I looked up and saw a spear hurtling toward me. I rolled, and it stuck in the bone floor. Rylander wrapped his forearm around the assailant’s neck and snapped it. Then he pierced her heart. I launched myself back and looked around. Only the siren toppled in my dramatic fall remained, lying unconscious. I straddled her and, with both hands, forced my dagger into her chest, making sure she’d never wake.

When I looked up, Rylander had made it down to me, leaving a trail of death on the staircase. “I wouldn’t mind you straddling me like that if we ever get out of here. Just maybe without the blade.” He winked.

I rolled off the body and sprung to my feet. “I don’t know. The weapon could be fun.” I batted my lashes, and he laughed.

Rylander pointed to two, ten-foot bone doors fitted into rough black rock. “These lead to the throne, which is somewhat outside. You’ll see. If my mother is being held anywhere, it’ll be in here.” He sighed. “We will be surrounded, but this is the only way in, other than the sea tunnel.”

I reached for his hand, threading my fingers between his. I offered a reassuring squeeze. He grabbed the gilded handle in the shape of a siren’s scaled tail and opened the door.

In sync, we walked forward. My jaw hit the ground.

“Hello, brother. It’s been too long.”

Chapter thirty

Lou

My eyes darted around the structure too fast to make total sense of the hundred or more sirens lounging around the pool, on chaises, plush rugs, and atop the obsidian black rocks that jutted out from the walls all the way to the domed ceiling of the cave high above. Some sprawled in human form, others with tails on full display. The haunting sounds of throaty humming and singing, like chiming church bells, came together in an unearthly, hypotonic melody. If this casual performance was anything like the song that bewitched men, I understood why they fell to their knees in the presence of such beauty.

The forgotten splinters and innards of countless ships scattered the rock abode and the beach beyond like sun bleached carcasses left to decay. But amidst the wood and tattered rigging, a pirate’s true siren song glittered—gold. Mounds of it. Rolling hills, twinkling like stars in the flickering light of the cave. Treasures upon treasures lined the walls, piled high in tangled stacks of jewelry, candlesticks, gilt frames, and gemstones. The bounty extended well past the waterline, too, casting a yellow hue through the aquamarine shallows. It was more riches than I had ever seen.