When I asked Raylik to teach me to fight, I didn’t think it would mean waking up at this obscene hour.
“You’ll thank me later for the early start.”
I put on the billowing silk pants and matching top. It was revealing, but covered more skin than Nixie’s attire, her pink silken bottoms so short that her lean thighs were bare, along with her toned midriff.
We arrived at the armory, where Hylos and Raylik had grappled for the siren crowd. The large room was now empty, the gentle lapping of the water in the center pool, once my potential escape route, punctuating the silence with sloshing licks against the stone.
“To fight well, you must first be strong.” She walked to a shelf of various round balls made of polished black stone. Picking up the smallest of them, she handed it to me with ease. Under its weight, I huffed. It was heavy for such a small thing, only the size of a melon.
Nixie grabbed a larger one and stood before me. She raised it above her head, lifting it up toward the sky, all while keeping her balance. Then, letting out a steady breath, she lowered the weight behind her head.
“We’ll start with three repetitions of five for a warm-up,” she said, continuing to pump the stone into the air repeatedly.
I copied her movement, but after the third push my shoulders burned.
All morning we lifted or squatted in place with the weighted stones. My legs shook as sweat beaded my brow.But it felt oddly good to concentrate on the movements so I didn’t drop the damn thing on my head. It forced my mind to be present and not drift away to war, betrotheds, fathers, or duty.
“You’re naturally strong,” Nixie said through a proud smile.
Not half as strong as she, especially for someone so small.
“Are all sirens as strong as you?” I asked. Despite enjoying this strange form of torture, I was here for reconnaissance.
She let out a laugh. “Most are stronger. I’m small for a siren, likely because I am made. Natural-born sirens are the strongest of us, though. In both magic and physical strength.”
I nodded in understanding. That was a good bit of information that I tucked away. Although, from the look of them, it was hard to tell the made sirens apart from the born.
With time, heat intensified in the training room, turning it into a furnace. The salted sea in the pool at the center of the armory steamed the space with briny, pungent curls that burned my eyes. The reason behind Nixie’s choice of an early start was clear. The rising temperature made the room almost unbearable. Drenched in sweat, I glistened in the daylight cascading through the glass dome above our heads, and my clothes clung to myexhausted frame.
“I wasn’t awareprincessesdid such unbecoming acts such as train,” Calypstra’s unmistakable voice sibilated as she walked into the armory.
When I turned to see the awful bitch, my jaw almost dropped in shock at the giant beside her, a siren built from layers of rippling muscles that hid behind sickly pale skin.
Nixie kept a careful eye on the pair, which had me on guard immediately too.
“What do you want, Calypstra?” she said, completing another repetition of her weight.
“I was just showing Draveen where the Jawro will take place in a few days. Then we’re headed to greet our king.”
“Your kingregent,” Nixie corrected, “will be glad to see you, Draveen. We missed you at the deipnon the other night.”
“I was busy,” he said in a strange, thick accent as he looked at his nails with a nasty grin.
“Ah, busy killing your mother? Or was it one of your brothers this time?” Nixie asked, forcing the male’s inky eyes to flare in anger.
Calypstra let out a nasty laugh. “It’s always fun when you come out to play, Nixie; that innocent act is so boring. You should save it for trying to trick Raylik into your bed.”
Nixie rested the polished stone on her narrow hip and cocked her head to one side. “Is that what you do? Trick males into your bed? I’ve never needed to do so,personally.”
I bit down on a smile that threatened to show just how good it was to hear someone tell Calypstra off.
Her black-lined eyes pounced on me.
“Speaking of bedding. I’ve heard you’ve found another human to mingle with. That’s good. You should really stick to your own kind.”
Draveen scowled. “There are more of them wandering about here? I thought Hylos had the sense to keep them in cages.”
“Unfortunately, there are more,” Calypstra drawled. “How is that human male? To your liking,Princess?”
