Page 69

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Aria

Tifala’s growl is beastly as she reaches the other siren a second too late. She claws at Mashaka, digging into his shiny dark gray skin until his own scream vibrates through my very bones.

“Mashaka!” My pace is slow, barely faster than the equivalent of a crawl in my mortal form, but I push forward.

Tifala claws and shreds at Mashaka, the now lifeless Zina sinking beneath them to the depths of the ocean floor. New blood— red blood—clouds the water quickly. Too quickly. Mashaka is able to get his mouth around one of her wrists, clenching down as it snaps her bones. Her hand hangs limply, but she pays it no heed as the talons on her other hand stab into him before she drags them along his side. He wails, the sound like a ballad of death; one that I know he won’t be able to come back from. Tears blur my eyes, my magic swelling in my throat from my instincts roaring within me. But our songs don’t work on each other.

Tifala is so focused on killing Mashaka that she doesn’t sense me behind her. She doesn’t have time to stop me when I use every last ounce of adrenaline and strength in my body to jab my talons into the gills on both sides of her neck. I prod them inside of her, pushing hard as I scream and not stopping until I think I hit bone. Until I imagine that I can feel the tips of my claws touching in the middle of her throat. I scream again—one that forces the ocean into dead silence. Tifala falls limp, and I forcefully snatch my hands away from her, watching as her stiff body drifts towards the ocean floor, a trail of blue blood following.

But she isn’t the only one.

“Mashaka!” I cry, my tail moving unsteadily as my hips undulate and bring me towards him. “Mashaka,” I repeat, retracting my claws to gently grasp on to him. He’s too heavy, and I’m too weak to hold him aloft in the water, so we begin to sink together as I gently roll his body over until I can see his face. “No. No. No. ”

Though they are open, no life swirls in his black eyes. A sob forces its way out of me while I carefully caress the space beneath them, his silky skin paler in color.

“Why did you help? You were supposed to choose yourself,” I remind him, the water growing darker as we sink farther away from the sun’s reach. “You didn’t stop the Tula Ledge monster. You—” I stop speaking, unable to navigate the words past the sadness lodged in my throat. In my chest .

Mashaka is dead. This grumpy, sometimes downright mean delphinidae, is dead, and my heart is breaking. Because he had risked everything to save me. The only being in my life to have ever done so. I drape myself over his body, his warmth already a fading memory. As my ears pop and pressure squeezes me the lower we sink, I wonder if it’s better to just stay here in the icy depths of the ocean. If it’s better to succumb to the slow death that seems to linger around me no matter where I go.

An image of the fae lying unconscious at the water’s surface flashes through my mind. I hadn’t even spared her a second glance when I saw Tifala butchering Mashaka. I have no idea if Zina killed her. And, though I wish it didn’t, regret at not checking weaves through me. It sifts into the spaces untouched by my grief and settles in until I know that I have to go check on her. I lift my head and look down below us, but it’s impossible to tell in the pitch black how much deeper there is to fall.

“I’m sorry, my friend,” I rasp, kissing the top of his head. “I have to go.” I release him, my muscles aching with each flick of my tail keeping me afloat. The rip in my fin burns anew, but I ignore it all, waiting with a heaving chest until I can no longer see the outline of his body before turning my head up towards the surface.

It’s an agonizing swim, and I use my arms more than ever before to keep myself moving upward. I happen to spot my bag on the way up, the strap stuck to a piece of debris floating in the current. Opening it with trembling fingers, I confirm its contents before tying the broken pieces of the strap together around my waist. When I find the familiar wooden raft above me, I take a final glance in all directions and then swim through the Spell.

Dark eyes—eyes as black as Mashaka’s—stare into mine as I break the surface, making me yelp and lurch backward. The fae lifts her top lip into a sneer, her sharp canines showing. “I’ll kill you,” she croaks.

I sigh, working my way to the back of the raft by her feet. As I begin to push her towards the shore, her legs twitch until one of them swings fully towards me. Her movement is sluggish, and I easily dodge her attempt to kick me.

“ Please stop. You were in a shipwreck of some kind, and then sirens attacked the rest of your crew.”

“You mean you attacked us?” she slurs, her leg once more blindly trying to connect with my head. I avoid it again, my claw tips digging into the wood. “I’ll get myself to shore.”

“You barely have the strength to say those words. I will push you there and then leave you alone.”

Again, she swings her leg out, and it snaps something within me. The loss of Mashaka, the exhaustion of my journey, and the unbearable weight of simply existing all come crashing down on me. I start singing, unsure if it will actually do anything but succumbing to the call of my magic anyway. Her leg relaxes—her entire body does—as I will her to stop moving. To just stop .

We finally reach the beach, the sandy ocean floor moving closer and closer until I have to transform into my mortal body and push her the rest of the way by crawling on my knees. Only then do I stop singing, letting the magic of my song fade away. I suppose there is no denying now that, somehow, my magic works on females.

