Page 106 of Voice of the Ocean

All color drained from Celeste’s face. “What are you talking about?”

“Why do you think I left you at Port Romsey when you left your prince in Velluno?”

No... no, this can’t be right. This can’t be...

“How do you think the humans got on the island?” Nerissa’s free hand idly pulled at Sephone’s soft rose hair. Beneath the knife, Sephone stared unblinkingly at the dead body of her mentor. “When the Pirate King made a deal with me to retrieve the Voice of the Ocean,” Nerissa continued, “I searched high and low for any sign of whereshewould be. When I learned she was in hiding on this sacred island, I knewIwould never find it. Only a descendant of the Goddess herself could... orher lover.” Nerissa winked at Raiden.

Celeste looked between them. How had she not recognized it before? The way he’d looked at Nerissa when he first arrived—not with confusion or surprise. He’d known her. But the expression on his face now made it clear he did not know this story.

“Don’t you know what this island is? It is where the Princess of the Moon and the Prince of the Sun consorted with each other.”

“Stop it,” Celeste said, her voice a low warning.

Nerissa ignored her. “The king never thought Raiden would actually find it. It’s why he came looking for me—tortured my location out of one of your pathetic Chorus scouts, and I was only too happy to help. Raiden always was a disappointment to him—a liability, in fact. And a costly one. Do you know what will happen when his father possesses the Voice of the Ocean? With the unification of the power of God and Goddess, the king will be immortal. And what need does an immortal have of an heir? Raiden was easy to sacrifice—useful if he could reach the island, but not for anything more.”

Celeste’s head spun. She had been a pawn in a much larger game. They both had been. Raiden stared blankly at the Sea Witch, a shell of the man she once knew.

“I have to thank you, Celeste.” Nerissa drew Sephone’s chin up with a turn of the knife. “If it wasn’t for your information about the current, we never would have reached the island in time. Do you know, I almost thought you’d catch on that night I came to the ship to deliver instructions to Raiden from his father. But I shouldn’t have worried. You were much tooin loveto suspect anything.”

Sephone’s gaze slid to Celeste, fear in her eyes. And defeat.

It was all her fault.

But this time tears did not come. Instead, something cracked within her. And pure, unadulterated rage blinded Celeste. Rage at Nerissa. At Raiden. At herself.

The room plunged into darkness deeper than a starless night. Screams and shouts filled the temple. As red anger rolled down her spine, Celeste looked at her hands and saw them glowing. It was as though moonbeams shone out from her fingers. Her eyes widened. Siren magic didn’t work this way. This was something else. Something she had never heard of before.

A dull thud came from the darkness before her.

“Sephone!” Celeste cried, diving into the blackness. As she moved, the shadows parted, creating a path before her. Her sister lay unconscious in the Sea Witch’s arms, a knife still pressed to her neck.

“Sephone,” Celeste gasped.

“Stay back, or I’ll cut her pretty little neck.”

When the princess did not retreat, Nerissa pressed the knife into the soft skin below Sephone’s chin. A line of blood trickled down her sister’s neck.

Celeste retreated a step.

A smile curled the witch’s lips as she took in Celeste’s shining frame.

“You won’t kill her,” Celeste said, voice firm. “Youneedher. If she dies, all the power of the Goddess is lost.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Nerissa purred, running the blade of the knife along Sephone’s chin. “She is clearly not the only one with the power of the Goddess.”

A chill crawled down Celeste’s spine. There were no stories about a siren with the power to create darkness, to put others to sleep with one note, to call the aid of the Hippokamp. It could be another trick. Nerissa had done nothing but lie to her. But the trident in her hands told a different story.

“I... How could I have the power of the Goddess?” Celeste stammered.

“You sirens think only of the Goddess’s gift of Song, because that’s what she gave to you. How to Isla, she gave her own Voice. But you’ve hidden away in your caves so long that you forget where you came from. Sirens are daughters of the moon, and your Goddess was also the Ruler of Night.”

The Ruler of Night.Celeste’s heart shuddered at the words. Just as the Land God ruled the day.

“I thought that power was lost. How...?”

“Even I don’t know that, Princess,” Nerissa said with a smile. “But you know, it’sfunny... after all this time, the Moon Princess and the Sun Prince fell in love all over again.”

“But they weren’t in love,” Celeste said. “The Sun Prince killed her.”

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