Page 13 of Siren Problems
LUNA
M ira has been possessed before.
Once during a ley surge in Underroot and once at a magical convention when she got too close to an ancestral memory well. The first time she spoke fluent Old Tide for thirty seconds, then vomited glitter and passed out. The second time, she tried to marry a salt crystal.
So when she starts humming in a pitch only ley-sensitive glass can shatter, I freeze mid-step in the lab and mutter, “Oh hell no—not again.”
She’s sitting cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by the relic fragments we brought back from the wreck. Her fingers hover just above one of the sigils I traced this morning—still faintly glowing, even outside the water.
“Mira?” I ask.
Nothing.
I inch closer, slow and careful, like she’s a cat about to bolt—or a bomb about to singe my eyebrows off .
“Mira, I swear, if this is another trance-loop and you try to propose to the coffee pot again?—”
Her eyes snap open.
But they’re not Mira’s eyes.
They’re glowing. Sea-glass green with a ring of moonlight white.
And when she speaks, it’s not in her voice.
“A voice unbound under moonlight shall echo. A heart in silence must choose. The deep remembers.”
I drop my tablet.
“What?”
Her head tilts. “The sea takes what it loves. The sea gives what it mourns.”
“Mira—come on. Snap out of it. Don’t start reciting cryptic breakup poetry.”
But she keeps going. The voice vibrates the air around us, charged and hollow. Like she’s being used as a conduit .
“Only the unbound shall open the sealed. Only love shall temper the song.”
Then, just like that, her eyes flutter. Her body slumps. And she falls backward into a pile of ley paper and enchanted rubber bands.
I rush forward, catching her head before it hits the floor. “Mira! Are you with me?”
She groans and squints up at me. “Ugh... why does my throat taste like kelp and sarcasm?”
“You were possessed.”
“Again?” She frowns. “That’s rude. I didn’t even have a snack first.”
“You channeled a spirit. It said things. Weird things.”
She pushes herself up slowly, blinking like her eyelids haven’t recalibrated yet. “What kind of things?”
I repeat it.
A voice unbound.
A heart in silence must choose.
Only love shall temper the song.
Mira’s eyes widen with every word.
“That’s prophecy syntax.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious.”
“No, I mean it’s formal. That wasn’t a rando ghost trying to flirt. That was a higher echo. Bound to a ley junction. Maybe tied to the wreck.”
I pace.
Because here’s the thing—I want to laugh it off. I want to roll my eyes and chalk it up to magical indigestion.
But I can’t.
Because when she said “a voice unbound under moonlight,” my brain screamed Calder before I could stop it.
His voice.
His curse.
His fear of unraveling.
And mine... mine is trying very hard to pretend I didn’t feel something shift the second I touched that seal in the wreck.
Mira is watching me now.
“Luna,” she says slowly, “you don’t think this is about you and Mr. Stormcloud, do you?”
“I know it is.”
Because I saw that moment underwater—when magic snapped and recognized me.
I felt him behind me—protective, wild, and wanting something he swore he’d never take.
I exhale hard.
“I think we’re in deep, Mira.”
“You think ?”
I rub my eyes. “Okay. I know .”
She stands, brushing off sea dust. “So what’s the plan, Professor?”
I look down at the relics still glowing, and feel the ocean pull behind my ribs.
“We find out what he’s not telling me,” I whisper. “And then I figure out if loving him is going to save him... or break us both.”
Kai shows up ten minutes later with a potion that glows like mood lighting and smells like cinnamon lies.
“Someone said the lab got spooky,” she announces, toeing the door open with a box of fried seaweed dumplings. “And by someone, I mean Mira called me in a whisper and said, ‘Possessed. Help. Bring snacks.’”
Mira’s sitting on the floor again, covered in sigil dust and drinking lemon water like it owes her rent.
“I blacked out,” she mutters. “Again.”
“She quoted a prophecy,” I say, pacing the length of the lab like it’s going to solve the puzzle faster.
Kai perks up. “Ooooh, prophecy! Sexy and stressful.”
I repeat the words again. A voice unbound under moonlight. A heart in silence. Only love shall temper the song.
Kai freezes mid-dumpling chew. “Oh, girl. That’s fate-coded.”
“Don’t start.”
“I’m serious. ” She waves the dumpling like a wand. “That’s vintage destiny language. Half my aunt’s vision scrolls start that way. Moonlight. Echo. Love tempering power? That’s fate with a capital F. ”
“Or it’s metaphor,” I argue. “Or it’s just ley residue trying to sound poetic.”
Kai crosses her arms. “You think everything’s academic until it licks you in the face. Then it’s ‘Oh no, maybe this siren prince is emotionally attached to me through a thousand-year-old enchantment!’”
“Because that’s a totally reasonable reaction to a cursed water boy throwing sea relic tantrums when I breathe near them.”
Mira raises a hand weakly. “I think I’m dying.”
“You’re fine,” Kai and I say at the same time.
I finally collapse into my chair, rubbing my temples.
Because here’s the truth I haven’t said aloud yet.
Every time Calder looks at me I feel something pull. Not like fate. Not like magic.
Like recognition.
And when Mira quoted that line—“a voice unbound”—I remembered the way his voice almost came back the night we kissed. Like my presence cracked the curse.
Not through power.
Not through magic.
But through emotion.
Through... vulnerability.
Through love.
And gods help me, I’m starting to think that’s the key.
“I think...” I say slowly, eyes still closed, “his curse is tied to emotional suppression. Like, it feeds off repression. Silence. Fear. The more he wants, the more dangerous the magic gets.”
Kai whistles low. “That’s diabolical. ”
“It’s brilliant,” Mira adds. “A curse that weaponizes intimacy. Keeps him isolated. Guarded. Broken.”
I look up. “Which means... maybe it’s not about breaking the curse with force.”
Kai’s grin is wicked. “It’s about breaking him open. Gently. Romantically. Possibly with steamy bathtub scenes.”
I throw a pillow at her.
Mira blinks. “Luna. Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
I nod.
“If I want to free him... I have to love him out loud.”