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BEFORE

Ridley

There are only two kinds of Mortals in the backwater town of Gatlin, South Carolina—the stupid and the stuck At least, that’s what they say

As if there are other kinds of Mortals anywhere else

Please

Luckily, there’s only one kind of Siren, no o in this world or the Otherworld

Stuck, no

Stuck-up? Maybe

Stupid?

It’s all a matter of perspective Here’s s, but what I really am is a survivor—and while there are more than a few stupid Sirens, there are zero stupid survivors

Consider my record I outlasted some of the Darkest Casters and creatures alive I withstood whole h School Beyond that, I survived a thousand terrible love songs written by one Wesley Lincoln, a clueless Mortal boy who became an equally clueless quarter Incubus And who, by the way, is not the ifted musician

For a while, I survived wanting to write hi of my own

That was harder

This Siren gig is meant to be a one-way street Ask Odysseus and two thousand years’ worth of dead sailors if you don’t believe me

We didn’t choose for it to be that way It’s the hand ere dealt, and you won’t hearabout it I’m not my cousin Lena

Let’s get souy I will always disappoint you Your parents will hate me You should not root for me I am not your role model

I don’t knohy everyone seeet that I never do

No ht I was meant to be Dark Respect the teams, people At least learn the rules

My own parents disowned me after the Dark Clai rattlesand no one

I always knew my incarceration in the sanitarium that my Uncle Macon called Ravenwood Manor was a teer and better, my two favorite words Actually, that’s a lie

My two favorite words are my name, Ridley Duchannes

Why wouldn’t they be?

Sure, Lena gets the credit for being the most powerful Caster of all time

Whatever It doesn’t ood-to-be-true Mortal boyfriend, Ethan “the Wayward” Wate, who defeats Darkness in the name of true love every day of the week

So what?

I was never going for perfect I think that should be clear by now

I’ve done my part, played my hand, even thrown in my cards when I had to I’ve bet what I didn’t have and bluffed until I had it Link once said: Ridley Duchannes is always playing a gaht

What’s so bad about that? I always knew I’d rather play than watch from the sidelines

Except once

There was one ga And one Dark Caster I regretted losing to

Lennox Gates

Two e everything But I’ ahead of myself

It all started long before that There were blood debts to be paid—though this time it wasn’t up to my cousin and her boyfriend to pay them

Ethan and Lena? Liv and John? Macon and Marian? This wasn’t about them anymore

This was about Link and me

I should’ve knoouldn’t get off easy No Caster goes doithout a fight, even when you think the fight is over No Caster lets you ride off into the sunset on some lame white unicorn or in your boyfriend’s beat-up excuse for a car

What’s a Caster fairy-tale ending?

I don’t know, because Casters don’t get to have fairy tales—especially not Dark Casters Forget the sunset—the whole castle burns to the ground, taking Prince Charo all ninja and drop-kick your butt straight out of the kingdom

That’s what a Dark Caster fairy tale looks like

What can I say? Payback’s a bitch

But here’s the thing:

So am I

CHAPTER 1

Home Sweet Home

It was their last night of su frozen in ti, Ridley Duchannes and Wesley Lincoln were in a fight

When are we ever not? Ridley wondered But this wasn’t just any fight It was the knockdown, drag-out, mother-of-all supernatural takedowns—Siren Predator versus Hybrid Incubus Alien That hat Link had called it, behind her back Which was about the sa it to her face, at least in Gatlin

It had started right after graduation, and threeNot that you’d know fro at them

If Link and Ridley openly ad, it wouldthat they still cared If they openly admitted that they still cared,

it would s iushy, messy, fuzzy complications

Feelings were how they’d gotten into this fight in the first place

Disgusting

Ridley would rather have Link stab her through the heart with a pair of gardening shears than ads She’d rather fall on her face like Abraha his last breath unloved and alone—a far fall for the most powerful Blood Incubus in the Caster world

At least Ridley understood Abraha unloved and alone

Worshipped and obeyed? Great Feared and hated? She’d take it

But loved and together? That was harder

That was Lena’s territory

So Ridley wasn’t about to adht, or any other night You couldn’t hit one relationship do all the others And if they couldn’t discuss whether they were in a fight, she didn’t even want to think about what elsedown

It wasn’t worth the risk

Which was the reason Ridley didn’t h Gatlin’s stickiest h snakeskin platforms

“I should have worn kitten heels,” Rid lamented