Page 36 of Siren Problems

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But they’renotMira’s eyes.

They’re glowing. Sea-glass green with a ring of moonlight white.

And when she speaks, it’s not in her voice.

“A voice unbound under moonlight shall echo. A heart in silence must choose. The deep remembers.”

I drop my tablet.

“What?”

Her head tilts. “The sea takes what it loves. The sea gives what it mourns.”

“Mira—come on. Snap out of it. Don’t start reciting cryptic breakup poetry.”

But she keeps going. The voice vibrates the air around us, charged and hollow. Like she’s being used as aconduit.

“Only the unbound shall open the sealed. Only love shall temper the song.”

Then, just like that, her eyes flutter. Her body slumps. And she falls backward into a pile of ley paper and enchanted rubber bands.

I rush forward, catching her head before it hits the floor. “Mira! Are you with me?”

She groans and squints up at me. “Ugh... why does my throat taste like kelp and sarcasm?”

“You were possessed.”

“Again?” She frowns. “That’s rude. I didn’t even have a snack first.”

“You channeled a spirit. It said things. Weird things.”

She pushes herself up slowly, blinking like her eyelids haven’t recalibrated yet. “What kind of things?”

I repeat it.

A voice unbound.

A heart in silence must choose.

Only love shall temper the song.

Mira’s eyes widen with every word.

“That’s prophecy syntax.”

“Thanks, Captain Obvious.”

“No, I mean it’sformal.That wasn’t a rando ghost trying to flirt. That was a higher echo. Bound to a ley junction. Maybe tied to the wreck.”

I pace.

Because here’s the thing—I want to laugh it off. I want to roll my eyes and chalk it up to magical indigestion.

But I can’t.

Because when she said “a voice unbound under moonlight,” my brain screamedCalderbefore I could stop it.

His voice.

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