I woke up to the smell of rust and seawater.

Not Kael's quarters. Not even the cramped cabin I'd claimed as my own these past six months.

The brig.

Of course.

I sat up slowly, testing my body for damage. Everything worked. No lingering effects from the artifact's pull, except for the memory of that terrible hunger. That crystallized heart had wanted me the way a starving man wants bread.

The way I'd wanted Kael, before everything went to shit.

The cell was exactly what you'd expect from a pirate ship—iron bars bolted into the hull, a thin mattress on a wooden platform, a bucket in the corner I was trying very hard not to think about. A single lantern hung from a hook outside the bars, casting shadows that made the whole space feel like it was underwater.

Fitting.

I pulled my knees to my chest and waited.

He came within the hour.

I heard his boots on the stairs first. That particular rhythm I'd memorized without meaning to, the way you memorize a song that plays too often. Heavy enough to be deliberate, but not rushed. Like he had all the time in the world.

Like he hadn't just discovered the woman he'd been obsessing over was the monster from every sailor's nightmare.

Kael appeared at the bars, and even through my own misery, I couldn't help the way my body responded to him. That traitorous leap of my pulse. The sudden awareness of every inch of space between us.

He looked like hell.

Still devastatingly handsome—the man could probably crawl out of his own grave and make it look good—but there were lines around his eyes that hadn't been there before. His hair had come loose from its cord, falling around his face in dark waves. His shirt was half-unbuttoned, like he'd dressed in a hurry or stopped caring halfway through.

The scar along his jaw stood out stark against his skin.

"You're awake," he said.

"Observant."

His mouth twitched. Not quite a smile. Not quite anything. "How do you feel?"

"Like I've been locked in a cage by a man I thought might actually see me as something other than a threat or a conquest."

That landed. I watched it hit him, watched his jaw tighten.

"You lied to me for six months."

"Yes."

"You came aboard my ship under false pretenses."

"Yes."

"You've been spying on me. Reporting back to..." He gestured vaguely, like he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"To Thessa Depthcaller. The matriarch of my pod. Yes."

Kael stared at me. In the lamplight, his eyes were more silver than gray. Storm-colored. Dangerous.

"You don't even sound sorry."

"Would you believe me if I did?"

He laughed. It was a bitter sound, sharp enough to cut. "No. Probably not."

I stood, moving to the bars. Not close enough to touch, but close enough that I could smell him. Leather and gunpowder and that warm amber scent that had been driving me slowly insane since the first time he'd stood too close.

My own personal torture.

"I was sent here to retrieve the artifact," I said. "Thessa told me it was a weapon. Something humans had stolen that could be used against my kind. She said if we didn't get it back, you'd figure out how to use it. How to kill us."

"And you believed her."

"I had no reason not to." I wrapped my hands around the bars, felt the cold iron bite into my palms. "Sirens don't lie to each other. We don't need to. We're not human."

The way I said it made him flinch.

Good.

"But she did lie," I continued. "The artifact isn't a weapon against sirens. It's a weapon against humanity. Against the idea that we could ever be anything other than what she wants us to be."

Kael moved closer. Not touching the bars, but near enough that I could feel the heat radiating off him. Near enough that my body started doing stupid things. Leaning in. Wanting.

"Explain."

So I did.

I told him what the artifact really was. A crystallized heart, torn from a siren who'd loved a human enough to want to become one. A punishment made permanent, turned into a tool. A way to transform siren into human, irreversibly.

I told him about the others. The ones who'd been deemed too sympathetic, too weak, too willing to see humans as something other than prey. How they'd been given a choice: exile or transformation.

How most had chosen the sea.

"Thessa doesn't want to destroy it," I said. "She wants to keep it. To make sure no siren ever uses it. To her, becoming human is the ultimate betrayal. Worse than death."

"And you?" His voice was rough. "What do you think?"

I met his eyes. "I think I've spent my whole life being told I'm not siren enough because I don't enjoy the hunt. Because I ask questions. Because I look at humans and see people instead of food." I tightened my grip on the bars. "And I think I've spent the last six months pretending to be human and realizing I'm not that either."

"Maris—"

"I'm not finished." The words came faster now, desperate. "I think Thessa sent me because she knew I'd fail. Because she wanted proof that her way is the only way. That sirens who sympathize with humans are weak. Compromised." I laughed, and it sounded broken even to my own ears. "And I think she was right. Because I did fail. I failed the moment I started caring whether you lived or died."

Silence.

Kael stared at me like he was trying to see through skin and bone to whatever was underneath. Like if he looked hard enough, he'd find the truth.

"Your brother," I said quietly. "Finn. He had siren blood?"

