Chapter 30

Rose

" W hat do you mean?" Aeden demanded to know, forgetting to ask telepathically. "How do you know?"

I leaned forward, but I couldn't take my eyes off the humans in the shop, almost as if I blinked or looked away, that red splotch would disappear, and I'd be seen as paranoid. But it was there. In every single person's aura, by their heads.

Moreover, I could see the spots pulsing with power. My staring made the other guests look over their shoulders at us warily, but I couldn't stop. It was clear now—how stupid could I be for just noticing this?—how all the humans were crammed into tables on the opposite side of the restaurant when there were plenty of tables on this side.

Then, when I looked at my friends, everyone but Aira had their own bright red stain. It bled into the natural colors around it, searching, pulsing. My skin crawled looking at them, my stomach souring to the point of nearly throwing up, and I had to take several long, deep breaths to hold my human form.

"Look around at everyone's auras," I whispered, pressing my palms against my thighs to stop them from shaking. "There's a spot that's the same color as Joseph's power. There's no way he hasn't done something to them… and to us."

Aeden, Ava, and Aira subtly looked from each other to the people on the other side of the room. I knew the moment they saw it, as their eyes widened and their bodies stiffened, too. I searched Aira's aura, desperately trying to see if she had one and where it was, but I saw nothing.

"What the fuck ," Ava whispered, looking at her mate. "Aira, why don't you have one?"

But she didn't respond. She was looking, unblinking, at where her father walked through the dining room to speak to the greeter at the door. Her whole body vibrated in her seat, barely contained anger seething inside her. And I quickly saw why: he, too, was free of the blight that was Joseph's influence.

Ava put a hand on her mate's thigh, no doubt pushing calm into her to keep her from shifting right there in her seat. "That's fucked up."

I looked to Aeden, the oldest among us, for guidance, since freaking out wasn't an option. But he, too, struggled with this revelation. The muscles in his jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth, turning to Grace—to mentally fill her in on what we were reacting to, if her expression of silent, open-mouthed comprehension was anything to go off.

"We need to contact the others," he said after a long moment, "and we need to figure out how widespread the issue is. Most of all, though, we can't be too obvious. We don't know what those are being used for or if he can monitor people through it. For right now, I'm going to message the appropriate people while we finish eating our food."

I nodded, reassured by his composure. "Alright."

The rest of us ate in silence, our mood not just dampened but outright obliterated in the face of this revelation. Aeden typed messages out on his phone between hurried mouthfuls of fish. For me, each bite I took was difficult to choke down, no matter how I usually enjoyed it, and that familiar rage took up residence in my belly. Once again, Joseph was there to ruin everything. He wasn't even present, but his actions, his intentions, tainted everything .

It didn't take us long to finish what we'd ordered. And once our plates were neatly stacked and our drinks were emptied, Aeden pulled his wallet out and put a fifty absentmindedly onto the table as a tip.

"Gavin, Levi, and I are going to check the other islands to see how far his influence has spread while Mr. Mawadaira is scoping out Casper. I'd like you three to go back to Mariana and talk to Declan. He already has some of his people scoping out the situation there." Aeden's eyes swung to me. "We need to make sure you're safe, first and foremost. He gets his hands on you, he'll have all he needs to take us all down with barely a thought."

"I'll make sure to stay sequestered for a bit, then," I replied, then slumped a little in my seat. "I'm sorry our reunion lunch turned into a shit show."

"This is most definitely not your fault." Aeden stood up, then pulled me into his arms once I was on my feet as well. "It's going to be okay. We'll catch up properly later and maybe talk about your feelings a little bit."

I poked him in the arm. "Yes, doc."

Just as I was about to give him a proper goodbye, Aira moved quickly toward the back hallway and our exit. I murmured a very quick apology, promising to call him when I could, and followed after her, trailing only slightly behind Ava.

When I entered the hallway, Aira was yanking her father out of the kitchen with her hands fisted in his shirt, rage twisting her features.