The sun is high and bright in the sky, signaling that it’s sometime in the afternoon. Its warmth feels good on my back, and when I can’t push the heavy piece of wood any more, I collapse onto the damp sand next to it. It’ll take a moment for my magic to wear off, and once I’m sure this female is alright, I’ll head home. Alone.

She groans after a few minutes pass, drawing my attention away from the jagged angry line cut into the top of my foot. “What did you do?” she asks, attempting to push herself up. I reach over to help her sit, but she jerks herself away. “Don’t fucking touch me.”

Inhaling sharply, I move onto my knees and sit back on my heels, keeping my hands to myself as I watch her struggle to sit up. The wall of the Spell shimmers a few feet behind us, and if I thought I was strong enough, I might toss her through it myself.

“Tell me what you did ,” she grits out through clenched teeth, her dark eyes meeting mine.

Swallowing, I gesture back out to the ocean. “You were in a shipwreck. Somehow, you fell from the sinking boat and landed on that piece of wood. I found you floating there unconscious.”

She snaps her eyes shut, her hand gently touching the back of her head before she hisses and brings it back down to her side with dark red blood dotting her fingers. “What else?” she barks, opening her almond-shaped eyes to stare into mine.

Her tangled raven hair hangs above her shoulders, though its current state does nothing to draw away from her beauty. Each of her features, from her perfectly pointed chin and full lips to the sharp arch of her ear, looks like it was purposefully placed there. It is not a gentle kind of beauty. It’s precise and powerful. Deadly . Sirens use our looks in tandem with our magic to lure and seduce, but this fae, she could use it and nothing else to make others bend to her will.

“ What. Else ?”

I force my gaze to hers again, digging my fingers into my bare thighs. “Then I brought you to the shore.” I leave out the attack from the sirens. The death that followed.

The fae shakes her head, wincing with the movement. “I remember asking you not to bring me here, and then it gets… fuzzy after that.”

I chew on my lower lip, and her gaze dips down to my mouth before she shoots it back up, her own mouth curling in disgust. “You must have passed back out. Your head is injured.”

She doesn’t look remotely convinced by my lie. “So what do you want, then?” she asks, holding the side of her swollen face as she makes her way to stand. A black cape drapes from her, the fabric tattered at its edges and stained with salt from dried ocean water. It’s attached by bronze chains to plates of black leather layered on top of each other at her shoulders. The leather goes down over her chest, two buckled straps crossing over her breasts before moving around her sides. Decorating one of her shoulders, outlined in that same bronze as the chains, is a dragon. “ Hello !” She snaps her fingers in front of my face.

I clear my throat as I stand, my weight shifting to my non-injured foot. Her expression is shrewd as she faces me, the hand not holding her face flexing down by her thigh.

Right where a dagger is sheathed.

I remember the dagger in my bag, and though I have no idea how to wield it, I position my hand near it. While my hair covers most of my chest and stomach, I adjust my bag to cover as much of my lower half as possible. Not because I’m being modest, but simply because it makes me vulnerable not to.

“You would kill someone who just saved you?” I ask, limping a step closer to the water.

The fae tilts her head as a cruel smile tips her lips upward. I don’t get to inhale again before she’s holding the dagger at my neck, her movements so quick that I startle backward. Her hand dives into my hair to steady me, but the touch is anything but comforting. Bicep bulging with restraint, contempt seeps out of her every pore. “Oh, Little Siren, I would love nothing more than to drag my knife across your throat and send your remains to your bitch queen.” She presses the cold blade to my skin for emphasis, that smile growing when I gasp out in terror. “Were this any other situation, you’d be dead already.” Then she abruptly lets me go, chuckling darkly as I stumble backward. “Unfortunately, I cannot kill you now that I owe you a debt.”

My chest heaves as I rasp out, “What do you mean?”

She huffs, sheathing her dagger while she looks down her slender nose at me. “Don’t play dumb. Everyone knows about the life debt oath we are held to.”

Well, not everyone. I have no idea what she is talking about. “I don’t want anything from you.”

She grumbles under her breath and drags a hand down her face before taking a step towards me. She’s taller than I am, and I have to tilt my head up to hold her onyx gaze. There is nothing in their depths but pure hatred . “Trust me, I want for that to be true. But until we make an even exchange, my conscience will not let me rest. I refuse to let it consist of thoughts about something as abhorrent as you. So, I will ask you again, what do you want as payment for saving my life?”

I swallow as I drop my gaze again, staring at the tops of my feet. At the permanent reminder of my failure that is now carved into one.

“Can I ask you for anything?” I look up as her eyes narrow on me, her jaw clenching.

“Within reason and of equal value, yes.”

This is stupid— stupid. She could kill me at any moment. I don’t even know how this would work, but I can’t stop thinking about how different things might be if I could move through this life with the same kind of physical confidence this fae possesses. I would never be forced to be obedient again. I could escape and know that I could fight back if I was found.

