Chapter 40 | The Devil of Siren City

Adrian

As I step out into the hallway, I pause to lean against the wall.

My chest is tight. Too tight, my heart skipping beats. It’s hard to breathe without pain firing through my arms and torso. It hasn’t hurt this badly in weeks.

Ignoring it, I focus on the front door instead. The knocking continues, an annoying echo in my ears. Quickly, I approach the door, not bothering to peek through the peephole before throwing it open. I want to get whatever this is over with so I can return to Skylar.

“Oh, good,” Candy says, plowing past me to enter the apartment. “You’re still alive.”

I let him rush past, noting his attire. It’s rare for Candy to go outside in anything that’s not perfectly tailored, but now he’s wearing joggers and a hooded sweatshirt. He didn’t want to be noticed.

That doesn’t mean he wasn’t.

“Were you followed?” I ask.

“Doubtful,” he says, holding a folder at his side. “Morgana gave my detail the morning off. They think I’m sleeping off the night.”

I hold in a painful breath. “How did your night with Rackham go?” I ask.

“It…” Candy turns to face me, looking me over with concerning eyes. “It went fine. Great, actually. He’s giving you everything you asked for.”

I blink in surprise. “Why? What did you promise him?”

“Nothing.”

“Candy,” I say, worried.

“Nothing, Adrian,” he says again. “He’s giving you full access to the network with conditions that he wishes to discuss with you himself.”

I nod. That much is expected, and fair. “All right.”

“Is she here?” Candy asks.

“Skylar?”

“Yes.”

“She’s here, yes.”

“Sleeping?”

I pause. “Why?”

Candy reaches into his pocket and withdraws a small object. A flash drive. “Rackham released it himself,” he says. “Everything you could ever want to know about her is on here.”

He tosses it to me. I catch it. I stare at it in my hand, but not for very long. “The Captain has my thanks,” I say as I palm it at my side.

“You’re not going to even look at it?”

“I’ll handle it in time, Candy.”

“I thought you’d say that,” he says, holding up the folder. “So, I took the liberty of printing off the highlights myself.”

My chest lurches painfully. “Candy—”

“She’s not who she says she is, Adrian,” he says, ignoring me as he spins around on the heels of his sneakers.

I follow him into the kitchen, my fists clenched in anger. “Don’t—”

“There is no record of a trauma nurse named Skylar Jean Green in Kansas City.”

“Put it away, Candy,” I say, catching up to him with my eyes on the hallway.

“However, there was a patient by that name in Providence, Rhode Island,” he says over me, his folder resting open on the table. “Brain cancer. Inoperable. Very tragic, but that’s where it gets interesting.”

“Stop.”

Candy looks me in the eye. “Skylar Jean Green died in hospice care a month ago.”

“Candy,” I warn, my chest burning. “That’s enough.”

“She was eighty-two years old.” He holds my eyes. “A week later, her doctor was murdered.” He flips through the pages, pushing a few closer to me. Police reports. Autopsy photos. “Stabbed to death. His wife, too.”

I eye the pictures silently.

“Police suspect a nurse on his care team.”

Candy moves another page toward me, this one a photocopy of a hospital staff badge.

Skylar.

But not Skylar.

Anne Marie Bonny.

This woman has long brown hair, but those are her eyes. Her smile.

“Apparently, the doctor had been having an affair with her,” Candy says. “They went away together for a weekend. His wife found out and followed them to their vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. That’s where Anne stabbed them both. She’s been missing ever since.”

I take an urgent breath. Anne Marie. She looks like an Anne.

“Is that all?” I ask.

Candy scoffs. “That’s not enough?”

“A little murder and some identity theft? No.”

“Strangely, I knew you’d say that.” Candy digs deeper into the folder, pulling out several more photos. “Maybe these will change your mind.”

I look at them, and the pain in my heart turns numb. They’re photos of Skylar here in Siren City, her hair short and bleached. She’s walking into St. Nicholas’ Church. She’s sitting in a pew. She’s talking to someone beside her.

Ethan.

I bite down hard. “When was this?” I ask.

“The night we had dinner,” he answers, adding a few more photos. All the same. All of Skylar going to the church and talking with Ethan. “These are from a week ago. The day Miller…”

I place my palms on the table, leaning forward to study them as anger brews in my gut.

“She was there yesterday, too,” Candy says.

“Who took these?” I ask.

“Rackham’s spymaster, their team.”

“Why?”

“When Rackham found out it was me who requested the info, he had her followed,” he answers. “Guess he found her interesting.”

Hell. So did I.

Beware, Adrian, of a maiden with two faces.

I take a deep breath. It hurts.

“You have to deal with this, Adrian,” Candy says carefully. “She’s associating with a man who tried to kill you.”

“And you’re not?”

He inhales sharply. “That’s different. And far more complicated.”

“We don’t know that,” I say, hoping for it to be true. Hoping that this isn’t really as bad as it looks.

Skylar. In bed with the gods?

I did something.

I don’t care.

You might.

“We know enough,” Candy says. “Adrian, she has to go.”

I push the photos aside, scanning the police report, trying to fit pieces of the puzzle together. A murderess on the run in Siren City. She came straight to me, but could they possibly have gotten to her first? Not without knowing I was already here, but how could they? I was careful. Wasn’t I?

“Adrian,” Candy says, interrupting my thoughts.

I stand taller. “I’ll take care of it,” I say, dismissing him.

“No.”

“No?”

“Sorry,” he says, his spine stiff and shiny. “But I’m not leaving you alone with her.”

“I owe her the benefit of the doubt.”

“Why? Because you signed a contract with her? That didn’t save you last time.”

I look at him. “Watch yourself, Candy,” I warn.

“No, fuck this, Adrian. This is Ava all over again!”

I lash out, grabbing him by his jacket and thrusting him hard against the refrigerator. It jolts from the impact, but Candy goes still, my hand firmly latched around his throat.

“I said, watch your tongue, Candy,” I say through my teeth.

His breaths come hard, his body shaking, but his face shows stillness. “I’m sorry,” he whispers. “I love you. You’re my only family. I would not cross you in this way unless I was sure.”

I swallow hard.

“I can’t lose you again,” he says. “If you won’t kill her, then I will. I have to.”

I release him, my hands shaking too much. I turn back to the table, looking over the mountain of jigsaw pieces. The mystery of Skylar. Of Anne. Of Persephone.

Of the maiden with two faces.

I eye the orchid on the table in front of me, its petals a pristine and beautiful shade of white.

“How do I tell the difference?” I ask.

“You’ll know.”

“How?”

She turns to leave. “The same way we all avoid danger,” she says over her shoulder. “Put simply: when you feel pain, stop.”

“Okay,” I say, full of pain.

“She’s in her room?” Candy asks.

“No,” I answer. “She’s in mine.”

He exhales at that, but says nothing as he crosses the kitchen into the hall.

Another breath, another splitting pain. This one fires through me, sharper and more intense than the others. I grunt and keel forward, nearly falling to the floor. I throw out my arm, grabbing the nearest chair for balance as I clench my chest with my other hand.

“Adrian?”

Candy’s voice echoes from somewhere far away. My vision blurs, waves of agony pulsing through my heart, each irregular beat as horrible as the last.

“Adrian!”

I fall to my knees, taking the chair down with me. I can’t breathe through it anymore. I can only groan through clenched teeth as her name builds on my tongue.

Skylar…

Skylar…

Skylar.

I try to shout, but I’ve forgotten how to speak entirely.

As I collapse against the floor and dark auras fill my eyes, I remember that I’ve felt this all before.

I’m dying.

Again.