Page 75 of Siren Problems
“Where you left her,” Nerida says. “At the altar. Rebuilding what you wouldn’t face.”
I don’t thank her. I just run.
By the timeI find her, the wind has picked up. The tide roars like it’s fighting to be heard.
Luna stands near the circle drawn in salt and charcoal, her hair whipping around her like flame. The wind catches the pages she’s scattered—scrawled notes, spell fragments, runes etched inthick ink. A pulse stone glows faintly at her side, tuned to her heartbeat.
She doesn’t look up.
“You’re late,” she says flatly.
“I didn’t ask for this.”
She snorts. “And I didn’t ask to fall for a broody sea demon with abandonment issues. Life’s full of little surprises.”
My chest clenches. “You gave it all up.”
“Yup.”
“The grant?—”
“Gone.”
“Your thesis?—”
“Torched.”
My hands fist at my sides. “Why the hell would you do that?”
She finally looks at me then, her eyes full of fury and grief and some deeper kind of truth.
“Because you matter more than a fucking footnote in a magical journal.”
The wind howls. The sea seethes. But she’s louder.
“I know you’re scared. I know you think loving someone means you’ll ruin them. But newsflash, Calder—I’m not afraid of you.I’m afraid of losing you to your own damn self-loathing.”
“Luna—”
“You think hiding is noble? It’s not. It’s cowardice dressed in self-sacrifice. And I see right through it.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then don’t.”
I flinch like she slapped me.
Because it’s that simple.
Because she’s not demanding answers or promises—justpresence.
I step forward, slowly. “How do I just be... this?”
“Try,” she says. “Start withhere.Start withnow.”
The pulse stone flares.
She holds it between us like a tether.
