Chapter Thirty

Amara slipped into the shower, and I sighed at the breath I'd been holding. I had never seen a picture of her parents, but she said she looked like her mother. Maybe her mother was one of them.

The resemblance, though I acted as if it was small, was almost identical. The shade of blonde in their hair, and she probably couldn't see, but the lady had a similar heart-shaped face, and build.

They were related, but I had no idea how.

The more we tried to find out, the more questions that came up. It was a maze to get to the next step, only to be directed in a different direction.

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Toby's number. I wasn't sure who was guarding the house but I needed them to be prepared to leave in case things went array.

"Hello."

"Hey, I need you to be on call today."

Someone laughed in the background, and Toby mumbled something on the other end. "What's going on? We're watching the cabin right now."

"Yeah, sounds like you're guarding the cabin, Toby."

"Sasha had the day off, and I thought it'd be nice to have some company while y'all are out."

I didn't have time to argue with him about it. "Listen, we're down at The South Kingdom. We visited your grandmother, and she had a fit when she saw Amara. Has she ever done that to you?"

Toby was quiet for a few seconds. "No, but she normally recognizes me. What did she say?"

"She accused Amara of blinding her."

Toby went quiet.

"Say something," I said, walking out onto the small balcony for privacy.

"I don't know," he mumbled. "My grandmother has always said some woman did that to her when she was a child for touching some tree."

My heart began to hammer in my chest. "Yeah, she mentioned that. We had to leave after she began to have a meltdown, and then we went to eat. There was a river your grandmother mentioned and we went to see it. We saw people that looked just like Amara in the woods."

I could hear Toby swallow on the other end. "That's creepy as Hell, Boss. What are you two going to do?"

"Spend the night and try to reach out to some locals. One younger girl was going to talk, but her boss shooed her along. I think I'm going to track her and ask her what is out there. I need you to tell the others to be on call if something happens. I'll signal with fire."

"Don't start a fight you can't handle, Dorran."

"I'm The Dragon Prince. I can handle them, Toby."

However, I wasn't completely sure about that.

Amara walked out forty-five minutes later in different clothes and blown-dried hair. She seemed content, but I could tell the wheels were turning. "I think we're going to follow Eva's scent and figure out what she knows."

Amara reached back and began to French-braid her hair with nerves written all over her face. "The lady looked angry that you were there today."

"She looked pissed."

"Maybe I should go alone."

My eyes rounded in shock, and I folded my arms across my chest to keep myself from shaking some sense into her. "Amara, do you seriously think I would let you—scratch that—my dragon would let you go alone? We don't know who they are or what they are capable of. I can't and won't let you go alone."

She frowned. "They looked shocked to see me, not angry."

"We can't go off looks, Little Mouse," I said, tracing my knuckles against her jaw. "Let's see what we can find out before you decide to go all Detective Amara on me."

She smirked. "Let's go sniff this girl out then."

I led Amara outside of the hotel and toward the restaurant. Eva had a very light scent, so it wasn't as easy to pick up on, but once my dragon had it, he led me toward a small cottage between an herbal store and a park.

The door opened before I could knock.

Eva didn't look surprised to see us. "I wasn't sure if you two were going to come or not since my mother interrupted. I was hoping you would. Come on inside."

She opened the door wide for us, and the smell of cookies and tea wafted out. Amara and I stepped inside the small cottage. It looked like a stereotypical twenty-year-old lived there. Cheap furniture, with a bit of Asian culture tossed around.

"Sit down," she said, gesturing toward a plate of cookies on the table. "I made these in case you came, and I was just going to eat them if you didn't."

Amara plucked one from the plate. "So, we want to know about the people we just saw at the river."

Eva sat down and rubbed her palms against her thighs. "Yeah, you really look like them."

"We noticed," I said, leaning against the wall, afraid I'd break the furniture. "What do you know about them?"

"Our culture calls them the water people."

Amara's hand halted inches from her face, her cookie halted in mid-air. "Water people?"

