Page 127 of Rise of the Siren Queen
All I felt was the absence of her voice, her warmth, her love. The emptiness roared louder than my thoughts.
An orphan.The word struck me like a blade through the ribs.
I had no one.
Not my mother’s arms, my father’s laughter. Not my grandmother’s chastising.
Nothing. Only the crushing weight of a crown that suddenly felt like a curse.
Draven’s laughter set me off of the catatonic state. It echoed like a blade across my raw, open wounds, sharp and merciless.
Applause followed, the mockery piercing through the haze of my despair. He was clapping, as if this were nothing more than some twisted comedy, as if he hadn’t just torn apart everything I had left.
The icy-hot anger burned in my veins in a mix of cool and boil. At the same time my insides were burning and freezing, my chest was tight, my throat blocked with the rising wrath at the sound.
I just lost my world, and he is laughing and clapping. All of it… all of it is a game for him, a path to seize my crown.
Rage spread in my shallow heart like tendrils of ice, solidifyingthrough the numbness. My hands trembled, not from fear but from the force of holding myself back. My vision blurred, not with tears, but with the violent, cold haze of fury.
I wanted to scream, to destroy everything, to make him feel even a fraction of the agony ripping through me. But beneath the anger was something darker, a deep, gut-wrenching despair that whispered cruel truths.
He won.
My breath hitched as my gaze fell back to her lifeless form, her skin full of life now forever in gray hues, her once warm presence now still and cold. The fury faltered for a moment, replaced by a crushing wave of remorse.
I failed her. Failed all of them. I shouldn’t be alive. I should have died with my parents.
His laugh rose again, feeding the shards of my rage until they froze colder than ever. Slowly, I straightened, my hands curling into fists at my sides. Hethinksthis is over. He thinks he won.
Darkness coiled inside me, snaking through my chest and dullingthe raw agony for just an instant. My body shook with the weight of despair, but that darkness, the numb, cold void, offered a bitter relief. I closed my eyes and clung to it, letting the icy stillness settle in my veins.
The noise of his laughter faded, the cruel mockery becoming a distant hum, almost as if it were happening in another world. Only one sound remained: the echo of my grandmother’s last words.
You are the queen this kingdom needs.
Something snapped inside me. Not a crack, but a full rupture, deep and intrinsic, turning into my very soul. It wasn’t sadness anymore, or despair. It was power.
It surged through my veins, unrelenting and feral, a force stronger than anything I had ever felt before. Chases away the numbness, but not in a way that brings pain. It brought clarity.
This was mine. My power. The wild, untamed strength that had always lurked beneath the surface but had eluded me when I needed it most. Now, it answered my call.
When I opened my eyes, everything was sharper—the edges of the room, the glint of the dagger still in his hand, the way his smirk faltered for just a second when he saw me rise.
The corners of my lips curl upward, but it isn’t a smile of kindness. No, this was something darker, something fierce and ruthless.
I remember every second of this nightmare and how it is my turn to make him regret ever crossing me. Now, I would be the one laughing and clapping. The one to ensure punishment.
Starting with his mother.
26
Buying Silence
Adrian
Lorenzo’s voice was silk-wrapped arrogance as he presented his grand design to the Senate. A luxury diving destination, he called it. A tribute to Thalassa’s future.
The island gleamed on the screen behind him like a lure—coral reefs, hidden caves, a tapestry of ancient history.
