By the end, her voice was high-pitched.
And she was right, but only halfway. Syra had put her magic in me. The siren sisters had felt it. After Syra turned to ashes right before our eyes, they’dfelther in me. It’s how they’d known that she did something to me. It’s why they’d turned on me the way they had.
Except…
“I felt it, Mamayka,” Reeva told her. “I felt it. Her own energy—allof what makes a siren is inside her.”
“But you can’t justtakea siren’s power,” Grey said. “Sedelis tried it the moment Syra woke up when we were still in the tomb mountain.”
I looked up at him but for once, Grey’s face didn’t calm me down. On the contrary. He, too, looked so concerned that it freaked me out even more.
“No, you certainly cannottakea siren’s power—but it can be willingly given,” Reeva told me. “That’s what Syra did. She gave it to you with her own will.”
“But she doesn’t feel it,” Grey said.
“And I don’t feel it on her, either,” said Mama Si. “There has to be another explanation!”
A second of silence lasted a lifetime.
I swallowed hard. “The baby.” I didn’t feel it, and nobody else felt it on me because Syra had put her magic in my baby.
Another moment, just as heavy and long.
“Yes,” Reeva finally whispered, moving away from the wall. “Yes, that’s it. She charged her magic into your womb.”
Her eyes were wide and glistening, and Mama Si was the same as they both looked at me with a new light now. Grey squatted behind me and put his hands on my shoulders.
I was lost in Syra’s eyes, the way they bled, and her words…take care of him,she said.
As if she had any fucking right.
“I see it,” Reeva continued. “I see how the end can be avoided.” Her eyes scrolled down to my stomach. “We have to take that magic out of you, young one.Now,before it’s too late.”
Every other thought in my head came to a halt. “Can it be done? Can you take it out of me?” Because if she could, then my life might not be over yet.
If she could, maybe there was a happy ending to this, after all.
“I think so. I think?—”
“Wait, wait, just hold on a moment,” Mama Si cut her off, raising her hand. “Hold on. Let’s give this a bit of thought.”
“Givewhata bit of though?” said Reeva. “I felt it clearly. It’s in there—it’s in her!”
“Yes, yes, I don’t mean that. I mean, Syra was stronger than all the other siren sisters because she ate Hansil’s heart.It baffled me since the beginning that they were able to kill her, but…” She turned to the witch, eyes sparkling, a half-smile on her face. “Reeva, she willingly sacrificed herself by giving Fall Doll here her magic. The same magic she could have used against the sisters and killed them. Or at least fight—shechosenot to. She chose to give it to my godson instead.”
My eyes squeezed shut and I tried to focus on breathing.Don’t be good, don’t be good, don’t be good…
“It’s very possible. Probable,” Grey said. “She wanted our baby for herself since the beginning, and I think this is how she planned to do it. But the sirens came and she didn’t have the magic to also kill all of them…”
“So, she chose to make sure that she would…live on,in a way. In a different body,” Reeva whispered.
“Inhisbody—my godson’s,” Mama Si repeated, and it was easy to hear the smile in her voice.
“No,” I whispered because it couldn’t be. I wouldn’t allow it.
“And we can use that, can’t we?” Mama Si said, and all eyes moved to her. “Think about it—the sirens can destroy the Seven Isles, but what if there’s someone who can stop them, someone who can wield Syra’s power?” And she turned to me again. “Your son. If you keep the magic, he will be born and grow strong and?—”
“No!”