Eva grabbed a cookie. "Yeah, but my mother has lived here most of her life, and she is deathly afraid of them. She doesn't even want to speak of them, because she thinks it'll curse our entire family. She didn't tell me any of this, she wrote it down, so no one would know we spoke of them."

"What are their powers?" I asked.

Eva thought about it, twirling her finger around her ebony-colored ponytail. "I think they all have different powers. They all come from the same bloodline, so they all have blonde hair and blue eyes. They're beautiful and charming. My mother said they lure people to the river and take what they want from them. The old ones eat them."

Amara covered her mouth with her hand. "Eat the people?"

"I've never seen one do that, but I have seen one attack a boy I went to school with for stepping over the river. It's known to locals not to go near there. They like their privacy."

My gaze shifted toward Amara. The look of horror on her face mimicked my own. "Do they leave here? Like, go other places?"

Eva shook her head. "Everything they need is in that forest or the sea. They never leave," she said, sitting forward, her elbows against her knees. "Why are you not with them?"

Amara folded her arms over her stomach and shrugged. "I don't know. My parents died when I was young, and my stepmother raised me. I wasn't allowed to do a lot of things, and she put me on medicine. She wouldn't let me in the water—

"You weren't allowed in the water?" I asked. That nailed Helena's coffin shut.

"Do any of the humans or dragons here ever talk to them"?

Eva shook her head. "Not that I know of. We weren't allowed, and especially after they attacked my schoolmate, I never ventured over on their riverside."

"Why did they attack him?"

"He tried to get some fruit off their side of the river, and they attacked him. They blew their trumpet, and the waters grew crazy. My mother forbade me to go into the forest after that. I haven't been in over a decade."

"Does The Dragon King ever speak of them?"

Eva pursed her lips. "They have a treaty to stay away, and I've never heard any of them speak about them. Their land is magical and holds healing properties they want to keep to themselves. I think our King is afraid of them. We've kept them secret and they let us live."

Amara glanced at the memorabilia on Eva's wall. She pointed toward the Asian mermaid on a built-in shelf. "Are they mermaids?"

Eva shook her head. "They're beautiful like a mermaid but mean. More like a ... what do you guys call them? Oh, siren. Like a siren. They're sensual and charming."

A siren.

It explained why Amara was so beautiful and alluring. The way she's been opening up and one look made me weak. Sheltered by her stepmother on purpose. But why was she keeping Amara away from the sirens?

"Have any of them ever mated with other species?"

Eva nodded fiercely. "When I was young there was a story that we told at recess about a siren that left with a human man. They had a baby—,"

Eva's gaze shifted toward Amara who looked white as a ghost. "They looked for her because they wanted to kill her because she was half-human. She lacked the discipline growing up in a human world to hone her powers. Oh. My. God. Is that you?" she asked suddenly.

"No, of course not," Amara said, hiding her fear. "I have no powers, and my parents were human."

Eva laughed. "Good, I wouldn't want them to show up here asking questions. If they saw you and recognized you, I wouldn't be surprised if they came for you."

My need to get the hell out of her house drowned me. Grabbing a cookie, I shoved it into my mouth and offered Amara my hand. "Come on, Amara. Thank you for your time, Eva. I don't want your mother to come by and catch us talking to you. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble with her."

Eva laughed. "You're right there. That woman runs a tight ship. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you find what you're looking for."

"Thank you," Amara said weakly.

We walked out of the door, and suddenly it felt like the entire kingdom was watching. I could practically hear Amara's breathing in my head, and the closer I pulled her to me, the further away from safety I felt.

Amara stopped several yards away and braced her palms on her knees. "We need to leave. I'm afraid they're going to hurt us."

"We'll go check out of the hotel, and leave."

I swept her into my arms, flying us over the kingdom to the hotel. Sprinkles of rain began to fall from above as I flew us swiftly through the buildings

We walked into the hotel, seeing the receptionist turn up the TV, and stare at the sirens blazing. "Looks like they're locking the city down for the night," she said, looking back at us. "Bad weather is coming."

Amara clung to my deltoids, her gaze moving toward the open window and the dark clouds brewing outside.

Something was coming, but I didn't think it was bad weather.