Page 9 of Song of Lorelei

Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

Nireed put on a good show of resilience, but Lorelei felt the siren’s longing roll off in waves. She didn’t know what to say to reassure her. They were getting closer to a treatment, yes, but who knew how much longer it would take? For humans, this sort of thing usually took years, a decade even, if at all. There was no foreseeable future in which Nireed would return to the sea.And she would not hurt Nireed with false hope.

“Two-Leggers care too much about themselves and not enough about their people. I saw it as my duty. And Undine did ask. She did not have to.”

Lorelei straightened. “She did? I’d always thought she’d issued an order…”

“Does it matter? It had to be done.”

Lorelei swallowed, daring to ask the question that burned a hole in her mind. “Do you hate us for bringing you here?” She had to know, even if she didn’t like the answer.

“For us,” Nireed began, crossing her hands at the wrist, fingertips skyward. She made a beckoning motion toward her chest like fins through the water—it was the hand sign the seafolk used to signify themselves. “There is no worse end than living on shore. Or so I thought. Now, I know a worse one.” Nireed gestured flippantly toward the tank. “Living in there and still seeing the sea everyday through two walls of glass. I should hate you for the life I have now.”

Guilt twisted like a knife in Lorelei’s gut. Any hope of coming to terms with bringing Nireed to shore vanished. Nireed suffered—a worse fate than the seafolk could have imagined—and this was all Lorelei’s fault. She blinked back the tears that stung her eyes. There was no way she was going to cry in front of the siren. “Why don’t you?”

The siren glanced back at her and shrugged. “Maybe it is because you are kin. Or it is my chosen duty to my people. Or because I eat well and can swim without fear of sharks.”

Comfortable captivity was still captivity.

“But I think it is this. I am never alone. Too many,” Nireed signed ‘injection,’ “for that. And still I feel alone. But talking with you is the best part of the day, because I forget that feeling for a little while.”

Shame washed over Lorelei anew. She dried her eyes before any tears slipped down her cheeks and swallowed the lump in her throat. “Then we will continue to have these talks for as long as you are here. I can at least do that much.”

“Good.” Touching her drying hair, the siren grimaced. “It is time for me to go back.”

If the circumstances had been different, they might have become friends.

Chapter Three

LORELEI

Indigo waves rolled into shore, and Lorelei sat at the kitchen table, staring out the open window at the horizon, a glass of homemade iced tea pressed between her hands. Cool condensation licked her fingers, the taste of lemon and fresh mint lingering on her tongue. A strong sea breeze carrying in the scents of salt, pine, and kelp, caught the loose strands of her hair and tickled her cheeks.

She sung a little under her breath, repeating just the chorus of a sailor’s song to herself. Greta, her adoptive mother, had taught her a variation of the traditional one she learned while sailing on The Osprey. Singing always soothed Lorelei when her mind was troubled.

Upon one summer’s morning, I carelessly did stray,

Down by the Coves of Haven, where I met a sailor gay,

Conversing with a young lass, who seem’d to be in pain,

Saying, Sailor, when you go, I fear you will ne’er return again.

My heart is pierced by Cupid, I disdain all glittering gold,

There is nothing can console me but my jolly sailor bold.

By all accounts, it was the perfect summer evening in coastal Maine, but its tranquility did not quite reach her. The skies were clear, but a thick fog encased Lorelei’s thoughts, which these days, were predominated by her job and Nireed’s well-being.

Her leather work bag sat in a heap by the door where it had slid from her shoulder, ignored. There was more to get done this evening, but so little room to breathe, and it was all she could do to stay afloat with the museum grand opening looming.

There was the…and she had to do the…

Lorelei cupped her forehead.

What did she have to do again? There was just so much, enough to drown in, but she couldn’t recall a single thing. No matter. She’d study her notes later. She kept detailed to-do lists for moments of forgetfulness like this. But for now, she would try to enjoy her break and allow herself some time to reset from the office.

An itch prickled along Lorelei’s neck.

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