Page 26 of Siren Problems
Hair loose, cheeks flushed, wearing a black leather jacket over one of those scientific-rebel T-shirts. She’s scanning the room, looking for me.
Of course she is.
She spots me. Her eyes narrow. Then, to my surprise, she walks straight to the bar, grabs the drink someone abandoned next to me, and throws it back.
“Probably cursed,” I mutter.
“Definitely cursed,” she says, licking her lips. “Tastes like trauma and lime.”
I shouldn’t be here. With her. Not now.
Not after the dive. The boat. Her hands on mine.
But she leans in anyway.
“You avoiding me again, Sea Grump?”
“Trying,” I grit.
“Failing.”
She’s too close. Her elbow brushes mine. Her aura sparks at the edge of mine, fizzing, friction-filled. It smells like rain and stubbornness.
Kai reappears with a tray of glowing shot glasses, one already cracked and smoking. “Oh. Ohno.”
“What?” Luna says, already reaching for another.
Kai yanks it away. “That wasn’t lime trauma potion. That was the shelved one. The... oops batch.”
Luna blinks. “Oops?”
“It amplifieswhateveryou’re already feeling. And, um, makes it impossible to lie. Or shut up.”
“Wait, what?”
Kai leans over the bar. “You’re about to be real honest, real fast, and possibly ruin someone’s entire emotional coping strategy.”
Luna turns to me, eyes wide.
And then shelaughs.
“Oh no,” she says. “That’s... that’s not good.”
I can feel the shift before she even speaks again. Her aura flares. Her voice dips.
“You’re hot, Calder.”
I freeze.
She keeps going. “Like, really hot. In that broody, emotionally repressed, haunted-by-sea-ghosts kind of way. I should be annoyed by it. But I’m not.”
She grabs the edge of my shirt. “I think Ilikeit.”
I grab her wrist before she pulls me closer. My grip is gentle. My pulse isnot.
“Luna,” I warn.
“Yeah?” she breathes.
