Page 45 of Emerge

"When I was fairly young, I remember your grandpa coming home with a forlorn look in his eyes I had never seen before. I overheard him telling my mother that Poseidon had grown upset with the sirens and made the earth swallow them. My father and the other tritons were told to hunt down the remaining sirens and kill them." My dad let go of my hand and began swimming back and forth in front of us.

"Your grandfathers were best friends and didn't agree that the sirens deserved to die because of a few bad ones." My mom tilted her head to the side as if stuck in a memory. "That was how I met your dad."

"I was just at that age where I understood that sometimes you must make decisions that don't follow the rules in order to do what is in your heart. I watched our fathers build the TAP—Tritons Against Poseidon— from the ground up. I took over for him when he died." He stopped and looked down at me from where he was floating. “There were a lot of lives on the line, including the sirens who are trapped." He sat back down and took my hand again. "We're sorry."

I looked across the cave where Monty was chilling on the bottom. I had lost so much of my childhood because of their decisions.

"We've always been taught that sirens are dangerous." I stared down at my mutilated tail. "It's all been a lie."

My mom put her hand on my cheek and made me look at her. "Sirens are only dangerous if they are provoked or put in positions that warrant violence, like being on the frontlines."

I leaned into her hand, shutting my eyes. "I missed you, mom."

For the first time in a long time, I felt like things were looking up. Only, deep down inside, I knew something big was coming.

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