Page 109 of Dark Embers

“Why me? I’m a useless mermaid.”

I shook my head. “You are much, much more than that. Which brings me to the other bit of knowledge I feel like I must confess to you.”

She rubbed at her nose, swollen eyes looking at me while she waited for me to continue.

“What I’m about to tell you is extremely confidential, Arya. I implore you to not disclose such information to anybody else. Not even your closest friends.”

She nodded, an eagerness stirring in her countenance.

“Celeste is the greatest seer in the known world. Her clairvoyance goes beyond the skill of any other mermaid that I know. Years ago, she received a prophecy about a stray mermaid. This prophecy states that a stray mermaid would be a siren, and would be the one to bring an end to Hadrian and his group of vampires.”

She stiffened at my words, her eyes widening.

“Siren?” she whispered.

I looked at her in confusion. Out of that entire declaration of the prophecy, she had pulled the wordsirenout of it?

“Yes. I believe that siren isyou.”

Relief spilled through me at finally telling her the truth, as if a great weight had been taken from my shoulders.

“That’s what he called me,” she murmured.

Again, I gave her a confused look. “Somebody called you a siren?”

She nodded quickly, looking down at her feet. Anxiety replaced my short-lived relief.

“Who? Who called you a siren?”

“Hadrian did,” she said softly, bringing her gaze back to mine.

I licked my dry lips as she said the vampire’s name.

“Hadrian was involved in the attack tonight?” I asked. “And he called you a siren?”

She stiffened again. “Something happened… During the fight. Something weird happened with my voice.”

My heartbeat increased. “Tell me.”

“It’s hard to explain,” Arya said, her fingers picking at the edge of the arm of her chair. “Ashlyn was in trouble. A vampire had her. And I told the vampire holding her to leave her alone.” Her eyes distanced as she recalled the memory. “My voice was different, though. It was still mine, but it was a deeper, fluid sound. Almost like I was singing, even though I wasn’t.”

She was a siren!Thesiren! My eyes widened, and my mouth opened ever so slightly as she spoke.

“And the vampire holding onto Ashlyn went quiet and still, like I hypnotized her or something. That’s when Ashlyn escaped.There must have been some kind of magic in my voice to make her freeze like that.”

“You’rethesiren,” I said as I stared at her with increasing awe. “I have always believed, but now I know it.”

“But if I’m this siren from the prophecy you’ve talked about, that means I’m supposed to kill Hadrian, right?”

I nodded, not knowing how else to directly answer her question. That was a heavy weight for anybody to bear. I’d failed in killing Hadrian seven years ago. And now that task was on Arya's shoulders.

“And how am I supposed to do that?”

I straightened my back. This question I knew the answer to.

“We train you.”

Arya’s brows furrowed. “Like what I’m already learning?”

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