Chapter Twenty-Six
Walk the Plank

"Are we enjoying our stay, princeling?" Harry purred with his hook a scant few inches from Ben's face.

Not wanting to egg the pirate on Ben kept his gaze trained straight ahead, trying to ignore the warm breath on his neck, the gleam of metal so close to his eye, and the tautness of the ropes that held him against the mizzenmast of Uma's ship. It was one thing to lean back against an uncomfortable surface for a little while but another entirely to be bound wrists, shoulders, hips and ankles to one. Especially with an overenthusiastic, grinning pirate trying to get a rise out of you every couple of minutes.

"What's the matter, Your Royal-ship? Are we not comfortable?" Harry leaned closer to whisper tauntingly in Ben's ear. "I can make a few," he drew in a delighted breath, "wee adjustments for you, if you'd like."

"Harry." Uma's voice cut through the tension-fraught air. "Enough. Leave him be."

"You said I could lay my hook in him." Harry pouted, shifting back only a little bit to frown at his captain.

"It's not time yet," she reminded him. "Go check on our siren. We'll need her ready in case Mal tries anything sly."

Harry allowed his hook to skim Ben's face in warning. "Almost noon," he crowed softly.

"Harry," Uma warned and her first mate trudged off to sulk near the railing somewhere behind Ben.

"You don't have to do this," Ben started, seizing the opportunity before him the moment he heard Harry's booted footsteps fade away. "We can come to some kind of arrangement between ourselves."

With a crack of laughter Uma shifted to recline her hip against the railing and raised an eyebrow at her prisoner. "You're hardly in a position to negotiate much of anything," she pointed out. "Besides, I don't want or need anything you could possibly offer."

"You and your crew shouldn't be here, Uma. You should be with us at school, learning, helping to find a way to bring us all togeth–"

Uma burst into a loud, unamused round of laughter. After a long minute she finally caught her breath and grinned broadly at the heir to the Auradon throne. "You're right. We shouldn't be here. We should have been over there," she jerked her head towards the direction of the barrier, "from the start. But nobody noticed. Nobody cared. You only care now because of the situation you and your parents helped bring about." She leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. "Not much fun being held prisoner is it, Benny-boy." She gave his cheek a patronizing pat. "You've been held captive here for only a few hours – we have been prisoners in this place your father condemned us to our entire lives. And for what crime? By simply being born on the 'wrong' side of an invisible magic line. So tell me, how is that fair?"

Ben felt his stomach twist, knowing all too well how an accident of birth had given him so many opportunities denied to others, denied to so many of the people he was supposed to help and serve. It burned him up inside at the same time it drowned him in guilt and sorrow. "I'm so sorry, Uma." Ben leaned forward as far as his tight binds would allow, trying to show this other girl how earnest he was. "Come with me to Auradon. Be a part of the solution. Help me to fix it so no one has to live like this again."

"Me?" Uma's brow rose, her voice full of skepticism. "Part of the solution?" She took a moment, seeming to ponder the offer before letting her lips twist into a mocking half-smile. "Nah." She flipped her long braids over her shoulder. "I don't need you. We're going to get there on our own."

Something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned her head to grin. "Harry!" She called out. "Bring our newest member of the crew over here for a second." She turned that sly grin on Ben. "Let's see what she can do."

Two sets of footsteps drew closer, one the now familiar gate of the first mate who came into view with a look of abject glee. The other soft and brief, like they were dancing instead of walking, followed beside.

Ben's eyes widened as the familiar blue eyes and white hair came to a rest beside Uma, her smile gentle, her gaze dreamy. "A-Addison," Ben stammered, almost unable to believe the changes wrought in her from the girl he'd grown up with. He'd heard Mal's story of course, but this… "What happened to you?" he breathed, his voice hoarse.

The girl in question tilted her head at him in confusion. "Who is this boy, Captain?"

"Our prisoner," Harry answered with a gleeful laugh.

"Do we get to play with him?"

Uma laughed. "He's part of our little game," she answered. "Let's see if he makes as useful of a pawn as we hope."

