I stopped walking. “Is this… is this even allowed? I mean, keeping sirens and mermaids locked up like this?”
“They’re not prisoners,” Kross said, voice quiet beside me. “They’re performers. Paid very well. These communities are rare. People—shifters and humans—are fascinated by them.”
I turned to him.
“Humans are allowed here?” I asked.
“Now, yes. Ever since the kingdom made deals with their world. Their technology, our magic—exchanged carefully. But before the humans are sent back beyond the gates, their memories are wiped clean. They return to their world thinking it was all a dream.”
I listened, wide-eyed.
Back in Bloodmoon, I never heard any of this. I barely knew how the kingdom actually worked. I’d read about history and theory and royal bloodlines, but nothing practical. Nothi
