Page 73 of A Storm in Every Heart (Enchanted Legacies #2)

ODESSA, PRESENT

T hat was Kastian on the beach. Alive. I saw him!

My breath catches in my throat, and I don’t get a chance to breathe before I’m suddenly pulled beneath the rolling waves. It’s an odd sensation to gasp and take in water instead of air, and even stranger when I don’t choke.

I feel the last of the change ripple through my body—feel my bones shifting and skin stretching beneath the water. The last shreds of the enormous wedding dress I was wearing tear and float away.

The last and only time I transformed into the other me, it had been so quick and seamless that I hardly felt it. This time, it was drawn out, slow, and uncomfortable to change bit by bit as I walked slowly into the water, unsure if I wanted to commit fully to the ocean.

I should have realized that I never really had a choice.

The siren queen grips me tight in her writhing tentacle, reminding me uncontrollably of the sea monster that destroyed Captain Connell’s ship. I struggle, but it’s impossible to escape.

I have to, though. I have to get back to the surface. I need to know for sure…

The tentacle circles my waist and even with my increased strength I can’t pull free. The queen pulls me down, down, down into the dark until we’re face to face. I told you that you’d return someday.

No! I think frantically. Wait! I’m not ready.

Her ethereal voice sneaks into my mind, soft and gentle as a lullaby. Not ready? You’ve had decades, my dear. What else could you possibly want?

I stare into the queen’s black, inky gaze. She appears unchanged, as if it was only yesterday I last saw her. Only yesterday that I bargained away Kastian’s memories and my voice to save his life.

Beyond the queen’s writhing tentacles, there are dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of sirens—far more than I ever saw at one time or even realized existed.

Stop thrashing, the queen’s ghostly voice scolds me. You chose this.

I don’t stop, kicking my tail and pushing against her tentacle winding tighter and tighter around my torso. Let me go!

I will once you’ve convinced me that you’re here to fulfill our bargain. Look at the others, Odessa. In the water, we are as one.

I look beyond her terrifying face toward the others.

Most of the sirens possess tails akin to fish, shimmering with iridescent scales that catch the light and dance with every subtle movement.

Some have more dolphin-like features, their sleek bodies gliding with an effortless grace.

Some are holding tridents or rough-hewn clubs, while still others are wearing decorative veils woven from fishing nets.

They’re all gazing at me in unison, their glassy eyes vacant and unblinking, like toy soldiers waiting for a command.

Is that what will happen to me? How long until I’m just another set of vacant eyes?

As if the question was meant for her, the queen answers me.

Only the queen may give orders or act of her own free will, and there cannot be two of us.

I told you many years ago that there is no room in the ocean for a siren who refuses to join the pack.

You knew what would happen if you entered the water.

I’m at a loss for words, because deep down, she's right.

I should have known that stalling wasn’t an option; that the second I dipped so much as a toe in the sea, I wouldn’t have any choice.

I did know, actually. I was fully aware of the consequences when I returned to the water, yet I went through with it. Just moments ago, it felt like my sole path to freedom.

With Kastian gone and no help from Vernallis before I’d be forced to marry Magnus, an eternity beneath the ocean hadn’t seemed so bad.

Except, Kastian isn’t gone—I just saw him—and now I need to get back to the surface no matter what it takes.

Forgetting for a moment that I can’t speak out loud, I open my mouth and a desperate, haunting cry escapes, a warbling, guttural shriek that vibrates not just the water but the bones in my skull.

As one, the vacant eyed sirens turn to look at me. A few even shift, as if to reach toward me.

In the same instant, the queen's glassy eyes widen and her grip slackens, her tentacle slipping from my waist. I twist and pull with all my strength, feeling the cool, slick surface of her tentacle slide away as I finally break free. Yes!

For a dizzying, glorious moment, I’m free.

Victory swells in my chest and I throw myself upward through the water, my new limbs propelling me in a frantic spiral, every muscle straining toward the barely-there shimmer of the surface.

Then, my heart stops. I freeze in place, as I see a familiar silhouette, strong and tall, plunging toward me through the blue-green haze.

For one wild heartbeat I think it’s a trick, a hallucination, some echo of my own longing.

But then he grows clearer, unmistakable.

My heart pounds in my chest as I spot Kastian slicing through the water with powerful strokes, his gaze locked onto mine, the distance between us closing alarmingly fast.

My heart stutters and my vision darkens around the edges. I knew I saw him, but I’m not entirely sure I believed it until now.

Kastian is alive, and he’s here .

His face is set in a kind of desperate focus, but there’s unmistakable fear there too, a terror I’ve never seen him wear before. He’s not looking at the queen, or the writhing mob of sirens, or even the black abyss below—he’s looking only at me, as if the rest of the ocean is just background noise.

Just like I can hear the siren queen, I can hear Kastian’s thoughts, erratic and loud, like he’s screaming over himself, every single thought broadcasted at once. Need to find her. What is that fucking thing? Can’t breathe. Not leaving you, Odessa.

I hear my own name through the din of jumbled thoughts, and latch onto it.

Kastian, no! Go back! I shout in my mind, trying desperately to make him hear me.

Evidently, he can’t, because his erratic internal monologue doesn’t slow for even a second. Lungs burning, can’t breathe. Should be dead. Don’t fucking touch her.

He clearly can’t communicate in his head, and doesn’t realize that I—we—can hear his every thought. I don’t understand how he hasn’t had to go back up for air yet—why isn’t he drowning? How much longer until he does? Or, will the other sirens attack him first?

