When I woke, every muscle in my body ached, and my mouth was so dry, it felt like I’d eaten an entire beach worth of sand. I squeezed my eyes closed, wanting the pounding in my head to stop.

“Well, look who’s finally decided to wake up and join us, boys,” a woman’s voice said. “You may leave us.”

Footsteps sounded as I forced my eyes open. No wonder my body ached. I was chained to a wall in some type of medieval-looking dungeon, a set of pure silver bars separating me from the woman standing on the other side.

I sat up and scooted back against the stone wall of my new prison. My neck and back were killing me, and I still felt a little groggy from whatever that man had injected me with earlier.

I tried to connect to my magic, just to make sure it was working, but I felt empty. It was one of the most terrifying things I’d ever felt in my life. I had no access to my magic, and panic rose through me. What if she’d stolen it from me forever?

Nik had said that he’d felt his magical powers drained from him the second Selena had shackled him with her silver bracelet. What if these chains had done the same to me?

I tried to swallow the lump of fear in my throat, but my mouth was too dry to even swallow.

“Any chance I could get some water?” I asked.

“You’re lucky to even be alive right now,” she said. “When one of my many spies told me Nikolas was seen with a beautiful woman who was new in town, I could hardly believe them. Surely, my Nikolas would not betray me like that, after all we’ve been through together. And yet, here you are. Truthfully, I don’t see anything special about you.”

“He’s only your Nikolas because you tricked him,” I said. “What kind of loyalty could that really buy you?”

Her pale blue eyes turned to flames, suddenly as red as rubies. “How dare you speak to me that way,” she said. “Do you know who I am?”

“Not really,” I said. “But I know your kind. You think you’re the special one, but the truth is, evil creatures like you are a dime a dozen. You just come in a prettier package than the ones I normally deal with.”

She stared at me for a moment, as if she couldn’t quite decide whether to laugh or slice my throat.

“Is that so?” she asked. “And here, I thought you were just a pitiful little witch who’d just happened upon this town by accident. What kind of past are you hiding, I wonder? Everyone who ends up in Willow Harbor has some kind of secret, you know. They all like to pretend they’re one big happy family down there, but everyone is hiding something. I’m guessing from the look in your eyes when you first saw me, you had no idea about Nik’s little secret, did you?”

I looked away, not wanting to talk about Nik with her. Yes, I was furious with him, but deep down, I could no longer deny my feelings for him. This siren, however, was no better than Dominic with the way she enslaved people and forced them to do whatever she wanted.

“So, what are you planning to do with me now that you’ve got me here?” I asked.

My question made her smile, but her expression gave me chills. It was never good when someone who took joy in evil deeds had a smile on their face.

“First, we wait for your precious Nikolas to realize you’re missing,” she said. “I made sure my men left a trail of breadcrumbs for him to follow. He should be here soon, I imagine.”

I let out a trembling breath. This whole time, I’d been worried about Dominic and how my actions might affect this town or hurt Nik, but the real threat had been hiding inside the lies he was too afraid to share.

Now, we might both die.

If he wasn’t about to get killed by a siren, I might kill him myself. Damn. Why hadn’t he just told me the truth when I first told him about Dominic? Maybe we could have figured this out together, but now it was too late. Without my magic, I was helpless down in this dungeon.

Of course, if I hadn’t run away from him like an angry child, maybe Selena wouldn’t have been able to get to me so easily. There had been more than a hundred people in the town square tonight. There was no way she would have tried to kidnap me there in front of everyone. From what Nik had told me, the townspeople never would have allowed it.

It had been stupid to go walking in the dark all alone, but it was too late to worry about that now. I needed to be thinking about how I was going to get out of this mess alive.

I had escaped from a powerful demon. Surely I could come up with some way to escape a siren, too. Different supernatural creature, but the same type of mentality. Greed. Ownership. I’d been studying this type of person all my life, trying to learn their weaknesses.

Come on, Eva, think.

I just needed to keep her talking. If I could escape a demon as powerful as Dominic, surely I could come up with something to help me defeat Selena. The odds might be stacked against me, but if I had learned anything during my life in Las Vegas, it was that sometimes all you needed was the right card to win the whole game.