Page 156 of Mama Si's Paradise

She had hopes, big hopes, but when she met the witches, none of them knew what to tell her. They had no idea how the sirens could live differently—they’d never had to even wonder about such a silly thing, and they found Syra’s questions absurd.

Why change something that isn’t broken? they asked, butthat was the thing—it was. Syra was finally seeing clearly through the eyes of Hansil. She was seeing herself and her sisters for what they truly were, and she knew their way of life was broken.Wrong.

There had to be another way. She was sure of it.

So she didn’t lose hope even though the witches couldn’t tell her what she needed to know. On the contrary—she returned to her love more motivated than ever. There had to be one person in Ennaris who knew the answers she sought, and she’d find them. However long it took, she’d find them, and she would make the world right for Hansil.

Except when she returned to the beach, she saw horror.

Her sisters, wearing legs, naked, gathered around a body. A dead body, already half-eaten.

The dead body of Hansil Knight, her one true love.

No other part of the story was as clear to me as this: the way Syra fell to her knees. The way her lips opened wide into a silent scream. The way her eyes, blue and unblinking, took in the blood, the torn flesh, the bones of the man she was going to change the world for.

They’d eaten him.

Her own sisters had betrayed her, and they’d eaten him while she was gone.

There,they told her.Now you come back home.

No more nonsense. No more of your delusions.

Now, you come home where you belong.

Together, they all went back to sea, changed their legs into fishtails, and they swam away, leaving Hansil half-eaten on the rocks in front of the cabin Syra had built for them.

Even though I had no body, I felt like I was shaking with the sobs that broke out of me. I felt her pain, so raw and angry, deep inside my heart as if it were mine. I felt it so clearly while Syra remained on her knees, motionless, looking at the body of Hansil for what could have been hours.

My God, that pain. So much of it, so intense, contained inside her small frame, powerful enough to ruin the entire world.

Eventually, she dragged herself on all fours closer to him, her breasts covered by her long hair, a piece of fabric around her hips that she’d put on to go see the witches. She touched half the face of Hansil, all that remained of him, only one eye, and only the corner of his lips that her sisters had torn off him. Those lips that she’d yearned for, that had given her so much more than any kind of magic or flesh ever could. That body, those arms that they’d ripped off his shoulders, the same arms that had held her so tightly, that had made her feel everything even the sea never did.

They’d taken him from her—her own sisters. They’d taken the love of her life and had eaten him, had torn him wide open.

She screamed.

Every creature in Ennaris heard her. The whole world heard her, understood her desperation.

And Syra screamed for a long, long time, hoping to lessen her pain. Hoping somehow Hansil would awaken from the dead, whole again. Hoping somehow the world would end so she didn’t have to feel anymore.

But none of it happened. Hansil didn’t wake up. The world didn’t burn into ashes. She could still see the blood and flesh and rib cage of the man she breathed for—and little of his heart remained inside of it.

So little—her sisters had eaten all of it. Had eaten his lungs and his kidneys, his arms and most of his legs.

A little of his heart remained.

Ifeltthe switch in Syra’s mind from wherever I was as she stared at the piece of heart in that bloody rib cage. I felt how everything shifted for her—her feelings, her thoughts, herpureness.It was gone. She’d just found it, had just found areason to change the way she lived, to make the world a better place—and now it was gone again, just like that.

Because of her sisters, who couldn’t mind their own business, but had to ruin everything she loved.

Because of her sisters who thought they’d won. They’d showed her. They’d forced her to go back to the shell she once used to be.

Syra reached out for that rib cage, for that little piece of heart. Her hand shook so badly, but she reached for it, and she took it in her fingers, and she felt his blood on her skin. Her pain screamed inside of her, shattering every thought, every other feeling. Shatteringhercompletely into a million pieces, leaving nothing behind except anger. Rage.

Raw, unforgiving rage.

She brought the last of Hansil Knight’s heart to her lips and ate it, swallowed it whole.

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