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He searched my face for a moment, and I couldn’t decide if he was thinking about opening up to me or throwing me down the stairs. He blinked and looked away before I could read his eyes.
“Don’t look into my soul, siren,” he said. “My suffering isn’t for you to know. My suffering is so I could become strong enough to do what I do now.”
Jacques tugged on my hand to lead me farther down the stairs. His hand was now softer than it was before.
The dungeon was still as cool and calm as the rest of the den, but there seemed to be a darkness here that I couldn’t explain. It wasn’t because we were deeper into the caves, although that may have been part of it. It had nothing to do with lights.
Instead, it felt like someone was putting pressure on my soul.
We reached the bottom, the cells stretching out in front of us. There were more cells than I thought there would be in a spirit realm, and I wondered why there were so many. How many humans did they judge here?
One of the other Judges approached us, nodding at Jacques. He opened his mouth to say something, but his eyes dropped to our hands clasped together and he stopped. Jacques cleared his throat and let go of my hand.
“Have you seen the pirate captain?” Jacques asked.
The Judge shook his head. “Not since earlier today. You came just in time though. George is having a mental breakdown.”
“What?” Jacques asked. “Why?”
“The first mate’s demon started tearing into him,” the Judge explained. “Fed on every painful childhood memory George had until he snapped.”
Jacques sighed. “Yes, they love to do that. All right, let me check on him.”
Jacques looked at me and gave a long, irritated breath.
“It’s too dangerous for you to come with me,” he said. He looked up the stairs. “It’s too dangerous for me to let you go back up.”
He pointed at the last step.
“Stay here,” he said. “Don’t move from this spot. Not up, not down, not sideways, nothing.”
“I don’t think it’s possible for me to move sideways, really—”
“You’d find a way if it irritated me enough. Now, stay here and don’t move until I come back.”
I huffed, folding my arms and sitting down on the last step. Jacques glared at me one more time in warning, then followed his men down the prison hallway. When they were out of sight, I sighed and put my head in my hands.
Please, Luc… Please let go of your anger… You’re the only true friend I have…
I prayed the same words over and over until a voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Sssiren…”
I shot my head up at the twisted whisper echoing down the hall. I swallowed.
“Jacques?” I called.
“Helpless little sssiren…”the whisper said.
The voice was nowhere and everywhere at once. I stood, not understanding where it was coming from. The top of the stairs? The cells?
“Losssing everyone you care about…nothing you can do…”
It felt like the voice was closer this time, about to swallow me whole.
Then there was a hiss, a deep, intimate hiss right in my ear like a summer mosquito. I swatted it away from my ear, but it only got stronger.
“Jacques!” I yelled again, running down the hall and away from the hiss to find him. “Jacques, where are you?”
