been looking for information. Muses kept a lot of secrets, so maybe they were torturing and killing them to find something out.
“But it wasn’t until after she came to Maryland that she began to worry about their finding her,” Harper realized, staring at the cover of the journal. “When she first met Bernie, she was in England, and she mentioned nothing about the sirens. It was when she came here, she began to fear them. ”