Page 16 of Seas and Scepters

The magnitude of the irony was staggering.He thought he was hideous because of the protection that had saved him from my song, never knowing that the woman lying in his arms was the very creature his bloodline had sought to avoid.

"That seems like a heavy price to pay," I managed.

"It is.Though I'm beginning to wonder if it was worth it."His hand hovered lightly over my bare shoulder."My ancestors were so afraid of dying beautiful that they chose to live marked.But what's the point of survival if you're too monstrous to be loved?"

"You're not monstrous," I said, the words torn from some deep part of me desperate to make him believe."You're..."

"What?"His voice was barely a whisper.

Perfect,I thought.Brave and kind and everything I didn't know I was looking for.

"You're more beautiful than you know," I said instead.

We talked for hours, sharing carefully edited versions of our lives, our hopes, our fears.With each story, each laugh, each moment of comfortable silence, I felt something dangerous taking root in my chest.Something that made the thought of completing my mission feel less like responsibility and more like self-destruction.

As evening approached, Eirik grew quiet, his mood darkening in a way that had nothing to do with our conversation.

"What's wrong?"I asked.

"The wedding," he said simply."It's been moved up.Next week instead of next month."

I feigned surprise, though my heart was already racing."So soon?"

"Political necessity, apparently.My father believes that binding the alliance quickly will prevent any complications."His laugh was harsh."He's probably right.The longer I wait, the more likely I am to do something foolish."

"Like what?"

He looked at me then, his eyes holding a pain so deep it made my chest ache in sympathy."Like fall in love with someone completely inappropriate and ruin everything."

The words hung between us like a confession, and I realized with dawning horror that I was in far more danger than I had ever imagined.

"You should go," I whispered, though every part of me wanted him to stay.

"I know."But he made no move to rise."I'll try to come back tomorrow.And the day after that.Every day until..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but he didn't need to.Until his wedding.Until he was bound to another woman and lost to me forever.

After he left, I sat in the growing darkness of my chamber, staring at the fresh gold coins he had left behind.Each visit made him more generous, more attached, more vulnerable to the emotional connection growing between us.

And each visit made me weaker.

I could feel it happening—the slow erosion of everything I had once been.My siren instincts, once as sharp as a blade, were becoming dull and uncertain.The call of the sea, which had once been as constant as my heartbeat, was fading to a whisper.Most terrifying of all, the task I’d been charged to complete now felt impossible.

How could I kill someone I was falling in love with?

The thought hit me like a physical blow, forcing me to acknowledge what I had been desperately trying to deny.Love.This strange, consuming feeling that made me want to protect the scarred prince rather than destroy him—this must be what humans called love.

And it was going to be the death of me.

I had perhaps six days left.Six days to carry out my mission before Eirik married another woman and disappeared from my reach forever.Six days to choose between the life I had always known and these bewildering new emotions that threatened to remake me entirely from a siren princess into a lonely, desperate woman, pining for what she could never have.

The gold coins clinked softly as I gathered them into their pouch, their weight no longer cold but warm from my touch.Like everything else in this surface world, they were becoming part of me in ways that seemed beyond my comprehension.

And like everything else, they were leading me deeper into waters I might not be able to navigate.

Tomorrow, he would return.And I would have to choose—take his life and reclaim my birthright or surrender to these impossible feelings and lose everything I had ever been.

The decision should have been simple.After all, I was trained from birth to put the needs of my people above all else.

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