Penn laughed. “You said you’d never kill anyone in the first place. These little moral compromises you keep making with yourself. You’ll find that eventually morality will mean nothing to you. We chose you for a reason.”

“You chose me because you were running out of options,” Gemma pointed out. “Thea told me that I was your last chance.”

“You were my first choice, though,” Penn said, but her smile had faltered. “Do you know why I wanted you?”

Gemma toyed with the fruit in her hands, not wanting to admit to Penn that she didn’t really know, and she actually wanted to.

“I saw the evil in you,” Penn said.

“That’s not true.” Gemma shook her head. “I’m not … There’s no evil in me. Or at least there wasn’t before I became a siren.”

“Whatever you say.” Penn threw up her hands as if it were of no concern to her. “You’re not evil. You killed that man last night out of the goodness of your heart.”

Gemma tossed the half-eaten apple in the garbage can. “I’m not hungry.”

“Oh, hey, Gemma,” Penn said as Gemma was about to leave the kitchen. She paused in the doorway and glanced back over her shoulder at Penn. “I heard about your little rendezvous with Sawyer yesterday.”

When Gemma didn’t say anything, Penn turned to look back at her.

“He told me,” Penn explained, as if Gemma had asked how she had found out. “He has no secrets from me. He can’t have secrets.”

“That’s the basis for a really healthy relationship,” Gemma said dryly.

“He’s an attractive guy, isn’t he?” Penn went on as if Gemma hadn’t said anything. “He’s downright gorgeous. He’d have to be, right? Otherwise you wouldn’t have cheated on your beloved Alex.”

Gemma chewed the inside of her cheek and looked away from Penn. “Yep. He’s a very foxy guy. You’re one lucky lady, Penn.”

“You know luck has nothing to do with it,” Penn said, and slipped off the stool. “I make my own luck. I create my own destiny.”

She walked over to Gemma and stood right in front of her, but Gemma refused to look at her. She just stared down at Penn’s pedicured toes.

“If you ever want to join Sawyer and me, I understand,” Penn said, her voice turning low and sultry. “As a siren, you have all sorts of new urges, and they’re hard to contain. Sawyer would be happy to show you how to handle them, as long as I’m there to guide you.”

“What?” Gemma wrinkled her nose in disgust when she realized what Penn was talking about. “That’s a really weird offer, and also gross. Seriously. Ew, no.”