Page 34 of Siren's Kiss & Feral Beasts
Even here, beneath the waves, I feel him.
His presence on my skin lingers like the shadow of a storm, fierce and consuming.
Happiness at finding my mate. Sadness at being tied to an enemy of my people. And at the end, I’m right where I started…
Ire. Sorrow. Betrayal.
“Let’s get this over with,” I sigh, slipping from the bed, not bothering to glance at the mirror propped up in the corner. A tide-hopper’s trinket my grandfather tolerates at best. Our prior king, his father-in-law, despised anything from the surface, banning their use after salvagers first dragged the reflective glass through the palace’s gates. They’d been searching for gold and steel—anything of worth—and instead, found their faces staring back.
Great-grandfather called them dangerous; vanity made distractions.
But when his only daughter accepted his general as her husband, Atlas bent the rules to keep her happy. She’d been curious, admired the way light reflected off the shiny surface—the truth they showed.
And as a wedding gift, my grandfather presented her with one. Gilded oval and with a delicate filigree, the piece is beautiful and kept inside her private sitting room.
Now, it’s a common occurrence to see one. That, and brushes. Pretty baubles to fill pretty corners…
Swimming out of the room, I make sure to keep my eyes straight ahead and not give in to temptation. My reflection will only betray me, the red in my eyes nothing more than a mirrored image of the storm inside my chest. Truths I’m not ready to face.
It’s better to be unguarded than broken.
I reach the royal dais at the heart of the palace, finding my grandmother seated on her throne. The water shimmers, bending around her as she smiles down at me, a frail silhouette of the woman I’ve always admired.
Her violet eyes, so much like mine, just a few shades darker, have a sheen of glass over them. The tears don’t fall when we’re underwater, only while on land, and yet they gather just the same. “Nerissa, why have you returned?”
I’m surprised by the question, and my back straightens in a defensive stance. “Because this is my home.”
“Is it?” Her voice carries strength, yet layered beneath is a tremble that ripples across the distance separating us. “Or did you take what isn’t yours, and now you hide from the repercussions?”
“This belongs here. To you.”
“Or maybe it was meant to lead you down a different path.” Her exhale is heavy, and for a few seconds, I feel shame. A loss that isn’t mine, yet buried deep in my bones, I experience it just the same. “That heaviness is what I carry every single day. The loss is real.”
“I don’t understand. I-I thought you…” My words trail off, yet I still lift the stone around my neck out toward her. It vibrates against my skin. “This is yours?—”
“To give, Nerissa.” Grandma Lucienne lifts a delicate hand to stop me from removing the piece, but I do so anyway, swimming closer. I stop next to her chair and lean down, placing my forehead against hers, giving her my love and respect while placing the Cordis Lux in her palm. Mine encloses both, and immediately her bottom lip trembles. “Old friend, so honest and pure.”
“Reclaim your magic and heal yourself, my queen. Please, I can’t lose you.”
She’s the closest thing I have to a mother. Always there to guide and love, give reproach from time to time, but a constant in my life. Whatever’s draining her, taking the vivacious, happy mermaid who raised me, has turned her into a frail woman. Her scales have dimmed, her face is now pallid, and no sea witch has been able to diagnose her.
No herb has stopped the sickness from spreading, either.
“This was never meant to be yours, Neri. I sent you to the surface for a reason, not to reclaim my gift to Ephraim.”
“A gift? He stole from you!”
“Or maybe his fated mate gave him the only thing she could, so that no other wolf in his bloodline would experience the same devastation. The pain of losing the other half of their soul.”
Her truth runs into me with the force of a killer whale slamming into you. It happened once when I was fourteen summers, playing with friends, and I swam out toward an injured, blue whale calf. It took weeks: a couple of healing potions and the resetting of bone for me to bounce back.
And yet, this feels worse. So much worse.
“What does that…what are you?—”
“The Gods have not forgiven us, child.” Her lips tremble, her expression one of pure grief, and the currents around us shift. Push a little more violently, as if renewed, yet uncertain. “It breaks my heart to see this again. To feel it pulse against our palms, but this magic…it’s not ours to command, even if its origins come from me. The stone remembers its keeper, and what you hold now is unstable. Incomplete, and needs to go back to the wolves who care for it.
I swallow hard. My scales vibrate with a low hum, their shimmer faltering. “How can I help? Tell me, and I’ll make it happen.”
