Free Children of Poseidon: Rann by Annalisa Carr

persuade Lila to come here? Poor woman.
    After the four women left for Dar es Salaam, Rann’s worry had escalated. Tamsin’s talk of death and danger, in the same sentence as she mentioned Jewel, nagged at him. Worry hadn’t troubled him very often in his long life, but now it nibbled relentlessly at the back of his mind. He didn’t like to think of Jewel confronting her horrible mother alone, but that’s what she had seemed to want, and he understood that she needed to overcome the hang-ups of her past. That was fine with him, but he didn’t like the fact that she might not return afterwards. She belonged on his island. In the sun. Sunlight enhanced her beauty, made her happy. Rann did not want Jewel to be in London, which he remembered was almost as gray and depressing as Lykos’s island.
    The problem of the seawitch festered away in the corners of his mind unoccupied by Jewel. Tamsin had said that she must leave the island, but she hadn’t said much else.
    Who could have infected her with the dark spells, the death magic? Who turned her into a mindless doll? Did I really see a spark of life in her eyes or was it just wishful thinking because I didn’t want to end what life remained to her?
    His head pounded just thinking about it, but one thing worried him more than the others—anyone who had done such a thing to a seawitch needed to be found and stopped. Anyone who had done that might be a danger to his people.
    He assumed that was why his mother hadn’t killed the infected witch herself. Rann couldn’t dismiss his concerns, and in the end, he decided he needed to go to London himself to try to get some answers there. He could persuade Jewel to return with him at the same time. She’d been away a day, and he missed her. He’d taken her for granted while she lived with him, and it came as a shock for him to realise how big a gap her departure had left. And for such a reason.
    He jerked himself back to his present surroundings as a small chestnut-haired woman walked across the shingle, towards him. Lila, Lykos’s lover and Maya’s sister. She looked nothing like Maya; she was small where her sister was tall, with hair that gleamed in a muted version of Maya’s flaming locks. The only similarity lay in the depths of their warm, slightly slanting, amber eyes.
    “Rann.” Lila hurried towards him, and he swept her into a hug. She laughed, hugged him back, and kissed his cheek. “Lykos is swimming down with the selkies. He’ll be back shortly. Come on up to the tower.”
    She walked away, impervious to the persistent rain. Rann followed, swallowing his urge to comment on the weather.
    Lykos arrived as Lila made the coffee, and he strode over to hug his half-brother.
    “Rann. Good of you to visit.” He radiated vitality, and his presence brightened up the gray afternoon. Sweeping Lila into his arms, he kissed her mouth briefly before releasing her. He looked happier than Rann had ever seen him. “Any particular reason?”
    “I’m on my way to London,” Rann told them. “I thought I’d stop off here on the way. I wondered if you might be able to throw some light on a problem I have.”
    “You have a problem?” Lykos raised his eyebrows. “How did you let that happen?”
    Rann smiled. Lykos’s sarcasm had no effect on him; he knew his brother thought him too easy going to worry about anything and, in general, it was true.
    “Do you need to talk to Lykos privately?” Lila poured coffee into three earthenware mugs and stacked some shortbread biscuits onto a matching plate.
    Rann shook his head.
    She handed two of the cups to Lykos then led the way back into the huge bright sitting room. Lykos and Rann followed.
    “Very domestic.” Rann glanced at his brother. Before he’d met Lila, Lykos would never have dreamed of carrying his own coffee. He took his servants attentiveness for granted.
    Lykos passed a mug to Rann. “Sit down. Let’s hear what you’ve got to say. What on earth are you going to