“Wake up, Velasquez,” I barked, hoping that by using Marcus’s last name, I’d sound like a captain of a Federal Pentagon Defense squad. As an FPD warrior, Marcus was used to taking orders, but it still surprised me when he jerked to a halt. His dark blue eyes remained locked on the siren, his vapid smile out of place on the hard planes of his face. Gus froze beside him, proving Marcus hadn’t heard me; the siren had stopped him. I waved a hand in front of his face, careful to stay out of his reach. As much as I wanted to shake him, I was leery of even touching him, flashing back to his furious expression in the carriage. As long as he was under the siren’s spell, especially now that his body was in her control, I couldn’t trust him not to use his considerable size against me.

  “Human female, take the furry hydras and go.” The voice burbled from the siren’s mouth a few decibels louder than her song and far more melodious to my ears.

  I shifted, keeping Marcus in my periphery and backing farther out of his reach. Furry hydras? Ah, the cerberi.

  “Release the men first,” I said.

  “They are not yours. A man in true love cannot be spelled. You have no claim here.”

  I sized her up, acutely aware that I’d never be able to best her in a direct elemental confrontation. It was a safe assumption that her command of water element outstripped mine, and even though my elemental strength lay in earth, a natural dam to water, the levels I could wield wouldn’t be much defense if she attacked. However, she hadn’t pulled Marcus and Gus into the water yet. Maybe I had a chance of talking her out of this before it escalated to violence.

  “These are my men. Marcus belongs to me.” I tried to project more confidence than I felt. Marcus and I had survived a few harrowing situations together and shared a few kisses. Love wasn’t a word that had been mentioned yet, but the potential existed.

  I squinted at Gus. Adoration softened the leathery wrinkles of his face, and a bit of drool glistened in the corner of his upturned mouth. He’d lost his cowboy hat somewhere during our wild rush through the forest, and his greasy gray hair matted to his scalp. Standing unnaturally straight, he looked scrawnier than ever. If our positions were reversed, I doubted Gus would have wasted time before driving off and leaving me to die. Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to add, “That one belongs to me, too.”

  “You lie. They are mine!”

  “Mika!” Oliver plummeted out of the sky, the gargoyle’s orange-red carnelian body as bright in the midday sun as a falling comet. He landed at the water’s edge, and the siren shied back, her song faltering.

  Marcus blinked, his foolish smile flattening to a familiar line and the muscles of his wide jaw tightening.

  “That’s it. Fight her magic, Marcus,” I urged.

  Oliver’s enhancement opened a well of elemental magic inside me, and I grabbed for every ounce I could hold. Alone, I hadn’t been a match for the siren, but maybe paired with Oliver I stood a chance.

  “Is that a siren?” Oliver asked. His glowing orange eyes were as wide as saucers as he stared across the water. “A lightning siren?”

  “A what?” I whirled to face the siren.

  A crackle of electricity slithered up her body and balled in her hand.

  I stared at the refined form of fire, blood draining from my head. Facing off against a merwoman able to sing men to their deaths wasn’t enough; now she had to be a powerful fire elemental, too?

  “This would be a really great time to snap out of it, Marcus,” I said, using a sheet of air to smack him in the face since I couldn’t risk stepping close enough to slap him. He blinked and his fingers twitched; then the siren’s discordant song swelled, and his eyes glazed over again. I backed up when Marcus and Gus lurched forward in unison. In a few more steps, they’d be in the water. Everything I’d ever heard about sirens claimed they took great delight in drowning men, and they needed only an inch or two of water to accomplish their goal. I had to act fast, but what was I supposed to do?

  A second ribbon of blue-white power rippled up the siren’s body, joining the crackling magic already in her palm.

  “Mika . . .” Oliver said.

  “I see it.”

  The siren flattened her hand on the surface of the water, loosing the writhing ball of electricity. It speared across the lake straight for me.

  “Get back!” I shouted, stumbling backward. Oliver levitated on a hasty downdraft, clearing the damp soil seconds before the electricity crackled beneath him. With no time to dodge, I shoved earth element into the ground and yanked up a dense knee-high barrier of bedrock.

