Page 32 of Wicked Tides
The obscurity of her question caught me off guard. There was kindness in her tone, but I knew the creatures were incapable of empathy. My brows furrowed just as the clouds allowed the moonlight to pass once more. The girl’s fingers were curled over the bars nearmy shoulder where her face was so close to mine that I could see a light peppering of silver in her cheeks.
They really were captivating up close… another sign of their malevolent nature. They were meant to draw men in, twist them, and break them. I stared into her eyes and saw temptation. I saw a young girl growing into her wicked nature, but she wasn’t quite there.
I could use that.
I shed the ferocity from my hardened features and let the heartbreak claw its way to the surface for her to see.
“I am not hurt,” I said in a broken voice.
She bit her bottom lip, an unexpected look of regret glinting in her eyes. She glimpsed the rocks where the others were slowly growing more silent. With full bellies, they would sleep for hours. It was why hunters used feedings to draw sirens out. Killing them after they’d gorged and were too heavy to flee was an effective method. They ate days, sometimes weeks worth of food after every successful hunt.
And they’d just eaten half a ship crew.
“What is your name?” I muttered, trying to draw the girl’s attention back toward me.
She was uncertain about something. I needed to exploit that.
Always find the weakness and never let it go to waste,my father used to say.
The girl blinked, dipping her head slightly as if she was hesitant to answer. Perhaps that wasn’t the right question.
“I… I’m not hurt,” I repeated. “This cage is small, though. My body aches.”
She met my eyes again, that time seeming to look deeper. I couldn’t look away, as much as I knew I should have. Siren’s eyes could make a man melt. It could strip them of their instinct and leave them unprotected.
Her eyes were doing that to me. They were… beautiful. Silver, starlit orbs that glistened like mirrors, showing the world around us in perfect, miniature detail. And the moonlight smiled in her gaze like the moon itself had birthed her.
And maybe it had. No one truly knew how sirens reproduced. Some said they were devil spawn. Others said they were the children of captive men later eaten after their use had been spent.
A gentle metallic clink brought my eyes to the girl’s hands. Long, thin fingers curled around the bars, her nails like black talons, but not quite as long as Reyna’s. Between her fingers was coiled a thin chain. A necklace.Mynecklace. She caught me eyeing it and pulled it further into her hand.
“My necklace,” I whispered calmly.
“It keeps you from hearing our voice,” she said, cocking her head like a curious cat. “How?”
“Magic,” I shrugged.
Her rapid blinks seemed uncomfortable. She took a glance at my father’s corpse, undisturbed by the feasting crabs. In the morning, the birds would join in. Eventually, my father, the greatest hunter on the waves, would be nothing but bones, bested by his own son.
I let the sadness infect me. It seemed to affect the girl.
“My mother hated him,” she finally said. “Called him the skinner. He’s killed so many of us.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. It was true he’d killed many of her kind, but sirens had killed many sailors in return.
“This was my first hunt,” I said gently. “I don’t think I knew what I was getting myself into.”
“Your first hunt? Do you…” She dropped her head. “Do you want to hunt us?”
“I suppose it’s always been expected of me.”
“And now that your father is dead?”
“Now that he’s dead… I doubt I’ll be far behind.”
Her eyes roamed my cramped body. “You’re just a boy.”
“You’re just a girl.”
