The throne room is brimming with sirens—all laughing and moving languidly about. They fill most of the space, their shiny scales sending small flares of light all over the chamber from how they reflect off the glowing crystals embedded in the walls. I brush past them all without a second glance as I make my way to the stone dais. The room is lavishly decorated, no corner left unadorned. Long strands of silky sea kelp painted with bioluminescent bacteria wrap around every pillar, glowing bright neon green and blue. Vines of red and orange are strung above me, their large yellow cup-shaped pondily flowers hanging heavily every few feet.
Despite the fact that I am one of the five daughters of Queen Amari, I am still expected to bow before my mother as if I was no better than someone born without a title. It’s not the show of respect that bothers me; it’s how she makes me feel like I’m doing itwrong. There is neither love nor regard freely given by my mother. I have toearnher affections by being as wicked as Allegra or as cunning as Sade, both sisters my mother favors feverishly above the rest of her offspring.
Queen Amari sits upon a wide throne of aged brown bones and decayed gray coral. Seashells in tan and yellow dot between the dead minerals, the only bit of color to be found not on the queen herself. The macabre mixture of theextravagantchair towers high into the water above, the sight of it making my stomach churn.
“Greetings, Your Majesty,” I say, bowing deeply at the waist and keeping my gaze drawn down. Her dark purple tail fin whips back and forth harshly, disturbing the water and creating swirls of small bubbles. I stay bowed, my upper body completely still and my abdomen muscles straining, as I wait for her to release me. Though the revelry of the other sirens still sounds around me, I can now feel the heat of their gazes searing through my scales and skin.
Still, I remain submissive.
“You may rise now, Aria.” Her voice, like all of our kind, is melodic though her tone is deeper—more amplified by the ancient power coursing through her and stronger than any other siren here. The hair rises on my arms as that magic washes over me in a sickly wave. “I’m so happy you decided to arrive, even if you are late. I must know, what took your attention so thoroughly that you nearly missed your eldest sister’s birthday?”
It takes all my effort—all the training Lyre worked on with me in secret—to remain completely relaxed. To not show any weakness like a quivering lip or trembling fingers. I am right on time, the party having only just started. However, I can’t say that. I can’t question the queen or suggest that she is wrong in any way. So I dip my chin and draw my gaze down again.
“Nothing more important at all, Your Majesty. I simply lost track of time.” I force the embarrassment from my cheeks as the chuckles of the partygoers behind me claw at my back.The foolish, weak youngest daughter of the siren queen, that’s who I am to them.
But it is better than them all finding out the truth.
With a tap from her massive golden trident—each tip adorned with a large jagged cut diamond—my mother silences the crowd’s ridiculing. I finally let my gaze rise again to meet her deep purple eyes, the color so dark it looks obsidian. Her thick black braids, each one embellished with gold beads stackedin various heights, writhe around her head like sea snakes. Her dark skin glows with the light of the neon sea kelp, making the gradient shades of purple on her scales stand out in stark contrast. Like all sirens, her form is supple and soft, giving the illusion of a gentle creature. It is part of how we lure others in. Yes, our magic makes it impossible for any males to resist, but being beautiful also calms victims. It makes them less afraid of us than they should be.
My mother smiles, her bright white teeth looking sinister as she flashes them at me.
“Dotryto keep your mind under the surface where it belongs instead of in the clouds, yes?”
“Of course, Your Majesty. My apologies,” I concede before movement draws my gaze to the space next to my mother. Allegra treads the water gracefully, her dark blue tail undulating like a predator lurking in the shadows. She watches my interaction with our mother hungrily. Deep sapphire eyes set within rich dark skin meet mine, her lips tugging up to the right in a sharp smirk. “Happy birthday, sister. May you be blessed by all the queens that have passed,” I tell her. She narrows her eyes, her half smile dropping quickly.
“Today is a lovely day!” my mother shouts, lifting her trident high in the air as she raises both arms. While the words spoken are joyous, the underlying lilt is one of warning. I spot Lyre and my other sisters off to the side of the dais and swim their way quickly. The crowd turns rapt attention to their queen, all of them wide-eyed and eager for her words. With another tap of her trident, the yellow sea glass door I came through swings open. Every head turns to look, the room falling into complete silence. “Not only is it Allegra’s birthday, but we have evenmorereason to celebrate.”