I kick my tail harder, new, unused muscles burning as I slice through the water, eyes locked on his distant silhouette. If I can just reach him before the sirens pull us both back down, maybe we can both return to the surface.

It's a desperate, na?ve hope, a fragile thread, but I hold onto it with every ounce of strength I have.

We’re only feet apart when the current shifts. Two sirens appear on either side of me. Their vice-like hands hold both my arms, tugging me back like the undertow. I thrash against their grip, blind panic surging through me, but their hands—webbed, inhuman, merciless—hold me fast.

I scream, and another unearthly wail escapes my mouth. The sound vibrates through the water, and the sirens holding me stop moving. They don’t release my arms, but it’s almost as if they’ve been stunned into inaction.

The screams upset them…or maybe it’s a command?

I open my mouth again, but before I can do anything another ghostly wail comes reverberating up from the deep.

The queen’s scream is different from mine—full of rage rather than terror. Kastian hears the scream too, and his body jerks as if he’s just been stabbed. He stops swimming, treading water with desperate kicks, his whole focus zeroed in on me.

Behind me, the siren queen's scream turns into something like a laugh; a hollow, bubbling sound that starts in her chest and seems to echo from every direction. The other sirens join in until it’s a ghostly, horrifying chorus of sound.

The queen’s voice breaks through the chorus, clear in my mind. Like every other siren before you, you must sever all ties to the land. If you are too weak, then I’ll do it for you.

The sirens restraining me tighten their hold, their cold fingers biting into my arms to keep me in place as the siren queen glides by, her tentacles undulating in deliberate, menacing circles.

A thick, sucker-lined tentacle snaps around Kastian’s ankle with the speed of a whip.

He hardly has a moment to realize what's happening before she pulls him down, twisting him in a disorienting whirl.

He fights back, thrashing and kicking, but the queen is so much stronger.

She drags him down into the black water, out of sight.

My heart jumps into my throat and I act on instinct. I rake the ragged edges of my nails across the nearest siren’s face.

Her flesh shreds like kelp, releasing a torrent of inky-black blood that clouds the water around us.

The pain stuns her, and she reels back, but still, she doesn’t let go of me.

After a second, it’s as if I never hurt her at all.

Her glassy eyes stare at me, unphased, even as her own blood fills the water around her.

I don’t understand it and I don’t have time to think. Panic wells up in me and I scream again in frustration, a raw, shredding note of rage and terror.

For a single heartbeat, all the sirens freeze. The two sirens holding me falter, their grip slacking.

And all at once, I get it.

It’s not that the noise upsets them, it’s that they react to it. In the water, the sirens are of one mind—only the queen can give the orders, and there can only be one queen.

I don’t waste the chance—I pull free from the sirens and I kick my tail, propelling myself after the queen and Kastian.

From somewhere down below, a reverberating musical note floats toward us. At the sound, the siren closest to me recovers, sharp fingers reaching for me. I evade her fingers, swimming as fast as I can past the other glassy-eyed sirens.

Except, they’re not so glassy-eyed anymore.

Some are still frozen, but others are moving, waking up. As I pass, one hurls a trident at me—one of those ancient, three-pronged ones, built from bone and coral and flecked with rust.

I see it spinning toward my heart and time slows. My hand moves before I can think to command it. I catch the trident mid-spin, momentum nearly wrenching my arm from the socket. The impact vibrates all the way into my jaw.

Far below me, I see the queen. She’s dragging Kastian deeper, nearly reaching the very bottom of the ocean.

It seems as if he’s still moving, struggling to free himself. I have no idea how he’s not drowning. Maybe it’s his magic? He did something because this time he knew he was going into the water? Maybe it’s something else, but at the moment I don’t care.

I tear after them, still clutching the trident, and behind me, I can feel rather than see the other sirens hunger and anticipation. The pack is feverish—starving—their bloodlust electrifying the water.

The queen wraps two of her tentacles around Kastian’s chest, one around his throat, and another coils about his ankle, pulling him in a corkscrewing spiral. He claws at the tentacles, but the queen is too strong. The more he fights, the tighter she squeezes. He’s being crushed alive.

My chest spasms with a panic so deep it seems to reverberate outward. I feel the sirens behind me grow nervous, some of them let out ghostly wails of their own, adding to the collective panic.

Stop! I shout—half in my head and half out loud, the sound coming out in a long, keening wail.

Kastian looks up and his eyes lock onto mine. His gaze burns and I feel the bond throbbing warm in my chest.

In the same instance, the queen turns to look at me too and her lips peel back in a hideous grin. You pitiful, insolent child. Can’t you see that I’m doing this to help you?

I don’t answer—don’t hesitate. I draw the trident back and slash, aiming for her torso.

The queen’s eyes widen, and for a moment I see pure shock on her face. Somehow, even now, she didn’t believe I’d want to hurt her.

Her tentacles whip around, catching me hard across the cheek. You’ll destroy anyone you care about. I’m helping you!

Her blow sends a shockwave through my head, but I barely feel it.

I drive the trident forward with every ounce of fury and fear and love I have ever known. The barbs pierce her side, ripping through cartilage and muscle and bone.

Her body convulses in a spasm so violent that she drops Kastian entirely. Dark inky blood flows out of her body, turning the water black. And for a heartbeat her thoughts flash through me—an electric jolt of agony and rage and something like pride.

I scream, a triumphant, guttural howl, and the sound ignites the sirens. Some scatter, some dart toward me to help, while still others let out screams of their own, the ghostly cries ringing through the water so loud that I’m sure they can be heard up above.