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Chapter 11

Joseph Kelley

P ieces of pink scallop shell were scattered alongside ink-blotched wads of paper and a dozen hand-sized quartz shards that pulsed red with his power. The crystal pieces were remnants of the latest experiment in extending Joseph's influence to the other islands without having to push power outward constantly or visit in person. These nodes, as he was calling them, would constantly emit his will to all those in proximity and could be adjusted as needed to keep the residents doing as he wished them to. The hole in his aura necessitated such crutches, but without them, he was more than positive that the other Otherkind would fight against him. Joseph's attention, however, wasn't on the new nodes.

He plucked one of the larger shards of scallop shell off the desk to run his fingers over the smooth side as he leaned back in his chair, not truly seeing what was in front of him. When he'd first retrieved the pieces—around the same time his family fled from him—he'd thought he could still feel the echo of the power it once contained. That had long since faded, though, nothing more than a wisp of a memory. Then, just as now, he was troubled by things out of his control.

Still he had not uncovered who or what the invisible force was, the one that had knocked out his men. Not only that, but Rose's whereabouts were still unknown. No signs. No witnesses. Which was a fucking problem, since she was the only one with the knowledge he needed to ensure his total, unquestioned domination of Nora and eventually the Golden Isles.

Joseph had always known he would rule over these islands. He'd planned carefully, sowing seeds of discordance between the islands and the rest of the Otherkind, whispering in their ears that they didn't need to be so entwined when all their needs were so different.

What would a merman know of the needs of the kelpies? he'd asked Selena, the leader of the kelpies.

To Tomas, he'd made sure to say, You've got a good grasp on what happens on your island and with your people. What could the rest of us do that you don't already have under control?

The Shiojis, well… their patriarch had always been easy to shmooze. All it took was a little stroking of his ego and deference to his great age and wisdom—even if Joseph had to choke out the words to do it.

The selkies, however, had seen right through him. No amount of placating or ego-stroking would sway them from opposing him on every measure he put forth. Not even after playing their game as the newcomer would they budge.

In the end, it hadn't mattered. Within a month of being here, in every meeting, every passed note or whisper from his lips to their ears, he planted more and more of his influence. He manipulated their paranoia, plucked at their fears, until the very sight of each other was too much for them to handle. Soon, all meetings between the species devolved into arguments. This left him to finally put his plan into action, and he'd been successful in all he set out to do.

Until Rose fucking Sutton had come to Nora.

Hoisting himself up from his seat, Joseph walked around the desk he'd commandeered to pace about the study. The desk, the study, and everything in it had been Thomas Golden's once upon a time, opulence built into every beam. The wall sconces were outfitted with electric lights that flickered like flame to preserve the illusion of a place out of time. They, along with the fireplace that dominated the western side of the room, illuminated the dark mahogany walls and custom shelves filled with all the tomes and founder's journals and spilled through the French doors onto the balcony.

On nights like tonight, he couldn't help but pace from one overstuffed chair to the other, which he did so often he might walk a new groove into the wooden floors. His mind was filled with plans and mysteries and unbridled rage. Always simmering just beneath the surface. Always maneuvering the chess pieces of his grand plan, recording and adjusting to his opponents' plays.

Rose was a complication he hadn't wanted to accommodate for, not a year and a half ago and not now. There was something about her, much like her aunt Violet, that seemed to counteract him at every turn. A girl like her, with the flimsiest spine he'd ever seen, should have rolled over easily under even the smallest bit of pressure. Several times, she nearly had: when he'd confronted her about the town hall and library break-ins, when he'd given her a taste of what it would be like to be his mindless little puppet, and then again the night he took her mind from her completely.

The night he lost everything because of a miscalculation.

In a blink, Joseph was mired in the memory, reliving it as if it were happening in the present all over again.

Rose weighed nothing under his arm as he swam away from Mariana at a speed he'd not been capable of before. The stupid bitch was under the selkies' protection so long as she stayed on Mariana, so he had to escape with her before they even realized she was gone. But there was no way he was going to allow her to continue to live when she threatened to break up his family by seducing his son and putting ideas in his mind of independence.

Joseph intended to take her to the Golden's ship and drop the anchor on her body and leave it there for the sea sprites to devour. Those little devils left nothing behind of their prey, not even bone. As soon as they scented blood, they would be on her, tearing and biting into her flesh. Once he was certain she was dead and no trace of her existed, he was going to go into Will's mind and erase her completely from it. She will never have existed to him for him to miss or to fight him over.

He made it as far as the seaweed forest before he was brought out of his single-minded purpose. A wave of potent, magical energy, the very same blast of power he'd felt so many times in recent weeks, washed over him and the damned girl in his arms. It temporarily dislodged his control over her mind, but it took little to push her back under, though his control had been slippery at best the whole time for reasons he couldn't quite parse. Joseph paused in his mad dash to get to the Elina Mae and followed his senses to the source of the disturbance.

It took but a moment for Joseph to find what—who—he was looking for, and the rage it lit up within him was only superseded by one thing: covetousness.