A muscle jumped in his jaw. "Our mother. She was..." He stopped. Started again. "We thought she was human. She looked human. But after she died, we found things. Letters. A journal. She'd been transformed. Used the artifact to become human so she could stay with our father."

"The artifact recognized him," I said. "Recognized the siren blood. And it tried to complete what it started with your mother. Tried to transform him."

"It killed him."

"Yes." I pressed my forehead against the bars. "Because he was only half-siren. Not enough for the transformation to work. It would have torn him apart trying."

Kael's hand came up, gripped one of the bars just above mine. His knuckles were white.

"And you?" he asked. "What would it do to you?"

"Transform me. Make me human. Permanently."

"You'd die?"

"No." I looked up at him. "I'd live. As one of you."

His breath caught. I heard it, that sharp inhale.

"Is that what you want?"

The question hung between us like a blade.

"I don't know," I whispered. "I don't know what I want anymore. Except..."

"Except?"

"Except to stop being used. By Thessa. By my own nature. By this fucking artifact that's been waiting centuries for someone like me to get close enough."

Kael's other hand came up, gripped the bar on the other side of my head. Caging me in. His face was inches from mine, only the iron between us.

"You could have let it take you," he said. "When we were in that room. You could have let it transform you."

"And died trying, like Finn did. I'm not pure siren, Kael. My father was human."

I'd never said that out loud before. Never admitted it to anyone.

His eyes widened. "You're—"

"Half-human. Yes. Why do you think Thessa hates me so much?" I smiled, and it felt like breaking. "Why do you think she chose me for this mission? If I succeeded, fine. If I failed, even better. Proof that human blood makes us weak."

"Christ, Maris."

"So no. I couldn't let it take me. Because it would have killed me the same way it killed your brother, and I'm not ready to die. Not for Thessa's ideology. Not for anyone's."

His thumb brushed against my hand where it gripped the bar. Just that small touch, and I felt it everywhere.

"What do you want to do?" he asked.

"Destroy it. Finish what your mother started. Free Finn's spirit—because yes, part of him is still trapped in that thing. I can feel it. And make sure Thessa never gets her hands on it."

"That would make you a traitor."

"I've been a traitor since I started caring about you."

The words fell out before I could stop them.

Kael went very still.

"Say that again."

"No."

"Maris—"

"No. You don't get to make me say it again. You locked me in a cage, Kael. You don't get my confessions too."

He made a sound low in his throat. Frustration or desire or both. His hands tightened on the bars.

"I should leave you here," he said. "I should turn this ship around and dump you in the middle of the ocean."

"You won't."

"You sound very sure of that."

"I am."

"Why?"

I looked up at him through the bars. At those storm-gray eyes that had been haunting my dreams for months. At the scar that made him look dangerous and the mouth that made me think about things I had no business thinking about.

"Because you're just as compromised as I am," I said. "Because you've been losing your mind over me since I came aboard, and you still don't know why. Because when that artifact called to me, you didn't hesitate. You just grabbed me and ran."

"That doesn't mean—"

"It means everything." I shifted closer, until the bars pressed against my chest. Until I could feel his breath on my face. "You could have let it take me. Could have solved all your problems at once. But you didn't."

"You were in pain."

"So was Finn. And you couldn't save him."

It was cruel. I knew it was cruel even as I said it. But I needed him to understand.

Kael's eyes flashed. His hand came up, reached through the bars, and caught my chin. Tilted my face up.

"Don't," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "Don't use my brother against me."

"Then don't pretend you saved me out of mercy. You saved me because you can't help yourself. Because whatever this is between us, it's already too late."

His thumb brushed my lower lip.

I stopped breathing.

"You're right," he said. "It is too late. Has been since the first time you looked at me and I saw something in your eyes that didn't match your story. Since the first time I stood too close and you didn't back away." His grip tightened. "I've been going mad trying to figure out what you are. What you want. Why I can't stop thinking about you."

"And now you know."

"Now I know you're the creature from every nightmare I've ever had. The thing that's supposed to lure men to their deaths." His other hand came through the bars, cupped the side of my face. "And I still want you. How fucked up is that?"

"Pretty fucked up."

"I should hate you."

"Yes."

"I should throw you overboard and forget you ever existed."

"Probably."

"But I can't." His forehead pressed against the bars, close enough that if they weren't there, we'd be breathing the same air. "And I don't know if that's because of what you are or in spite of it."

"Does it matter?"

"It should."

I reached up, wrapped my hands around his wrists. Felt his pulse racing under my fingers.

"I can't sing you into wanting me, Kael. It doesn't work that way. The song enhances desire that's already there. Amplifies it. But it can't create something from nothing."