A few of the party attendees bristle with movement as someone travels up the center aisle. I glance at my mother, andthe feral glint in her eyes causes my stomach to bottom out. Whatever is about to happen, it makes my motherhappy, and that means we are going to witness something horrific.
“My dear subjects, we have found a traitor in our midst.”
Chapter Five: Aria
The crowd collectively murmursas bodies move to give the middle aisle a wide berth, letting the supposedtraitorthrough. A siren with dark green braids matching her emerald-colored eyes is led to the bottom of the dais, held up by two legionaries. Purple and blue mottles the light brown skin around one of her eyes, and blue-tinted blood trails from the corner of her lips.
Zahra.
She keeps her gaze down, but I’m not sure if it’s out of respect or because she is too injured to fully tilt her head up.
With a tap of her garish trident, my mother silences the soft mumbling of onlookers. “My subjects, you know as your queen that I doeverythingpossible to keep you safe.” The crowd voices their agreement, some even clapping and cheering as they praise my mother. “And part of keeping you safe—of keeping this queendom thrivingdespitethe limitations those on land have forced us to live with—is what we do with the males we capture.”
My stomach revolts, my last meal threatening to come up before I squash the sensation down. The way of the sirens has always been to lure males of all species to us with our seductive song. Before the war, the custom was to release them after we used them for our purposes—to make offspring. Some would even forego their song altogether and simply ask the males if they wanted to have sex.
As an all-female race, we werecreatedto be dependent on the other beings in this world to sustain our kind. Luring males had been easy before the Spell descended—or so I had heard—but things have changed since then. With the Spell in place, it limits the overall amount of people on the water. Along with that, our magic has grown weaker over time, taking more females to lure in a ship than ever before. There are even some who have lost their voice altogether. Those unlucky few have been forced to join the females that live in the seamounts, my mother deeming them allunworthy.
“Zahra is being accused of releasing a male instead of killing him,as the decree I have given states.”Sounds of condemnation ring out in the throne room, tiny bubbles lifting into the water from the crowd’s energetic tail movements. Queen Amari smiles from where she’s once more seated at her throne, her pointed canines glinting in the glow of the crystals. My gaze is drawnback to Zahra, her arms pulled tautly behind her. “I am a fair queen, am I not?”
Fair.Hardly a word I would ever use to describe the queendom I live in—definitelynot one I would ever choose when referring to its ruler. The queen’sdecreeforces all sirens to use our magic in horrifying ways.
Our eerie song immediately captures the mind of any male that hears the notes, and once under our influence, they are ours to command. Most draw their victims into the water, the magic within us giving the males the ability to survive under the surface when our lips seal with theirs. Holding them captive, we are told to sink until we reach a reasonable depth without the pressure killing them. There, we partially shift, our lower halves morphing into our mortal forms while our gills remain in place. Once the act is complete, we are supposed to break the kiss and watch as our magic fades. They can attempt to swim back to the surface, but none have ever survived the distance before they begin to drown. It’s a cruel and barbaric tactic, and I’ve never truly understood why my mother has put it into place since crossing through the Spell equals their death anyway.
“Though I know many of you would disagree and opt that I kill Zahra right now for her indiscretions, I will instead offer her the chance to defend herself. To explain to her fellow sirens and her queenwhyshe would defy my orders and risk our safety.”
Zahra tries to straighten her spine as she half-heartedly attempts to tread the water.Gods below—her tail.My eyes hone in on the puncture wound near her hips that I hadn’t noticed before. Blue blood trickles out of it at a steady pace, mixing with the water as it does. Siren magic has a small healing ability, enough to scab a cut quickly, but her wound must be large to still ooze with blood as it does.
I force my palms flat against my own scaled hips, my sharpened nails gently scraping them. Lyre settles in close to me,and from the corner of my eye, I can see her own mask frozen in place. Her lips are in a firm line, a bored expression shaping her lavender-colored eyes and brows.
Zahra bares her teeth, more blood spewing from her mouth as she speaks. “It is not true,” she rasps slightly, her voice giving evidence to the pain she must be in. “I have not let a mortal man go.”
