Page 51 of Blood of the Sirens
No. No one was around except for the dark shape under the water that hurtled toward us from the north. I gripped Jesse tightly, ready to flee if needed. I relaxed slightly as I realized it was too big to be a shark. A whale: one of the large kinds that didn’t eat meat.
Its massive body broke the surface, revealing a female figure gripping to its back. She tossed her head back to shake out the water, leaving an arc of sparkling droplets behind her as she arched forward. I didn’t have time to gawp at her indigo skin or at the octopus tentacles she had for a lower half instead of a tail. Her heavy black dreads hung nearly to her waist, and were interwoven with beads and gems. Where had she gotten the gems?
Not a siren. But … What the hell was she?
“Get her over here. Quickly,” she snapped at me.
I could only obey. Jesse always came first, and right now, she wasn’t breathing. I towed her over to the whale’s back, and the strange woman put both hands on Jesse’s face, and muttered something I didn’t quite catch. The strange woman took one tentacle and thumped it hard against Jessie’s chest.
Jesse’s eyes flew open and she vomited seawater. The woman grabbed her with two other tentacles and rolled her on her side, letting her clear her lungs and acclimate to air breathing. Her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at me.
“I don’t know what happened,” I babbled. “One moment she was a siren in front of me, and then she just … changed back into a human!”
As amazing as it had been to have the privilege of seeing the first siren under the water in centuries, I never wanted Jesse to risk her safety like that again. She could have died. She almost died!
“It’s part of the bargain … the magick. I will not confirm until she can speak to me,” the woman said, her voice deep and ethereal.
Jesse stopped hacking and grabbed onto me like a lifeline. I grasped her hand in mine and hefted myself fully up onto the whale with my other arm. The gold finish on my scales glinted in the sunlight. Jesse tried to cover herself, bits of black fabric slung across her breasts and hips in what remained of her torn black dress. I would never understand why humans cared so much about clothing.
“Merrick! I—”
Her hair dripped around her face as she vomited again over the side of the whale while I held her. Shaking, she wiped her mouth. Confusion and pain twisted her features, but she was still never anything but beautiful to me. Beautiful, alive, and unharmed. I gathered her to me in a hug, relieved she was here and breathing.
Her eyes snapped to the strange woman.
“Uh … sea witch?” she asked, one eyebrow raised as her voice went up in pitch.
The woman smirked, her tentacles undulating as she smoothly slid forward on the whale, making room for us. Thewhale was warm, its skin hard and bumpy under my scales. I couldn’t say I’d ever ridden a whale before.
“How did you know she’s a sea witch?” I asked Jesse.
She blushed. “A stupid cartoon.”
“What is a cart—” I stopped myself, because it didn’t matter what she was talking about. “You are a sea witch,” I repeated, inspecting this strange woman now that Jesse wasn’t dying in my arms. As I studied the female’s face, something about the way her eyes were set above her nose seemed familiar.
Her skin had an indigo tone, and her tentacles and torso were black. The undersides of her tentacles were a dark pink. Her eyes were the same color as her skin; a vivid indigo.
“We have no legends about sea witches,” I finally said, unsure of what else therewasto say.
“I have returned because the siren has returned,” she replied tersely, her eyes narrowing at me. “I have and always will protect the sirens.”
“What’s your name?” Jesse asked, her eyes alight with a fire I’d only seen when she was angry or upset.
The woman raised her chin. “Calypso.”
That didn’t mean anything to me, but Jesse let out a small gasp, her eyes widening. Jesse knew something about the sea witch I did not?
“You caused the explosion,” I said, focusing on what I could understand. “You helped me save Jesse.”
The explosion had done a few things: it had propelled me to the surface faster, and it had likely dazed the other mers long enough that they had no idea what direction I’d gone.
Calypso sniffed. “I will always protect the sirens.”
I had so many burning questions, but one stood out above the rest.
“Jesse, how did you … how did you become a siren? I didn’t know … siren born can’t …” I sounded like a simpleton. It was simply unheard of, though. We’d accepted long ago that the siren blood was too diluted in the human population for there to be true sirens again.
“The siren born were giving you mer young,” Calypso pointed out, her tone harsh, “so why would you think sirens themselves were extinct?”
