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Story: The Siren

Finding the Eye of Time was like chasing the moon in the lake. She had offered Vladimir a way out; he’d refused to leave her, but the golden boy laughed less these days. Over time, he had started to develop a dark, sullen expression, as if the world had done him a great wrong.

When he thought she wasn’t looking, Lucienne watched pain bleed him dry. And no one knew how much his pain affected her. She swept her gaze over her scientists and settled on Ziyi. The petite beauty’s purple-streaked hair was down to her chin with heavy bangs. Ziyi was seventeen days older than Lucienne. The girl wore a yellow flowery Chinese qipao and high heels. A thin gold chain clung around her slender ankle.

Lucienne’s old nanny, who had followed Lucienne to Sphinxes, had warned her, “If I were you, I would watch that foxy girl. I don’t like the way she flings her eyes at your prince.”

“Ziyi flirts with every guy,” Lucienne had answered crossly. “And Vladimir isn’t mine.”

Although Lucienne knew there was nothing between Ziyi and Vladimir, a stab of jealousy still lashed through her. Vladimir had stopped his flirtatious teasing with her after their second near-fatal kiss, saving all his jokes for others, particularly Ziyi. Lucienne quelled an acid feeling in her stomach.

“Speak, people,” she said. “You paged me.”

“We intercepted signals! I bet on one of my pinkies it’s not a false alarm this time.” Unable to contain her exhilaration, Ziyi jumped up from her seat and rushed to Lucienne’s side.

“The strongest outburst of high-energy particles ever,” another physicist confirmed.

“We wouldn’t release the lightning in the bottle until you got here,” Vladimir said. He had finally given up ignoring her and left his post beside a copy of the ancient map they had taken from the monastery the year before. The map marked a civilization surrounded by a ring of mountains. The Dragonfly satellite failed to find a match since the map was made before the continents moved. Vladimir had been obsessed with the map ever since Lucienne told him that her curse was tied to finding Eterne.

“Play it, Ziyi,” Vladimir ordered and moved to Lucienne’s other side. His shoulder almost brushed hers. His body heat passed ontoher, and his scent entered her space. Lucienne forced herself to step aside casually.

Ziyi clicked a remote control.

On a wall-mounted screen, a cluster of dark dots fired like lava out of a three-dimensional black hole.

“Make sure there’s no breach.” Lucienne studied the running dots. “I don’t want anyone outside the Sphinxes getting wind of this.”

“Already checked,” Vladimir said. “As soon as the particle outburst happened, we jammed the signal from the source.”

Lucienne nodded in appreciation. Vladimir was like Kian. They always thought three steps ahead.

“I also hacked into other networks, browsing classified databanks, searching for any sensitive keywords,” Ziyi said. “You have me guarding our network, so we’re solid.”

“And we’re exclusive.” Vladimir winked at the girl.

Ziyi giggled.

They were totally flirting. Was Vladimir trying to make her jealous? If so, then he was making a mistake. The Siren wasn’t known to be forgiving.

“Good.” Lucienne kept her tone flat.

Vladimir’s gaze flickered to her face, but Lucienne kept her blank stare on the screen.

The dark dots shifted to an array of numbers, strange symbols, and glyphs.

It’s happening just as the first scroll foretold: A burst of dark energy, then an indecipherable code.Lucienne’s eyes glistened brightly before they dimmed. The phenomena should happen only after she activated the Eye of Time, but she hadn’t. Something was wrong.

“Record the numbers,” she ordered.

The numbers and symbols flickered, then disappeared.

Lucienne’s sharp stare snapped to Ziyi.

Ziyi ran her fingers frantically over the keyboard, typing a sequence of commands. “I . . . I don’t know what happened,” she said, breaking a sweat. “I’m working on it . . . C’mon!”

“Track the source,” Lucienne said.

“Tracking,” Ziyi answered. A second later, she pulled up a map on the screen and zoomed in on the spot. “I have the coordinates. 71°23′20″N 156°28′45″W71.38889°N 156.47917°W.”

“Where is it?” Lucienne asked.