Page 44 of Lured By the Siren

A piercing scream resounds across the island, and I feel it deep in my bones. Yvette is screaming a siren’s song, trying to stop Mathius’s attacks.

In his shock, Kai drops the makeshift sack and it begins to sink to the bottom of the sea. Kai grasps for it and the loose knot keeping the bundle closed begins to unravel. Vials bob to the surface, looking like apples waiting to be collected from a barrel.

Mathius finally reaches Yvette and grips her by the arms, squeezing her back against his chest. He places a large hand over her mouth, silencing the song while the golden glow simmers around his entire frame.

Kai is frantically working to collect the bouncing potions littering the water. Heedless of the strength of each crashing wave, I watch in horror as he gets battered by a wave and pulled under.

Panicking, I dive down and swim to him as quickly as my fins will carry me. My heart lurches in my chest as I pray to the gods that he can find a way to get his head above water.

How could I let this happen?

Kai fighting to find the surface, Mathius using all his power to keep Yvette contained and these damned vials won’t sink. Finally reaching Kai, I pull him to the surface and grip the sides of his face, smashing a kiss to his lips. I breathe life into his lungs and hum a healing song. Circled in my arms, he begins to cough and clings to me like a life raft.

“Kai, look at me. Focus,” I plead, my tail thrashing against the strong force of the ocean. “I need you to swim with me, my love. We have to get back to shore. The storm is coming, and I can’t fight this.”

His eyes come back into focus. “Eve, what happened? One minute I was able to stand, the next I was being swept under the waves.”

“I know, Kafigda is angry, but I’m so glad you’re safe now. Listen, we have to go and help Mathias,” I pull him closer to me, savoring one final embrace before we face the unknown. “You need to take one of the Elixirs, you’ll never make it back to shore without it, you need to be able to breathe underwater. Then I have to destroy that necklace Yvette is wearing. That’s where all her power is coming from. You have to remember who you areand don’t fall under her spell, Kai. Whatever you do. Don’t listen to her.”

“Okay,” he says, looking at me like he would take on the world and all its creatures for me.

My shattered heart feels like it might be able to piece itself back together after all. Kai pulls the cork on the sparkling pink liquid and downs it in one swallow. The waves start to thrash, and even pumping my tail with all my strength, I know I won’t last long against this storm. Grabbing Kai’s hand, we plummet under the water and make our way to the shore.

Keeping his hand in mine somehow feels like the most important thing in the world right now. My mind races with the possibilities of what is happening on land with my father and Yvette.

My father.

I still can’t believe it, but deep down, I feel like I’ve always known we shared a connection. Maybe when all of this is over, Mathius can tell me more about my mother.

Shaking from my thoughts, we finally make it to the beach, where I can make out the silhouettes of Florence, Mathius, and Yvette in some kind of a struggle. Florence seems to be wielding the torch that I was holding earlier, while Mathius struggles to keep his grip on Yvette.

Suddenly, Florence is thrown across the beach, the torch retched from her hand as she crumbles to the ground. I gasp out and begin sprinting towards her unconscious form. A low humming is resounding, and as I reach Florence, I turn to see Kai stalking towards Yvette with the sharpened torch in his hand.

“Florence, can you hear me?” I sing a healing song and watch the color return to her face as she shifts slightly under my hands. I push the hair back from her face and feel for her pulse gently with one hand. It flutters very lightly under my fingers, but it’sstill there. All of this healing is starting to take its toll, but I lay her back on the sand and gingerly push off my knees, pushing through.

Kai is still stalking towards Yvette. He is no match for her on his own. What is he thinking?

And then I realize, the Elixir—he’s drawn to her. And the singing, she’s calling him to her aid. Mathias must be immune to her song with whatever magic he possesses, but Kai, under the influence of the potion, certainly is not.

I sprint towards him, my heart hammering in my chest. I can’t lose him. I can’t let her keep him here.

Mathius, struggling to keep Yvette contained, turns his back to Kai. Grasping at any part of her that he can keep his hands on, he tries with all his might to cover her mouth and stop the singing. Suddenly, with more strength than I thought possible from his lithe frame, Kai hurdles the torch right at Mathius’s exposed back.

“Watch out!” I scream with all the air I have left in my lungs. Diving for Kai, I tackle him to the ground just as the torch leaves his hand.

Surprised by my sudden attack, he huffs out a breath as I grab for his wrists and pin his body under mine.

“Kai, snap out of it,” I pleaded. Risking his escape, I shift both his hands into one of mine and slap him across his cheek. His eyes shift back into focus, and I instantly regret such an outburst.

“Gods Evelyn, what did I do to deserve that?”

Hope surges in my chest and I gradually release my grip on his wrists and sit back. “You tried to kill Mathius, now get up and help me kill this sea bitch. I need to destroy her necklace.”

Still writhing in his arms and with a nasty scratch from the torch on his side, Mathius has managed to finally cover Yvette’s mouth again.

As we run up to him, I wrench the coral seahorse necklace that has encompassed this woman’s neck for centuries off with one tug. The necklace that has brought so much heartache and trapped so many lives. That killed my mother and kept this storm circling the island. And smash it against the closest rock.

It crumbles in my hand and a dark green mist escapes from the rubble. A boom cascades across the island, and lightning streaks across the sky. A piercing cry sounds from behind me, and I turn to see Yvette writhing on the ground. The ethereal glow that surrounded her only moments ago has winked out and her scales rapidly begin to dry and crack. She’s aging right in front of my eyes, decades at a time. She continues to shriek as her scales turn to nothing more than sand. Starting from her feet and her hands, she slowly crumbles into the sand of Kafigda.

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