Page 105 of Liar Witch
“Whatisthat noise?” I groan, removing my hands from my ears.
Cassie blushes, her eyes fixed on a spot above my head. “It’s a hymn. A tribute to the Sea and a saga of her bravest warriors.”
If that’s a hymn, I don’t think I want to know what their dirges sound like.
“It sounds much better beneath the waves,” the Seer mutters.
I’ll take her word for it.
“How are you so… calm?” I mutter.
She’s been through hell. The water of her cell has washed away a lot of the blood, but she’s still shaking. Her body savaged by torture.
“It’s easier to accept things when you’ve known they’ll be coming for a while,” Cassie mumbles, glancing back at her mates before looking down at the still-raw skin of her arms. “And, I know it will be worth this and worse… in the end.”
The conversation cuts off as the remaining three salamanders finally appear behind the group of sirens. The instant they catch sight of Cassie, all consideration for the other prisoners goes out of the window.
She’s surrounded by shifters before I can even say anything.
“All four of them?” I ask.
“Sirens do have harems too,”Opal says.“Perhaps they’re more closely related to Lunars than we know.”
I raise a delicate brow. “I know my singing is bad, but it’s notthatbad.”
“No, it all makes sense. You must have more siren blood in you than you know.”
“I don’t understand how a siren’s song is so…” I can’t use the word ‘awful’ in front of all these sirens, and I spend several seconds struggling to find a tactful way to end my sentence before I just give up. “Klaus’s is perfect, but every other time I’ve heard it…”
“It’s because you’re female.”
I jump, not having noticed Cassie creeping up on me, framed on all sides by her four hovering shifters.
“Sorry?”
“Siren song is meant to appeal to men. To lure enemy soldiers to their deaths. To other sirens, it sounds different. We hear our true voice and every emotion behind it, though it’s clearer beneath the waves.”
“And the force Adella used on me?”
“That’s just another aspect of our power.”
“So Klaus’s song sounds better to me because he’s a male?”
“Klaus’s song attracts you because you’re his mate.” Cassie winks, her smile stretched but real. “But, yes, our males—in the rare instances where they’ve chosen to leave our cities—have a similar effect on females.”
The surge of jealousy catches me off guard. It’s so strong I have to forcibly remind myself that Klaus was a virgin when I met him. He’s not that kind of male. Even if he was, he’s mine now.
Galen interrupts my dark thoughts with a quick look over his shoulder.
“Say the word and I’ll break through the final wall and flood this place,” he murmurs to Cassie.
The siren smiles, holding her hand out. “I think you have something for me to deliver to my mother, right?”
I cock my head, but untie and hand over the sack containing Rinaldi’s severed head. “I assumed you’d be staying here…”
Cassie shakes her head. “I left Marisang after Klaus joined theDeadwoodbecause I knew it was time for me to seek out my own destiny. I have to follow my visions.” She glances back over her shoulder at the four shifters. “We’ll stop at Marisang to allow my mother to bless our union, but after that…”
She trails off in the way I’ve begun to learn is common to Seers when they don’t want to give too much away.
