Chapter 32 | The Devil of Siren City

Skylar

The woman smiles slightly. “Who are you?” she asks. “The healer or the temptress?”

I step back. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You do. Or you will. Soon enough.” She walks forward, passing me on the path to the altar at the front of the chapel. I follow despite the knot in my gut telling me to run, consciously keeping a few paces away. “Have you made your decision yet?”

“What decision?” I ask.

“Ah,” she hums, amused. “Too early yet.”

I watch her, cautious and curious, as she lights a candle on the altar. “Stop with the riddles,” I say. “Who are you and what did you do to me?”

“What did I do?”

“The orchid. It did something to me. Ever since I brought it home, I’ve had a…” I lower to a whisper, “a voice in my head.”

“You misunderstand.” She sets the matches down and turns to me. “The orchid isn’t the cause. It’s merely an instrument. It’s no more the cause than a weathervane causes the wind. No, she was there. Already inside you long before you ever set foot in Siren City.”

“Who is she?”

She looks me over, her expression dark yet passive, and I already know I will not get a straight answer. “Who are you?” she asks.

I roll my eyes. “Just answer a question, please.”

“I did.”

“And yet you tell me nothing.”

“Then allow me to expand,” she says, standing a little taller. “From the storm will come a maiden with two faces. The healer and the temptress. Together, they reveal the true self, but only one may see the sun. So… who are you?” she asks again. “The healer or the temptress?”

I shake my head, frustrated, but something raw and strange stirs in my stomach. “The healer,” I guess.

Her eyes tinge with sadness. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Why not?”

“We understand the need for quiet,” she says, sending a shiver down my spine. “But if he’s to succeed…”

Her voice fades. I step forward.

“He?” I ask.

“You should go,” she says. “Errands to run. You’ll be needed tonight.”

My gut clenches. The last time she said that…

“You mean Adrian,” I say, standing still. “Is he okay?”

She nods slowly. “He is important,” she says. “We owe him a great debt.”

“Who do you mean, we?”

She doesn’t reply. She merely turns away again, the shadows falling over her face.

“Wait—” I lurch forward, then stop as someone grabs my hand from behind.

I spin around, coming face-to-face with Ethan. His brow furrows with concern, his eyes full of questions. “Ethan,” I say, taking a breath. “You startled me.”

He glances questionably over my shoulder, his mouth forming the word who.

“Oh, I was talking to…” I look toward the altar again, but the woman is gone, now part of the shadows. “Nobody,” I whisper, turning back to Ethan. “I have to go.”

He inhales as if to speak, but quickly closes his mouth. His hand drops away and shifts to the side to let me pass.

I give him a smile. “Thank you,” I say. “I’ll be back to see you again soon.”

I walk out of the church. The moment the salty sea air touches my nostrils, I feel the familiar stir of her in my mind. Her. The temptress. Would make sense, given what she told me about her and Adrian.

How do you know you’re not the evil temptress?

I don’t reply.

I make my way through the bare neighborhoods of Old Town toward Fourth Street, as Adrian directed. A crowd has gathered between here and my destination. I try to go around, but my curiosity keeps one eye on the circle of people whispering in the street, their wide eyes on a trio of Ares’ men lingering outside an alleyway.

“Move along!” one of them barks, waving people away.

Some do. Others don’t, far too interested in what the other two are doing behind him. Even I drift closer until I get a clear view.

The other two scrub furiously at the wall. There’s a symbol painted on the brick with yellow-gold paint, large and bright enough to draw attention. It’s a circular symbol with a two-pronged pitchfork at its center surrounded by ocean waves. Not like any graffiti or street art I’ve ever seen before, but the citizens gathered speak with hushed whispers.

“That was his sigil, yes?”

“You think Hades is really back?”

“I heard the man murdered uptown a few days ago was his bodyguard.”

“Coincidence?”

“Move along!” the man barks again, forcing a few more to scatter.

I linger. I let my eyes roam over the smooth golden lines of the symbol — or what’s left of it. An icy wind tingles my spine as more whispers tickle my ears from the two chatty women slowly breaking away from the crowd.

“Zeus won’t like this.”

“Zeus doesn’t like anything, from what I hear.”

“Shh!”

“What for? If the Devil has returned to Siren City, my gossip is the least of his worries.”

The Devil?

Interesting, is all the voice has to say.

I push forward, abandoning the crowd and cutting across the street toward Fourth just north of Market Street. When I arrive, I read the signs, looking for a bank, but…

There’s a cafe. A used bookstore. What looks to be an animal shelter. And one unmarked black door with an electronic lock.

I approach the door. As I do, a small window slides open to reveal a young woman in a tight red dress with long black hair and a line of freckles across her nose.

“May I help you?” she asks.

“Oh, uh… is this a bank?” I ask.

Her face doesn’t move. “Yes.”

I retrieve the envelope from my pocket. “I was told to come here and give you this,” I say as I hold it out.

She takes it, briefly turning it over before giving me a nod. “One moment.”

The window closes.

I flinch at the sudden snap. Standing back, I wait with my hands in my pockets, wondering exactly what kind of errand Adrian has sent me on.

Within a minute, the door opens wide, revealing a man in a pinstripe suit with bright red hair and a sharp chin standing on the polished marble floor. “Ms. Green,” he says, his wide shoulders squared.

“Yes?” I say.

He smiles warmly. “Welcome. Do come with me.”

He angles to the side and gestures for me to follow him.

The voice chuckles. Very interesting.

I can’t help but agree.