“Yes, if you’re able.”
If I’m able… Have any words been more of an invitation than that? There is nothing like a challenge that will prompt me to action.
“I’ve overcome more fearsome challenges than an angry old god.” Charles is at the forefront of my mind.
“I hope your confidence isn’t misplaced.”
“It won’t be.” Perhaps there is one last thing for me to do while I walk this earth. One last good I can do in a life that’s been full of punishments for good intentions. “Now, teach me how to use this power.”
CHAPTER12
“Sirenswield magic through our songs, for song is the language of the soul. There are common anthems—ones which we all know. Personal ones sung in the tongue unique to our bones.” He reaches forward, as if about to touch me, but refrains. His fingers ghost over my skin. The sensation of the water moving between us is like a caress and I am momentarily captivated. “Then there are the hymns of the old ones, passed down in our people for thousands of years. They are words of great power, but whose meaning has long been lost to time, not meant for mortal comprehension.”
Ilryth’s other hand lifts, and his fingers trail over the newer markings he made. An urge to inhale, to stretch my chest and push my skin into that touch, nearly overtakes me.
“We’ll start with one of my songs. That will be easier for you to get a feel for how to draw out power through song before we focus on the hymns of the old ones.”
Magic. I’m going to learn magic. The idea is twice as thrilling as it is improbable. This feels like the grand adventure I was waiting all my life for. Searching for across the seas. How many humans have the opportunity to wield power like this? Probably none. As macabre as it is, what is a more epic beginning to an adventure than dying?
“For now, merely repeat after me.” The water around Ilryth begins to pulse as he emits a low note. It fills up the space, resonating off every surface. The water shivers at the sweet sound.
His voice was my lullaby for years. How he haunted me with the constant reminder of my impending demise. I never properly enjoyed it as a result.
Never once did I fall asleep in awe of how lovely his voice was. Never once did I think of how wonderfully he drew the notes from the depths of his chest. How they complemented the high falsetto he sang from the top of his throat. For nearly five years, a siren sang me to sleep almost every night, and I have only just now appreciated the sound that would make sailors leap to their deaths for want of merely hearing it a bit better.
His voice—his song—it feels as if my very soul aches for it. Simple notes fill me to the brim, leaving no room for thoughts, for pain or doubt. As if…all the secrets of the world were hidden within those sounds, waiting for me to uncover them. Inviting me to stay in its melodic embrace.
Without warning, he stops. I don’t remember closing my eyes, but I did. Ilryth stares at me expectantly.
It’s my turn.
Taking a deep breath, I try to match his previous tone and volume, but there’s something aboutsingingwith my thoughts that’s harder than speaking them. Song is a more mechanical thing. Felt, rather than thought. It was easier in the dreamscape of his memory where I perceived myself on land. Here, I can’t even make a note.
“Relax, Victoria.Feelit. Don’t think it.”
“Don’t I have to think to make sound?” I counter, a bit playfully. He huffs and rolls his eyes.
The coy smile slips from my face as I close my eyes once more. I try and retreat to that place he just created for me with his music, to force the muscles in my body to relax. The notes are somewhere within me, I know it, waiting to be freed. If I can just force them from me… But I remain frustratingly silent. I can hear the song in the back of my mind louder than ever, as if it’s screaming to break free. But it can’t—won’t escape.
A soft caress down my forearms has me jolting. My eyes snap open. His fingertips trail down the markings he has painted upon me to my hands, this time actually touching me, hooking my fingers.
Ilryth begins to sway, like the ebb and flow of the tides, and I find myself instinctively moving along with him. We move in perfect synchronicity to the music that only we can hear. A hazy sensation akin to drunkenness settles on me. Yet, though my senses are dulled, my awareness is heightened.
The melody in the back of my mind changes. No longer is it just one singer. There are soaring harmonies of joy, two voices tangling together. Whispers of passion and forbidden secrets. Low, aching pain. A lifetime untold. Unshared.
The song ofmysoul. Every corner of my body vibrates. It’s a delicious tingling, one that feels like invisible fingers racing up my thighs. I can’t stop myself from savoring it. Something so wholly different than anything I’ve ever felt before. Something that feels unnatural—that I should fear. And yet…almost decadent.
My fingers close around his. I should stop this, but I don’t want to. It feels like the dozens of hands of men who stared at me with lustful eyes over the past few years—men I refused out of obligation to my oaths—coming back to touch with wet, warm fingers now that those vows are severed. It is every forbidden urge being set free. The satisfaction of every lewd act I could’ve ever fantasized over rippling through my body, alighting pleasure without the stigma of shame.
I shudder. I’m losing control—losing the one thing I’ve tried so desperately to have. These primal instincts beg surrender. Yet, I hold myself back.Don’t give in, a scared voice whispers in the back of my mind. The last time I gave in to such urges, I ended up on an island alone.
The song reaches a sudden stop.
“Don’t fight it,” Ilryth says quickly, twisting me without warning. He yanks me to him, my back to his front. His bare skin against my shoulders and upper back has a yelp racing up my throat. It has no escape into the water and I gulp soundlessly. The action reminds me that we are deep beneath the waves, in a world of magic—thatIam magic.
“Ilryth,” I murmur, at war with myself. Numbed and yet so alive by the song that has consumed me.
“Sing for me, Victoria.” His nose brushes my temple, as though he is actually whispering in my ear.
