Page 8 of Cursed By a Siren's Kiss

I twisted onto my back, turning from him as I peered to the sky instead. His words made me uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure why. “I would do nothing because love is weakness. Power is all that I want and need.” I had spoken with a fierce determination, but the words felt hollow even to my ears. I didn’t need love, I reassured myself, nodding as if answering myself.

That wistful smile returned on Proteus’ face. “We shall see,” he mumbled.

His words fell into the night simply enough, but for the first time in my existence, it felt as if his words caressed my bared skin like a prophecy spoken to life. I shivered as I continued watching the skies above, the slow passage of time as the waves hit the beach with a soothing rhythm.

A bond had formed between us that day, and an unlikely friendship had blossomed. We’d spent the evening beneath the sky, enjoying each other’s company as we talked all night long. As we’d entered the sea under the dawning light, our tails fusing our legs together beneath our scales once more, I prepared myself for the wrath of my father for having not performed my duty.

The two of us faced Poseidon, and then Proteus did the unthinkable. He lied to the most powerful god of all the seas. His words were like a slap in the face, and for a moment, it had felt like a betrayal to the friendship we’d formed as he said,“Thank you for gifting your daughter’s first mating to me. I am honored.”

I wanted to snarl as I realized my true place within my father’s life. Nothing more than a gift, an object to be discarded if I stepped out of line. Poseidon dismissed him with barely a word, and as Proteus left, his back to my father, he winked before disappearing before my eyes. He’d lied for me, and my anger dissipated just like that.

My father had taken my choice from me, but it hadn’t ended tragically as he’d wanted. Instead, Proteus and I had a budding friendship that bloomed from the secret we both kept from the god of the sea.

Chapter 6

The Night Within

The Siren

Present day

“Remember,” Poseidon said, the golden scales of his navy-blue tail winking beneath the bioluminescent light of the throne room. He was a handsome man, his long, chestnut hair undulating in the water around his jaw like a heavenly aura. “You have three full moons to complete your siren ritual?—”

“—Yes, I know,” I interrupted him, my hand giving an indignant twist as a bored expression fell over my features. “Three full moons to make a mortal fall in love with me so that I can then tear out their heart and consume it beneath the full glow of the moon once I return to the sea.”

It was not as if this was a new ritual. Sirens had been performing it since the dawn of our species. The memory of him taking my choices away from me still fresh in my mind had me unwilling to listen to him explain something I’d known was coming since I’d been a little girl. Mom had told me tales of herown ritual many times as a bedtime story. I didn’t need Poseidon telling me of my people’s rite of passage.

“Then you know that if you fail in this, as you have failed in many of your previous duties, that you will never return to the sea. Your tail will be stolen from you, and you will be forced to live on land for the rest of your days,” he said, a smirk lifting the edge of his lips as he turned from me.

We hung in the water in the center of the throne room, just the two of us. The purple iridescent scales of my tail catching the light of the glowing stones that lit the chambers, causing my tail to almost wink like the stars of a moonlit sky. Ever since I’d been forced to the beach with Proteus, I couldn’t help but see the magic of the night within my scales.

Large, smooth, pure white stone made up the walls of the underwater palace, and every surface gleamed within the bright glow emitted from the glowing stones and chandeliers of bioluminescent coral. It created an ethereal atmosphere that soothed my heart and soul, an atmosphere I knew I’d sorely miss during my time on land. This rite of passage would differ greatly from my time beneath the magical skies on Siren Island with Proteus, and it almost seemed as if my father hoped I’d fail, but I dispelled the thought as soon as it came. That couldn’t be true.

My father moved through the water with little effort, coming to a stop before the elaborate throne that had once belonged to my mother. He turned, his fierce blue gaze meeting mine as his fingertips curled around the arms of it as he took a slow and deliberate seat.

As much as I’d love to rid myself of his antics, I knew remaining on land would be its own torture. Sure, I looked forward to the experience, yearned for it even, but to never have the freedom of floating deep within the sea, to lose my tail for good… It would be the slowest, most painful death of my soul imaginable.

“I know what to do, Father. You need not worry for me,” I said, gritting my teeth at the sight of him in my mother’s place.

“I hope so,” he replied, leaning back into the throne’s deep hold. “Because if you give into the mortal emotions, if you fail to rip his heart out within three months, you will never return to the sea, and you will be a disappointment to your mother’s memory.”

I turned from him, unable to contain the anger. Instead, I propelled myself forward, pushing through the water until I hovered next to the wall of portraits. Every past ruler of Atlantis hung along these walls. As I stared up at the form of my long-lost mother, my fingers drifting toward the smooth skin of her painted cheek, my anger faded.

My father was right. This rite of passage was one of the main reasons our population had been dwindling. So many of our people had been lost to the land as they either chose to stay on land longer than the three full moons they had to complete their ritual or failing their ritual all together. The longer they stayed on land without completing the ritual, the harder it became to avoid the emotions that plagued the humans, making it easier for them to succumb to the feelings of their heart. Our best warriors finished their rituals within the first month.

Becoming a siren required a careful balance. It required calculation, fortitude, and perseverance. I would need to deceive a human with my love without succumbing to that love myself. The ultimate test of my resolve. It was vital I found the perfect victim. Three moons was not a lot of time, and if I chose the wrong person, someone resistant to my charms, I would waste precious time and risk losing my powers.

As I turned, seeing my father stretched in the throne that had once belonged to my mother and was meant to belong to me next, a determination settled over me like a gentle wave. I refused to fail my ritual.

“Father,” I cooed, a smile I didn’t entirely feel stretching across my lips as I drifted closer to where he sat. My gaze hardening as he watched my approach. “If I fail to perform this ritual, fail to gain my power, what will you do? Do you plan to take over the throne indefinitely?”

He glanced over my shoulder then, his fingers steepling in his lap as a menacing grin twisted his lips. A malicious glitter looked back at me as he nodded to something behind me. “Actually,” he said, an amused lilt to his voice. “He will.”

As I whipped around in the water, a flurry of bubbles fluttering around me with my quickened movement, I noticed we were no longer alone. A younger male swam forward, a blank look upon his face as he pushed himself toward us with the flick of a familiar-looking tail. A tail that held the same deep blue hue as my father’s, the same lines of gold setting it alight with every movement he made.

He hadn’t arrived alone either. The goddess, Amphitrite, floated along behind him. Her long, dark hair fell well below her waist, twisted with lengths of sea flowers. Her wide, icy blue eyes held an amused glitter as she looked from the young male at her side to my father on the throne.

“Talia, my dear, meet your new mother and your brother, Triton.”

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