She looked over at him, and for a moment all her anger and hurt were forgotten. All she knew—all that mattered—was that she loved him so much, she wasn’t sure how she’d exist without him.

He wasn’t her whole life, but he’d completed it in such a way—he’d completed her—that without him, it would feel like half of everything was missing.

Harper walked over to him and put her hands on his chest. “Daniel, I don’t want to lose you.”

“You’re not losing me.” He put his arms around her, holding her to him as she stared up at him. “I’m right here, with you, right now.”

“But for how much longer?”

He smiled crookedly at her. “It doesn’t matter. ’Cause right now we’re together.”

Then he leaned down, kissing her more deeply than he’d ever kissed her before. There was a new desperation to it, and insistence and immediacy that made her cling to him.

Harper’s phone vibrated in her pocket, and for a second, she considered ignoring it. But she knew it could be important, so she untangled herself from Daniel and pulled out her phone.

All the language appears gender neutral, Pine had texted her.

Meaning? she replied.

Meaning I think that men can be sirens. They still have to cannibalize other men to survive, though, Pine responded.

“Pine thinks you could be a siren,” she told Daniel reluctantly.

“Good.” He pulled her back into his arms, and she tilted her head to look up at him. “In a few days, I’ll be stronger than ever, and Gemma and I will kill Penn. Then we’ll have all the time in the world to break the curse.”

“And I’m just supposed to be okay with that?” Harper asked as she struggled not to cry again.

“No.” He shook his head. “You don’t have to be okay with it. But whether you are or not, it won’t change what I’m going to do. What I need to do.”

“So what do I do?”

“Stay with me,” Daniel said. “Just be with me, until I have to go.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

Ardor

As Gemma followed her boyfriend into the kitchen of his house, she pushed away her earlier anxiety and unease. She’d come here to be with Alex today because she needed to just be with him, to love and feel love without worrying about all the other things that were tormenting her.

Her fight with Penn early this morning had proven not only that she was not ready to take Penn on but that she probably never would be. Penn and Liv would always be far more powerful than her because they frequently dined on human flesh.

Some of the siren power was derived from the water, but most of it—the strongest, more monstrous parts—came from feeding on the hearts of mortal men. And unless Gemma was willing to do that, she’d never be able to match them. Not unless she started eating more, and Gemma would sooner die than take another human life.

With each passing day, her hopes of breaking the curse and ever being free of Penn were fading, at least not before she’d have to feed again, and she couldn’t do that. Gemma would never kill another human again, even if that meant she wouldn’t survive.

Her moments on this earth were growing shorter. So as she lay in bed trying to fall asleep when she got back from the fight, she’d asked herself—if she were to die today or tomorrow, how would she want to spend her last hours?

And at least that answer was simple. The only place she really wanted to be was with Alex. She loved her mom and dad, and Harper, and even Daniel. But there was nowhere else in the world that she felt more content or safe or happy than in Alex’s arms, and that’s how she’d want to spend the rest of her life.

“I just got done with work, and I’m kinda starving,” Alex said as he opened his fridge. “Do you want anything?”

“Uh, I’m okay,” Gemma lied.

The early-morning battle with Penn and the subsequent healing—like growing back her entire fin—had been very taxing. She’d woken with a slight ache in her bones, but a warm shower had helped that.

Her cravings were growing more intense, though. It had gotten so bad that she wanted to eat anything that was meat. A rare steak sounded amazing, but all she’d been able to settle for was her dad’s lunch meat, and that hadn’t sated her hunger as much as she’d hoped.

But her willpower was growing stronger. Alex was right, and thinking of love did a much better job of keeping her in control than fear or anger ever did. So when her hunger flared up, Gemma just pushed it back down and refused to acknowledge it.

“Or did you want to go out?” Alex turned back to face her, holding a Tupperware container full of spaghetti in his hand. “We could go someplace.”

Gemma shook her head. “No, here’s okay.”

“Cool.” He grinned and popped the food in the microwave, then grabbed a Mountain Dew out of the fridge and set it on the counter. “My parents are gone for the night. They went down to the carnival at Bayside Park.”

“That’s probably for the best.” Gemma hopped on a stool and leaned on the kitchen counter. “Your parents don’t like me much.”

“It’s just that since you and I started seeing each other, I’ve been acting so strange.” The microwave beeped, and Alex got his food out. “And that’s not your fault.”

“It kinda is,” Gemma corrected him. “I think they wished you’d ended up with Harper instead.”