“The water will be freezing,” she said as we drew closer to the gurgling sound of the brook.
“No, it won’t.”
She frowned over at me. “What do you mean?”
Grinning, I said, “I’m a willoden. One of the gifts of magick I was born with.”
“A water wielder? How can that help us?”
“Wait and see,” I promised her with a smile.
Once we passed through the brush and stepped up to the narrow stream, I looked around, trying to find the right place.
“Come over here.” I led her to a spot where the stream widened into a small pool before it narrowed again, rushing over river rocks and seeming to disappear into the earth, though I could hear the trickle of water falling down a crevasse.
I untied the lacings of the slits in my dress so that I could hike up my skirt and kneel. I didn’t want to get my dress dirty, and I wasn’t ready to take it off yet in the cold, but I needed to touch the water.
Dipping my hand into the frigid pool, I waved my hand back and forth beneath the surface, the slight current pressing against my palm and webbed fingers. Closing my eyes, I summoned the cooler depths inside me where the willoden magick slept.
“Keskavalla,” I whispered in the naiad tongue. “Septimius orkavalla.Shelliastalyn, preela.Preela ves.”
I wasn’t sure why, but the waters always responded when I spoke the naiad language, the same one I used when communicating with naiads.
My hands began to glow moon-white, tiny luminescent dot markings appearing on the back of my hand. Tessa gasped, but I kept my focus, still waving my hand gently in the stream, speaking to the water itself.
All at once, the water bubbled, the numbness in my fingers fading as the temperature rose, heat billowing up from the pool.
“Gods above.” Tessa laughed and knelt beside me, dipping her hand in the water. “It’s warm. Almost hot, even. How did you do that?”
“I’m a willoden. It doesn’t always work. The waters can refuse to do as we ask.” I shrugged. “But I’ve never had much trouble really.”
I wasn’t bragging. It was true. While my sisters had difficulty when they were coming into their powers as willodens, I never did. The waters always granted my wishes.
“What language were you speaking?” asked Tessa, having set Saralyn on the bank and quickly beginning to undress.
“It’s an old tongue that naiads speak.”
When Tessa was naked, she began to unwrap little Saralyn. I hesitated, for I knew what I would look like beneath my dress. I was actually shocked that Tessa wasn’t openly staring at my face and neck where the markings glowed on my face. I could feel the radiating heat and hum of magick that appeared whenever my syrenskyn powers rose to the surface.
Though it was true, I held the power of a willoden, I couldn’t summon that magick without also calling on my syrenskyn powers. For me, they were tied together.
“Oh, heavens and hells!” called Tessa, laughing as she carried Saralyn into the water. “This is a paradise, Jessamine. You aretrulyblessed by the gods.”
She swirled in the waist-deep water, dipping Saralyn in. The baby cooed and gurgled happily. Hallizel tittered and fluttered above the water, dipping her talons in as well. I smiled, having never seen my gift give anyone joy before.
“Warmy, warmy!” shouted Hallizel.
“Come on in, Jessa. Don’t be shy!”
My heart tripped at hearing her call me Jessa. Only my dear brother Draydyn had ever called me by that nickname. I swallowed hard at the endearment and began to slide the dressoff. I then unlaced my boots and waited for Tessa to remark on the strange glow of my skin and the pattern of dots decorating my arms and legs, swirling around my breasts and belly.
When I looked up at her, she was pressing kisses to Saralyn’s wet cheeks. She then cradled her in one arm and dipped her head back into the warm water, dribbling water with her hands over her hair and tiny nubs of horns. I exhaled a relieved breath as I met them in the deeper part of the pool.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed about your body,” she told me.
I glanced down, seeing the magick of the syrenskyn glowing bright on my voluptuous curves, the body of a sinful seductress as I was constantly told by my mother.
“I’ve been taught to be embarrassed by it,” I found myself admitting.