"So this is real."

"As real as anything I've ever felt."

He pulled back just far enough to look at me. Really look at me. And I let him. Let him see the truth I'd been hiding for six months.

"Help me destroy it," I said. "The artifact. Help me end this. And then..." I swallowed. "And then you can decide what to do with me."

"Maris—"

"I know where it needs to go. There's a place. A trench so deep even sirens don't go there. The pressure alone will crush it. Destroy it completely. But I'll need to guide you. The waters are protected. Your crew won't be able to navigate them without me."

Kael studied my face. "And Thessa?"

"Will hunt us both. Me for betraying her. You for destroying what she wants." I smiled without humor. "But at least we'll have company in our misery."

"You're asking me to trust you."

"Yes."

"After six months of lies."

"Yes."

"While you're locked in my brig."

"I'm not exactly in a position to negotiate."

He laughed. Actually laughed. It was a rough sound, but genuine.

Then he let go of my face and stepped back.

My heart sank.

I'd miscalculated. Pushed too hard. He was going to leave me here, and I'd—

The sound of a key in the lock made me jump.

Kael pulled the cell door open.

"Come here," he said.

I didn't move. Couldn't. "What—"

"Come. Here."

I stepped out of the cell on shaking legs.

He grabbed me the moment I was clear of the bars. Pulled me against him hard enough to knock the breath out of me. One hand in my hair, the other at my waist, holding me like he was afraid I'd disappear.

"If you're lying," he said against my temple, "if this is some kind of trick—"

"It's not."

"If you betray me—"

"I won't."

"Maris—"

I pulled back just enough to look at him. "I swear on everything I am. Everything I've ever been. I will help you destroy that artifact. And then..." I hesitated. "And then we'll figure out the rest."

He stared at me. Those storm-gray eyes searching mine for any hint of deception.

Then he kissed me.

Not gentle. Not careful. Like a man who'd been holding himself back for too long and finally snapped.

His mouth was hot and demanding, and I opened for him without thinking. Let him in. Let him take. His hand tightened in my hair, angling my head exactly where he wanted it, and I made a sound I'd never made before.

Desperate.

Hungry.

Human.

He tasted like whiskey and want and six months of frustrated desire finally given permission. His body was solid against mine, all heat and hard muscle and the kind of strength that could break me if he wanted.

But he didn't want to break me.

He wanted to consume me.

I grabbed his shirt, pulled him closer, kissed him back with everything I had. All the longing I'd been suppressing. All the nights I'd lain awake thinking about this. About him.

About us.

When we finally broke apart, we were both breathing hard.

"That," Kael said, his voice rough, "was a terrible idea."

"Probably."

"We should stop."

"Definitely."

Neither of us moved.

His thumb traced my lower lip, and I shivered. The scent of him was overwhelming this close. Leather and gunpowder and amber and something darker. Something that was just him.

"Your quarters or mine?" he asked.

My brain short-circuited. "What?"

"I'm not leaving you in the brig. And I'm not letting you out of my sight." His hand slid from my hair to cup my face. "So. Your quarters or mine?"

"Yours." The word came out barely above a whisper. "Yours are closer."

His smile was slow and dangerous and absolutely devastating.

"Good answer."

He kissed me again, slower this time but no less intense. Then he took my hand and led me toward the stairs.

We made it three steps before Bones appeared at the top.

The first mate took one look at us—Kael's disheveled hair, my swollen lips, our joined hands—and his face went carefully blank.

"Captain," he said. "We need to talk."

"Later."

"Now."

Kael's hand tightened on mine. "Bones—"

"I saw what she did during the uprising." Bones' eyes locked on me, and there was no warmth in them. No trust. "I saw her move. Saw what happened to the men who got too close." He looked back at Kael. "She's not human. And you know it."

The silence that followed was deafening.

Kael didn't let go of my hand.

"I know," he said quietly.

Bones' face went white. "You know. You know, and you're—" He gestured at us, at our joined hands. "Christ, Kael. What are you doing?"

"What I should have done months ago."

"Which is?"

Kael's smile was sharp enough to cut. "Trusting my instincts instead of my fear."

He pulled me past his first mate, toward the stairs, toward his quarters, toward whatever came next.

Behind us, I heard Bones say, "This is going to end badly."

Kael didn't look back.

"Probably," he agreed.

Then he kissed me again, right there in the corridor where anyone could see, and I stopped caring about what came next.

I stopped caring about anything except the feel of his hands on my waist and his mouth on mine and the way he said my name like it was the only word that mattered.

We stumbled into his quarters still kissing, and he kicked the door shut behind us.