Addison's brilliant blue eyes turned to meet Ben's with a quiet smile that sent a chill of warning down his spine.

"Captain!" Gil called from his post upon the crow's nest. "They're here."

"Finally." Uma grinned, swaggering her way across the deck to where the gangway met the docks to watch Mal and her group of misfits make their way toward her ship. She studied the would-be princess and her entourage, recognizing Evie, Jay, Carlos and the Zombie-girl from last time with her male werewolf companion. There was a new girl with the bunch, one with long dark hair and a stoic face though she inspected Uma's ship with a thoroughness that impressed Uma, especially when she located the prince in a trice, her eyes narrowing at his binds.

Uma shared a glance with her first mate, communicating without words as Harry cut through the ropes binding Ben to the mast while Uma stood at the edge of the gangway to await her audience with a triumphant grin. She spared one glance for her siren to see the girl sitting on the railing of the ship – one of her favorite perches – seemingly unaware of everything going on around her. Not that that was unusual.

"Let's get this party started, shall we?" Uma called with a snap of her fingers at her first mate.

Harry grabbed Ben by the scruff of his shirt and shoved him before him, making the prince stumble as he tried to move with shackled feet, walking him out onto the wooden plank suspended above open water. Uma cackled with glee as Mal's jaw clenched, her eyes watching every trip and stumble, her heart trembling in her chest. When Harry paused at the edge of the plank he looked to his captain with an eager grin.

Mal schooled her breath, remembering to keep a stoic face as Ben wobbled on the bounce of the board. Her gaze flit from Harry and Ben to Uma, who seemed delighted beyond words, to Addison who sat on the wooden railing, her face turned away from the turmoil, legs swinging merrily as she hummed to herself.

Every now and then they'd catch snatches of "Oh, make the trade…or walk the plank" over the steady break of waves against the ancient, rotting hull of the ship.

"You'd best cooperate, little faerie," Uma demanded. "Or I'll happily throw your princeling overboard to swim with the killer sharks." With a sharp twist of her wrist she held her hand out in front of her and beckoned with her fingers. "Time to give us our freedom or else he'll be ripped apart."

Mal smirked, refusing to show an iota of fear in front of the pretend pirate captain. "Don't try to intimidate," she warned. "Your bark is much worse than your bite. I know some wolves who'd be happy to sharpen their fangs on you and your crew." Behind her, Wyatt's grin was sharp and full of nothing but teeth.

Uma scowled, snapping her jaws in a show of irritation and turning away from the group watching their every move from the wharf. She signaled to her crew so that they were all drawing their swords, holding them at the ready. Harry slung an arm around Ben's shoulders in a gesture of faux comradery, his mouth opened in mock fear at Mal's words.

"You should really watch your mouth," Uma warned with a devilish smile. She sauntered up to Addison's side, trailing a hand through the other girl's silvered locks. "Our little siren doesn't take kindly to insults."

Addison turned her head at Uma's words of warning, her eyes a vibrant blue. Mal's went a bright green in response as the two stared each other down, magic a living thing between them. Mal's eyes narrowed as something tugged at her. There was something familiar there that she couldn't quite shake.

"How?" Evie demanded, genuine curiosity coloring her tone. "How did you know she was a siren?"

Uma gave the blue-haired princess an incredulous look. She scoffed. "Daughter of the Sea Witch," she reminded them. "I recognize my own kind. That and the singing gave it away."

"Guess that's one mystery solved," Carlos muttered under his breath.

The others around him nodded, all of them staring at the oblivious siren in question as she shifted her gaze from Mal and back out to the sea, singing to herself again. "Put your swords up, put 'em up. It's goin' down." She smiled gleefully at the thought, like it was all still part of some kind of game. Harry spun Ben around in a circle on the plank in time to the song, making him wobble dangerously on the edge and the siren let out a chiming laugh, like a string of seashells in the breeze.

Mal's fists clenched at her sides, the only outward sign of her anxiety and Uma grinned. She sashayed across the deck of her ship toward the gangplank that connected the ship to the docks. Gil bowed before her, gesturing her forward with his arms as if she were royalty. Mal rolled her eyes and marched forward, stepping up onto the gangplank.

