Page 95 of When the Wicked Sing
Kosta rolled his clearing eyes and shook his head. His neck was still bleeding, but the blood was dripping slower from his fingers. “I knew I had to come with you, but I also knew that there was no way I was about to seal our fates with Halia’s wrath. She has my sister—”
“She loves your sister—”
“It doesn’t matter!” Kosta’s mouth tightened. “Halia doesn’t know what real love is. She’d punish Ophelia just for being related to me—a betrayer! I couldn’t let that happen,” he confessed. His throat bobbed.
Dax sighed, recognizing the scared look on his friend’s face.
“Let’s hope you made the right choice.”
Kosta’s mouth lifted, his sad eyes wandering back toward Sirenia. “Let’s hope you did too.”
Chapter 52
Wavescrashedoverherhead, the relentless current pushing Mariana toward the beckoning shore. Salt stung her eyes, and the roar of the ocean filled her ears, making it hard to hear anything else.
“Come on, Mari, swim!” Aurora shouted, her voice piercing through the chaos as she pulled her sister forward with determined strength.
Mariana’s skin was numb, and her muscles ached painfully against the churning waves that tried to drag her under. Each stroke felt like lifting lead weights, but she focused on keeping her breathing as steady as possible, allowing the sea to guide her home.
The moment she felt sand beneath her feet, she pushed against the weight of gravity and the water that threatened to pull her down. She trudged up the shore, each step an arduous battle. Stopping on her hands and knees to catch her breath, she lifted her head, scanning the fog-drenched beach with weary eyes.
Aurora, having transformed, walked up beside her, her breath coming in sharp, ragged gasps.
“It’s so much worse than I thought,” Mariana panted, her voice trembling with fear and exhaustion.
Rotten wood, broken stones, and years of overgrowth littered the area that had once been a bustling harbor. The fog obscured their view beyond a few yards, but the devastation was clear. She prayed this was the worst of the damage, yet she knew that was false hope.
“We have to move,” Mariana said between breaths, glancing at her sister. Aurora gave her a grim nod, fully aware of the danger that pursued them.
Aurora offered her hand, and Mariana took it, grateful for the strength in her sister’s grip. Together, they disappeared into the blanket of fog, their footsteps muffled by the dense, eerie silence.
Time seemed to slow as they moved. Keeping a steady eye on the ground, they navigated the ruins, jumping over fallen columns and dodging broken buildings. Mariana had no idea where they were going, yet it was as if her feet knew the path by instinct.
The deeper the sisters ventured, the more evident the destruction became, even with their limited visibility. Mariana splashed through a puddle, cursing the misstep before realizing how quiet it was. The dense fog made navigating the area more difficult, but at least it muffled the sounds of their movements, offering a semblance of protection.
The sound of trickling water in the distance caught her attention, and she pulled Aurora forward. When a massive cliff came into view, their steps came to a halt. Staring at the wall ofmossy bedrock, Mariana trailed her eyes up the leaking water that went higher and higher until she could barely see the top through the gloom.
“The waterfall,” Aurora whispered. “It’s dammed. That’s why there’s no water flowing through to the sea.”
Fallen trees and boulders precariously obstructed the river that had once cascaded down the mountainside. Mariana could make out the distorted flow, but with how faint the sound was, she imagined it had to be far away.
Following the path of the escaped stream, she turned and choked at what she found. Her eyes instantly filled with tears, and she covered her mouth in horror. Aurora stepped up beside her, a horrified sob escaping her lips.
It was the beloved glass dome, shattered. Thick broken glass and twisted metal filled the depths of the dome that had once brimmed with life. Amongst the countless vines growing around the debris, thousands of siren bones lay scattered.
Mariana’s blurry eyes beheld the bleached bones of tails, skulls, ribs, and femurs strewn within the remains of the dome Astra had spoken of. The enchanted glass, designed to protect them and provide sanctuary, was now a symbol of hatred, violence, and death inflicted by the fae.
No—the king had done this.Her fatherhad done this. The male with sad eyes and a broken soul.
He turned Sirenia into a burial site.
Mariana’s heart cracked as she fell to her knees, imagining the terror and pain of watching the glass crash down, slicing and killing everyone beneath it. The water would have turned redwith the blood of her dead sisters, their lives flowing into the sea where they belonged.
“Wait,” she whispered, swallowing down the pain as understanding dawned on her.High tides wash away scarlet tears staining the forgotten. The crimson sea roars, glittering and gasping as it retreats, she recalled.
“The voice from my dream …” she breathed.
Aurora sniffed, staring down at her with tear-filled eyes. “What?”
