Page 52 of Siren Problems
I blink. “What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s time you decide what youactuallywant. Not what’s smart. Not what’s survivable. What your heart wants.”
“I can’t just throw everything away for?—”
“For what?” she cuts in. “For safety? For a maybe-someday that never shows up because you’re too scared to risk the fall?”
I open my mouth, but no words come out.
Because she’s right.
I’ve been hiding behind logic, behind research, behind the thin veil of‘I’ll fix him with knowledge’because that feelssaferthan saying what I really want.
I want him.
Calder.
In all his cursed, storm-wrapped messiness.
Kai softens again, stepping close. “You want love, Luna. I’veseenit. And you’re trying to pretend you don’t because you think choosing it makes you vulnerable.”
“It does.”
“Good,” she says fiercely. “That means it’s real.”
I look away, blinking hard.
“I’m scared,” I whisper.
She lifts my chin. “So is he. But you’ve come too far to back down now.”
I nod slowly.
Not sure.
But braver than I was ten minutes ago.
Kai kisses my forehead. “Choose, Luna. Safety, or love. You don’t get both.”
That night,I dream of water.
Cool. Endless. Familiar.
I’m floating, suspended in silver light, the sound of singing echoing all around me—but it’s not coming from outside.
It’sme.
My mouth is open. My voice moves through the current like a living thing, soft and searching. And through it, I feel him.
Calder.
He’s reaching for me.
Not with fear.
Not with desperation.
Buthope.