"This isn't a conversation," Mal warned. "This is a warning – give me back the prince or face the consequences." She gestured to her friends behind her who had all pulled out swords from the black duffel bag Lonnie had been carrying over her shoulders.

Uma laughed, loud and clear. "What, an empty ultimatum? That's the best you can do?" She looked over her shoulder as her faithful lieutenant made quick work of the deck space to slide up beside Addison at the railing. He chucked her under her chin with his polished hook and murmured something soft into her ear, something that made his lips curl at the corners in a way that had anxiety tightening in Mal's stomach.

With an almost innocent smile Addison turned fully around on the wooden rail, her gaze trailing over each person present until it landed on the heir to the throne. Her eyes glowed and she began to sing softly. Mal just barely refrained from making a mad dash toward him when his body stiffened, his eyes widening in fear as one foot moved forward of its own accord.

Movement out of the corner of her eye had Mal turning back to Uma to see that Harry had joined his captain at her side whereupon they shared twin grins of anticipation. Harry looked at Mal with a dark gleam in his eyes.

"All it takes is one word, love," he told her, gesturing toward the bespelled prince with the kind of crazed confidence that could only have come from having Captain Hook as a father. "It would be all too easy to humiliate him. Matter of fact, as you can already see," he informed her, sauntering closer. "We've already debilitated him with the help of our accommodating little starfish."

Mal could feel Jay slide into place behind her as Harry reached out with his hook to catch at her hair and brush it gently out of her face, eyes agleam with mischief. Mal forced herself not to react though she stiffened minutely at the contact. She'd never liked people in her space, let alone self-aggrandizing wannabe pirates with a grudge to settle.

"Just one tiny slip and it'll eliminate him," Harry warned with a purr. He smirked at Jay before turning his back on his foe seemingly without a care to swagger back to Uma's side. "Insult my captain again," he warned, his voice rising with each word. "Give her one wrong look and I'll –"

"Harry," Uma caught at his swinging hook and pulled him close. "I think they get the message." He blew an impertinent kiss accompanied with a wink toward Mal before crossing back fully across the gangplank and rejoining his crew on the deck of the ship. With a few sharp motions he signaled to the crew to fan out across the deck, getting them into position.

"Peace or war, it's up to you," Addison sing-songed, her legs kicking at the side of the ship, her boots making a tapping rhythm that almost sounded like music.

Lips pressed into a thin line Mal reached behind her and gestured impatiently for Eliza to step forward. She heard the rustle of material as Eliza began to pull her laptop out from the backpack she had carried, its straps clenched in her white-knuckled fists.

As the slightly warm metal and plastic slid into her cool hands, her fingers clenched around it and she made to move across the gangplank to step up beside Mal, Wyatt growling softly at her side. With a muttered, "I hope you know what you're doing, Dragon Girl," Eliza snapped open her laptop to boot up the program to search the M-Band network.

The sound of her name made everyone freeze mid-step, their collective gazes snapping to Ben's. "Don't," he pleaded. "There's got to be a better way." He turned his gaze to Uma with the same imploring look, the rest of his body still frozen in place. "Uma, please, you don't have to do this."

Uma's lips curled at the corner, her brow rising in mocking amusement. "And what do you have to offer, little prince?" She turned and grinned at Mal without humor, her eyes hungry for vengeance. "Our freedom for his, Mal. The choice is yours…not that you have much of one."

Mal moved into the no-man's land in the middle of the gangplank. She held one hand up high and reached across the empty space with the other. "Give me Ben or you get nothing."

Uma tossed her heavy fall of teal braids over her shoulder with a scoff. "Like I'd trust a word out of your mouth."

"Like I'd trust the word of a bottom feeder," Mal shot back. Both girls glared at each other from across the gangplank.

A gasp from Evie had Mal whirling to see what had upset her friend. Following her line of sight, Mal watched as Ben stood poised at the very edge of the plank, his face pale as he stared down at the dark, undulating waters below.