“I want you to teach me how to fight,” I confess, my hand gesturing in the air between us.

She is silent for a long while, her head twisted to the side as if replaying what I’ve said until it makes sense. Then she bursts out into laughter. My cheeks heat as she continues laughing at my expense, her head tilted back with the column of her throat elongated. “Why would you want me to do that?” she finally asks when she calms down.

“It’s personal.”

Looking back out over the ocean, she shakes her head in annoyance. “No. Pick something else.”

“That is all I want,” I say back, cringing when her eyes snap to mine.

“Then tell me why you want it. Consider it a show of goodwill .” She faces me fully, crossing her arms over her chest as her lips fall into a flat line. Her gaze is harsh upon my skin, but her eyes don’t stray anywhere lower than my face.

“You wouldn’t understand,” I reply with a shaky whisper.

“Six lessons,” she finally says, the words forced out of her mouth like she’d rather saw her tongue off instead.

My brows draw together as my hands interlace in front of me. “Six lessons? Is your life worth no more than that? I thought the fae lived for like a thousand years.” Her face is shaded briefly as a cloud moves in front of the sun, but the anger simmering in her eyes remains. “Can’t we leave the amount open-ended? Since it might take me a while—”

“No. The oath requires the details to be laid out specifically. Ten lessons.”

“Twenty.” I shrink in on myself when she takes a menacing step towards me. “Fifteen, then,” I rush out quickly. A gust of warm air pushes at my back so strongly that it knocks me off balance. I fall to my knees, the pain in my foot making me whimper as my palms scrape against the sand.

“Pathetic,” she hisses, but it’s drown out by the shifting of the wind and the sound of… Oh gods.

“Twelve, Little Siren. You get twelve lessons with me, or I’ll order this dragon to incinerate you.”

Looking over my shoulder, I watch as a midnight-blue dragon, its scales reflecting iridescent in the sunlight, slams into the ground, sending clumps of damp sand and water everywhere and rattling my bones with the impact. Heat blasts my back as I cower over my knees, my hands covering my head.

“Better accept quickly,” she drawls, walking until she’s at my side.

“Okay, twelve lessons.” And then, because I’m not a total idiot, I add, “Twice a week and two hours each.”

The fae looks down at me from the corner of her eye, the hot breath of the dragon scalding my skin and clashing with the icy cold of her stare. “One hour and once a week. I don’t have an abundance of free time.”

I nod and slowly stand, the deep rumbling behind me making my shoulders shoot up to my ears. A male voice chuckles, and my gaze flies to the dragon, wondering if I’m going mad. But a fae male is sitting in the space between spikes on the dragon’s back, as if it was born with a spot for a rider.

“Hello, beautiful,” he purrs, leaning forward. His hair is black, like the female’s, though it’s much longer. It drapes past his shoulders and brushes against the dragon’s rough-looking skin. The female moves so that she is standing between the flying beast and myself, blocking its giant yellow eye from the side of its face that I can see. I swallow, noting how just one of the dragon’s claws is nearly half the length of my body.

She extends her hand out to me, the other resting above a second dagger strapped to her other thigh. Like she really expects me to somehow attack her while shaking her hand. “We’ll meet here in a week’s time.”

“This meeting place is too far from our capital. Is there somewhere else on the shore we can meet that’s closer to the Mage Kingdom’s border?” Even that would take a few hours to get to.

She grinds her teeth together and exhales a sharp breath. “Fine. There is a spearhead-shaped peak about ten miles away from where the mage border meets our own. Will that work?” I nod, grasping her hand. “I have to know your name for the oath.”

“It’s Aria. And yours?”

She lowers down until she is at eye level with me, drawing so close that my vision is entirely consumed by her hauntingly beautiful dark eyes. “You will not utter my name to a single soul. You will not speak of this deal to any of the rest of your disgusting kind. Do you understand?” Her grip is so tight that my bones shift in my hand, and I have to fight back the urge to send my talons out.

“I don’t want anyone to know about this either.” She smirks but keeps her gaze intently on me. It consumes me from the inside out, both luring me closer and spiking enough fear that I want to pull away.

“Myla.” Then she gives my hand one quick shake before dropping it like it’s made of prickly sea urchins. I suspect that she might like it better if it were. Striding towards the towering dragon, she climbs up its front leg with practiced ease and settles herself behind the male.

“Father has been looking for you,” he says to her, giving me a wink.

“Shut the fuck up.”

The male chuckles, and then the dragon crouches low, its claws digging into the sand before it launches into the air and spreads its wings out wide—temporarily blocking out the sun. They beat powerfully, pushing warm air down towards me for a long while as I watch them ascend before they go inland through the Spell and towards the black mountains that make up the Fae Kingdom.

I stand there motionless, letting the water wash up and over my feet as I contemplate what in the Five Realms just happened. Finally, as the sun rests above the western horizon, I walk back into the ocean and begin the last leg of my journey to Lumen.

Alone.