  The lightning never reached me; it died at the rim of the damp shoreline a half dozen feet from my pathetic wall.

  Oliver’s truncated launch forced him to touch down moments later, but he sprang back into the air, not setting down again until he’d flapped to my side. I unfolded from where I crouched behind my barrier, disbelieving my luck. Her reach didn’t extend beyond the water. Oliver and I were safe—but Marcus wasn’t.

  The siren turned her flat eyes on the men, gills fluttering with her eerie song. I watched helplessly as Marcus approached the water, one disjointed step after the next.

  “What wrong with them?” Oliver asked.

  “They’re under the siren’s spell, and they’re going to die if we don’t break it.”

  “Can you do that?”

  “I might not need to,” I said, an idea forming. “If they can’t hear the song, it can’t control them.”

  Straining for every particle of air element I could hold, I braided dense bands into half spheres and dropped them over the men’s heads, tying the soundproof helmets in place under their chins with knotted air. Short of burying their heads in the sandy bank, it was the best I could do.

  Marcus and Gus halted stiffly a few feet from the water line. Neither man turned, and with their backs to me, I couldn’t see their expressions, but a flutter of hope stirred in my chest when Marcus clenched his fists.

  The siren smiled, fleshy lips stretching toward her flat ears. The notes of her song turned sharp, drilling into my eardrums. I clapped my hands over my ears, adding muffling air magic and burrowing it into my ear canals to dampen the racket. Nothing helped. The cerberi sat back on their haunches, lifted their numerous heads, and howled warbling accompaniment at full volume. Their deep voices should have drowned out the siren’s song, but her song penetrated through their deafening cacophony as easily as through my magic.

  Sharp spears of earth burst from Gus, shredding the soundproof barrier around his head, then Marcus’s. The backlash of my broken magic slapped against my brain, and I reeled in place, vision blackening. Oliver braced me with a wing, supporting me until I regained my balance.

  The siren’s song deepened again, no longer piercing my eardrums. Behind us, the cerberi’s howls subsided into growls. They were all on their feet now, heads swiveling to assess for danger, hackles raised. The three-headed dogs were the least of my concerns, though. I stared at Marcus’s back, fresh dread curdling in my stomach.

  “Why did Gus do that?” Oliver asked.

  “The siren made him.” My fingers shook as I pushed my hair out of my face. If she could control the men’s magic, she could use Marcus to kill us both. Even aided by Oliver, I didn’t have the strength or skills to defend against an FPD fire elemental’s attack—especially not if he was backed by Gus, a strong air elemental in his own right.

  I needed to even the odds. If I couldn’t break both men free from the spell at the same time, maybe I could free just one of them. With either man on my side, we’d stand a much better chance of all of us leaving here alive. I didn’t hesitate in my choice, either. Bitterly acknowledging that my decision had less to do with my affection for Marcus and more to do with my fear of what he could do to me under the siren’s control, I focused on saving him first.

  “You are too weak, human female,” the siren hissed. “Give up and leave already.”

  As I gathered elements for another attempt to free Marcus, Gus rocked around to face me. I changed tactics, reaching earth element into the ground, prepared to mound another dirt wall to hide behind, but the old man continued to turn. He took a few pitched steps toward the cerberi before stumbling to a halt. Using quick snaps of air, he flicked open the buckles holding the cerberi to the towline. Freed, they approached Gus on tentative feet, heads swinging between the siren and their master.

  “Gus! How did you free yourself?” Oliver loped toward the cerberi handler.

  “Oliver, wait! I don’t think he’s—”

  Oliver jerked short when Gus pursed his lips and released a series of whistles. The cerberi milled in confusion, bunching closer to Gus. A furrow appeared between his brows and he whistled again, lifting a hand to point at me.

  Twelve canine heads swiveled in my direction. Twelve thick throats growled, teeth chattering like bone castanets. The hairs on my arms stood on end and a spurt of terror weakened my knees as they surged toward me, malice glistening in their intelligent eyes.