Harry tsked from where he leaned against the balcony at Addison's side. "I warned you, love. Best not upset the siren. We don't take kindly to insults 'round here."

Mal's jaw clenched as Uma's grin flit across her face. "Eliza," Mal muttered, signaling for the other girl to continue with her hacking.

Everyone waited with baited breath, the only sounds the waves breaking across the ship and docks and Eliza's fingers clicking and clacking their way across the keyboard. Finally, she paused, her eyes jumping to Uma's. "Got it."

"Harry first," Mal bit out between her teeth. At Harry's bewildered look Mal explained. "A demonstration. He's Human. He can't cause any more trouble than he already does without the band. He doesn't have magic."

Uma shrugged. "True enough." She glanced over at the heir to the throne. "His father can't be too bright if he thought banding everyone on the Other Side was a fantastic idea." She rolled her eyes. "Talk about a grotesque waste of money and resources."

"She's not wrong," Eliza muttered under her breath just loud enough for Wyatt with his keen ears to hear.

"It's easy enough to lump everyone together out of fear," he responded and Eliza's mouth thinned into a firm line.

"There," she said, her announcement followed by a cheerful sounding beep before Harry's M-band flashed the word "OFFLINE" across the screen. With a mad sort of glee Harry banged his band against the deck as hard as he could, delighted when the thing fell off in several pieces of metal and plastic.

Beside him Addison flinched and Harry immediately looked contrite. "Easy, Starfish," he murmured, drawing close but was smart enough not to touch her. "You're alright, love. Was just a nasty bit of a moment."

Evie and Carlos exchanged curious looks as Harry continued to soothe their agitated friend.

"Perfect." Uma lifted her arm, showing off the dingy band around her wrist. "Mine next."

Eliza's gaze darted to Mal but the dark faerie didn't glance back, simply nodding her head as she kept her eyes swinging between Ben, Harry and Addison, and Uma. Eliza bit the inside of her cheek but kept typing away until she located Uma's personal band in the system, and there she waited. "I found it."

"Then turn it off, Zombie," Uma snapped. When the werewolf growled under his breath at her Uma simply raised a brow in challenge until he backed down. She grinned.

A final clack of keys proceeded Eliza's dull, "Done," before Uma's band beeped and turned offline. Just as Uma gleefully raised her wrist to smash it against the railing Mal yelled, "Now!" startling the pirate captain as fighting broke out between their two groups.

In the blink of an eye Mal's friends all held swords in their hands and were ready for a fight as Uma's crew, angry on behalf of their captain for the betrayal, rushed into the fray. With a snarl Uma leapt forward, pulling her sword from its sheath to clash with Mal's in the middle of the gangplank.

"Never could keep your word, could you, Mal?" Uma taunted.

"I don't kidnap heirs to the Auradon throne."

"Only because you didn't think of it first."

Mal shoved away from Uma as Ben let out a yelp, Harry having moved to Ben's side to nudge him further across the plank. Mal felt her magic surge, her band buzzing as she focused on Harry's hat. Smoke started to trail from the top before it burst into flame. Harry danced away from Ben as he hooked his hat and tossed it into the sea with a bark of surprise. He looked up at Jay's sniggering and with a threatening swipe of his hook stormed across the deck to grab a length of rope and swung himself over onto the dock to engage Jay in battle.

The instant Harry's feet left the deck Lonnie was in motion, cutting her way swiftly through the pirates coming at her to grab one of the abandoned pieces of rope the pirates had left behind so she could swing herself across and onto Uma's ship in the distraction.

Seeing the young fighter out of the corner of his eye Harry lunged for her instead, causing the spry warrior to dive out of the way, and leaving Harry to crash over the side of the dock. With a mad scramble of limbs Harry managed to catch at one of the rotted planks with one hand, dangling over the water.

"Uma!" He called, trying and failing to catch his hook into anything to drag himself back up.