Cornelius Young, that upstart who dared side with humans against him, was settled at the bottom of the seaweed forest, working on something Joseph couldn't quite see at first. One lucky shift in his posture later, though, and all was revealed to him. A talisman, bright and shining with untapped power, was gripped in Eli's webbed hand.

All-too-familiar siren screams rent the silence of the night. The raucous cacophony had Rose struggling and reaching for the pink scallop shell in Eli's grasp, as if she could hear the desperate pleas in her mindless state. Joseph let out a near-feral snarl and tightened his grip on her, but this proved to be a mistake. Eli's eyes immediately met Joseph's. The other merman's puzzled and frustrated expression immediately shifted to rage.

Joseph stopped his pacing long enough to rub the shredded scars on his chest. The ribs Cornelius broke in that fight still ached on days when the weather was turning bad. Were he a more rational man, he might have admitted he deserved it for daring to hurt someone under another merman's protection; he certainly would have eviscerated anyone threatening his family. However, he felt not a shred of remorse for all but disemboweling Rose. After all, she was going to die that night regardless.

But it had worked in his favor, in the end. Joseph smiled, thinking about how quick but painful that final blow to Eli was. The visceral scream, the scent of blood, the knowledge he'd destroyed the fragile bond between his son and the girl.

"No, no, no, no," Rose whispered as her mind pieced together what had just happened. She darted toward the body, inspecting it, only to find the hole in his back where Eli's heart had once been. Pleasure rushed through Joseph as she turned her face up to look at him and his son as she screamed, "Why did you kill him? Why? He's a father! He has children! Why did you do it?"

Joseph could have watched her suffering all day, and he might have if he didn't have a singular purpose in being there: getting the talisman. He shoved past his son, knocking the heart out of Will's grip so that it fell to the floor in a wet, meaty splat. Grabbing Eli by the legs, he pulled the corpse away from Rose then rolled him over to look for the pink scallop shell he so desperately sought.

Like a mosquito that never knew when to stop, Rose shot forward, pushing at his hands as he tried to move the body again. "Don't you dare touch hi—"

Joseph shoved the girl away absentmindedly, not even looking up to do it.

"Shut up, you useless girl," he growled, continuing his search. He rolled Eli over onto his stomach again, hoping that perhaps the damn thing was in his back pocket instead of his side ones. Where the hell was it?

There were so few traces of the power he'd felt earlier in the night left. It was almost as if he'd imagined it. But he couldn't have, not when, night after night, that power had washed over the islands and the screams of the souls within it pierced the silence of the night. That alone told him it was real; he just needed to find it.

Joseph searched for the signature of the magic within the talisman, the shining multi-colored mass that he'd seen earlier. But aside from the explosion of light he'd seen upon Eli's death and the residual stain on the dead man's hands, there was no trace. Could he have hidden it? How had he found time to, in between healing Rose and getting to this cave? The seaweed forest wasn't that far away—

His train of thought was interrupted by the stupid bitch pushing him again. Instinct had his hand shooting out, backhanding her across the face to get her to stop, but Rose pushed him, and on instinct, he backhanded her, but before she could hit the floor, Joseph grabbed her by the neck. She will know what happened. If I have to flay her mind apart to get the information, I shall.

It would take so fucking little effort to take her mind from her permanently. He wouldn't even break a sweat crowding her into the back of her own head before snapping the metaphysical tethers that bound body and mind together… or it should have been easier. Something blocked him from simply taking what he wanted, and he pushed more and more of his power into her to get what he wanted, even as the stupid girl closed her eyes—as if that would help her at all.

"You don't know when to quit, do you?" he asked. She kicked and struggled, but he was undeterred. "Where is the talisman, Rose? Where!"

He squeezed her neck until she could barely breathe. When she finally answered him, her lips were already turning blue, and her voice wasn't much more than a whisper. "We… destroyed… it."

Incandescent rage coursed through him at the obvious lie, and he lifted her up until her face was level with his, so he could look into her eyes once she opened them again. "Don't lie to me!" he bellowed, willing her to be smart and do as she was told for once in her fucking useless life. "Where is it?"

"Not a lie… not a lie…"

He didn't believe her for a second, but she'd admitted to knowing of what he spoke. It was enough to tell him she might know what happened to the damned thing. If he could only get into her fucking head…

"That talisman could've saved my family! You've all but condemned them to death!" he screamed, exerting more pressure on her mind.

"I'd never… not in a million years… let you have it… you monster."

The stupid bitch raked her nails across his face, his flesh splitting from his left temple to his jaw on the right side. Blood poured out of the wounds, and he howled in pain. Joseph threw her away from him and into the cave wall to keep her from hurting him again.

It took far too long to clear the blood from his vision, his eye barely making it out of her violent outburst unscathed, but when he did, he stalked over to where she lay unmoving on the floor. Grabbing her by the hair, he lifted her up enough so that she could look into his eyes.

