Page 126 of Rise of the Siren Queen
Her hand, light as a feather, touched mine. I clung to it like a lifeline.
“It’s not your fault,” she said, her breath hitching painfully. “Do not blame yourself.” Her fingers squeezed, barely perceptible. “My sweet child… I’ve always loved you. I always will.”
A sound, raw and broken, tore from my chest. I didn’t recognize it as my own.
Then, her eyes closed.
I waited.
One second. Two. Five.
Nothing.
“No,” I breathed, panic crashing down on me like a wave. “No, no, no!” I shook her gently, then harder. “Don’t leave me! You can’t…you can’t do this to me!”
I pressed my palms to her chest again, forcing more magic out. It sparked. Flickered. Then died. My power had nothing left to give.
She was still.
My scream didn’t echo. Itrippedthrough the room. I crumpled over her, fists clutching her lifeless form, the cold sinking into my skin like a curse. All I could feel was the emptiness she left behind. The air itself felt heavier. My lungs refused to work. My heart was a fist clenched too tight.
I had saved one… only to lose the other.
And now, with her warmth fading under my fingers, I knew one thing with unbearable clarity.
I wasn’t enough. I had failed her.
And I would never be whole again.
It hit me all at once. No warning, no mercy.
Like a heavy piece of stone crashing straight into my chest, the world buckled. The silence after her last breath was louder than any scream. My ears rang, vision blurred. My lungs refused to expand.
She’s gone.
My mind clung to the words, repeated them, tried to make sense of them, but they cut deeper each time they echoed.
My grandmother. My last thread of sanity.
Gone.
My heart didn’t break—itruptured. Something cracked open inside me, something wild and suffocating. My hands clutched at my chestas if I could hold myself together, but my ribs felt shattered, my insides hollowed out. I couldn’t find my breath, couldn’t ground myself. The room tilted. Spun.
The pressure behind my eyes built until the fresh tears finally came, hot, blinding, useless. I gasped, choking on sobs that clawed up my throat, my body convulsing with the force of them. My hands shook uncontrollably. I curled into myself, forehead pressed against her cooling skin, trying, failing, to anchor myself to what little I had left.
My parents were already dust in memory. Now her.
And me?
I was just…floating. Untethered. A queen in name, but what did that even mean? I had no council. No family. No voice that would sayyou’re not alone. Only silence. And blood. And emptiness.
The burden of it all crushed down on me, grief so vast, so bottomless, it felt like drowning in ink. I tried to pull in air, but every inhale caught short. My throat closed. My vision tunneled. I pressed my palms to the floor, desperate for something solid, something real, but the room tilted sideways, spinning, breaking apart like everything else in my life.
My body trembled violently. Panic swelled in my chest like a scream that wouldn’t come out. My magic flared uselessly, reacting to the chaos spiraling inside me, sparking around my fingers with no direction, no control.Feral.
Breathe. Breathe.
I couldn’t.
