Page 26 of Rise of the Siren Queen
“Don’t move yet,” she continued, her voice softening, though it still carried an edge of command. “You need to rest. You almost—” She faltered, her gaze dropping as she swallowed hard, clearly unable to finish the sentence.
And that’s when I truly saw her. The real her. Not the unshakable, formidable siren who had stood her ground with me. But Iryen, who had fought hard to save me and was now beside me, struggling to control her emotions.
The tension between us was palpable, like a taut wire threateningto snap. Iryen was a force of nature, someone I could never quite figure out. She was a mystery, a contradiction of fierce independence and unexpected tenderness. And yet, here she was, her fear laid bare in the tremor of her fingers, in the shallow, controlled breaths she was forcing herself to take.
“That siren,” I rasped, forcing the words through the tightness in my throat, the memory of those cold, dead hands still clinging to me. “She tried to kill me.”
Iryen’s jaw tightened, her eyes narrowing into a hard, frosty glare. “Ithra. She won’t try again,” she said, her voice laced with icy finality. “I will make sure of that.”
There was something dangerous in the way she said it, something that made a shiver run down my spine. Whatever had happened while I was drowning, Iryen had handled it. And from the steel in her voice, she hadn’t held back.
Her words sank in. I had nearly died. And she had fought for me, fought harder than I could have ever imagined. The guilt was sudden and overwhelming. What had I done to deserve this? What had I done to warrant her risking everything for me? Nothing. I had been a rude bastard to her.
“Why you saved me?” I muttered, the confession slipping from my lips before I could stop it. “After how I treated you, everything I’ve said… I didn’t deserve it.”
Iryen’s grip on my shoulder tightened, and she leaned in close, her voice low and intense.
“Don’t you dare.” Her tone brooked no argument. “You don’t get to decide what you deserve, Adrian. Not about this. Not about me.”
Her words hit me like a punch to the gut, but I couldn’t look away. Her eyes burned with a fire I hadn’t expected, and for the first time, I saw just how deep this went. There was more to it, more than just saving me.
“I saved you because I wanted to,” she continued, her voice softer now, though no less resolute. “Not because you deserve it or don’t. But because I—” She hesitated, “Because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you.”
Her words were soft, and a whisper carried by the wind. Her confession left me breathless. The raw vulnerability in her words caught me off guard. It sliced through every defense I had, shattering whatever walls I had tried to keep in place.
“Iryen, I—” I started, but I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t used to this, feeling like I owed someone more than just an apology. But I did. I owed her my life.
Before I could figure out what to say, she shifted closer, her hand brushing my cheek. Her touch was so gentle, so warm, and for a moment, the tension between us melted away. The chaos in my mind quieted, soothed by the simple connection of her hand against my skin.
“I don’t care about what happened,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the distant sound of the waves. “All I care about is that you’re here. Alive.”
Her words echoed in my mind, and for the first time in a long time, I let them sink in. She had saved me. Although everything, despite being an outsider, she saved me. Maybe that was enough for now.
As I lay there, struggling to process Iryen’s words, a sharp, sudden pain ripped through my body. It was like fire searing through my veins, igniting every nerve in a blaze of agony. My breath hitched, and I tried to push myself up, but my limbs betrayed me, my strength slipping away.
I groaned, clutching my chest, the pain intensifying with every heartbeat. Iryen’s expression shifted instantly, her concern deepening as she reached out to steady me. But this… this wasn’t normal. Something was wrong. Something was changing.
“What’s happening to me?” I rasped, my voice barely more than a whisper as I fought to keep my composure.
Iryen’s hand froze, her eyes widening in realization as she stared down at me, her gaze darting between my face and my legs.
Slowly, cautiously, I let my gaze drift downward, my chest rising and falling in shallow, measured breaths as I took stock of myself. I half expected to see nothing out of the ordinary, a body bruised from the struggle, weak from near drowning, but what I saw nearly stopped my heart.
Where my legs should’ve been, familiar, solid, human limbs, was something else. Something that couldn’t possibly belong to me.
The skin along my thighs burned while scales pierced through the human flesh, dissolving into something foreign, something unnatural. My muscles spasmed, twisting and warping as my legs fused together, my bones realigning into a single powerful tail.
A tail.
A long, sleek tail that gleamed in the light, covered in deep blue scales that caught the glow of the sun and reflected it like ripples in water. I blinked, hard, certain it was a trick of the light, that my mind was playing some twisted game on me.
But no, it was there. Attached to me. Moving with every shallow breath I took.
“What the hell—” The words barely made it out of my throat before panic gripped me. I pushed myself up on trembling arms, ignoring the pain that shot through my chest and the way Iryen’s hands hovered as if she wanted to stop me.
My fingers scraped against the floor as I tried to scramble backward, but the movement felt wrong, foreign. I wasn’t used to it. I couldn’t even recognize my body.
“This…this can’t be real,” I muttered, my voice shaking with disbelief. My hands reached for my tail, touching the smooth scales asthough that would prove it wasn’t a part of me. But the cold sensation under my fingers sent a jolt through me. It was real. This was me now.
