Page 41 of Siren Problems
It wasreal.
Unshielded. Raw. The kind of connection I’ve spent lifetimes avoiding. Wanting.
Dreading.
And it scares me more than anything.
Because for a moment—one perfect, aching moment—I wasn’t a cursed prince or a siren relic. I wasn’t the council’s burden or the sea’s prisoner.
I was justCalder.
A man in love with a woman who sees him, touches him, and doesn’t recoil from the sharp edges.
I close my eyes.
It felt like taking my first breath. But joy like that? It doesn’t last. Not for me. Not when the sea remembers everything and the curse coils beneath my ribs, patient and possessive.
I don’t know what will trigger it next.
My voice? Maybe want or love?
And Luna—she’s not just a part of this now. She’s at thecenterof it. The relic reacted to her. The altar recognized her. And when I was inside her, when shecalled my namewith nothing but truth in her voice, the powerrose.
It didn’t lash out, but it stirred, and I can’t let that happen again.
Because if it breaks free, it won’t be my life it takes.
It’ll behers.
I feel her shift against me, laying her head on my chest.
“I felt it too, you know,” she whispers. “That… thing between us.”
I stay still.
“If I’m wrong, tell me. But it didn’t feel like a mistake.”
My throat burns.
She lifts her head slightly, meets my eyes. “It felt like a beginning.”
And there it is: the knife, twisting slow.
Because I want to sayyes.
I want to kiss her again, pull her beneath me, and make it mean something more than curses and fate and ancient warnings wrapped in prophecy.
But the fear’s louder than the want and it says:This ends with you alone again.
She brushes my jaw with her fingers, soft and patient. “You’re allowed to want this.”
“No,” I say, hoarse. “Not if it risks you.”
“I’malreadyin this,” she says gently. “You pulled me out of the deep. Let me stand beside you now.”
Her words undo me.
Because she means them.
