Page 16 of The Dark Sea Calls

I wanted so badly to tell him to go fuck a sea urchin, but instead, I dropped to my knees and tried my best to copy the position the other recruits were in. They all had continued their exercises while Arden and I had sniped at each other.

I tried to lift my body, but my back arched against my will. Arden let out a disgusted snort.

“Pathetic. Have you ever fought someone in your life?” Arden sniped.

Moira sat on her haunches. “Arden—”

“Undine are Fae. Show me what you’re hiding.” Arden pressed, extending his arms out to the sand around us. “For a Fae to lack physical prowess, their magic must compensate. Show us, Maeve Cruinn. Show us your magic.” His taunt hit a raw nerve that I hadn’t realized existed until that moment.

Scrambling in the dirt, as my anger roared in my ears, I grabbed a hand full of sand and threw it at Arden’s face. Aiming for his eyes. The Siren male ducked, snapping one of his still-extended wings into my body. A battering ram that knocked me through the air, tumbling head over heels until I landed twenty feet away in a spray of debris.

“Lesson one,” Arden said to the line of recruits expectantly.

They all echoed back in unison.“Don’t let anyone goad you into a fight you can’t win.”

“You could have warned me,” I said accusingly as Moira shoveled a bread roll into her mouth, gesturing that she couldn’t speak. She had the decency to look sheepish, and I followed her gaze to the head table in the dining hall, where Arden was surrounded by other gilded Fae.

Moira swallowed her bread, and it took some effort to get the bite to go down smoothly. She winced as she met my eyes. “He did the same to me.”

One of the other recruits, a young male named Colm, leaned over, having eavesdropped on our conversation. “And me,” Colm said, shaking his head with a grin as his hair flopped in his eyes. “Arden is a harsh teacher, but Sirens don’t live long unless they learn his lessons. Too many of our kin have fallen victim to poachers.”

I glanced over at Arden’s table before looking at my food. “Arden told me. It seems that Fae creeds have their own problems.”

“The Siren Queen doesn’t make the same mistake twice,” Colm said knowingly. “At least that’s what my ma always said.”

Moira and I leaned closer. “What happened?” We both asked, rolling our eyes when we realized we had spoken in unison.

“It was before most of us were born.” Colm looked at the other recruits at the table, but they seemed determined to find their meal more interesting than our conversation. “The Siren Queen lost her eldest son. He was poached by the Everfall Port. He’d fallen in love with one of the land-Fae, which didn’t end well. The girl's father took his wings and sold them to the Night King. When the sailors realized they could get good money for Siren feathers, they started taking us out one by one.”

“That's horrible,” Moira whispered shakily.

Colm nodded in agreement. “The Queen decided to get revenge. She stood on the rocks andcalledthe surrounding ships, killing off all the poachers that came. She still hasn’t found the Fae that killed Prince Darragma Eoin.”

Chapter 4

I couldn’t remember a time when my muscles didn’t ache and my skin didn’t long for the water's touch.

Time moved both slowly and too quickly as days passed with the Sirens. Sleeping by Moira’s side, eating with the younglings, and taking more blows from the other recruits than I could count.

I had yet to land a single blow on Arden, though he had attempted to goad me many times since our first altercation. I kept my head down, as much as I always did, and soaked in as much as he could teach me.

I couldn’t have fought my way out of a wet sack, but I could run on dry land faster and for longer than I had ever thought possible. I could pull myself up on a branch and hide in a tree. I could dodge an attack, granted it didn’t come from behind. All in all, I might have been the slowest learner of all the recruits, but Iwaslearning.

Moira and I made our way down to the cradle, past the seldom used steps, as the dim morning sun rose on the horizon.

All the recruits were already waiting outside the stronghold doors, standing in a patient line, though Colm was absent.

We didn’t have to wait long before Arden swept into the canyon with a limp figure in his arms. A feverish and sweating Colm, with his dark hair plastered to his head and his eyes wide and frightened. Colm’s muscles tensed, and his body bowed in Arden’s grip as pin feathers rose over his skin like a wave of pox before disappearing.

The other recruits seemed to know what was happening, simultaneously excited and frightened. Moira and I glanced at each other, clueless.

A moment later, two gilded Siren females dropped down on either side of Arden.

“Meet us at the Cove.” Arden nodded to one of the females before taking off again and shooting into the sky. He was soon a speck on the horizon before he disappeared entirely.

“What’s happening?” Moira asked, frowning at the disturbed sand where Arden had landed.

One of the females winced in pity. “Colm has reached his magical majority. Today we will watch him become a Siren in the eyes of Belisama.”

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