Chapter 46 | The Devil of Siren City

Skylar

“Me?” Adrian asks.

I nod. “She told me to come here and find you,” I say. “That you’d protect me.”

“She mentioned him by name?” Candy asks from across the table.

“Yes.”

“But…”

Candy goes quiet as Adrian’s hand falls from my back. We watch as Adrian walks to the windows, his eyes scanning the horizon beyond the harbor.

“Adrian?” Candy says.

“Keep going, Skylar,” he says, keeping his back to us.

“I thought I was crazy, obviously,” I say. “I wanted to call the police. Even had the phone in my hand, but then… I wasn’t there anymore. Suddenly, days had passed. I was on the ferry to Siren City. My hair was bleached and chopped off. I had nothing but a duffel bag and… a folded up piece of paper in my pocket guiding me to you.”

Adrian turns, glancing at me over his shoulder.

“Two bedroom one bathroom apartment in Siren City,” I say from memory. “Private live-in nurse needed for spare bedroom.”

“She brought you here.”

“Yes.”

“But why, though?” Candy asks.

I look at Adrian, hoping he’ll have an answer.

But he says nothing.

Candy exhales hard. “How is that even possible?” he asks. “When all of this was happening, you were dead.”

“Dead?” I ask.

“Well, not dead-dead, but we all thought he was. How did this Persephone person in your head know he was still alive?”

“Candy.”

Candy nearly flinches at Adrian’s sudden voice, then goes quiet.

I study Adrian, his form standing out in front of the windows. With sky-blue eyes and trimmed black hair, he’s as handsome as the day we met not too long ago. There was something different about him then, something I couldn’t describe. Still not sure I even can, honestly.

“You were dead?” I ask.

Adrian doesn’t move. “They tried to kill me,” he says after a moment. “But they failed.”

Candy shifts. “Adrian, maybe—”

Adrian silences him with a flick of his eyes, then calmly looks at me again. “You’ve seen my scars, Skylar,” he says.

His scars.

Adrian has so many scars.

“Yes,” I say. “Knife wounds, if I had to guess.”

He nods once. “It happened nine months ago, nearly ten now. I was beaten and stabbed. Murdered by those I trusted. They tossed my body into the sea and left me for dead, but a fisherman found me. He saved my life.”

I glance at Candy. He’s hardly breathing now, his eyes wide on Adrian.

And I remember that I’ve heard this story before.

“For months, I healed,” Adrian says. “I waited and watched as those bastards destroyed everything we built.”

“Zeus,” I say, the name falling off my tongue.

Ares.

Poseidon.

Greek gods run Siren City.

But they didn’t always.

Adrian takes a step toward me. “Keep going, Skylar,” he says again, urging me to follow the path laid out before me.

Two brothers ruled.

Then Zeus came.

“You’re one of the brothers Candy told me about,” I say.

Adrian continues forward.

“The golden coin on your desk,” I say. “The sigil. His sigil. That’s yours.”

He nods, his blue eyes fixed on mine as he stands tall.

“It’s you.” I tremble beneath him. Persephone does, too. “You’re the Devil of Siren City,” I whisper.

“Yes,” Adrian says, unblinking. “I am.”

And I signed a contract with him.

I signed a contract with the Devil.

Deep inside, Persephone laughs.