Page 102 of Rise of the Siren Queen
Like I was some inconvenient truth she could bury in the sand before sailing off to her golden throne?
Iryen didn’t even look at me. Didn’t blink. Didn’t offer me so much as a fucking glance.
“Your secret is safe with me, Your Majesty,” she said to my mother, her voice smooth, royal, and completely devoid of me.
Like I didn’t exist.
Like I wasn’thers.
My mother’s expression softened as she looked at Iryen, like they shared some unspoken truth I wasn’t part of. “I appreciate it, Princess Iryen, truly. I wish you safe travels.”
Safe travels.
Like that was all she had to say to the woman who just dropped a bomb and walked away like it didn’t detonate in my chest.
Then she turned to me. Her eyes were warm, bittersweet, and I hated how much I still ached for that look.
“I have to go now, son,” she mumbled. “I came because I sensed her presence. Your father and I are leaving town. That’s what I came to tell you…” She paused, gaze flicking toward Iryen. “But that’s no longer necessary.”
Just like that. She came to say goodbye and ended up confirming that every piece of my life was built on someone else’s lies.
I walked her out like an obedient son should, but inside, I wasshattering.
The numbness was a dull blade scraping across bone. My feet moved on instinct, but my mind was chaos—fractured truths, veiled warnings, revelations that hadn’t even finished sinking in before the next one knocked me sideways. I couldn’t catch a breath. Couldn’t form a coherent thought that didn’t taste like betrayal.
The silence between us was thick, but I couldn’t break it. Words clawed at the back of my throat, but they never made it out. I wasn’t ready to hear howsorryshe was. How shemeant well. How it was all formy protection.
We reached the door. She placed a gentle hand on my arm, as though that could hold the pieces of me together.
“Take your time with this,” she whispered. There was sadness in her voice. Maybe guilt. I wasn’t in the mood to dissect which. “I know it’s a lot. And I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner.”
Sorry.
They all were, weren’t they?
I gave her a nod, just enough to let her go. Just enough to keep the dam from breaking.
She walked away with all the calm grace of someone who had made peace with the storm. I watched her go, every step tugging harder at a thread I didn’t realize was already fraying.
Yanked between two worlds I never asked to belong to, one human, one unnatural, both built on secrets that never includedmeuntil it was too late.
And now?
Now it felt like I was the only one standing in the wreckage, watching everyone else walk away before the dust even settled.
I returned to the living room, and there she was, still. Sitting on my couch, aching like nothing had happened. Like she hadn’t just upended my entire goddamn reality and then made herself at home in thewreckage.
The setting sun poured molten gold across her skin, haloing her like some divine fucking mirage. And for a second, just a second, I hated how beautiful she looked. Hated how calm she was.
She stared out the window, distant, detached. Somewhere else entirely.
And I was standing there, raw, wrecked, forgotten.
It took me a beat too long to remember she hadn’t eaten. Not that she’d complained. Of course not. Princesses don’t beg.
My fingers twitched. The ache behind my eyes pulsed. Between my mother’s casual lies, Iryen’s looming departure, and the mountain of half-truths buried me under, I couldn’t think straight. Couldn’tbreathestraight.
I ordered food just to give myself something to do. Something that wasn’t watching her pretended this didn’t mean something. Thatwedidn’t mean something.
