Page 60 of Cursed By a Siren's Kiss

I’d just killed one of my own subjects. I backed away, horrified by the blood I’d spilled. How could I have done this? Everything I had been working toward had been for my people, to break the curse that had cost us so many of our numbers, and I had just taken one of us with my own hands.

The deck of Kipp’s ship was alive with commotion as sirens fought the crew, fought Kipp. Blood spilled across the boards, painting the deck crimson. Kipp’s crew had been thinned; theydidn’t stand a chance against the viciousness of my people. I had to make a choice. Kipp and his crew, or my own people.

“Stop!” I commanded. “I am your queen!” I tried again, but they didn’t still their attack.

A female siren lunged for me, a spear jabbing toward my heart with lightning speed. I twisted just in time to throw off her aim, but I hadn’t been quick enough as I felt the sting of the pointed tip as it sliced the side of my stomach. I heard Kipp yelp as the blood bloomed along my middle, and I knew he’d felt the pain of the wound as well.

“Poseidon crowned a new king, and he sent us to dispose of you,” my attacker said, snarling at me as she clutched her spear tighter.

I narrowed my gaze at her, disbelief igniting behind my gaze as I kept a close eye on her weapon. “You dare to spit on my mother’s memory and her throne by allowing a creature who isn’t even a siren to sit on it?” I demanded, anger lacing my words like a red, hot poker.

She jabbed out at me again, but I easily dodged her, keeping enough distance between us so that I’d have the time needed to react.

“He promised to lift the curse,” she said, hissing.

I laughed. “He can’t lift a curse he didn’t even create,” I replied, shaking my head at their stupidity. “It has to be broken, you fool.”

A moment of hesitation flickered within her face before she gripped her spear tighter again. I barred my teeth, letting the sharped points snap at the air between us. The fact that Poseidon was using the belief of lifting the curse to gain loyalty and turn them against me while I did all the work of breaking the curse enraged me. Even if I succeeded now, they’d still think it had been by his hand that the curse had ended.

“I don’t want to kill you,” I sighed, dodging another advance as she lunged again, “but I will.”

I gave her one final chance to change her course, but she swung the sharp, silver point of her spear at my head, and I rolled forward, leaping to my feet and letting my claws tear through the flesh of her chest as I pulled her still-beating heart from her chest.

Holding the heart above my head, the blood of it sliding down my arm and dripping from my elbow, I pulled power to me, letting it fuel the rage within me as I shouted, “You idiots chose the wrong side!”

This crown had been forced upon me at such a young age, and it had always been promised to me until very recently. Yet, Poseidon had set me up to fail my people repeatedly, even now he still pulled the strings to this moment, setting me up to be the villain of my sirens, my mother’s creations. He had never intended for me to take the throne; I could see that now.

I let the heart fall to the boards at my feet, a wet thunk sounding as it hit the deck. Power thrummed toward me, mine by right from my Titan mother and my Olympian father. As I felt it vibrate within me, a wicked smile lifted my lips as I realized something. Poseidon only wanted me gone because he feared me. Feared the creature that he had helped create that now held more power than even he.

And he was right.

The desire to rip them all apart ignited like an inferno within me. I lifted my hand to do just that, but then my gaze found Kipp, who fought a siren with such ferocious intensity. His skin had been shredded, and I glanced down at myself, noticing slight wounds that mirrored his along my flesh, though not as intense as the ones he’d suffered. The siren gripped her clawed hold around his throat, lifting him from the ground as she knocked his sword from his hand. The darkness he’d held at bay withinhis gaze consumed him, and he released it. His hands clamped around the wrist of the siren holding him, and the darkness traveled like ink along his skin until it connected with the siren, consuming her until she fell to the deck as nothing more than a husk of what she had been.

“Kipp!” I took a step toward him, watching as that inky darkness took him completely. “Fight it!”

My attention glued to him, I failed to notice the siren at my back until a golden trident pierced me through the back, its magical tips protruding from my chest as I recognized the weapon while my knees slammed into the deck. Poseidon’s trident had speared through my back to my chest, just missing the fatal blow to my heart by mere inches.

A scream tore through my throat as pain lanced through my spine. My body collapsed to the deck, and Kipp stood above me in seconds, his inky gaze locked to the siren as she pulled the trident from my back, my blood and skin splattering the deck as I lay my head against the cool, damp boards. Kipp reached out, a murderous look behind his eyes as he ripped the trident from her hold, dropping it to the ground at my side.

I blinked up at him, watching dots of blood mar his chest. Three splotches that matched the wounds I’d taken, though not as severe as what had torn through me. Kipp ignored the injuries as he wrenched the siren apart with his bare hands, limb from limb.

The siren’s dying screams and the violence of her death stilled the ship as both mortal and siren stared on in horror. I reached out, wrapping my bloodied hand around the shaft of my father’s weapon, using it to climb to my feet. This weapon could kill me, and I knew Poseidon never went without it. He never allowed it out of his sight. I looked around and out into the ocean beyond, knowing he remained out there somewhere close, watching.

I slammed the trident’s base into the deck, a resounding thud echoing through the silent night as I glared out at the remaining sirens. They stared at me, frozen in uncertainty. One hand held the blood welling from my chest, the other firmly held the trident. With a disappointed shake of my head, I sent the base of the weapon into the deck again, watching as the sirens turned into sea foam, splashing onto the deck as if they were no more than the remnants of a stormy wave as they mingled with the crimson stains this night had left.

Pain shot through my hand like lightning; the consequences of using the unclaimed weapon already throbbing within my fingertips. The weapon could only be claimed with the death of its current wielder, and I had yet to end the life of my father. Before I could use the weapon again, it was wrenched from my hand, and it flew into the ocean, disappearing beneath the surface.

I watched the waters where it had disappeared, my blood still dripping across my fingertips as I clutched at my wounds. My breath heaved from me as I readied for what I knew would kill us all. I waited for my father to show now that his minions had weakened us. Waited for a wave, or a storm, or for whatever he would throw at us to end us.

Yet, nothing came.

I turned, searching for Kipp and finding him knelt near the center deck. Blood and gore smeared every inch of the ship, and the bodies of several of his crew lay broken and shattered where they’d lost their fight against my people. I made my way toward him, my chest throbbing with pain as I knelt in front of him, watching the inky darkness behind his eyes as it consumed him. His body tensed, hunched slightly, and his fingers held the bloodied fabric of his pants as if he fought an internal battle that he didn’t appear to be winning.

Placing my hands over his, I brought my lips closer to his, my breath hot on his face as I commanded, “Let it go.”

“I can’t,” he answered, his voice strained and the cords in his neck throbbing with the effort of his unseen fight.

I lifted my hands to cup his face. “Let it go,” I demanded again, imbuing more force behind my words.

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