“Because the people we were didn’t exist anymore, the ocean had changed us.”
“Yes, you are more than Fae now,” I say, barely paying attention because the smell of cheeseburgers is far more tempting right now.
The air around us gets tense.
“What do you mean by that, Mei?” Ronit asks and puts a finger under my chin, tilting my head up.
“The ocean, the transformation changed you. You are stronger and more like me, but not. I have seen Fae. They do not have what you have.”
I let out a happy mewl when I unwrap the cheeseburger. The first bite is like magic. I chew slowly, savouring it.
“Interesting that you say that. I’ve often wondered if we weren’t weaker,” Canto says and unwraps another cheeseburger that he passes to me.
Leaf stretches his arm out. “Here, take this.”
Brio takes the food from Leaf. I press my lips together, refusing to give Leaf’s game away. I wonder how many of the Sirens have fallen into his trap.
“Weaker? No way. You are much stronger. And because you are a pack, perhaps stronger than most, with the exception of a pack with an omega. They get a whole lot stronger when they merge with her.”
“What?” Canto says, his voice filled with enough shock that it startles me away from my food.
“What do you mean, what?” I ask nervously.
“Packs get stronger with an omega?”
“Isn’t that why you wanted a mate? To break free of the curse that turned you into Sirens? It wouldn’t have worked. They changed you at a fundamental level, it’s in everything you are. It’s not a curse, it’s more a transformation. You can’t go back.”
“So, you’re saying there’s no way for us to be anything but Sirens?” Lirin asks, and I can hear how upset he is. I want to soothe him and help brush away the pain.
“No, you can keep evolving and keep changing, but you can’t go back.” I wrinkle my nose. “Why would you want to?”
“Because it’s who we are,” Ronit says, but he lacks conviction.
“Itwaswho you were. Now you are something else. Change is life. Didn’t you say you wanted to live?”
He wants to argue with me, but he can’t.
After that, the conversation turns to subjects that are carefully mundane and trivial. I eat until my stomach hurts, then curl up against Leaf’s chest and let my mind drift.
We’re swimming through the deep dark. He sees flashes of colour, flashes of something alive, something in his territory. He lunges after them, stretching out tentacles and whacking the creature. But four more surround him. They stab him, and the little, sharp pain is light and an awakening to his dulled mind. He starts to take in details, looking at them with fascination.
When they leave, he follows at a distance and practices taking their form and sounding out words they make. They clash over and over, and he grows more determined and more amused.
Then they bring me to him, and I see myself falling into the deep, struggling. He lunges for me, but at the last minute, he catches my scent in the air and stops. He shoves up, and the water forces me higher, back into the light.
He doesn’t know what to make of me, but he wants to know. By the time he realises, I’m gone, and the sky is on fire. He stops paying attention to the Sirens and focuses instead on the plan to find me again.
The Sirens disappear, and he hunts the oceans wrathfully, trying to break through, trying to find a way through. His rage creates storms that rage for months.
And then we clash, and I open the world for him. My magic calls him into Earth. I open the doors, not the Sirens.
And my Leviathan surges through the worlds, taking the chance, risking it all. Knowing I’ll be at the other end.
I refocus my awareness, back in the real world again, and stroke my fingers down his hard chest.
He loves me. In the way I loved the Sirens. With sudden, instantaneous obsession. But I wonder if this dragon knows that it’s not just me. He was in love with the Sirens first.
He’s happy. He’s happy here with me and with them.
