The siren showed me her teeth—the kiss of death that Silas had promised. My last thought was that I felt relieved Silas’s promise had been broken. It didn’t make sense, but nothing did right now. He’d promised to die before me. I’d never wanted that to happen.
The only thing I knew, as the siren curved her long neck over me, her features shifting from the beautiful mermaid to reveal the monster she’d turned into, was that I would gladly give my life to keep Silas alive.
“It’s been centuries since I’ve tasted human,” the siren hissed. “My lucky day.”
“I saved your life,” I pleaded. “Doesn’t that count for something?”
The siren merely smiled, an awful smile, displaying rows of pointed teeth, long and discolored, rusted like nails drilled into her terrible jaw. Those jaws gnashed as she toyed with me, played with her prey. I tried to scurry away, but I couldn’t move. She’d pinned my legs down with her tail.
Silas had been right all along, about everything. He’d been right.
“Alessia, the dagger!” Silas’s strained voice came just as the siren was lunging for my neck, vampiric in her bloodlust.
I rolled as the siren turned her head; she looked surprised to find Silas conscious. I took advantage of Melodia’s lapse in concentration and extended a hand, my palm circling around the dagger which had rested on the ground next to me as I’d stitched up the bloodied mermaid.
The siren’s mouth opened, letting loose a terrible shriek as she lunged. She missed me by inches. Another banshee-like wail radiated from within her jaws, a devastating song that silenced birds and creatures for miles.
I could hear Silas straining against his bindings—a glimmering black magic laced with death and despair. Everything about this siren was dark and deadly and bleak.
Silas would break free, but not soon enough. The siren had already twisted toward me, barreling down for the kill. I plunged the dagger at her—she dodged, but I clipped her tail.
The scream of pain from Melodia was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. I’d barely nicked the surface of her scales, but the way she writhed away from me, recoiling in pain, it was as if I’d put the blade through her black heart.
“Human!” Melodia’s eyes were wide and red, bloodshot as she gave a final lunge for me. She slapped my arm enough to break a bone, and the dagger dropped to the ground. Blood spurted from my nose as my head smacked against a rock.
The siren paused to lick her lips, tasting my blood.
“Human,” she reiterated, with a snake-like slither. “Succumb to me now. There is no one to save you.”
“No one,” I said, “except myself.”
The siren’s lips curved into an amused smile, a bleak wasteland of rusted teeth and impending death.
Her long, forked tongue flickered over her disgusting lips, landing on a spot of blood like it was a treasure. She lapped it up, ravenous for more of me. Her eyes went gray and bloodshot, her body trembling in a frenzy to consume me.
Then, suddenly, Melodia’s figure went eerily still. Like she’d forgotten to breathe. Like her heart had stopped. She stared at me, her head cocked to one side, lizard-like in her pose. Alert and confused and shocked.
“You are no human,” Melodia whispered, dropping to the ground. “It is my mistake.”
I swallowed as she crawled toward me, a lecherous nightmare of a mermaid. This was no longer a creature of sunlight and joy—it was one of hell and horror.
Then the siren bowed. At my feet, she bowed until her long, hooked nose touched the ground.
“Your majesty,” she purred in an awful voice. “My deepest apologies.”
Then she slipped back into the water and disappeared, and if it weren’t for the bloodbath on the rocks, I’d wonder if she’d been there at all.
I was still staring after her in silence when I heard Silas approach. He’d shredded through his magical bindings to join me.
“What did she say to you?” Silas breathed heavily. His expression was murderous, and I had no doubt if he’d worked himself free one second sooner, he would’ve killed the siren in a heartbeat. “What did she say to you?”
“She...” I paused, like even I couldn’t believe it. “She apologized.”
I wasn’t trying to withhold information from Silas, but I hadn’t processed Melodia’s words. I needed time to sit with them alone before sharing it with anyone.
Plus, it felt stupid to repeat the siren’s declaration out loud. Melodia was clearly confused. If I told Silas what she’d said verbatim, it would only bring more questions from him and more unwanted attention onto myself. The last thing I wanted was more attention.
“You’re lying,” Silas turned his gaze on me. “Did she threaten you?”
