Page 19 of Siren's Treasure

The transformation hit like a tidal wave. Pain split through Thessa as her tail divided, scales dissolving into foam. Thessa could no longer keep back the scream. Her legs—legs!—thrashed in the water, feeling alien and wrong. The spell was not yet complete since she could still breathe underwater. Thankfully! But she didn’t doubt Scylla would strip that away too, using every cruel trick in her bejeweled limbs. “You did that the most painful way possible!”

“Undine never complained so!” Scylla huffed, her breath reeking of a deep-sea predator. Her fingers ran over Thessa’s new skin, and where they touched, an iridescent fabric formed—a dress made of countless tiny scales that felt both familiar and prickly, like the ghost of her tail wrapped around human limbs.

“Now for your powers!” Scylla’s tentacles shot up and snapped the shell necklace from Thessa’s throat.

“That was from my mother!” The words came out half-sob, half-snarl.

“And now it is mine—it is only right since I gave it to her… for an occasion such as this, might I add! It will be a pretty place for a siren’s voice!” Scylla’s green eyes burned with venomous triumph.

What sort of friendship had her mother shared with this monster? Thessa fought against the tentacles wrapping around her throat. “You—you promised to leave… my—my speech!”

“And so I shall, now cooperate, or I’ll make you croak as a frog.”

That wasn’t part of the bargain! But Thessa pressed her lips together, watching as Scylla produced a tiny black pearl that sucked all light from its presence. A tentacle forced her mouth open and jammed the vile thing against her tongue. “Swallow!”

The pearl slid down like ice, and immediately her stomach roiled. A burning sensation flooded her sides as her gills began to seal, the delicate filaments collapsing inward. Panic seized her as water stopped flowing through them—her only means of drawing breath from the sea vanishing.

Immediately, something strange bloated under her ribs, pushing outward with excruciating force. Lungs! Those were lungs growing inside her! Not the tide chambers that merfolk occasionally used to venture above the sea, but an entirely different organ. They pressed against her chest like trapped creatures, demanding air that the waters couldn’t give her.

Unable to contain her terror, she screamed. The sound shook the cavern—bottles and vials danced on their shelves, strange creatures within them thrashing in response to the power behind her voice. The walls themselves shuddered, the watching eyes blinking rapidly.

Scylla shrieked out her satisfaction, holding out the shell necklace. She whispered words that made the currents cringe away until all at once the scream cut off with an “urp” as Thessa’s voice was ripped from her throat. The necklace vibrated, glowing with an inner light before going dark. The cavern fell eerily silent. “Got it!” The tentacles released her with a shove.

Gasping, Thessa rose through the water, her mouth filling with water, her lungs burned! Poseidon’s wrath! She hadn’t bargained for safe passage from the cavern. Would this be how Scylla destroyed her?

“The instant you touch Undine’s Blade, you have until the sea swallows the sun to stab your worthless enemy through. If you fail, you too will transform to seafoam like Undine! Fare you well, princess! Your ride is here… though I doubt you will succeed!” Scylla’s gaze turned to the watching eyes in the walls. “Charybdis!” she commanded. “Deliver her to the enemy of her people!”

The cavern convulsed. And the monster hiding from within the walls burst forth—its flesh the same corrupted black as the cavern stone. Half the lair collapsed as the creature revealed itself, leaving nothing but the open sea between Thessa and the distant surface. The beast roared, its maw opening as it came for her.

Thessa tried to swim away, but her new legs betrayed her. Unable to fight, unable to scream through the waters, she kicked as the darkness swallowed her whole, making her fall into an endless pit until she met a pocket of air in the monster’s belly. Unable to stop the hunger screaming from her lungs, Thessa inhaled the bitter air, and coughed and choked, spitting up the water she’d already swallowed.

As foul as this air was, Thessa could breathe, and she gulped it thankfully.

The world tilted as Charybdis swam upward, carrying her toward the surface and exile. Terror filled her—Scylla was so sure she would fail, and why wouldn’t she? Thessa couldn’t bring herself to stab anyone, enemy or not!

What kind of bargain had she made?

And still, her father had a chance now—one he hadn’t had before. But he’d hate her for it. Thessa huddled in the damp darkness, wrapping her arms around unfamiliar legs. These strange limbs felt wrong—too light, too separate, nothing like the powerful tail she’d commanded through ocean currents her entire life.

She made herself as small as possible, knees drawn to her chest, the scale-like dress Scylla had given her bunching around her. She traced the hem where it almost reached her knees, fingers trembling as they explored the boundary between this new covering and the alien texture of skin beneath.

Each sway of Charybdis’ movement reminded her how far she was traveling from everything she knew, every familiar coralformation and hidden grotto now becoming nothing more than memory. She’d never see Father or her sisters again! Something wet ran down her cheek, startling her with its warmth.

What was that?

A sound echoing through her ears made her jump—a deep bellow, and all at once, the monster’s pink rolling tongue slid over her in a stinky caress and propelled her out into the depths of the sea. Heavy currents pulled at her! She’d never felt the water like this against her bare flesh. She tumbled through the water, tangling in ropes as the slimy bodies of fish ran up against her.

A fishing net!

She thrashed, trying to free herself, but her useless human legs only entangled her further. After everything she’d sacrificed, she’d drown? She could almost hear Scylla’s mocking laughter. The need to breathe overcame her again, and growing desperate, Thessa kicked. The net jerked upward, rushing her toward the black shadow of something that was very familiar to her—a ship!

The net hauled her from the water and into air that felt too thin, too sharp in her new lungs. Trapped among the dying fish, she tried to comfort them, her own heart warring within her. She landed on the deck of the ship and braced as the net came open. She slid out with the fish onto the hard wooden planks, letting out a strange noise.

The voice was still her own—Scylla had given her that—but there was no power behind it.

A sun-burnt face loomed over her, eyes bulging. “Did we catch a mermaid?” He sounded rough, bloodthirsty, nothing like the man she’d rescued earlier. Had that only been this morning? It seemed so long ago. The sunset painted the tall masts in blood-red light, threatening to end one of the most terrifying days of her existence.

The ship creaked beneath her as she stared at the men whose eyes devoured her like predators sizing up prey. Fear coiled around her heart, so she could barely breathe with her new lungs. They watched her in a strange way. These weren’t men, but sharks, circling before an attack.

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