In the Veins of the Drowning

King Nemea introduces Theodore and Imogen and invites them to dance, discreetly implying Imogen should charm and placate Theodore. King Nemea suspects the Varyian king dislikes him enough to someday take him to war.

During their dance, Theodore expresses disapproval of how much Imogen struggles to breathe in the tight restraints of her dress. He slows their pace to grant her a reprieve while he tells Imogen that he is acquainted with her friend, Agatha, who was also his governess when he was young. Imogen asks if he was also scolded for dipping his quill below the bottom line, but Theodore explains he never did.

Up close, Theodore believes Imogen looks familiar. She assures him that they’ve never met. She was born on Seraf and taken in by King Nemea when she was orphaned as a young child. She does not reveal that he simply took her in because she came from a wealthy family, and her inheritance helps finance his kingdom. Suddenly, Theodore seems to remember how he knows her, but instead of revealing how, he abruptly ends the dance and walks away.

Imogen rejoins King Nemea. He questions her about the details of her conversation with Theodore until they are interrupted by the arrival of her fiancé, Captain Evander Ianto, who whisks her away. The captain is besotted by Imogen’s beauty, even in the dress, and Imogen finds the scent of the sea clinging to his clothes dangerously intoxicating as they waltz. Evander notices a wound on Imogen’s hand where the king had grasped it so tightly that her engagement ring cut skin. He states that if King Nemea wasn’t his king, he would have killed him for harming her. His protectiveness and chivalry charm Imogen.

Imogen and Evander gorge themselves on wine and continue dancing, and things becoming more sensual between them. Eventually, Imogen becomes more intoxicated from the salt on his skin and willingly allows him to escort her back to her rooms, where she pulls him inside. As Evander loosens her excessively tight dress, Imogen bemoans having to obey King Nemea’s every cruel whim, which Evander agrees weighs on a person.

Imogen has sex with Evander but loses herself to the passion, and her Siren wings burst forth. Evander’s Siren-hunting instincts prompt him to strangle her, which she reciprocates. When Evander says her name, Imogen is reminded of who she is and releases him. After Evander dresses and leaves, Imogen holds a dull blade gifted to her from King Nemea long ago and waits for the guards to come.

In the morning, Agatha comes to prepare Imogen for a routine court ritual. King Nemea does not worship the Great Goddess Ligea—queen of the Sirens—but instead makes blood offerings to his water deity, Eusia. Agatha notices the wounds on Imogen’s back from where the wings had burst forth. When Evander knocks, Imogen pushes Agatha into her dressing room and allows him inside.

Evander has kept her secret and still plans to marry Imogen in exchange for the Siren blood bond, which protects the bonded human from the lure of other Sirens and compels both parties to protect each other. Imogen doesn’t want to make the bond, which is considered treasonous. She protests that the bond can only be formed while her wings are out, and she doesn’t know how to shift. Evander solves this issue by stating he’ll bring up seawater and a siphon to force it into her lungs and make her shift.

Evander escorts Imogen to King Nemea’s ritual room, which hosts various courtiers. When Theodore arrives, he expresses disgust for Nemea’s sacrilegious practices, but Imogen informs him that refusal to offer blood means death in Nemea’s court. Evander tells Imogen he plans to ask Eusia for power when he makes his offering. When it’s Imogen’s turn to sacrifice blood for the ritual, she hesitates. Evander forcefully grabs her hand and cuts it open. Theodore demands to know how often Nemea has taken blood from Imogen, which he answers: since her infancy. Theodore kicks the bowls of blood over, and Nemea’s guards unsheathe their swords.

Evander sends Imogen back to the safety of her chambers, but she instead ventures out into the courtyard toward the cliff’s edge overlooking the sea. She is found by Nemea, who squeezes more blood from her wound into a bowl. Evander orders Imogen back to her chambers. She knows marriage and a blood bond to him will be a life of entrapment. She plans to escape before that happens. Thinking of Theodore’s bravery in standing against King Nemea, she decides to ask for his help.

Despite his transgression, Theodore’s position allows him to complete his visit safely. Imogen pulls Theodore aside on the walk back to their chambers, which happen to be on the same floor. They are escorted into his room, where he reveals that he knows she is a Siren. Agatha visited him last night to request he help Imogen escape before her wedding, and he told her no because it seemed like Imogen didn’t want to leave. She begs him to reconsider, telling him that Evander discovered her identity and wants to force a blood blond between them.

