Page 2 of Enchanting Him

Each of us has a different power, ones that the others want to exploit because they’re greater than theirs—more accurate and likely to work. Until we were teens, we didn’t really understand the full depth of them, of what the others wanted from them, but once we did, we agreed to never use our powers to kill. That it was wrong. That even harming or luring someone made a coldness that we hated attack us.

The idea of sinking into that coldness for eternity makes the terror Serenia felt that first day she was with us seem minor. I’ll do whatever necessary to keep it from happening to us. Even if it meant having to kill the siren half of myself, because I’d rather live a mortal life than ever take one.

“So are we in agreement? The three of us, here, on our birthday?” I ask them and their nods calm my worries enough that I can return to our oceanic home, hoping the next time Ileave the lagoon, it’s for something much better than the dark, cold, hate that lives here.

Chapter 1

Melodia

The stars twinkle overhead still as we reach the lagoon, the warmth of the water in it calming the pounding in my veins, and I can see it’s the same for Celestia and Serenia as we make our way to the far side that is shallower. There are rocks that let us rest our tails and as the sun begins to rise in the sky, the pounding in my veins begins to grow again.

“Tell us about living inland,” Celestia says with a glance towards Serenia, her eyes showing she’s feeling the call just as much.

“I don’t remember much but what I do remember were long fields full of flowers and forests where the trees were so thick that it felt like night until the leaves would shift in the wind, let sunlight filter through them just enough to remind you that it was still day. I remember this mountain and a lake that was so beautifully clear and despite the water filling it coming from the mountain, it was always warm. Anytime I need to forget things happening at home, it’s what I think of, where the sky was so clear—day and night. At night, the stars shone brightly, making it feel like you could just reach up and touch them. And therewere so many birds that sang you awake,” Serenia adds with a smile and the pounding calms as we listen to her.

The calmness stays as the sun slips from high in the sky and down beneath the horizon once more, bringing out the stars. The calling is deepening though, dragging at each of us, until Celestia flicks her hand skyward, playing with the stars and creating spectacular light shows in it. As midnight closes in on us, the call slams into us hard, and I hold onto my friends, singing the song that’s been in my heart my entire life. My mother hates when I sing it, but it’s always made me feel calm and safe, and that’s what I need most right now.

An odd sensation hits as I finish it, a warmth wrapping around me entirely and I glance at my friends hearing soft gasps from both of them. My eyes are drawn to the greenish water that’s swirling with lights, wrapping around our tails, and I let out a gasp as well when below my waist feels a thousand times different.

Serenia’s the first one to push up out of the water, showing off legs which makes her look so different. Her tail’s completely gone, and her bottom half is as bare as our top halves usually are. It’s only when we come out of the water, peak above it that we ever wear tops, unlike mortals. And even then, it’s only done to try to lure men off of their boats and into the water with us.

“Umm…I think we’re going to need to find some clothes before we go looking for a man,” Celestia says, laughing as she lifts her leg out of the water to stare at it’s paleness. “Pretty sure we’d get in trouble walking around like this.”

“Definitely,” Serenia agrees, moving her hair to shield her lower half and Celestia and I follow suit as we join her on the land, wobbling a bit unlike her.

“Whoa…how are you supposed to get anywhere on these things?” I ask looking down at my feet. The tips of them are pinklike my nails, whereas Celestia’s are the same bluish color as her hair, and Serenia’s are a deeper turquoise.

“You have to move one at a time,” she tells us, showing us as she easily moves around, skipping a bit to show off when Celestia and I finally start to get the hang of just walking. “You’ll get used to it. I mean, it took me long enough to figure out how to swim and dive but I finally did.”

“Yeah, but we only have seven days, and I’d say that started at midnight,” Celestia warns, and I nod glancing around to figure out what to do next.

“So clothes might be a little tricky since we don’t have any money,” Serenia says as she leads us away from the lagoon.

“Oh wait,” Celestia says, grinning as she takes a glance down towards the beach. “I know where some are,” she adds and we follow her down to the beach, and my brows lift in surprise when she pushes aside some bushes and reaches down behind a large rockpile. Her hand comes back with a large bag and Serenia stares at her even harder when she begins to pull things out of it.

“How did you know this was here?” I ask when we see the pile of clothes that came out of it, as well as a stack of human money.

“Yeah, I mean, if someone hid it here they’ll likely be mad to find it gone,” Serenia adds and Celestia’s face tightens.

“They won’t be coming back for any of it,” she says with a sigh. “I was out swimming one night about a month ago, and I saw a woman hide this here. I thought it was weird, but then I heard shouting and saw a man coming up the beach the other way. She looked scared and before I knew what was happening, he was attacking her. Honestly, it was the only time I was ever tempted to use my powers, but I was so shocked that I froze. I guess her screams alerted people up the beach and then the place was flooded with people, a few pulled him off her, and they tried CPR, but she was already gone.”

“So no one will miss any of this?” I ask, understanding Celestia’s temptation to use her powers against the man.

“No, no one will miss it.”

“Alright, let’s see what we have and figure out what to do now. We probably need to get a bit away from the water here,” I muse, and my friends fully agree with that. We divvy out the clothes there based on what we like best. I take the brighter colored items, while Serenia goes directly for the greens and blues and Celestia takes the whites, blacks and gray pieces.

There were two other smaller canvas bags folded up with the clothing items but they’re big enough to hold what we each grab, and we split the money knowing enough about humans to know we’ll need to, but I have no idea how much we really have. There are about thirty bills that have a hundred on them, another thirty that have fifty on them, and then more that have twenty, ten, five and one on them.

“Now what?” Serenia asks once we have clothes on and the rest of the stuff is in the bags.

“No clue,” I admit with a glance at Celestia.

“We go to find the rest of the humans?” she suggests with a shrug which makes all of us laugh, but we follow her away from the water and reach a rough path.

“Shoes,” Serenia states drawing our attention towards her curiously. “They’re things for your feet so you don’t cut them,” she explains pointing towards a bottle that’s next to a trash can broken in half. “I’m pretty sure you have to have shoes to go into places.”

“So then how do we get some? I mean, if you have to go into a store to buy them but you can’t go in unless you have some…” Celestia trailed off as Serenia dug into the side pocket of the bag she held.

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