After another long moment of silence passes, in which I awkwardly try not to drown, she lets out a sigh that is somehow as melodic as it is beleaguered. “I don’t know why you humans suddenly believe I have the patience for odious greetings and dreary conversation,” she pouts. “Unless you’re here to actually have some fun?”
I decide this is as close of as invitation as I’m going to get, and haul myself up the rock. Lisian makes a noise of disgust as I flop beside her like a beached seal, ungraceful and sopping wet.
“What’s your idea of fun?” I ask, both wary and curious.
The siren considers. “Oh, you know…” she says merrily, her voice so smooth and beautiful, I have to resist the urge to lean toward it. “A little playing. A little drowning.” Her lips draw into a mischievous smile and her eyes sparkle. “A little gossiping between friends.”
“I…think I’ll pass for today.”
The siren crosses her arms with ahrmph.“Even the blasted king let me have alittlefun.”
Her words snare something dark inside me, a sliver of insecurity. “You’re the one that helped him get back his ship, right?”
Lisian’s lips peel back once more to reveal her razor-sharp teeth as if I’ve highly offended her. This close, I realize with distant horror the edges of them are stained the same color as her bangles.
“I did nothelphim,” she snarls viciously, her eyes flashing. “Sirens are not servants to be wielded by children like Niko.”
“I—Niko is over three hundred years old.”
Lisian waves me off as if this is irrelevant. “AndIam three thousand years old. What is your point?”
I stare at her, so thrown off by how long she’s been alive, I have a hard time remembering whether I had a point at all. Will that be me someday, when time has spiraled far beyond my understanding? And most importantly, will I still be myself, or will the remaining pieces of my soul be lost to the ever rushing current?Tick, tick, tick.
Lisian drags her talons through her jeweled hair. “I did nothelpthe Carrion King.” She begins weaving together a few strands, looking all too pleased with herself as she continues, “And trust me…he gavefarmore than I did. As I’m sure you heard.” She hums in pleasure, the sound winding uncomfortably between my ribs. “A siren never loses a bargain, after all.”
“The way I’ve heard it, a siren never makes a fair bargain,” I point out levelly.
She shoots me a dirty look, and thwaps her tail loudly against the surface of the water. “Because of the respect you showed to my sister, I will allow that slight to slide, Your Majesty. But it will be the only one.”
Lisian considers me for a moment. “He may be a child, but Niko is wise enough to know what he offered me. I did not cheat him. We both benefitted from our arrangement.”
“Because now he has your allegiance?”
“If that is what you’ve been told, you are the one who has been cheated.” Lisian tilts her head curiously. “I did not offer my allegiance to the king.”
“But you plotted with him to take back the Indomnitus.”
“Yes.” The siren drawls the words as if I’m being intentionally slow. “Because in giving up his truth, he proved his allegiance to another.”
My breath catches. “Me?”
Lisian doesn’t bother to mask her impatience. “I do hope our queen is not truly as daft as she’s being in this moment. Yes, Willa Darling. The king offered me his truth and in it…wasyou.His heart may be death, but it is pure. And you were in every terrible, beautiful piece of it.”
I swirl my toes in the clear water of the lagoon, feeling her words as aptly as if they were needles beneath my skin.
“I planned to drink his truth and give him nothing just as I always do. But when I found his allegiance aligned with my own, I offered my assistance.” Her eyes are terrifying as she sets them on me. “As I said before…long live the Queen of Dreams.”
“Why?” The word is quiet, pulled from somewhere deep in my chest. To ask is to show vulnerability, but I have to know why creatures who have always refused to involve themselves in mortal wars would choose to do so now. “Why would you bow to me when I haven’t given you any of my own truth?”
Lisian’s answering smile is vicious. “Ah, but you gave your truth the moment you showed kindness to my sister. We had tried to drown you only a few days earlier, and yet, you would not allow even an enemy to be degraded. You razed the earth to protect the Nyawa. You tore apart the heavens to save the man you love. You showed us your truth in all these things.”
Heat prickles against the back of my neck. “Those weren’t—” I cut myself off with a shake of my head. “None of those were something heroic. I did it all out of selfishness, not because I have a pure heart.”
“You do not need a pure heart to lead, Queen. You only need to turn the broken pieces into weapons against any who would threaten what is yours.”
Her bracelets jangle as she flips her hair over shoulder. “Are men’s reasons ever picked apart and criticized when the end result is goodness? It is only women who are derided for their ruthlessness. Only women who are told they are not pureenough, good enough, humble enough to be lauded for their actions.”
I tense as Lisian reaches for my hand, her talons digging into my skin as she drops something into my palm. “You may just be a human, be we are sisters in that we are too vicious for their derision and too powerful to stand beneath their judgement. We raise each other up in blood and vengeance and imperfection…things we have all been told are meant only for men. There is beauty and there is horror inside you, Willa Darling. Both are needed to lead. Both are what drew a being as powerful as the Carrion King to you. And both are why we will serve you.”
