Page 125 of Rise of the Siren Queen
I was lying.
I wasbreaking.
Their blood clung to my hands, and I didn’t know where to push, what to seal, how tostopit. I couldn’t feel anything but the terror ripping through me, the purewrongnessof this moment. My sobs were ugly, wracking, guttural things that made my ribs ache.
“You’re okay,” I whispered again, voice shaking, as if saying it enough times would make it true. “You’re okay… you’re okay… please be okay…”
My grandmother’s hand fluttered over mine, the faintest pressure. Her lips parted, her voice nothing more than breath. “Iryen…save her, child.”
“No, don’t.” My voice cracked as I leaned in. “Don’t talk as if it’s over. You’re not going anywhere. I won’t let you.”
Elora’s hand grasped weakly at my arm, and her eyes, still bright with fight even as her life slipped away, pleaded with me. She couldn’t speak, but I heard her anyway.Don’t give up.
My throat clenched. Closed.
My entire world,everything, was crumbling around me, thread bythread. If I lost them, there would be nothing left of me. Nothing left to fight for.
The goddess may as well have struck me herself, for surely this torment was divine punishment. I was powerless, my strength meaningless, and the realization was a dagger in my chest.
The sea inside me screamed.
I summoned my magic, my palms glowing with a feverish, frantic light. Their blood rose with my call, curling like threads around my fingers as I forced every shred of power into healing.
It wasn’t enough.
The effort ripped through me, pain like fire in my veins, but I didn’t stop.Couldn’t stop. I would bleed myself dry if it meant saving them. I pressed against Elora’s wounds first, coaxing the blood to knit her flesh, to stitch the torn pieces of her back together.
“Stay with me,” I whispered through clenched teeth. “You’re my sister, my other half. I can’t lose you too. I won’t survive it.”
One by one, I knit her wounds back together with trembling hands, my breath hitching in my throat. The magic burned through me like fire underwater, unforgiving, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Every time her blood bubbled to the surface, I pressed harder, screamed louder in my mind.Heal. Please, gods, heal. I shook, my vision dimming, spots of darkness creeping in at the edges, my body screaming in protest, but I kept going.
“I need you,” I whispered to them both. “Don’t go. Not yet. Not like this.”
Elora drew in a sharp breath, her chest rising in the barest, almost imperceptible movements.
“Thank you.”
I slumped forward, forehead resting against her shoulder, the smallest gasp leaving me. Not relief. Not really. It felt like I was falling apart cell by cell, barely stitched together by my desperation.
This wasn’t pain. It wasdevastation. And I was already drowning in it.
I turned to my grandmother.
Her breathing—so shallow, so fragile—was a countdown I couldn’t stop.
“No, no, no,” I whispered, crawling to her side, slipping in the blood that painted the water like ink. With my palms pressed to her chest, the green light sparking from them, a weak and flickering. I shoved more magic into her, dragging it from places I didn’t know I could reach. My bones screamed, lungs ached. My power strained under the weight of her injuries.
Her blood coated my fingers. Hot. Slick. Wrong.
“Please, Grandma, don’t leave me too.” I begged, barely hearing my own voice. It was thin. Hollow.Not enough.The glow from my hands faltered, sputtering like a dying star. Her body was resisting me. Or maybe… maybe it was already letting go.
“Don’t do this,” I whispered, leaning over her, teeth clenched. “Don’t you dare.”
Her eyes fluttered open, dull, but still hers, and for a moment, the world paused.
“Remember, child…” Her voice was a thread unraveling, but still lined with steel. “You are the queen this kingdom needs…”
“No. Stop. Don’t speak,” I croaked, shaking my head. My tears fell, mingling with hers. “Save your strength. Please, just…just hold on.”
