Page 24 of Chasing Tail
We couldn’t help it. Taron and I started giggling. Even if sirens didn’t view land dwellers as food, they were pretty rotten conversationalists. Most sirens were super vain. They liked pretty things and eating, but they had to moan about it all the time. They’d sink an entire ship and gorge themselves on land dweller flesh, then spend the next two weeks moaning about how their meal was going to ruin their figure. Then, as soon as they got hungry, they just swam out looking for another ship to eat. Aside from the few who lived with us, it was pretty much all they ever talked about.
“A siren would tell him how pretty he was right before she ate him. Then, she’d moan to his bones that his flesh was going to make her fat,”Taron said.
I started howling with laughter because that was so accurate. No one in the sea wanted to talk to the sirens except other sirens. But, they were friendly to mermaids and sharks. The ones that lived in my home were pretty great, but if Taron and I left the boundaries of our home and came across a group of them, we were polite and said hello, but we made all kinds of excuses not to stay. They knew damned well mermaids didn’t eat it, and sharks only did when threatened, but sometimes, they had spare parts around and would offer us random legs.
Beck started laughing with us, and he didn’t even know what we found so funny. He reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear.
“I’m not sure why that’s so funny, but it’s lovely to hear the two of you laugh. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure Taron was capable of smiling. Sirens are pretty nasty business. We’ve been plugging our ears with beeswax if we are in known siren hunting grounds, but sometimes, they surprise ships. Every sailor keeps the plugs in a pouch on their belt, but sometimes, they can’t get them in their ears before they hear the song. So we try to bring them below deck, but they are willing to kill their brothers to jump overboard.”
I tried to stop laughing since Beck wouldn’t know what I found so funny, but Taron and I were doing a miserable job at stopping our giggles.
“Can you imagine the sirens putting all that effort into their songs, and they have to make do with just a few instead of the entire ship?”Taron wheezed.
“I have to give the land dwellers credit for figuring out how to fight the sirens. I mean, technically, the sirens are eating them when they have delicious fish. They don’t need to eat everyone on the ship either, and they complain about it, anyway.”
“You two are so strange, but I’m dying to figure you out. I don’t know a single soul that would laugh that much at the mention of a siren. I’ve known some men who were dumb enough to think they could survive the song and take one as their wife. No one could convince them not to try. We never saw them again.”
Taron and I stopped laughing, and I couldn’t help grunting. Awfully presumptuous of these land men to presume sirens married anyone at all. Land dwellers wouldn’t enjoy mating with a sirenat allif Taron’s anatomy was any indication. Sirens mated like seahorses, and it was male sirens that gave birth. The male siren stayed in the depths raising the children while the female siren sang and sank ships. Most sailors were male, so it made sense.
“I’d say you were a siren and the entire reason you can’t speak is that someone cursed you, so you can’t fight back. It makes a lot of fucking sense, but I can feel it in my gut that’s not the case. I think you know more about them than we do, but you aren’t sinking ships for shits and giggles.”
Did land-dwellers think sirens did all that for fun? Oh, man. When I acted like Callum’s potion cured me, and I could talk again, should I tell them? Beck was funny and flirty. He didn’t take many things seriously and laughed with us when he didn’t know what we found funny. There was still a deep intelligence in his eyes, and I knew he would ask why we laughed as soon as I stopped pretending I couldn’t speak.
I made a decision. I was going to tell them the truth.