"The blood of my family is on your hands, and for that, I condemn you to rot in here," he whispered before bashing her head against the floor, knocking her out cold.

At the time, Joseph had thought this was going to be his only setback. He'd intended to go back to the cave to interrogate her further after searching the surrounding area more. Not that he wanted her to know that. He wanted her in pain and desperate, willing to give him anything he wanted in exchange for the talisman… only for him to leave her to rot anyway. However, that plan was abandoned the moment he got home.

He expected silence. Noemie and the girls should have been tucked in bed, his power over them keeping them asleep until morning or until he released them. So, to see his beloved wife in the kitchen, Will on his knees before her and sobbing into her stomach, was not a welcome sight, not after losing the talisman.

"What have you done?" she demanded, as if she had the right to order him to do anything.

"I did what needed to be done. For our family." Joseph didn't have to explain himself. He was the patriarch. He was the head of the household.

"Taking our son's mind and making him murder someone was what needed to be done?" The turquoise ocean of her eyes roiled and swirled with emotion. With a challenge. "You couldn't have done it yourself?"

Joseph didn't like the look in her eyes, the anger. Last time she'd had that expression, he'd just been exiled from Malutaga, and she had refused to leave with him. 'Twas a shame, really, that he had to convince her and his kids with magic, but it wasn't the first time they'd needed to be brought to heel.

"It was necessary," he said, the lie breezing past his lips just as easily as all the others had. "Cornelius posed a threat to our family. He was the siren killer."

"Why couldn't you have done it yourself? Why did that mean attacking him and Rose? You know Rose is his—"

He cut her off abruptly. "No. She was a threat to this family. No one can live if they discover our secret. You know the rules."

"Sure, I know the rules. The ones where the humans are memory-wiped, not murdered!" Her thin frame shook with the force of her anger. "You've gone too far this time, Joseph. You've marked Rose as your victim and scapegoat since she arrived here without cause, without proof."

"I have done what I needed," he replied through clenched teeth. Gods, he hated when she questioned him.

"And that means fucking with our minds? Tell me, husband " —she sneered the word— "how long have you been using your power against me and my children?"

"It was for your safety—"

Noemie cut him off. "Safety?" She huffed a bitter, thin, mirthless laugh. "We're not safe. We've never been safe. We'll never be safe, not with…" She pursed her lips, stopping herself from saying more.

Joseph stared at his wife for a long, silent moment. Had he truly been so preoccupied that he'd missed the signs of her discontent? Of her slipping from his control? There was no reason for her to be opposing him like this.

Finally, he heaved a heavy sigh. He was too damn tired to deal with this bullshit. He needed to get into bed, rest, then go find the talisman, not argue with his wife. Stepping forward, gathering his power to him, he prepared to put her firmly back into her place, even if he had to fuck with her mind to do it.

"Don't you fucking dare, Joseph." Noemie stood to her full height, tugging Will up from the floor to stand beside her. Her power flowed out of her, her hair floating around her head. She was beautiful… and furious. "You've done enough damage to this family with your abuse of power. I will not let it happen again."

That was all it took. One miscalculation, trusting that his Noemie was firmly under his control, and everything had blown up in his face. Perhaps he ought to have known better; if Will had slipped his leash, then it made sense his wife might also be able to. But he'd chalked that up to a higher power at work between Will and Rose more than losing his grip on his son. Hindsight being what it was, he knew better now.

His plans for the talisman and Golden Isles had gone on the backburner as he chased his family across the Pacific, all the way to the one fucking place he could not step foot: Malutaga. How many weeks… days… months had he squandered trying to get past the magical barrier that barred him from entry? How much time had he wasted in pursuit of his family, to try to speak to them, to get them to understand that all he wanted was for them to have a home, to be safe.

Admittedly, their safety hadn't been at the forefront of his mind when he made his way back to Nora. All he could think about was getting revenge on the one who'd cost him everything—just before he ripped the knowledge of the talisman's whereabouts from Rose's fucking head. It wasn't until after he'd secured Nora for himself that he had relaxed a fraction.

As he collapsed into one of the plush chairs in front of the fire, a wave of shame overcame him. His victory in taking Nora rang hollow without his family by his side. This castle should have been filled with their laughter, their bickering, and the pitter-patter of smaller feet as he and Noemie welcomed children of their own like they'd been discussing. He regretted putting it off now. Maybe she'd have stayed with him if she'd been in the family way. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

There was little use in wallowing in the could-have-beens and should-have-beens. Joseph knew what he needed to do and the direction he needed to go in. He had back-up plans for his back-up plans, with and without the talisman. But he wasn't ready to give up on capturing the only person alive who knew its last whereabouts. The security that talisman would give him, the power… no one would think to fuck with him.

All he could do now was move forward. Yes, the hole in his aura complicated things, but the nodes would be operable in a day or two's time, after he charged them with his power and will. They would be the foundation of amplifying his influence around the islands. The rest of the Golden Isles Otherkind would do what he wanted without him even being present, and when it came time, they would be what ensured the other islands fell in line.

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