Page 20 of Siren Problems
“Calder?”
Her voice breaks through the roar in my ears. I glance up, and I know she sees it—the change in me. The tightening. The way the ocean behind me rears like it’s waiting on my orders.
“You need to leave.”
She straightens, eyes narrowing. “You’re not my boss.”
I growl. “I’mnotasking.”
Her mouth opens. Shuts. She studies me, and I hate that she looksconcerned. That she steps forward instead of backing off.
“This relic... it’s yours, isn’t it?”
I don’t answer.
“Why is it reacting to you?”
Still, I don’t speak.
“Calder.”
“Because it remembers,” I snap, louder than I mean to. “Because it’smine. Because I used to wear it when I sang storm calls and blood treaties and love songs that could drown armies.”
She flinches, but not from fear. Fromunderstanding.
And that makes it worse.
“You were a prince,” she breathes.
I laugh. Bitter. Ugly. “Was. Now I’m a warning tale mothers whisper to their sea-witched children.”
Luna crouches again, her voice lower. Softer. “I’m not trying to break you open.”
“Then stop poking around in my wreckage.”
She stands slowly, soaked up to her knees, but unflinching. “You can’t keep locking every truth underwater. Eventually it drifts back to shore.”
I throw the relic into the waves.
The sea accepts it with a hiss.
Luna watches it vanish.
“Why are you so scared of what I’ll find?” she asks, not accusing—just... wondering.
“I’m not scared of you,” I say.
It’s a lie.
Because Iam.
She sees through too much. She listens too closely.
And I can’t afford to care about someone who makes mewantto be known.
Without another word, I turn and walk away.
The waves lap behind me, gentle now.
