Page 21 of Seas and Scepters

"Just us," she whispered."Just love."

The fantasy was so beautiful, so tantalizing that I could almost taste its possibility on my tongue.A life of freedom, of simplicity, of love and togetherness.It felt more real, more right than anything I had ever known.

As twilight deepened into dusk, I reluctantly began to dress.There were preparations to make if we were to leave tonight—money to gather, a ship to secure, supplies to arrange.Each task would bring our dream one step closer to reality.

"Tonight, then," I said, drawing her into one last embrace."The Siren's Call, after midnight.Our new life begins the moment you walk through that door."

She nodded, her eyes luminous in the gathering darkness."I'll be there."

I pressed a final, desperate kiss to her lips, pouring every ounce of love and hope and promise into the contact."Until tonight," I whispered, and tore myself away before I lost the will to leave at all.

As I slipped through the darkening streets toward the harbor, my heart raced with equal parts fear and elation.I was about to abandon everything I had ever known, betray the oath I had sworn to my kingdom, break the heart of a woman who had done nothing to deserve such cruelty.And yet, I had never felt more certain of any decision in my life.

For Selene, I would risk everything.For the chance to build a life with her, I would sacrifice blood and crown without regret.

I only prayed she felt the same—that when midnight came, she would choose me over whatever tied her to her former life.That she would step through the tavern door and into the future we had dreamed together.

As I began the practical arrangements for our escape, I pushed away the small voice of doubt whispering at the back of my mind.The voice that wondered why tears had filled her eyes when she promised to meet me.The voice that questioned why someone so extraordinary would abandon her own life for a scarred prince with nothing left to offer but his heart.

The voice that asked, with growing unease, what secrets still lay unspoken between us.

Chapter Seven

Selene

Bells.

They pealed across the city in joyous waves, their sound carrying through my open window along with the cheers of the crowds below.I stood motionless, watching as the streets filled with citizens in their finest clothes, clutching flowers and banners in the royal colors.Children darted between adults' legs, their faces painted with the blue star of Vaelthorne.Merchants had erected temporary stalls along the main avenue, selling commemorative trinkets and cups of sweet wine to toast the royal couple.

Prince Eirik's wedding day had arrived.

The prince who should have been at The Siren's Call tavern at midnight, waiting for a woman who never came.

I pressed my forehead against the cool glass, my breath creating a small circle of fog.How long had I stood here?Hours, perhaps.I hadn't slept.After Eirik left yesterday, I had sat in that same spot on the bed where we'd made love, his promise of escape lingering in the air like perfume.I'd waited for darkness to fall, then for the midnight bells to toll.And I had not moved.

My promise to meet him had been sincere when I'd made it—the emotion in his eyes, the hope in his voice had made me believe, if only for a moment, that we could escape our fates.But as the hour approached, reality reasserted itself like the inevitable pull of the tide.

I could no more run away with him than he could grow a tail and breathe water.

A sharp pain shot through my legs, and I winced, shifting my weight.These human limbs were still foreign to me, but lately they'd begun to feel less like borrowed appendages and more like permanent fixtures.The transformation was accelerating.Each day, more of my siren nature slipped away, replaced by human sensations, human weaknesses, human emotions.

I moved away from the window to the small mirror on my dressing table.The face that looked back at me was both familiar and strange—still beautiful in the otherworldly way of my kind but subtly altered.My eyes, once as changeable as the sea itself, had settled into a fixed green that no longer shifted with my moods.My silver-white hair had lost some of its luminescence, now appearing merely pale blonde in certain lights.My skin, once opalescent, now flushed with the pink of human blood when I was emotional or overheated.

I closed my eyes and tried to summon the song that had once flowed effortlessly from my throat—the melody that had lured countless sailors to their doom.Nothing came but a faint, hollow echo, like the memory of a dream upon waking.

The magic was nearly gone.

I looked down at my hands, turning them over to study the lines on my palms—so distinctly human.How much time did I have left?Days?Hours?Once my transformation was complete, I would be trapped in this form forever, cut off from my kingdom, my heritage, my birthright.All because I had failed to kill the thirteenth prince.

The thirteenth prince—the wretched and wondrous man I had fallen in love with.

The irony was almost poetic enough to be one of the ancient ballads my people sang of tragic loves between sirens and mortals.Almost, but not quite—those tales usually ended with the siren dragging her lover beneath the waves to join her in eternity.They never spoke of sirens becoming human, of magical protection that thwarted their songs, of curses that could only be broken through the most intimate betrayal.

I turned back to the window.In the distance, I could see the royal cathedral, its white spires adorned with blue and silver banners that snapped in the morning breeze.The ceremony would begin at noon.Eirik would stand beside Princess Astrid, speak vows of devotion he did not feel, and bind himself to a kingdom and a woman who could not see beyond his skin to the beauty of his heart.

Unless I acted.

The thought struck me with sudden clarity, bringing with it a terrible resolve.My path had always been clear—kill the prince, reclaim my song, return to the depths as heir to my father's throne.I had allowed myself to be distracted by tender touches and sweet words, by fantasies of a human life I was never meant to live.

---