Page 62 of Of Kings and Thieves

At first, he sneered at me, but then he clamped his jaw. If he really was a shape-shifter, I wondered if it would even work. But right now, he appeared as a man, and I figured it was worth a try. A muscle was twitching in Melion’s forehead, a sign that he was fighting my magic. And he was strong.

Silvius began to sing with me. He really had a nice voice, and I smiled as I added more power to my song.

“What is this?” Melion said with a scowl. “An impromptu concert? Do you belong with the mummers?”

But I continued to sing. And I saw the moment it began to take effect.

Melion knew it too. He swayed on his feet, and his scowl turned to murderous anger, but he couldn’t act on it. Instead, he sank to his knees. It was only Scarlet’s quick thinking that stopped him from falling into the fire. She grabbed his shirt and pulled to the side. He landed with a thud in the snow, out cold.

Feeling victorious, I stopped singing. Silvius’s tune had faltered, his mouth opened in awe. “What the fuck?” he asked. Then he put his lute down and looked at Melion, touching his face and then his neck to find a pulse. “He’s alive, but asleep.”

I glared at the three who were awake, silently daring them to mock me. But all of them, Scarlet included, were looking at me as if impressed.

“You are part siren?” the elf asked.

I nodded. Then I swallowed and looked at Melion. It had taken a lot of power to take him down, but I felt proud and suddenly giddy at my accomplishment.

Suddenly, Scarlet, Silvius, and Kolvar were asking me questions. I tried to fill them in as best I could with the time we had.

Kolvar was inspecting Melion, who was still passed out cold in the snow. “How long will he be out?”

I shrugged. “Not long, or as long as I keep singing.”

Scarlet laughed. “He’s going to be so pissed when he wakes up!”

I didn’t think it was quite as funny as she did, not having given it much thought when I enacted my little revenge.

Unfortunately, Melion began to stir quite soon, just as Kolvar was finishing up his examination. The elf’s fingers twitched as if he was itching to make notes about it, but instead he pressed his hand to Melion’s chest, and as the shape-shifter’s eyes opened, he whispered something to him in another language.

Melion looked confused for a minute, and dazed, but then his sharp eyes snapped to me, burning yellow with rage, and I took an involuntary step backwards.

He sat up quickly, pushing Kolvar away. “You!”

In a flash, before I could really see what was happening, there was a burst of light and instead of a tall, dark and angry man, there was a large, black, angry wolf.

He was as tall as Scarlet’s shoulder, and he growled and snapped at me, his teeth glimmering in the firelight. The white scar ran across his face, his fur glistening black, as if an animal in its prime. And those yellow eyes burned brighter, turning red.

I stared back at the wolf, hoping it was because I was brave and not because I was frozen in fear. It was probably a bit of both, but I didn’t want Melion to know that. “You had it coming,” I said, hoping he could understand me in his wolf form.

“Melion,” Kolvar said calmly, too calmly, as if he was worried about angering the beast further. “She has done nothing except defend herself. Be calm.”

Melion growled at me, lowering his head as if to spring. My feet wanted to move back, wanted to run for my horse, but I knew I’d never get anywhere before those teeth were at my throat. So I squared my shoulders and glared back. Beside me, I thought Silvius took a step back.

Finally, Melion stepped forward.

“Run, Samara!” Scarlet finally said, unsheathing her sword.

“No.” My feet didn’t want to move, and again, I knew I would not outrun him. “No,” I repeated. “I won’t be cowed. I’ve lived my whole life under the subjection of The Harrow’s soldiers and the Deviants, and now this one wants to intimidate me. No longer! So go ahead and kill me because I am done running.”

The declaration flowed from somewhere deep inside me, and I was surprised to find that I meant it.

Melion was still showing his teeth, but he didn’t attack. After another moment, he sniffed the air and looked at me, his head tilting a bit to the side as if he were trying to understand something.

And then, with another flash, the man was standing before me, much closer than he’d been before, fully clothed again and towering over me.

“You have courage, siren,” he hissed. “But know this: if you ever enchant me again, I will rip out your throat.”

“And then you would have to answer to Prince Col,” Kolvar said. “Sit down, my friend.”