Shadows Before the Sun

something about it. Lightwater might know about it, too.”

“Well, I can tell you Leander wouldn’t help you even if he could.” Her green eyes narrowed on me. “He doesn’t offer information for free. He wouldn’t just show up and tell you this about Hank; that wouldn’t even approach his level of interest.” Her arms crossed over her chest, and she lifted her brow. “So out with it. What’s his angle? What did he ask in return for this information?”

My first reaction was not to say anything, but it wasn’t like I had anything to lose by confiding in her. Despite what she’d like me to believe, Sandra was good, that much I could tell from the short time we’d already spent together. She cared about right and wrong. And she was a fount of information. If I shared with her, she’d be more comfortable sharing things with me. “He wants me to retrieve a stone tablet from the Circe, one he said was priceless enough to start a war. I think he wants the same thing the sirens stole from the Adonai all those years ago. Makes sense based on what you told me about the theft and the war that followed.”

She gave a bitter laugh. “For all his power, he is unerringly predictable. Tell him I said that if you see him again. The tablet was stolen by the siren in retaliation for the suspected theft of the Source Words. Neither side will claim responsibility in either theft. Neither side knows how to use what they stole, but each has been trying to regain what they lost for ages.”

“The Source Words went missing way before the tablet was stolen, though, right? Why would the sirens wait that long to retaliate?”

“They simply weren’t powerful enough. There were a couple thousand years between the two thefts. The early sirens always suspected the Adonai of coming in and stealing their most powerful words while the sirens were still in their civilization’s infancy. This sentiment grew and grew, passing from one generation to the next. When the opportunity arose to steal the tablet, the sirens couldn’t resist. And, thus, the war began. Did Leander tell you what the tablet does?”

“It tells about the Disciples. Apparently they were guardians of the First Ones; Archons, as he called them.”

“I always wondered what made the tablet so valuable.” Her shoulders slumped. A vulnerable, weary look overtook her features. “Some things are coming to pass, then.”

“He has the cure for ash,” I explained, trying to assuage my own guilty conscience—because what if I turned the tablet over to someone who’d cause more damage than ash ever could? But my sister Amanda, the others . . . ash was slowly killing them; the drug was designed to make their will step aside, to make them weak, shadows of themselves so Grigori Tennin’s cult had vessels to control. Withdrawal meant death—once ash was in your system, you took it forever or you died. If Leander really did have the cure . . .

“As you say, ‘don’t sweat it,’ Charlie. The tablet in Leander’s care is the safest place for it. He is, as much as I despise saying it with every breath in my body, on the right side for once.”

“The right side being?” Adonai? Siren? Human?

“The side of life.”

The ominous reply was spoken with such sadness that it sent a flare of unease through me. “Do you know what’s coming, why Leander is preparing?”

She glanced at me and gave a halfhearted attempt at a smile. “I have seen only the random scenes the Fates wish for me to see. It is difficult to put them into context at this time.”

As frustrating as that answer was, I didn’t press her because right then, the oracle looked like she had the weight of the worlds on her small shoulders.

I pushed away from the balcony’s wall and headed for the main room. “Come on. I need a drink. All this talk about doom and gloom makes me want a stiff one.”

Her heels clicked behind me. “So when you say ‘stiff one’ . . . does that refer to a drink or a di—” I spun around, mouth dropping open.

Sandra came up short. “What?”

“I can’t believe you just said that.”

“Well, technically, I didn’t get to finish. I didn’t peg you for a prude, Charlie Madigan. And I believe, and I’m not mistaken, that the gutter has come out of your mouth more times than anyone can count.”

“Yes, but that’s me,” I said with a laugh as we continued inside. “Hearing the infamous oracle about to say the word dick is . . . nothing short of spectacular in my book.” And like Rex, I was starting to expect the unexpected when it came to Alessandra.

As she went to sit down, I made for the sideboard to fill two glasses of wine. What I wouldn’t give for a cold beer right now . . .

“Still, you haven’t answered the question,” she said over the back of the couch. “So which is it?”

“Well,” I answered, pouring the second glass. “Depends on the guy.”

A wistful sigh blew from her lips. “I have several propositions to consider for tonight, so at least one of us will be getting lucky.”

I lifted an eyebrow and gathered the glasses. “Oh, really?”

“Mmm. A few rather exceptional sirens from the banquet.” She took a glass from me as I passed her to sit down. “The sirens”—her eyes went starry—“as I’m sure you can imagine, are incredible lovers. They turn the whole talking during sex thing into a religious experience. It’s . . .”—she saluted me with her glass—“out of this world.”

I’d just bet it was. I gave her a salute of my own, the Madigan salute, though I delivered it with a smile before downing a large gulp of wine. Sandra’s laughter left me feeling a bit disgruntled that she was going to get lucky and I wasn’t. And it wasn’t really the sex part; it was just being with someone, connecting, being wrapped up in strong arms and feeling safe enough to cast aside the constant guard and just relax.

Oddly enough, I did get a visit from a siren that night.

* * *

I slept hard and was deep into the usual Ahkneri dream when a burning in my lungs woke me.

Hand over my face. Large hand, cutting off my airway.

Immediately, adrenaline and panic poured into me. My pulse lurched and then began a loud, rapid pounding against my ribs and through my eardrums. I struggled, my legs tangling in the sheets.

A large shadow loomed over me, and as my vision adjusted to the dark, my senses also kicked in. Siren. And if he didn’t release me soon I was going to pass out.

He leaned down. “Whore. Think you can hide.” He removed his hand, grabbed me by the throat as I gasped for air, jerked me out of the bed, and then slammed me against the wall. My skull cracked against the stone.

Moonlight and darkness bled together as the room spun in a kaleidoscope of shapes and shades. A moment of stark fear swept through me, bitter and frigid and more painful than what the siren had just done to me. This could not be how it ended! We were so close. The Circe’s ritual was in a few hours . . .

“Come here to save your traitor . . .” His fingers dug into my neck. His nose brushed mine as he leaned in. “You’re too late. He’s dead. And soon you will join him . . . Detective Madigan.”

“Dang,” I wheezed. “You found me out.” Apparently, he didn’t appreciate my sarcasm; he head-butted me in the face. Pain exploded in the front and the back of my head as it hit the wall from the force. He’d gotten me on the bridge of my nose. Hot pain pulsed out across my cheekbones. Fucking hell.

The siren released me, ripping the amulet from my neck as I slid down the wall, gasping for air and blinking back tears.

“K’Analath.”

The instant he spoke, my will took a backseat to his command. A cold sweat broke out on my skin as I fought against it. My body moved, getting to its knees in supplication. No.

“You whored for a traitor. You can whore for me before you die.”

I realized being under the lure of a siren didn’t mean I lost my ability to think or reason because I was keenly aware of what I was doing. I just couldn’t control my actions. From the sound of his voice, this wasn’t about pleasure; this was all about punishing and demeaning me. My hands shook as I lifted them and reached for the button on his pants. Don’t do this, Charlie. Don’t do this. My stomach turned when my fingers touched the flesh of his belly. I undid the first button. Goddamn it, stop! But I