Page 96 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

She loved them.

The nixies bared their pointed teeth at her. Most of them stayed on the rocks, lashing their tails. The boldest of them dove into the water and beached themselves on the shore. Their scales rasped against the rock and scintillated in the sunlight. They propped themselves up on their elbows, their hair pooling in slick knots around them and their gray skin streaked with silt. Sylvia walked into the water until it swallowed her up to her knees.

Then, she began to sing.

She had a horrible voice, truthfully, but she was always one hundred percent committed. Lorelei couldn’t find it in herself to be anything but awed.

The nixies, too, watched her raptly. One by one, they joined in chorus with her. A flock of crows overhead took off squawking. Magic prickled along Lorelei’s skin like electricity. All her wards vibrated at the onslaught of ensorcellment. The iron chain around her neck nearly scalded her. The sound wasdreadful, scraping agonizingly against her skull. And yet, there was something compelling about it. The song swilled through her blood like wine.

Sylvia stood with her face tipped toward the sun. One of the nixies curled its fingers around her calf, almost worshipfully. Lorelei couldn’t be certain whether she wanted to beat it away from Sylvia or join it at her feet.

“It’s beautiful,” said Johann.

Startled, Lorelei turned toward him. He had spoken with true feeling in his voice, but his eyes were glassy. When he staggered forward, Adelheid was startled from her stupor. She blinked hard, then grabbed hold of his arm, half to stop him, half to steady herself. “Johann.”

He wrenched his arm from her grasp. “I have to go.”

“Johann.”She took his elbow.

This time, he leveled her with a glare Lorelei never expected he’d turn on Adelheid. Without warning, he knocked heraside—hardenough tosend her sprawling across the ground. She sat up after a moment, lips parted in mute shock and clutching the side of her face. Lorelei could see a bruise forming beneath her fingertips. Her yellow hair had come loose from its coronet and hung in front of her eyes.

Heike knelt beside her with a vacant, dreamy smile. “What are you doing, Addie? Don’t you hear it? We have to go.”

“No.No. We are staying right here.” Adelheid wound her arms around Heike’s shoulders and shot Lorelei a panicked look. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Their wards,” Lorelei gritted out. “They’ve been tossing them into the river.”

Understanding lit Adelheid’s eyes. With slow-dawning horror, she turned her attention to Johann.

“Watch her.” She fumbled to free one of the chains around her neck, then looped it around Heike’s. “I need to go after him.”

“Are you mad?” Lorelei snapped. “Look what he did to you! Those things will kill you if you get much closer.”

Adelheid swore. “Johann!”

Johann had already dropped to his knees beside the pool. One of the nixies wound its arm around his neck, another sliding a webbed hand up the inside of his thigh. He bowed closer to them, pliant and eagerly wide-eyed. One of them dragged her palm across his face, leaving a glistening streak from his jaw to his lips. It angled his face toward its own and kissed him. When they broke apart, their mouths were painted red with his blood. It flowed steadily from a bite wound in his lower lip.

The sight of it snapped Lorelei fully from her trance. Her stomach bottomed out as she scrambled to fish the iron coin from her pocket. She squeezed it as best she could, as if that alone could dispel the nixie’s enchantment. At the moment, the ragged moan the nixies had drawn from Johann’s throat was proving a far more powerful ward.

Disgusting. She had to get to Sylvia before this turned for the worse or she witnessed something she could never unsee.“Sylvia—”

The second nixie pushed itself out of the water, seizing Johann by his cravat. Before Lorelei could even blink, it pulled. Johann went under, smiling deliriously all the while. The water churned and bubbled frantically.

Adelheid screamed, the sound buried somewhere in the chaos.

Thatsnapped the other two out of it. Heike groaned, clutching her head. Sylvia stumbled backward, tripping over her own feet. She fell into the shallows with a splash.

Blood bloomed from the depths of the pool. There was so much of it, and all Lorelei could see wasred, red, redgushing into the grooves of the cobblestoned street. She heard jeering laughter echoing down the alleyways. The nixies shrieked, circling like a pack of sharks. Lorelei’s head swam with terror. It was likeshehad tumbled into those black waters and there was no air, no light. Floating somewhere above herself, Lorelei registered that Adelheid was dragging herself toward the water.

“Adelheid!” Heike grabbed her around the waist. Her voice was raw. “Stop it! There’s nothing you can do for him now!”

Adelheid’s attention snapped to Sylvia. Tears streaked her face like war paint. “You will pay for this.”

The nixies screamed again.

“We’re leaving,” Heike snapped. “Now.”

Reluctantly, Adelheid allowed herself to be dragged into the woods. She and Heike vanished into the underbrush with a rustle of leaves.