Theodore judges Imogen for staying on the isle like a coward, serving Nemea’s whims. This infuriates Imogen, who asks what he would do if his subjects disobeyed him. Theodore heals Imogen’s hand, drawing on the growth and healing power of his grandfather—the Great God Panos—as he tells her that helping her escape will start a war. Theodore worries saving Imogen will put his kingdom in jeopardy but agrees to help. He informs Imogen that he leaves tomorrow. When he arrives home, he will plan to get her off Seraf discreetly so that his involvement is not suspected. When Imogen protests that she will be married and blood bound before then, Theodore simply tells her there is a draught to sever the bond.

Imogen is locked inside her chambers by guards sent by Evander. Agatha eventually visits. She assures Imogen about trusting Theodore and tells Imogen of her past before she came to Seraf. Nearly 20 years ago, she fell in love with a soldier in the king’s guard, and they performed a blood bond in secret. When Theodore’s father, King Athan, found out, he ordered the bond severed. Afterward, Agatha came to Seraf, but she didn’t learn that King Nemea had begun hunting Sirens until she arrived. Since then, the young soldier became Theodore’s Commander, whom Agatha has kept in touch with via letters. Though Imogen doesn’t believe she’s strong enough to last a few months blood bound and married to Evander, Agatha’s company is steadying. Before she leaves, Agatha promises Imogen that, someday, she will have a full life, a home, and “more joy than [she] can fathom” (60).

Imogen is awoken in the dead of night to Evander entering her room with a siphon of sea water. His guards fill Imogen’s bath with sea water, and he forces her in, ripping open her gown to make space for wings. He forces water into her lungs using the siphon, summoning the Siren transformation. When he reaches for the dagger at his waistband to complete the blood bond, he suddenly enters a trance. He drops the dagger, joins her in the tub, and embraces Imogen. After hearing a strange voice in her head, Imogen breathes in the air from his lungs, and he drowns.

With the need for escape now imminent, Imogen decides to blood bond to a sleeping Theodore so he’ll be inclined to protect her at all costs. Imogen ventures to Theodore’s rooms, where she lures the guards into stepping aside. Theodore wakes before she can complete the ritual. Imogen tells him everything, including Evander’s death and her impulsive plan to bind herself to Theodore. Theodore asks her if she sang to kill Evander, which she denies, claiming she only drew the air from his chest.

Theodore agrees to aid in Imogen’s escape. In exchange, she agrees to swear fealty to him as her new king and to bind herself to him, thereby assuring his safety from her as they sail to his kingdom. He explains that when they arrive in Varya, she will go to the Mage Seer and have their blood bond severed. Afterward, she must complete one task of Theodore’s choosing.

Theodore instructs the guards outside his room to find his Commander, wake the off-duty guards, and collect some water from Imogen’s bathtub before returning. Theodore and Imogen slice their palms and press them together, solidifying their blood bond. The pain of it causes Imogen to thrash and scream. The guards return with sea water, Commander Lachlan Mela, and Agatha.

Theodore, Imogen, Agatha, and Theodore’s soldiers sneak out of Fort Linum. Theodore instructs Imogen to swear fealty to him before they leave Nemea’s domain so Nemea won’t be able to claim she’s been stolen. Imogen reluctantly kneels to swear her oath, and Theodore kneels with her as she does so.

The group then splits up. Theodore, Imogen, and four guards travel the cliff’s edge down to the stables while Agatha, Lachlan, and a final guard remain behind. Theodore sends his guards to scout ahead when Imogen begins to shiver uncontrollably in the biting wind. He embraces her briefly to warm her up before they continue. When Imogen accidentally spills some of the collected sea water from her bath, she notices the water’s influence on her is different than before—more strained.

At the bottom, Imogen coats herself in the water. She uses the Siren power to lure Nemea’s guards away from the stables, but instead, it kills them all. She attracts attention from the guards at the fort’s front gates. When she attempts to halt them, pain occurs in her stomach, and her power wanes. One of Nemea’s guards slices Imogen’s thigh open before Theodore’s men dispatch them. When Theodore reaches Imogen’s side, the pain in her stomach subsides. He carries her to a horse they both mount.