Xia hadn’t realized she’d stopped walking until a rough hand shoved her forward.
“Make it quick. I want you on Level Desecration tonight.”
“But–”
“Move, Siren!” His power pulsed through the cave and she cowered.
Xia walked swiftly from the exit and scurried toward the middle of the beach. The sand was so black it devoured the moonlight and the waves crashed in the distance as if they were dancing in anticipation.
Water always called to her, and oftentimes she felt that it could read her moods. She was restless, anxious, and furious, and the waves reflected it.
When she met the line where the sea touched sand, her blood came alive. Moonlight seeped into her skin filling every dark space and lighting her from the inside out. The water caressed her ankles and lapped at her legs lovingly, welcoming her home.
The feeling made her sick.
It was always this moment when the poison in her soul revealed itself. The reason she couldn’t sleep at night. Why she knew she deserved death but couldn’t take the plunge.
The moonlight on her skin and the sea at her feet…
The feeling of being so completely and irrevocably alive with an unending source of power flooding through her system?
It was fucking exhilarating.
She should have felt more guilt. Killing innocents was nothing to be proud of and certainly not something to crave. But when the ocean called her? She was nothing but a moth to the flame.
Xia spread her arms and lifted her face to the sky. Her eyes closed as the wind embraced her, strands of hair whipping wildly and stinging where they struck. As she inhaled, the sea stirred and the anticipation buzzing through its waves turned to a roar.
It was as if a great sleeping beast was stretching its muscles as it prepared to unleash its chaos.
Xia called on her song and sent it rushing through the sea and wind, letting the elements carry its power like a war horse rushing toward battle.
Her song had many different effects, one of the very reasons she was coveted by the Lord of Nightmares. She was the only living Siren among their kind and carried a power that even she didn’t know the limits of.
Her power was saccharine on the wind and made her cheeks heat as it pulsed through the air. Even she could not contain the effects and fell prey to its spell.
Freezing water thrashed and sprayed, soaking her nightgown and chilling her skin. Her flesh pimpled as she roared to the sky.
It was a roar of pleasure and triumph. Of greed and lust. It was a call for power and everything she knew she could be.
Tonight, the Siren raged.
Blood rained from the sky and dotted her skin. It ran in inky rivulets down her body, staining the sea-blue chemise she wore and soaking her hair.
When the song blew on the wind, it didn’t just feed the Siren. It fed the island. The life of one man was not enough. She couldn’t just steal a sailor from a ship and satisfy her needs. She pulled the life from anyone who rose from their beds to answer her call, drained their blood and carried it through the skies so that it may fall upon her gluttonous land and feed her never ending well of power.
That was her secret.
Her regret.
Her darkness.
She drained the life from anyone who dared answer her call, and she craved the power that flooded her veins.
Xia stood on that black beach covered in blood, and as waves crashed at her back and moonlight poured through her skin, something unlocked inside her.
Something primal.
Something… Inevitable.
