Page 2 of Tides of Time

Then why do you not feel so fortunate as of late?

Ariana loved her life and what the second chance had brought her, but it didn’t stop the little things from prickling under her skin. Things like this hunt.

She wasn’t a hunter.

They all had their place, just like in the world above. Hers was with the newly turned, guiding them through their transition as a siren. Aiding them in destroying those who threw them over. With the belief in curses and tides a thing of the long distant past, many deaths were now accidental, but many still were not.

Every transition came with the promise that the siren would bring Poseidon the gift of more citizens of the deep and a gift to help them along their way. Ariana’s gift was precious, it allowed a newly cursed siren the chance to change their mind about joining the ranks of the deep sea dwellers under Poseidon's rule. A gift so rare and valuable, it was cherished by all sirens and coveted by many.

The gift of life from Poseidon wasn’t a choice. It was thrust upon a dying soul, and before Ariana’s transition to siren herself, it was permanent. She could weave the moon and spin the tides, turning back the hands of time. Once a siren took their debt, Ariana could offer them the chance to return to the life they had left.

It hadn’t been her idea to use her gift this way, but Galene’s. And it wasn’t offered in all cases. It could only be done when the newly turned were young or held something in them that created a gift that could not help the pod.

What about using my gift to help myself for a change?

Ariana shook off the thought and set her eyes back on the kill. She’d been useless. She could turn back time and kill the shark to ease tensions - erase the hate and annoyance Tanessa threw her way.

But she wouldn’t.

Ariana didn’t play with her gift - except to steal more orgasms from her husband and no one, not even Orion, knew about that. She would never tire of them, and Poseidon didn’t care how they used their gifts so long as they held up their end of his bargain and took souls into the deep for him occasionally.

“Back to the pod!” Kelly, a siren from before Ariana had even been born, blew into a disfigured conch that somehow blared through the ocean’s dense waters. Sound should not have carried, but it did, and it always would when Kelly commanded it. Her gift of communication made hunts possible in groups to bring in more food at once.

Below her, the four with the net flicked their fins and began to rise up with their catch.

She loved the feel of the rush of water over her body. Always had, even before her untimely death and transition. Ariana hadn’t belonged on land even when she’d been alive, and the waters had always called to her.

Maybe Ariana had been able to hear the sirens singing from everywhere she went, priming her for her second life long before she knew she would receive one. She’d never met Poseidon and couldn’t ask him if some people were fated for this life or if it was all chance and circumstance because a siren couldn’t be born without Galena watching them die.

Only she no longer cared for her life in the pod. Only her husband and the waves they swam in.

Hundreds of her kind had tried to regain their humanity. All failed unless it was Ariana’s gift that granted them the choice, and even then, it wasn’t the choice they thought they made.

Sirens, mermaids, whatever they were called, didn’t get to return to the living. They had died. The cold hand of the ocean had wrapped around their throat and pried open their mouths before reaching in and drowning them. The life bled from their bodies even as the gift filled their souls. They would sink, with the frigid ocean floor trying to claim there before Poseidon and his gifted curse could do what needed to be done.

No, a siren couldn’t return to their life as human without Ariana’s gift and Galena’s blessing.

They were dead.

And dead was dead was dead.

Only they weren’t dead once they took a new breath under the water.

They were indebted to one another in a way that kept them alive in the only way that mattered.

Orion won’t like these thoughts.

Her husband was older than her in this lifestyle, but he was also as positive as they came, loving the gift his death had brought him.

Ariana struggled to push down the bitterness that had consumed her. Every day, she fought against the hurt and anger, but it seemed to grow stronger with each passing moment. She didn't want to give in to the ugliness, but it was becoming harder and harder to resist.

It pained Orion to watch Ariana suffer.

The small downtown of her lips, the darkness it in her eyes - he knew the moment she arrived that something plagued her. The usual life that shone from her bluish-green eyes was murky, almost brown, when she looked at him as the hunting party returned.

His was the most important person in the entire world to him, and yet, she looked away the moment his gaze turned concerned.

He’d get to the bottom of her discomfort soon enough. He knew she didn't enjoy hunting, but there was something more going on. Her guarded demeanor only made him more determined to uncover the truth behind her unease.

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