With a snarl of frustration Uma abandoned her fight with Mal to race across the docks, sliding on her knees as Harry's fingers slipped on the damp, splintered wood. Uma grasped Harry at the wrist, yelling at him to hang on as she shouted for Gil. "Get over here!" Uma glanced over her shoulder, straining to keep Harry in place, and catching sight of Mal making her way closer to the prince.

"No," she snarled. "She does not get to win. Not again. Not today. Siren!" She called over the tumult. "Now!"

At her captain's command, Addison began to sing.

Everyone looked on in awe or horror as Ben began to walk the rest of the plank by himself. No amount of shouting at Addison to stop or calling out to Ben to hold on broke his inexorable shuffle to the very edge. And despite fighting tooth and nail they knew they'd never get close enough in time to stop it, to pull him back from the ledge.

There was one breathless moment as Mal and her friends, and Uma and her crew watched Ben balance on the tip of the plank, seemingly weightless on the brink before gravity won and he tilted over.

"Ben!" Mal shrieked in that echoing quiet, her heart in her throat as he tumbled off the edge, powerless to stop it.

Addison flinched at the sound and Ben froze in midair.

Everyone watched, astonished, as Ben rose shakily up through the air in time to Addison curling in on herself, her fingers sliding through her hair to cover her ears, eyes wide, as if to block out Mal's scream.

Mal shoved bodies aside as she fought to get closer to where Ben hung, suspended in the air over the rotted docks before he was deposited safely upon the weatherworn timber at her side. Sliding to her knees Mal reached out and began checking him over with a desperation that thundered through her veins, making her fingers shake.

"I'm alright," he murmured to her, trying to catch his breath, his own body quaking as it struggled to realize it was no longer in immediate danger. Carlos slid over on his knees, sword at the ready as he began to saw his way through the ropes binding Ben's ankles and wrists. As the damp rope loosened and fell away, Ben braced his aching arms against the deck to push himself up into a seated positioned. Mal's arms went around him at once to help him up, fingers gliding everywhere she could reach to check for injuries or abuse.

"I'm okay, Mal," he reassured her though his face was paler than she liked and there were tight lines around his eyes and mouth as he massaged his limbs.

With pursed lips Mal nodded her head once, jerkily, before looking across the waters to where Addison sat curled into a protective ball against the ship's side. She was startled to see Addison looking in their direction, her face etched with grief as she sat there seeing something else, as distant to the people around her as the moon. Then her eyes met Mal's in one breath-taking moment and Addison was there, in the present, eyes filled with remorse and a pain too strong to put words to. The moment hung, suspended between them before confusion, turmoil and anguish crashed into Addison's eyes and she cried out in pain, grasping her head between her hands.

Uma and her crew converged around their siren, swords at the ready while an enormous wall of water cascaded up before them, separating the two fighting groups in its sudden ferocity. The wave crashed down upon them all, soaking everyone instantly and Mal reached out with an instinctive, darting grip to hold fast to Ben lest he be swept away.

As the water receded, Mal tentatively lifted her head, blinking and sputtering in the salty liquid to view a seemingly empty deck, the creaking hull bobbing disconsolately in the waves below.

"Addison," Carlos murmured beside her, his white and black hair plastered to his head as his gaze swept the deck over and over again with increasing sadness.

"What happened?" Lonnie asked, the first to gain her feet as she helped Evie to stand.

Jay shoved his long, dark hair impatiently out of his face with a scowl. "A siren can do that?"

"I didn't realize sirens were that powerful," Evie commented, grabbing fistfuls of her skirt and trying to squeeze as much excess water out of it as possible, a frown on her face as she kept glancing toward the abandoned ship.

"They aren't usually, I think." Mal bit her lip, eyes narrowing on the place she had last seen the white-haired former cheerleader, her mind racing. She didn't even realize she was still clutching Ben's hand in hers in a subconscious gesture to keep him close and protected.

"I thought sirens just…sang, or something," Jay said.

"She was singing," Mal reminded him wryly. "But it's more than that. Sirens have a modicum of control over the wind and waves but this…" She shook her head. "It was something more."

