Page 147 of A Storm in Every Heart
Can you?I think desperately.
She gives me another wide, terrifying smile.Perhaps, but what would you give me in exchange?
Anything.
She drifts even closer—so close I can see the faint shimmer of luminescent patterns undulating beneath her skin, casting sickly green shadows across Kastian’s slack face. Around us, the other sirens circle, watching the drama unfold with idle, predatory fascination. I clutch Kastian closer, his body growing heavier, colder, every second. The queen’s power presses at my thoughts,relentless and insistent.I’ll save him for you, but when I do he won’t remember you. It will be as if you never existed.
I reel back.He won’t remember me? Why?
The song of her mind seeps into mine, cool and unhurried, rolling over my panic like the tide erasing footprints in the sand.That’s just how it is. Would you rather he die, clutching the memory of you to his drowning chest?
My eyes narrow, and my thoughts whip out of me before I can contain them, frantic and stinging.But why would you do that? What good does stealing his memory do for you?
The siren queen’s eyes narrow, her long tentacles curling in a lazy spiral.Oh, dear, this isn’t for me. We haven't even gotten to my payment yet. This is just the price of magic. Large rewards require large sacrifices, and this, my dear, is a very large reward.
My teeth clench. I won’t let him die. I won’t.
Fine, then I’ll tell him. I’ll make him understand.
I wouldn’t do that if I were you.There’s a slow, syrupy amusement in the way her gaze lingers on me, as if she’s savoring a delicate morsel.Magic doesn’t look kindly on loopholes, and there’s no telling what could happen if you try to evade our bargain. Until the day your prince dies, he will never remember you and you will never be able to speak of your past together.
My head pounds, my thoughts hammering in time with the beat of my heat. My voice and his memories?
Yes. That is the price of his life...I believe you said you’d be willing to give up anything.
Anger and grief hit me so hard it nearly drowns me. For a moment, I’m paralyzed in the water, clutching Kastian’s arm, staring into the horror of what I’ve just agreed to, and what I’m about to lose.
Fine.I think bitterly. Save him.
A cold, predatory satisfaction glimmers in the siren queen’s bottomless eyes. She drifts in closer, and I am trapped, nose to nose with her.We haven’t yet discussed my payment,she hisses in my mind.If I do this for you, in exchange you will return to the sea where you belong and serve me.
Serve her? As what? Some monstrous creature, haunting shipwrecks and luring sailors to their doom?
My eyes flick desperately to the other sirens, the ones circling us like sharks, their hungry stares so intent I can almost feel them on my back.
In my mind, I see myself among them, my skin grey and stretched tight over bones, my teeth monstrous, my eyes gone flat and glassy, a predator stripped of memory or hope. Is that what waits for me on the other side of this bargain?
When would I have to come back?I think desperately.Will I have time to say goodbye to my family?
They’re not your family!Her angry thoughts whip out as if to sting.We are your family. This is where you belong.
I shake my head.No, no it isn’t.
The siren queen’s face shifts, and for a moment I think I see pity in her—then it’s gone, replaced by a predatory glee.Fine, then I'll grant you this one more gift: There is no time limit for when you must return. You may spend centuries lying to yourself if you wish, but all sirens return to the sea eventually. One day, you’ll realize you are no exception. You won’t be able to resist the call of the sea, and you’ll return. On that day, we’ll find you. Wherever you are in the world, we’ll know, and we’ll come to collect.
I’ll just never return,I think in a panic, almost believing it.
The queen’s mouth stretches wide, and she laughs, a soundless shriek that shudders the water. The circling sirens join in, their voices braiding together in a discordant, predatory chorus that makes every muscle in my body want to flee.
You may try,the queen says, her thoughts curling around mine like a promise and a curse.But it is your nature, Odessa. You cannot choose what you are.
I want to scream at her that she’s wrong, that I belong to myself, not to any queen or curse or ocean. But the words dissolve in the water before I can even form them.
I look down at Kastian’s limp body, his features growing gaunt, almost translucent, as the thin last shreds of life leak from him. Something inside me breaks.
If I have to become a monster to save him, then fine—I’ll be the worst monster this ocean has ever seen.
I grit my teeth and glare at the queen.I accept. Save him.
