Keylor laughed derisively. He spread his wings and drew himself up, demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was indeed larger than Bastian now, and his scales had a deep, healthy glimmer to them that suggested greater strength. You think you have a chance against me?
Bastian was privately thinking he probably didn’t, but he wasn’t about to admit this, keeping his head high and proud.
Then he realized that Keylor’s eyes, which had always been the same golden as Bastian’s, were glowing red. As he furrowed his dragon brow, his human realized, Goldshot! Keylor was dosing on goldshot. Pieces of the puzzle fell into space. Keylor had sent Saina to get more of the drug, not for its street value, but for himself.
If Bastian had goldshot himself, he would be even mightier, he thought grimly. He would be stronger, faster…
I accept your challenge, Keylor roared, and he pounced, claws outstretched.
Chapter 25
Saina took one last sip of her drink and then stood, leaving the lifeguard first aid kit behind her on the counter.
The karaoke machine had the usual selection; mostly pop music and classic rock.
Saina picked a love song at random and settled herself behind the microphone as the opening bars of music played.
The first line, she kept her magic dampened, relying only on the clear sound of her voice to set the emotional tone.
That got some of the attention in the bar, a few people turning their chairs so they could watch her. She knew she wouldn’t be as eye-catching as she usually was, in her understated staff polo shirt and unremarkable shorts, but she stood as tall and confidently as if she were wearing an evening gown and when the chorus came around, she leaned into the song.
You are my star
However far
I will wish on you
I will always miss you…
She hadn’t intended to pick a song with a sad undertone, but when she heard her own voice singing the words, she could only think of Bastian, and how she would never see him again.
By the second round of the chorus, everyone in the bar was completely enraptured, and drinks were forgotten on their tables.
Saina could feel power resonate deep beneath her, like the resort itself was on a pocket of magic that was leaking out of a dozen cracks in the earth. She could tap it, she realized. She could rule this place, she thought, giddy with the strength of it. She could worm her way into every heart and force them to love her; it could drown out the gaping place that Bastian would leave.
She reached out with her voice, held their hearts, and squeezed.
There urge was like a whisper in her ear, tickling at the back of her mind.
She was a siren and they would obey her.
They were hers, all hers, and she could force them to feel anything she wanted. And with this army of shifters to command, no one could keep her from her goals.
She poured her agony and loss into the last stanza, then suddenly thought, Bastian wouldn’t want this.
She remembered his quiet confession that he had wanted to save people and heal them, despite coming from a family of warriors.
She didn’t have to be like other sirens, either, always seeking control and self-satisfaction.
She looked out over the audience, their tear-streaked cheeks and agonized expressions, and she let the last note release them, holding it while she keyed up the next song, a cheerful pop song that swiftly devolved into happy nonsense.
Instead of reaching down to the great pools of magic below, Saina let it lie, and kept her spell light and easy, an invitation, not a command. Be happy, she suggested with it. Be joyful and love each other.
Bastian would have wanted that.
These were his people, his place. As badly as she wanted for it to be her own, it was his. She didn’t know where she fit in the world without him, but it wasn’t here, knowing she wasn’t wholly his. And it certainly wasn’t at the head of a shifter army. Where had such an idea even come from? She had no desire for that kind of power and control. If that made her a poor excuse of a siren, she could accept that.
Chapter 26