Page 51 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)

Klein

Lai ran to the water’s edge as both women disappeared from sight. Klein followed him to stop his reckless brother, but then he heard the singing in the distance and Lucy’s soft moans. His blood ran cold. He knew their songs.

Sirens.

They were vicious creatures. Thankfully their singing didn’t affect him; his mother’s blood protected him from their charm. His brother stood beside him, protected as well, but only from the song. There was nothing to help stop the panic that was seizing them both.

“We need to help them. They’re gonna be eaten.”Klein swore, taking off his shirt. He was ready to jump into the dark water, but Lai grabbed him.

“They’ll fail, won’t they? If we yank them out before they have the favor?”

“A damn trial is not worth dying for, Lai.”

Klein looked out over the lake. Lucy was being dragged out into the depths; there was no time left. He noticed Freya surface, a dull light glowing in her hand. Why had she not been lured by their song?

Freya made a few strokes towards the shore before she stopped. After a moment of hesitation, she turned, going back toward Lucy.

He ran to the lake to help her.

The water suddenly boiled, churning with long mermaid tails. Klein’s supernatural senses could smell the coppery hint of blood over the lake. He couldn’t see either of the girls.

There was no time to think.

Only to react.

Panic made his hands shake as he tore off his belt and ran into the water, throwing himself into the swarm of hungry monsters.

The dark water embraced Klein, numbing his body, a blessed mercy for what he was about to endure. He was a man in a lake full of hungry sirens. It was only a matter of time before they caught his scent.

A dozen mermaids flashed through the waters around him, fighting over the tantalizing meal like a school of piranha.

Klein allowed himself to be torn limb to limb.

Hundreds of sharp teeth sank into his skin, tearing away chunks and stripping him down to bare bones.

The last thing he saw was Lucy and Freya finding each other, clinging together as the roil of blood and flesh drove the rusalki into a mindless frenzy.

All Klein needed to do was endure. There wasn’t much left of him when his heart finally failed, only meat and blood mixed with filthy water. There was no relief when the darkness took him. Just the cold.

Klein’s ruined body disappeared into the depths of the black water.

Then, the lake exploded.

Klein’s head had been torn off by the mermaids. Five grew in its place, erupting from the water, each one as huge as a car. Their reptilian yellow eyes were blazing with fury, and their jaws were lined with glistening, translucent fangs.

The Hydra stretched upward, its long necks towering over the black, boiling water.

Smooth, leathery skin covered its heavy body, the powerful muscles needed to support so many heads bulging.

The Hydra’s clawed feet reached the bottom of the lake as its back breached the surface, and a tail, long and slender and covered in vicious spines, stirred the water with a single flick.

The lake was deep and icy cold, and the Hydra filled it effortlessly.

The sirens shrieked in terror, twisting to flee. There was nowhere for them to escape. Three heads plunged below the surface, snapping at the panicked creatures, seizing them between saber-like teeth and slicing them into ribbons.

The Hydra was slow, but it was too big for its speed to matter. The sirens screamed and wailed as it devoured them, catching them as though they were goldfish in a tank and its jaws were a net.

One of the heads that hadn’t joined in the hunt had finally spotted Lucy and Freya, hard to see from so far in the air. Both women swam towards the shore, weak and desperate. Klein raised his thick tail beneath them, lifting them out of the water.

Freya screamed, nails digging into the spine she was clutching onto for dear life.

Lucy dangling in her other arm, barely conscious.

They didn’t have much time. The Hydra’s nostrils flared, inhaling water and drinking its scent.

There was a lot of blood in it. A lot of Lucy’s blood.

She was losing too much, and she didn’t have Klein’s fail-safe.

The Hydra let out a deep, guttural growl, calling to its brother.

Lai rushed towards them, wading through knee-high water.

“Bring them here!”

One of the rusalki , determined to fight to the bitter end, let out a loud screech as it lunged for Lai’s throat, the hideous song enough to stop a man’s heart cold in his chest.

“Bitch, my mother was a saltwater siren.”Lai grabbed her by the hair and snapped her neck over his thigh, tossing aside her wretched corpse. It floated away, solid black eyes reflecting the moon.

Klein brought down his tail with Freya clinging to it, supporting Lucy’s limp body with one arm. The woman was shaking and terrified, letting out a relieved sob when Lai held out his hands.

“I got her. Let go.”He scooped up his friend, carrying her to the shore.“Did you find what you needed to?”

He looked at Freya, who was walking backward after him, her eyes glued to the Hydra as it watched them. She nodded, stumbling out of the shallow water, shaky on her feet. In her hand, she clutched a small, glowing key.