My attention is narrowed down to this place—thisdefeat—as I scream. Magic tickles my throat, blending into my voice. IwishI could use it tostopall this cruelty, all this bitterness that stems from the siren queen herself. I just want it all tostop.My screams grow long and high-pitched while my talons dig into my palms. When dark blue blood mingles with the water and an ache sharp and fierce pulses in my hands, I finally stop. Leaning my head against the rock, I let my wails quiet until only I can hear their sounds. I wait one more moment, digging deeply into my memory to pull up the list of things I need to remember tobe when I enter the palace.Jaw and shoulders relaxed, lips flat, spine straight, and attitude vicious.
Pushing away, I turn from the rock and immediately freeze. Two legionaries stare at me, their glinting silver weapons partially drawn from their shell-armored bodies as if frozen mid-strike. My mouth opens and closes without a sound as blood rushes in my ears. Time feels suspended, stretching between the three of us like a taut rubber band until it finally snaps. Eyes of turquoise and garnet narrow predatorily as the legionaries lurch for me, their talons digging into my arms.
“Your mother has been expecting you,” the garnet-colored siren says, though she blinks rapidly like she’s confused by the statement.
I don’t get a word out in response before they are hauling me between them and towards the shining pearlescent palace. I glance back only once to the seamounts, but as before, only hollowness remains.
The hallways of the palace are as cold and unwelcoming as I remember them to be.
The sirens holding me captive usher me into the throne room, drawing both my mother’s dark gaze and Allegra’s. The latter sneers at me, the move unsurprising, but it’s my mother’s smile—a genuinesmile—as she looks at me that causes me to stop moving for a moment. The colored crystals embedded into the columns lining the walkway up to her dais make the space glow in a rainbow of colors, yet it’s what is positioned on the dais next to her ghastly throne that gives me pause: the Siren Queendom’s Mirror. In my entire twenty-one years, I have never once seen my mother use it. Shells of every color and variety make up the entire back of the oval-shaped Mirror, while itsedges are wrapped in never-dying seaweed and adorned with permanently blooming water lilies.
I stop at the bottom of the dais and bow.
“Aria, you may rise.” I do, dragging my gaze up the steps until they meet the nearly black ones of my mother where she floats next to the Mirror. “Tell me you’ve acquired what I asked of you?” I reach for the bag tied around my body and open it, grabbing the rings and holding them out to her in my palm.
Allegra’s sapphire eyes glance behind me as she finally realizes who is missing. “Where’s Mashaka?”
“He—” I falter over the words before clearing my throat and trying again. “We were attacked by rogue sirens. He did not make it.” I wait for any hint of sadness to pass over Allegra’s features. Not much, but enough to show that her favored animal, her companion foryears,actually meant something to her.
But she rolls her eyes, annoyance obvious in the gesture of her hand as she waves it in front of her. “If he was too weak to fight them off, then he had no business being at my side. Good riddance.”
My mother chuckles as she makes her way to me, her hand snatching the rings from my own. “You made it home early. I’m impressed, Daughter.”
“Early? But…” I let the thought die as my mother’s smile turns menacing. I have to force my hands to stay open, but I can’t stop the way my fingers strain.She killed them. I had been early, had done what she asked, and shestillkilled them.
Allegra holds our mother’s gold and diamond trident out to her, the tips sparkling under the filtered sunlight.
“I have another job for you. One that I expect your bleeding heart will enjoy.”
A low growl from Allegra washes over my skin, disquiet creeping in the longer my mother lets the silence between usgrow. Finally, she tips her trident in my direction, letting the sharply cut diamonds imprint on my chest.
“Someone tipped off the sirens at the seamounts that the Queen’s Legion was coming for them. They were able to escape shortly before we got there.” She presses the trident harder, drawing blood as I wince. Her dark eyes take on a murderous glint when she leans in closer to me. “I want you to find them and tell me where they are hiding.”
“But Y-Your Majesty, what makes you think that I can find them?” I stutter, my throat narrowing.
My mother tilts her head faintly, not enough to bare her neck but enough to relay her displeasure with my question. “Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to,Daughter. You will work to find them, just as you worked to befriend them behind my back.”
“But—”
“Donotdisappoint me, Aria,” she cuts in, silencing me with more pressure of her trident on my chest. “If you fail in this, if you embarrass me and my royal legacy any more than youalreadyhave, I will destroy everything you love and hold dear.Everything, Aria.”
The seconds tick by as her words and the insinuation behind them settle between us. I have no one important to me, no one I love dearly…except for Lyre. When my realization becomes evident, the queen simply sends another sharp look of disappointment my way.
“You will join a group of sirens going out tomorrow to hunt for ships.” That’s all she says before she and Allegra leave, the throne room left in horrific silence. I stay there, my injured tail fin slowly swishing the water as I hold myself afloat.Find the missing sirens?It is an impossible task.Impossible.
Grinding my teeth together, I do the only thing I can when being in this palace—this court—becomes too much. I head to my cave.
I don’t spot any of my other sisters as I exit the palace though I’m only really looking for Lyre.
When I finally reach the cave’s hidden entrance, I carefully part the sea kelp gently rocking in the current and enter. I catalog every shelf and corner, confirming that all is as it should be, and finally let some of the tension ease from my body.
“Aria.” I turn with a gasp as the familiar voice sends my heart into a furious beat.
“Nia?” I rasp, backing farther into the cave when she pushes past the sea kelp, her lips twisted somewhere between surprise and fury. Her short blue braids float smoothly around her head when she comes to a stop in front of me.
“Well, what do we have here?” Nia observes me for a moment before pushing past to study all the items I’ve collected.
“How did you find this place?” I ask as my body trembles.
