“See?” Penn asked, her eyes blazing. “One of you was trying to steal him from me!”
“Penn, even if one of us did sleep with him, and I’m not saying one of us did, I know that I have not,” Aggie said. “That means nothing. Bastian left you. He didn’t run off with one of your sisters. He left us all behind.”
“No.” Penn shook her head and got back up to her feet. “One of you drove him away. One of you was having an affair with him, and you scared him off. You went behind my back, and you chased away the man I love. One of you has to pay.”
“Penn, calm down,” Aggie said. “You don’t want to do anything rash.”
“Which one of you was it?” Penn shouted, ignoring Aggie. In fact, she wasn’t even looking at Aggie. She glared at Thea, and then at Gia.
Thea met her gaze evenly, her heart pounding so loudly in her ears that she heard nothing else. Penn’s eyes flitted over to Gia, who immediately lowered her eyes. She’d done nothing wrong—she simply cowered anytime Penn came at her.
But Penn took that as a sign of guilt.
“It was you!” Penn roared and ran at Gia. “You did this, didn’t you?”
“No, Penn, I would never—” Gia tried to argue with her, but Penn wrapped her hand around Gia’s throat and slammed her back into the wall.
“Penn!” Aggie got to her feet. “Stop it! Put her down!”
“She destroyed my only chance at happiness,” Penn growled. “And now I’m going to destroy her.”
Gia’s blue eyes were wide, and she pulled at Penn’s hand. By then Penn had already begun the transformation into the bird. Her legs were shifting underneath her gown, and she grew taller, with the feet and legs of an emu sticking out below.
Her arms were elongated, and her fingers had hooked talons at the ends. Her silky black hair thinned out as her head bulged and changed shape to adapt to the mouthful of fangs. The wings burst through the back of the dress, flapping as they unfurled and partially blocking Thea’s view.
Gia never changed, though. Her eyes stayed blue the entire time, so none of her shifted into the bird-monster that could’ve protected her.
Thea had many years to think on this day in the future, and she never came up with a satisfactory reason why Gia didn’t. There were only two reasons she could come up with. Perhaps Gia didn’t believe what was really happening. She didn’t think Penn would actually hurt her, so she didn’t want to defend herself and upset Penn more.
Or maybe Gia wanted to die. She’d never really wanted this life or belonged in it in the first place. So maybe she welcomed Penn’s reaction, and that was why she never fought back or betrayed Thea’s confidence.
With one quick motion, Penn reached in and ripped out Gia’s heart. Aggie screamed for her to stop, but it was already too late. Gia opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She just moved her lips soundlessly, like a fish underwater. When Penn began tearing off her head, Thea closed her eyes.
Thea lowered her head, but she still heard the sound—the tearing of flesh, the cracking of bone, and the wet thud as Gia’s head fell to the floor. Those would be the sounds she’d hear in her nightmares for years to come.
Throughout the whole ordeal, as her sister murdered Gia for a crime that Thea herself had committed, Thea had said absolutely nothing.
THIRTY-FIVE
Determined
The curse of the minotaur and Asterion stuck in Gemma’s head. When he had destroyed the scroll, all the minotaurs had turned to dust. It had been like the curse had never existed.
As soon as they got back from dropping Harper off at college, Gemma knew she had to find the scroll—at any cost. It wasn’t just about her anymore—Alex needed her to do this, too.
She had some time with her dad, who seemed to be taking Harper’s leaving a bit harder than any of them thought he would. They went out for dinner at Pearl’s after they’d gotten back, and Brian had floundered with the conversation. He seemed kinda lost.
After supper, they went home, and Gemma had immediately called Thea. It was in the guise of going for a late-night swim, but she really wanted to find out what the sirens were up to, and see when the best time would be for her to sneak in.
Thea hadn’t been interested, but in between complaining about Lexi and talking about play rehearsal, Thea made a confession—they were going out of town the next day to feed. It had been a while since Thea had eaten, and she was growing restless.
Gemma tried not to think about what that meant, that somebody would have to die to feed the sirens. She knew that they had to eat, and the small comfort she could take from it was that they’d cut down and they were going outside of Capri to find food.