"I suppose it's safe to assume one of her parents was or is a siren," Wyatt pointed out, his arm clutched tightly around Eliza's shoulder from when he'd held her close through the crashing wave. As soon as the fighting had broken out he'd escorted Eliza away from the thick of the battle. Eliza was more the kind to fight with words and protests rather than physical confrontations; it had been his job to protect her. "But we know nothing about the other – or if both were water beings."

"Uma might know." Ben spoke up for the first time and Mal slid her gaze toward him, lips pressing together. "She knew more than we did at any rate."

"Right, let's ask the girl who kidnapped and threatened to kill you – and nearly succeeded." Mal snapped, unable to help herself, emotions still too close to the surface. All she could see when she looked at him was the shocked horror on his face as he fell toward the sea and the fear that had rocketed through her veins, the utter helplessness as she realized she couldn't save him.

Ben's eyebrows rose at her tone. "I don't think Uma meant to go that far, Mal. She seemed just as shocked as you did. Addison seems to be a little…out of control."

Jay snorted behind them as he helped Lonnie gather their swords and place them back into the now sodden duffel bag. "That's an understatement."

"Uma is the one who gave the order, Ben."

"She just wanted to be free, Mal. She's an angry girl with a bad plan." He paused, pushing sodden bangs out of his face. "She's a lot like you, actually."

Mal gaped at Ben as the others shifted uneasily away. It was Eliza who broke the taut silence.

"Hey, we're running short on time. We need to go now before Uma and her crew show back up again, or anyone notices Ben's missing." She clutched her bag close to her chest, having shielded it well from the wave though her bright green curls now lay dark and plastered to her temples. "Harry got away."

Jay punched a fist into his other open hand. "Let me worry about Harry Hook." Eliza gave him a studying glance but nodded.

"What about Uma's band?" Carlos asked.

Eliza shook her head. "I don't know, to be honest. I reinstated the program as quickly as I could. Did anyone see if she was still wearing her band when she disappeared?"

Everyone glanced at each other with unease. No one could say for sure. With troubled minds they began to move away from the docks. They all made their way stealthily toward the barrier, seeing Lonnie and Ben safely through the other side before the rest of them split off to their respective places to prepare for Cotillion, everyone agreeing to meet back up there to further discuss a plan of action after the ceremony.

Mal and Ben gave each other one last uneasy glance before they moved in separate directions, things left unsettled between them.

"'Angry girl with a bad plan,' my foot," Mal muttered to herself as she stalked through the streets toward her loft. "We're not anything alike. I don't try and get people killed."

Still, she worried her lip over the hanging threads that were Uma's threats and possible unfettered magic, Addison's involvement and instability, the fight with Ben… Her breath stuttered in her chest and she worked on taking in a deep breath to try and calm her growing anxiety. Before she could release it a voice called out to her, instantly causing her to tense and pause in the street.

"Mali!"

"Oh skies, not you. Not now," Mal muttered, louder than she meant to if the brief dip in Hades' smile was anything to go by. "I'm busy. Go torment someone else today." She refused to give in to the look in his eyes, as if he'd been hurt by her words. It wasn't possible anyways. Hades just lived to taunt her and was upset that she wouldn't play his game today.

"Mal," he said after a moment. "You're soaking wet."

"Oh really?" Mal asked with every ounce of her sarcasm. "I hadn't noticed."

"Playing in the rain, were we?"

Mal glared at her father. "Does it look like it's raining to you? Or are you so old now that you need glasses to discern the weather?"

Hades put a hand upon his chest as if his daughter had wounded him with the mention of his age. "How'd you get so wet? Take a shower at a friend's place but forget your Cotillion dress at home?"

"My bathing habits are of no concern to you." Mal eyed her father. "And how do you know about Cotillion?"

Hades scoffed. "Who doesn't know about the upcoming ceremony for the miniature beasty-boy? All of Auradon is anxious to see how the little pup is going to measure up beside his father." He glanced toward the castle turrets they could just see in the distance. "Will he follow in his father's footsteps or will he forge a new path? We're all more than curious to find out. And you have a front row seat from what I hear."

