The Silver Siren (Iron Butterfly, #3)(2)

No one spoke, and dinner had been eaten in record time. I noticed that Mona cast me knowing glances and smirked at me whenever she thought I wasn’t looking.

Thalia? Faraway, my horse and constant companion, sensed my mood and spoke straight into my thoughts. I was beginning to understand the bond between my Guardian horse and myself. It was still confusing, but he was quickly becoming a permanent fixture within my mind. I didn’t know how I could ever live without him.

Yes? I thought to him.

There’s a river nearby. I think you should go and relax a bit.

That sounds wonderful. I’m going to tell Hemi.

And I did. Hemi looked at me in surprise, but I politely explained that I needed some time alone. And even though he was uncomfortable with the idea, Fanny persuaded him to let me go.

“That horse of hers is protection enough. She’ll be fine, ya big oaf,” she said. Her copper-colored hair was pulled back off her face with a blue scarf. She slapped him on the arm, and Hemi grunted dramatically as if he were in a lot of pain.

Grabbing a bar of soap, I took off with Faraway. I placed my hand on Faraway’s neck and walked with him while he led me to the river. By now the sun was setting and the sky was turning dark, twilight. Looking at the calm, slow-moving river made me shake unconsciously. Joss had rescued me the year before from a river much like this one.

I took off my boots and rolled up my pants before creeping to the water’s edge and stepping in, letting the coldness of the water shock my system and clear my head. Using the soap, I scrubbed as much dirt as I could from my hands, face, neck, and arms. It was the most I could do without taking a full bath, and truthfully, I didn’t feel at all comfortable taking one in the open.

Once done, I was in no hurry to head back to camp, so I waded out to an outcropping of rocks and climbed upon them as if I were playing the old child’s game King of the Mountain. I stood on them with my hands on my hips and watched as the moonlight reflected on the waters.

It wasn’t until a hand grabbed my ankle and pulled that I realized someone was in the lake with me.





Chapter 2



I was yanked backwards into the water, and I came up gasping for breath and sputtering like a doused cat.

My black hair covered my face, blocking my vision while loud guffaws alerted me to the direction of my attacker.

I recognized the laugh as belonging to Joss.

Pulling my hair to the side, I saw his grin. He tried to hide it when I glared at him. Hastily, I glanced to the embankment to see Joss’s shirt and boots lying on a log. No other clothes were removed and I breathed easier. Not by much, though, because my eyes kept looking down at his masculine chest.

When Joss still was unable to silence his mirth, I got revenge. Pulling the water to me I made two huge waves rise up on both sides of him and immersed him, I also made sure that the waves soaked his shirt and boots that he’d left on dry land.

Now it was my turn to laugh mercilessly. I was rewarded by a physical dunking that turned into more splashing. I tried to run out of the water for safety, but Joss was faster, scooping me up around the waist. He threw me, screaming, back into the cold, dark water.

Only I didn’t come up. I held my breath and swam as low to the bottom as possible. I held still, lying in wait. Paddling backward with my hands, I closed my eyes and searched with my other senses through the water. Sure enough, a frantic Joss shouted my name and dove back in after me.

When he came up for air, I sprang up out of the water like a swan surfacing. I grabbed onto his shoulders and yanked him into the dark abyss. When he finally resurfaced, he grabbed my wrists and pulled me close to his chest in an embrace.

I let him hug me and I took advantage of the warmth his body was giving off. My wet clothes were making me very cold and I felt my body shiver. Whether it was from cold or from Joss I wasn’t sure.

“Don’t do that,” he whispered into my hair. Joss’s voice was breathy with exertion. “You scared me.” He continued to hug me.

I was content to not move or say anything, but I could immediately tell when the mood changed.

“I’m sorry, Thalia,” Joss groaned and spoke softly, fervently. “I don’t know how to explain what happened that night between me and Mona, other than that wasn’t me. It was just as my mother said—I could watch myself doing things, but I couldn’t control it. A bad dream that I couldn’t wake up from. I do know, though, that you were meant to see us.” Joss pulled away from me and grasped my shoulders. Leaning down, he searched my eyes.

“I wasn’t in control. You have to believe me. I left you to go change, and Mona was in the hall waiting for me. I felt a pinch and then I felt dizzy. Her voice was mesmerizing. I was compelled to follow her. I heard her mumble something about you under her breath and then the next moment, she was kissing me. And I was kissing her back.”

“Stop…please,” I shook my head, not wanting to hear more. He had explained enough. But Joss felt he hadn’t.

“I heard a noise and couldn’t look up until she let me, and I saw your face. I wanted to die. I wanted to scream, to run to you and tell you it’s all a lie, but I was frozen.” Joss ran his hand through his hair in disgust. “I wished that you could hear my thoughts. In my mind I was screaming at you for help, but then you turned away and left.”

I closed my eyes and looked down ashamed. I should have known that wasn’t like Joss. I should have seen the signs that something was wrong. But I was too quick to believe that he had chosen someone else.