Page 59 of Siren Problems
Hisvoice.
Him.
Mira’s still celebrating behind me, tossing sparkly sticky notes in the air. She finally notices my silence and creeps back to my side.
“You look like you just read your own obituary.”
I point to the clause.
She leans in.
“...Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“They wanteverything?”
“All the relics. All the data. All the... beings. If it’s anomalous, it’s evidence.”
“Including?”
I nod slowly.
She sits down beside me, hard. “That’s not just academic. That’s predatory.”
“They always frame it in pretty words. Oversight. Containment. Preservation.”
“But it’s still exploitation.”
I clench my fists. “They want me toprovemagic. But to them, proving it means boxing it. Studying it. Draining it.”
“And Calder?—”
“Would be a target the moment I name him.”
Mira is quiet.
I can hear the hum of the ley grid under our floor. The quiet whir of the aura stabilizer. My own heartbeat, thick in my ears.
This is everything I’ve worked for.
Years.
Blood. Sweat. Magical near-death experiences.
This fellowship is validation. Power. Autonomy.
Ideserveit.
But I didn’t fall in love with power.
I fell in love withhim.
I slam the laptop shut like it might bite me.
Mira reaches for my hand, her voice quieter now. “You don’t have to decide today.”
“I already did,” I whisper. “A year ago, when I applied. I built my career on proving the impossible.”