"Yes, I'm going to the ceremony. Yes, I think he'll be a great king someday." She swallowed past the flock of dragons cartwheeling in her stomach. Mal still wasn't sure where, exactly, she and Ben stood with each other on a personal level. And the thought of seeing him tonight filled her with equal amounts of joy and dread. But one thing she would never question is how much Ben loved Auradon and wanted the best for everyone – Other and Human alike.

She shoved a damp lock of hair out of her face and grimaced at the salt crusting her violet-pink locks together. She was going to need to wash her hair – twice at this rate. "Now, I need to go. I'm going to be late if I don't get moving. I have to meet up with Evie in–"

"You smell like the docks," Hades observed with a frown and Mal scowled at her father.

"Thank you, oh observant one. I hadn't noticed. Now would you move so I can–"

"Playing with Uma again, Mal?"

"I haven't played with Uma since we were kids." Mal crossed her arms across her chest. "What we do now is get on each other's nerves and occasionally come to blows over it. Not that that's anything new in my life." She gave her father a pointed glare that he ignored, seeming to ponder something.

"There've been some rumors floating about as of late," he began and Mal rolled her eyes.

"There're always rumors floating about Auradon. You need to be more specific."

"It's about a siren."

Mal froze. She looked at her father with some trepidation. "A siren?" She felt her shoulders tense up when Hades settled his unnerving blue gaze on her, the look in his eyes full of an intense…something that had her instincts telling her to run before it was too late. "What about a siren?"

"One hasn't been seen around these parts in a long time." Hades' tone gave nothing away but Mal's heart-rate picked up all the same.

"There used to be a siren here?" Mal jumped on the possibility. "How? Where? How long ago?"

Hades stared at his daughter for a long minute before he answered. "Seventeen years ago, give or take a few months."

"Seventeen…but," Mal's arms dropped to her sides. "But – Jane said it'd been ages."

"She hid what she was. Like many of them do." Hades' face was unreadable in its stoicism though his eyes seemed to burn as he kept his gaze on Mal.

"Many of –" Mal sputtered to a stop. "There are more sirens…?"

"More Others, Mal." He nodded toward the barrier. "They live on the other side of the barrier." He glanced down at his wrist. "Un-banded and in secret, hoping they never get caught so they don't get thrown over here with us." The smile on his face held no light feelings in it. "But she came over here anyways, voluntarily. Though she didn't stay for long…" His voice trailed off in some memory but Mal was gaping at her father.

"She? So you knew her then? Who is she? Where can I find her? I need to talk to her. She might know–"

"She's dead, Mal." Hades' abrupt announcement pulled Mal up short, the delivery as harsh as the look in his eyes. "She's been gone for a long time."

"Are you sure–"

"Yes. I'm sure." The expression on his face, the grief in his tone told Mal that this wasn't just some knowledge of death that the god of the underworld had access to. It said it was personal. That this woman's – this siren's – death had cut deep. And suddenly she wasn't sure she wanted to know why.

"You knew her." It came out like an accusation. Her heart raced, knowing instinctively that she was reaching some terrifying conclusion. Some answer to all the riddles. And the possibilities alarmed her.

"I did." His tone was heavy with something she didn't want to name.

But she asked anyways. "How?"

"This rumor, this siren. It's true?" He asked instead and when Mal nodded Hades' eyes slid closed, the lines on his face carved deep in silent grief and regret for a long moment and Mal wanted to backpedal. To run from this conversation.

"This siren…what's their name?" The question was quiet, tentative, and Mal felt dizzy with what was coming. The answers they'd been seeking for months.

"Her name is Addison." Mal's answer was just above a whisper.

"Addison," Hades repeated the name, his face taking on a contemplative, almost wondering look. "A girl…I wonder if Steph…" He shook his head. "That's not important just now. Mal," he looked back at his daughter with a gaze so intense that Mal felt her leg muscles twitch as if preparing to run.

"Mal, this girl, this Addison… She's, well, the thing is…she's your sister. And you need to save her before it's too late."