Read Siren's Song: The Gray Court, Book 5 for Free Online Page A

world.
    Cassie sat back, her song quietly ending as she sighed. “Wow. That’s pretty… Whoa.”
    “What is it? What did you sense?”
    “The curse is trying to eradicate all of your harmonies.” When he gave her a blank look she grimaced. “It’s hard to explain, but every person’s self is made up of different harmonies, blending with the melody that is your ultimate self. It’s…” She licked her lips. “You are the sum total of what you have seen and learned, but underneath that is a core being, a usually untouchable being, that makes you who you truly are. It can make a person into a great peacemaker like Ghandi, or a serial killer like Ted Bundy, but it is immutable. That core holds both our deepest darkness and our greatest light. It’s the harmonies layered on top of that core melody that make us who we are from day to day.”
    “I’m not sure I understand.” He sat up, tugging his shirt back into place. He felt mussed, as if he’d writhed on the bed, and his voice was hoarse. Had he spoken while she sang? How much had she heard, and how much had she guessed?
    “You’re not the same Oberon you were a hundred years ago because your harmonies have been added to, changed by time and hindsight. The you of a hundred years ago was not the you of a hundred years before that, and so on. Each new experience adds to the harmony that you are.”
    “I suppose that makes a certain amount of sense.” The gods knew he was not the same man who had loved Titannia with all his heart.
    “But you, the core being, remains unchanged. While someone can alter your harmonies, make the you of now different from who you once were, changing that core melody should be impossible. You’ll never be a serial killer, because it simply isn’t part of your make-up.”
    “But changing the harmonies can make me into a bad person.” Circumstances could turn even the best of people into hardened criminals or frightened children. He’d seen it far too many times to discount the possibility.
    “Yes. By changing what you believe about yourself, removing those harmonies and drowning them out, it’s possible to reshape the you of now into what someone else wants.” Cassie bit her lip, watching him anxiously. “If the Black Court gets ahold of you, they will do everything in their power to convert you, make you one of them.”
    “Titannia.” Whatever she saw in his gaze had her flinching back. “If she holds sway over me…” But he couldn’t finish that thought, couldn’t figure out why that would be so devastating. “This is because I’m a king?”
    The slight hesitation before her answer was far more telling than the word she finally spoke. “Yes.”
    “Can you restore my harmonies?”
    She stared at him, her eyes unfocused, seeing or hearing something beyond his comprehension. “I think so, but Shane was right. This is very complex and will take some time to repair. Whoever did this planned it for some time, and it’s not a simple thing they’re attempting. Changing such a long life, altering your harmonies…this was meant to occur over months, not days.”
    “Then it wasn’t a crime of opportunity, was it?” If this was something that had been planned for quite a while there was no way his weakness could truly be connected to it.
    “No. And that scares me far more than your lost memories, because it means you definitely have a traitor in your court. One close enough to deliver the medium used to cause you to take the curse into your body without you even once questioning it.”
    “It would require sympathetic magic.” That he understood that instinctively should have surprised him, but didn’t.
    Cassie nodded. “A lock of hair, a fingernail clipping, even a used tissue would do the trick. Someone who has access to your inner sanctum either helped, or is the culprit.”
    “You say my Hob is loyal, but are his men?”
    “He hand-picks them himself, but there’s always a possibility that one might have