The Echo

Two weeks later.

The Hudson River was cold and smelled of oil and dead magic. I sat under the rotting pier of an abandoned dock in the Lower District.

I was in human form again, wrapped in a stolen blanket. I was shivering.

I had nowhere to go. My face—my real face—was on every screen in the city. *The Siren Terrorist.*

I stared at the black water, wondering if I should just walk in and let the current take me home to the ocean.

Then, I felt it.

The tug.

It was weak, but it was there. A golden thread pulling at my heart.

I stiffened. I looked up toward the embankment.

A figure stood there, silhouetted against the streetlights.

Julian.

He wasn't wearing his armor. He was wearing jeans and a hoodie. He looked tired. He looked thinner.

He walked down the rocky slope, stopping ten feet from me.

He didn't draw a weapon.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out something soft.

The silk scarf I had left at the penthouse.

He held it out.

"You forgot this," he said. His voice was quiet.

I stared at him. I didn't move. I waited for the squad to jump out. I waited for the trap.

"I saw the report," Julian said, taking a step closer. "The fledgling Siren. The one who killed my men. She was caught yesterday in Jersey. She confessed."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"You didn't kill them," Julian said. "You just... kept silent."

* I lied,* I signed.

"You survived," he corrected.

He looked at the dark water, then back at me. "The Council wants you dead. Ares wants you dead."

* And you?* I signed.

Julian looked at the scarf in his hand. Then he looked at me, his amber eyes burning with a complicated, painful heat.

"I don't know yet," he admitted. "You are a monster, Cassia. I saw it."

I flinched.

"But," he stepped closer, until he was standing right in front of me. He didn't touch me, but the bond flared, warm and insistent. "You are the monster who saved my life."

He dropped the scarf on my lap.

"Run," he whispered. "Run far, Cassia. Because if the Council finds you, they will kill you."

* And if you find me?* I asked with my eyes.

Julian hesitated. He reached out, his hand hovering over my cheek, trembling. He wanted to touch me. He wanted to pull me close and let the bond consume us.

But he pulled his hand back.

"If I find you," he said, his voice breaking, "I hope I'll be brave enough to stop running myself."

He turned and walked away, back up the slope, back to the city of lights and lies.

I watched him go. I clutched the scarf to my chest. It still smelled like him. Sandalwood and gun oil.

I didn't run.

I sat there in the dark, listening to the river, and I waited. Because the hunt had changed. He wasn't chasing a monster anymore. He was chasing his own heart.

And sooner or later, he would catch it.