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“That was her first word!” the nanny exclaimed.

Jed studied Kian and the baby darkly. “Since she’s not interested in crying anymore,” he grunted as he walked away, “take her to the Red Mansion.”

No one got invited to the Siren’s house, unless—

Kian’s eyes sharpened in realization: the girl was going to be given a test, a traditional privilege reserved for the Lams’ male babies. The tryout was the first step in finding the heir, the next Siren.

Whispers of astonishment and uneasiness rose in the courtyard. The nanny smiled. The crowd followed Jed and his guards toward the mansion, but Jed was just as gruff with them. “Did I invite the rest of you?”

The group stopped in their tracks. Customarily, the Lams’ Selection Game was an open event. The family members would gather in the Red Mansion’s Antique Room and watch a Lam boy’s first pick. A candidate’s first choice symbolized his future path.

Kian stopped, wondering if he, too, was excluded. Jed called without looking back, “Hurry up, Kian. You’re carrying an infant, not a bowl of soup.”

On a priceless table in the Antique Room, a variety of objects were on display: a piece of candy, a gold coin, a book, a gun, a lipstick tube, a fresh rose, and many more. At the far end of the table rested the most treasured item: an ancient, weather-proof scroll. It was written in encrypted symbols and a lost language and held part of the code of the Eye of Time—the source of all hidden knowledge and power. Three scrolls formed a complete circle with a full code, but the Lams possessed only the first.

Kian set Lucienne down on the table. She scanned the goods before her, focusing on a bottle of milk, before she slid her gaze to a Barbie doll. She soon moved on, sweeping her gaze left and right, until she spotted the scroll.

Kian felt his heart skip a beat.

Lucienne crawled toward it, pushing away an electronic train and a phone in her way. She snatched the scroll and turned to look at Kian. He held back a smile.

Jed’s eyes widened. Kian knew the Siren wouldn’t have taken the scroll out of his secret chamber if his curiosity of what his granddaughter would select hadn’t gotten the better of him, and now the man’s inquiring mind had bit him.

Jed reached for the baby and tried to pry her fingers off the scroll, but Lucienne only tightened her grip. “Bad baby!” Jed said. “Don’t you know what this artifact cost me? Now give it up.”

Lucienne didn’t obey. Jed was forced to unwind the baby’s fingers one by one. Before he succeeded in removing her last finger from the scroll, Lucienne swung her other hand around and grabbed it, looking up at Jed with a smirk.

Jed’s face reddened. “Help me, Kian! Don’t just stand there like you’re enjoying this. I can’t afford to let her damage the scroll.”

“I thought you could handle a baby,” said Kian, amused, taking a slow stride toward Lucienne. He laid his big callused hand on top of her tiny one. “Lucia,” he whispered. “It will be yours one day. Now let it go.”

As soon as Lucienne loosened her grip, Jed took back the scroll with a sigh of relief. He then wheeled around to fix Kian with a steely glare. “What do you mean it will be hers one day?”

“You just found your successor.”

A dark flame flickered in Jed’s eyes. “It was only a game. The Lam tradition never allows a female Siren.”

“She clearly picked the scroll that only the next Siren will inherit. None of your four sons or twelve grandsons so much as looked at it.”

Jed narrowed his eyes at Kian. “Why does it matter to you if she’s the next Siren?”

“I serve the Siren. Lucienne has powers only the true Siren possesses.” He had felt it when she had held his cheeks in her hands, peeking into his eyes.

“How can you know about that?” Jed’s eyes only hardened. “And how can you understand the Siren’s burden?”

Kian knew that Sirens, the descendants of the oldest bloodline on Earth, were entrusted with seeking the Eye of Time. The obligation was imprinted in the DNA of each Siren and the quest consumed them all.

“And the unimaginable curse when we fail?” Jed continued, bitterness lacing his words. “It would be far worse for a female Siren, if that’s possible, and if she survived.”

“She’ll survive,” Kian said.

Jed shot him a warning look. “Tell no one what happened here if you want her to live to see adulthood.” Carefully placing the scroll inside a crystal box, the old man fled the Antique Room as if chased by his demons.

It dawned on Kian why Jed made this trial private. If the Lam clan thought the girl was a threat to the Siren’s throne, they’d take her out before she could even walk.

“Lucia,” Kian whispered, picking her up, “one day, you will be the Siren.”

CHAPTER ONE