"Father," Aira forced out through clenched teeth as she released him, "did you know about Joseph's influence? Did you know?"

Mr. Shioji had the gall to look down at his daughter as one might look at an irrational, tantruming child. "I did, and our family has been cleansed of it. It's no longer our problem."

"But not Ava, right? Not anyone else, right ?" she pushed. Her hands flexed at her sides, her talons lengthening and her hands reshaping into her dragon's.

Mr. Shioji turned his gaze to the selkie at my side, and with a gesture of his hand and barely a squint, the splotch was gone. Just like that. And he hadn't even had to expend that much energy.

Now it was my turn to have to stave off my change.

This arrogant, selfish man could easily save all those merfolk, yet he deliberately was choosing not to. It wouldn't even tire him out. It would cost him nothing .

"There. Your mate is taken care of. As for the rest, they can fend for themselves. We Shiojis are protected, and that's enough," he said with a tone too casual for the seething rage his daughter expressed before him.

Aira's low, inhuman growl was nearly inaudible, but it raised goosebumps along my arms and up my spine. Parts of her were starting to blur as she fought the shift.

"This is not a fight you wish to start, Ai-chan," her father warned, calm as ever. He even went so far as to cross his arms, as if he were unphased by her lack of control, her anger.

This only inflamed her even more, and when she spoke, her voice was no longer the one I recognized. It was deeper, more guttural. Almost feral. "No, but it's a fight I should. Wait until I tell the rest of the family about this. They're not going to let this stand."

"There's little any of you could do, not when I give an order."

"I don't take orders from you anymore."

She lashed out at him, faster than my formerly human self could have caught, slashing her black-tipped claws across his chest. He didn't so much as wince, not even when long lines of crimson flowed from his wounds, staining the white of his chef's coat bright red. If anything, he looked somewhat put out.

Aira turned and stalked toward the little room with the grate and ladder. Ava and I followed her, and I couldn't stop myself from glaring at the stupid old lizard as I stalked past. Once we were inside, I slammed the door shut.

"I'm going to go up to the house and talk with my family before my father can come in and throw his opinion around. You two head home," whispered Aira. "He's not going to get away with doing nothing this time. Not if I can help it."

The moment Declan walked into his living room late that evening, I knew the news was going to be bad. No one followed him in—no Levi, Gavin, or Aeden. My heart skyrocketed just thinking the as-of-yet unsaid implications, and it was all I could do to keep breathing.

My mates sat on either side of me on the couch, their hands on my thighs, and Milo pumped calm into me. Not that it helped. My imagination ran wild with what could be happening, even when I tried to remind myself to stay in the present. The longer Declan was silent, the more difficult it was to keep myself in human form, the instinct to shift raging within me.

Finally, Declan sat heavily in the chair across from us, the weight of his age and the knowledge of our situation a heavy burden upon his shoulders. He scrubbed a hand over his face. When he looked at us finally, I stilled, barely breathing, unblinking, wondering what new fuckery we were going to be dealt this time.

"It's in everyone's auras," he said at long last, confirming what I'd feared since I'd first laid eyes on the blight. "Aeden, Levi, and Gavin went to as many houses as was possible over all four islands. They couldn't see a single person, island resident or otherwise, who was not tainted with his influence."

My mates and I stared at him, speechless. I couldn't even form a full, complete thought without a dozen questions careening in to derail it.

"How is that possible?" Iris asked from behind us. She'd been in the kitchen, grabbing drinks for us—despite the three of us trying to insist we could get some ourselves, being grown adults and all. She walked around the couch to set five mugs of hot chocolate on the coffee table, though none of us reached for them quite yet.

"We're not sure. It shouldn't be possible. He's powerful, but he's not that powerful, not even with the other merfolk as batteries," Declan replied.

I tilted my head to the side. "What do you mean?"

He leaned forward, settling his elbows on his knees. "It's a question of range. There's only so far a person can extend and maintain their power."

