Page 60 of Siren Problems
“But you didn’t know him then.”
“No,” I say. “I didn’t.”
We sit in silence for a while.
Then Mira asks the question I’ve been dreading.
“What are you going to do?”
I don’t answer.
Because I don’t know.
I want both.
I want Calder. And I want this grant. I want to change the field fromwithin.I want to rewrite the rulesso people like him don’t have to hide anymore.
But I can’t do that from a position I bought by betraying him.
Mira stands. “I’ll run some simulations. On what we can publish without triggering the clause.”
“Thanks.”
I walk out into the dunes, the wind snapping at my coat, the sea churning like it knows something’s wrong.
And I scream.
Loud. Harsh.
Full of salt and heartbreak and rage.
Because I don’t want to choose.
But if I don’t...
I’ll lose both.
By sunset, the lab is buzzing.
Mira has already printed the grant banner from the university press release and tacked it to the wall above my desk. She’s bouncing between data logs and spreadsheet tabs like a hyperactive sea sprite.
“I’m telling you,” she says, waving a coral-pink highlighter, “this changeseverything.We can map the South Ridge leyline fault with equipment we’ve never touched. We can reverse engineer rift decay. Hell, we could build ourownmagical oceanography lab.”
She twirls, throws confetti into the air, and yells, “Luna Wilder, you sea witch genius!”
Kai, by contrast, is slumped on my couch with a drink and a very tight smile.
“You okay?” she asks, softly, when Mira darts into the supply closet in search of more glitter.
I nod too quickly. “Yeah. Just processing.”
“Luna.”
“Iam.”
She watches me for a moment. “So... do you want to celebrate?”
“I... I don’t know.”