  Oliver leapt into their path, wings flared wide, as if his sinuous body and delicate stone feathers could derail four charging horse-size cerberi.

  “Oliver! Move!” I threw a wall of fire between my gargoyle and the cerberi. The huge three-headed dogs shied back from the heat, pivoting to circle around the edges of the flames. They bayed in frustration when I spread the fire into a long V, pinning them in, but it was a temporary solution, and one that strained the limits of my magic.

  Heedless to my orders, Oliver held his position, clearly determined to protect me.

  I flung myself into motion, racing toward him. It’d be easier to ring us in fire than the cerberi, and once we were safe, I could figure out what to do to help Marcus.

  Oliver pursed his lips and whistled short, quick notes. The milling cerberi stilled, heads cocked as they listened. At another distinctive whistle, all four lay down, heads flopping onto the ground in front of them, eyes locked on Oliver through the flickering flames.

  “You can drop the fire,” Oliver said when I reached his side.

  Warily, I dissipated the burning wall from the outside edges inward, leaving us behind its protection as I monitored the cerberi’s reactions. The cerberus closest to us huffed three harmonious sighs and relaxed.

  “I’d forgotten you could do that,” I said.

  Oliver grinned. “I wasn’t sure I could.”

  I expected the siren to try to retake control of the cerberi through Gus, but his lips remained slack, and he stared vacantly toward the lake. Oddly, his eyebrows were furrowed. Was he upset the cerberi hadn’t mauled me, or was he trying to fight the siren’s spell?

  Knowing Gus, he probably had indigestion.

  The sounds of splashing water momentarily drowned out the siren’s perpetual song, and the reprieve heightened my awareness of a throbbing in my temples. Keeping a suspicious eye on the docile cerberi, I checked the lake. Frothy water churned around the siren’s waist and electricity crackled up her body.

  “Why won’t you leave, puny human?” Her face contorted with rage as she slapped her palms onto the surface of the lake, shooting rapid-fire bursts of blue-white lightning to the shore, where they died at the water’s edge. If they’d continued their trajectory across dry land, Oliver and I would have been incinerated.

  “Is she throwing a fit?” Oliver asked, speaking from the side of his mouth.

  “It looks that way.” It might have been comical, if not for her deadly potential. Marcus stood less than two feet from the waterline, and with the siren’s thrashing, each wave lapped closer to his boots. I needed to get him out of there.

  Before I could take a step, the siren calmed, her song sharpened, and Marcus moved. His upper body twisted toward me first, and then his legs followed. I swallowed hard. No seemed to be behind his eyes; no recognition crossed his face.

  “Marcus wouldn’t . . .” Oliver began, trailing off when Marcus lifted an arm, fingers cupped. A yellow flame danced in his palm, growing to a white-hot ball of fire twice the size of his fist.

  “Marcus wouldn’t, but she would,” I said.

  In a chilling echo of the siren, Marcus pointed his arm at the cerberi, fingers splayed flat against an unseen surface, and the fireball exploded from his fingertips. Lacking the time to raise a wall of earth, I tossed a cloud of topsoil into the air and formed a clumsy ward of water magic around it. The molten ball ate through my hasty barrier, exiting the other side as an intense blast of hot air that rocked me back on my heels. Charred dust sifted like ash to the ground. When I reached for more magic, it fed along blistered mental pathways.

  Ow.

  The cerberi leapt to their feet, growling in agitation. Staring into Marcus’s empty eyes, I felt like joining them.

  “Wake up, Marcus. Come on, fight back.”

  His extended arm swung to point at me, fire kindling in his palm. This theatrical buildup of magic wasn’t something Marcus would have ever done or needed to do; he could have created a fireball twice my height in the amount of time it took for the spinning orange flame to grow as large as my head. But it was exactly what the siren had done with electricity. Maybe she didn’t have as much power or grasp of the elements as I thought.