"Which means there's got to be some way he's augmenting or stretching the reach of his power," said Will, breaking his silence. "My father, for all his delusions, is unfortunately brilliant. I'm not surprised he found a way to circumvent our natural limitations."

"Do you think he has everything planned out?" Milo asked, leaning forward to look at the merman on the other side of me.

"Oh, I have absolutely no doubt he's been planning this for years," Will replied. "As for what exactly that plan would be, I have no idea. He was too paranoid to ever share his ideas with anyone."

Silence fell between us, everything we'd learned and the possibilities of what came next hanging heavy. My mind was skipping from one fact to the next, trying to piece together the disjointed fragments of Joseph's actions to see the whole picture. But there was so much missing, so many questions that didn't have answers.

If Joseph was capable of what we'd thought were impossibilities, what couldn't he do? Was he going to eventually be able to take over all our minds? What was he waiting for?

Then it hit me.

Me. He was waiting for me… the talisman.

How stupid was I not to realize this?

Conceptually, I always knew that, should he get his hands on the power within me, he would use it to devastating effect. But now, seeing what he was doing without my power? There would be no end to his tyranny. He would obliterate every beautiful thing about the islands, take the minds of anyone who opposed him without so much as straining a muscle. He would use me as the tool to ruin everything, and I would only be able to watch in horror as he used my body to do whatever he wanted—because he would leave my mind intact. Enough to torture me with what he was making me do. I had no doubt about that.

Images sprang up in my mind, all the horrors he could bring about through me. Taking Milo and Will's minds. Hurting Vi. Destroying the library. Forcibly binding the Hearts to me, then making the islands into what he wanted…

No, I thought, trying so hard to shove everything I was feeling down into the depths once again and failing. I can't let him do that. I won't let him. I'd rather die than give him the chance to get his hands on the talisman. I just need to get better, get stronger. I need to—

"Rose, sweetheart, you're hurting yourself," said Milo, piercing the veil of my thoughts and bringing me out of the spiral of terror I'd been trapped in.

He pulled my hands away from my thighs, dislodging my claws, which had sliced into the flesh there. Fresh blood, bright against the paleness of my skin, dripped down my thighs. All I could do was watch it. I was so detached from myself, from my body, that it didn't even hurt.

My mates, however, were far more concerned. Within moments, Will had his hands on my wounds, pushing his power into them so they would heal, while Milo went to grab something to clean up the blood. But it wasn't my mates who took my face in their hands and looked me in the eyes. It was Iris.

"I know it's easiest to shut everything off and to dive into your power, but you need to stay present . All that you're feeling, all that you're trying to bottle up and push aside, is necessary to keep you human, to keep you being a person. If you lose that, you lose yourself. Then all you will be is power," she said gently. "We can and will figure this out. You can finish your quest for vengeance. But we need you to be smart and to learn. That can't happen if you are a mindless power machine like you were when you were under the influence of the Call."

"I can't think clearly with everything clamoring in my head," I whispered, voice trembling. "It's too much."

"It's okay to be jumbled up. It's okay to feel like all these emotions will consume you if you don't push them down." She stroked my cheek so, so gently. "I'm the last person who would ever tell you not to show or express your feelings, but letting them consume you is just as bad as not letting yourself feel them at all."

I nodded. I didn't know what else to do or even what to say.

"We're going to figure this out, I promise, Rose." She pulled her hands away from my cheeks and handed me my hot chocolate before sitting in the other recliner.

"How?" I whispered, the warmth of the mug seeping into my hands.

"I've called an emergency meeting of the leaders for tomorrow. We will discuss what we can do from there." Declan's eyes flickered to brown, his features sharpening for just a moment before he regained control. "But we will need to temper our expectations. It's… unlikely we'll be able to agree on anything, if our past meetings are anything to go off."

"But if we can't, we're all doomed," I said, an aching dread slithering up my spine.

"Which is exactly what Joseph wants."