I’m pulled from him, only to find myself facing Lirin.
“You were hurting,” Lirin says. “I can feel it in you. Lingering like an old wound.”
“I’m fine.”
“You needed us.”
“I did, I do, but I survived, and now we are together.”
Lirin scowls and pulls me so my head is under his chin.
“He would have found us while we were vulnerable and picked us off one by one. I took his chances away. I thought I could do it.”
Some of my Sirens have their voices back, but some of them don’t. I don’t understand why. Reed, Ronit, and Canto still have scarring, and their voices are rougher, almost broken.
“Let me fix-”
“No,” Canto says, pulling back. “I never wanted to sing. I don’t want that kind of power. To lose control and drown people.”
“He’s right, it’s not who we are,” Reed says.
“But you’re Sirens.”
“And we’ll still be Sirens, even if we can’t sing,” Ronit says easily.
Lirin lets out a tinkling laugh, it’s mesmerising, but so is the rasp of Reeds. They still have power in their voices.
“You have given us more,” Brio says. “We can be more now. We don’t have to be what they made us.”
I hesitate. “We can leave, too. But I’m going after Deux.”
They go still, turning to look at me with various expressions ranging from shock to anger. It’s so interesting to see how beautiful they are. I don’t know if my weird glowing sight will last, but it’s enough for now.
“I have to kill him. I’m the only one.”
Leaf rises up, huge and full of deadly grace. “No, we are the only ones.”
I feel a weight slide off my shoulders as I embrace my dragon.
“Okay, let’s try this together.”
Chapter 41
Lirin
Iwant to tell her to go, that I don’t know that we can do this. A few weeks ago, I had complete faith in us, but that was before Deux made us his slaves and set us against Leaf. Every blow to him injured each of us. Each painful attack drove us closer to madness. The time was an eternity and a blink of an eye, but the constant awareness of her absence was the most painful wound we all bled from.
Knowing we wouldn’t make it, wouldn’t keep our promise, was the regret that burned through the bond between all six of us.
We cut through the dark water, following the seabed, a shiver of predators, vengeance, a weapon seeking retribution, following her rage, because nothing and no one has ever been so angry before.
She ducks and dives, swimming with us easily. Her skin is pale but inked in runes that shimmer with the same alexandrite colours, shimmering from red, orange, through to teal and midnight purple. Her scales on her powerful tail have the same colour. She looks exactly the same and yet so different.
There is a confidence and an ageless power in her now.
Where has she been?
I flick my tail, catching up to her, opening my mouth to sing a song, just a murmured joy. The blue-green stone Brio placed on her shimmers in the light; she looks like a goddess. If she can fix my voice, why can’t she fix her eyes?