  This time when Marcus released the fireball, I was ready. Rather than trying to stop the powerful blast of magic, I deflected it with a solid quartz-tuned earth shield. The flames bounced off my elemental barricade and shot skyward, dispersing harmlessly into the atmosphere, but the effort staggered me.

  Marcus—no, the siren—didn’t wait for me to recover. She had raised Marcus’s other arm, kindling another fireball while I’d been distracted with the first. A smaller but no less deadly orange ball speared toward the cerberi and Oliver. I formed a hasty shield in its path, and the flames caromed off it into the ground, scorching the earth inches in front of the closest cerberus. The cerberi started barking in earnest. Just as their deafening howls hadn’t drowned out the siren’s song, neither did their clamorous furor.

  “Oliver, get the cerberi out of here. That way,” I ordered, pointing. Bunched together, we made an easy target for the siren, so I sprinted in the opposite direction.

  Oliver launched into the air with a trill and a complicated whistle. Baying, the cerberi spun in circles beneath him, then tore up the shore after the flying gargoyle.

  I dove behind the carriage, using precious seconds to deactivate the flotation spell. The battered carriage crashed to the ground, and I dropped down with it, deflecting the next fiery attack from relative safety. Peeking over the rim of the carriage, I checked the siren. She was focused on the cerberi, and Marcus blasted another ball of flames in their direction. Oliver banked, blocking the fire with his stone wing, then floundered back into the air.

  I sprang to my feet, waving my arms to get the siren’s attention.

  “Stop it!” I yelled. “They’re leaving. Isn’t that what you wanted? Now give me my men back!”

  The siren hissed, and Marcus’s next fireball barreled toward me, this one aimed for my head. I flattened against the ground, shielding my face from the heat of the fire as it passed over me. It burrowed into the dry shore farther up the sloped bank. Staring at the long scorch mark, I squelched a whimper. The siren was learning Marcus’s strength. I wouldn’t be able to defend against his attacks much longer.

  “Marcus, this isn’t you!” I shouted, wriggling onto the balls of my feet and peering over the edge of the carriage. “You’re a Federal Pentagon Defense warrior. You protect people. You protect me. I wouldn’t have survived Reaper’s Ridge without you.”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw the cerberi and Oliver plunge into the forest and disappear into the dense shadows, but I didn’t look away from Marcus.

  His eyes shifted and my breath caught when he looked right at me. Holding my breath, I straightened, hoping that seeing me standing vulnerable before him would help him fight the siren’s control. His deep blue eyes locked on my face, but his arms remained outstretched, and fresh fire kindled beneath his palms. Remembering the siren’s claim that men who were in love couldn’t be spelled, I used my last weapon.

  “Marcus Velasquez, I love you.” Blood thundered against my eardrums. I didn’t know if it was strictly true, but I wasn’t going to mince words when our lives were on the line. Just as boldly, I declared, “And you love me. I know you can fight through this. You won’t hurt me.”

  Marcus released another fireball, this one moving so slowly I reached out with water and earth and extinguished it in flight. His arms flexed, dipping toward the ground, and a heavy scowl darkened his features—Marcus was fighting the siren’s compulsion.

  His next fireball fell well short of the carriage, but my grin faded when the siren undulated toward the shore. Fists clenched and gills fluttering, her song swelled in volume to be heard over the thrashing of her tail. Sweat beaded on Marcus’s forehead and his fingers twitched; then his eyes glazed over and two fireballs formed instantaneously in his palms. Rapid-fire, he flung them at me.

  Cursing, I dropped behind my shelter and wove a thick elemental shield around the carriage. It withstood the impact of five fireballs before it shattered and the carriage burst into flames.

  “Crap!” I shoved earth element into the soil and pulled a wall of dirt over the flames, extinguishing them and half burying the carriage. Our bags slammed into the damaged door beside me and snapped it in half, spilling the packs onto my lap with a shovelful of dirt. The ground shook as I yanked even more soil against the far side of the carriage to create a makeshift bunker. Marcus’s attack never let up, and each strike against the dirt-enshrouded carriage rattled my eyes in their sockets and made my collection of seed crystals clatter together.