Chapter Thirty-Nine
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
With the lull of the boat’s rocking, Elara fell into a sweet night’s sleep. It was black and unending, her dreams leaving her in peace. She broke out of it now and then to hear the gentle lap of water or the quiet murmurs of her friends. But reality was too much, and so she sank back down into the comforting dark.
It was when swimming through this darkness that Elara felt a presence. Her instinct urged her awake, and she sat bolt upright, the night around her having reached its darkest point.
Silence. Too much of it. Though Leo still rowed, the paddles made no splash in the water, and the usual hum of cicadas in the blue-tinged night was absent.
She gripped on to Enzo’s arm, and he turned, nodding. He’d noticed it too. He motioned to the others, and they all scanned the lake furtively as Leo continued to row, but at a slower pace.
‘Something’s here,’ Elara slurred.
As though it had been waiting for her to speak, a clear, enchanting voice on the air began to sing a haunting melody. The lilting tune caused the hairs on her arms to raise and foreboding to prickle down her neck, before everything she felt was overpowered by delight. She leaned forwards, enraptured as she listened. Leo dropped his oars, slack-jawed. The boat drifted to a standstill as the voice continued its lament.
It sang of times long past, of magick that flowed through the skies, and a long-lost love, a love that could never be, filled with pain and separation. Elara only realized her face was wet when Enzo brushed a tear off her face, his own eyes lined with silver.
The spell nearly took over. But a movement out of the corner of Elara’s eyes broke its hold. Leo was leaning over the side of the boat, a look of yearning on his face as he reached into the water.
‘ Leo! ’ Elara screamed, adrenaline overpowering her grief at the song as she scrambled across the boat to him in a blur. The boat rocked precariously. Merissa was gazing stricken into the distance, Isra stretching towards the surface of the lake. Enzo swore, charging forwards to restrain the seer, as a head emerged from the water on Leo’s side, a stunning creature. A siren.
Elara had heard the tales—in fact, one of her favourite stories in The Mythas of Celestia was of the sirens of Altalune. It was whispered that some swam in the Still Sea—nothing more than a sailor’s superstition, Elara had thought—but she had swum in Lake Astra more than once, and never had she seen even a glimpse of the creature before her.
The siren’s skin was as pale as snow, her hair like deep blue ink pooling in the water around her, covering her naked torso. She reached out to touch Leo’s face, still singing her song. He grasped at her hand, but she drew it away whenever he came close. The face flickered for an instant, turning towards Elara—and then, suddenly, it was Enzo floating there in the water, reaching out to her with longing.
‘Enzo?’ Elara cried, her voice high.
‘I’m here!’ he shouted behind her. She risked turning for a split second and saw him hauling Isra back from the edge of the boat before lunging for Merissa, who was also clawing desperately over the side. Elara gave a cry of panic as the boat rocked violently, and only when it had slowed did she whip her head back towards the water, seeing the siren once again. She swore under her breath, closing her eyes and trying to muster up a semblance of her power.
‘Your light, Enzo,’ she pleaded. He grunted and cast a sweeping arc of radiance deep down into the water at his side. When Elara looked out across the lake, she tried not to scream. Within the luminous arc lay scores of sirens, their heads bobbing in the water, patiently waiting to drag them under. Another siren broke the surface next to the first, and joined in the song’s harmony. Enzo swore loudly as he tried to reach for rope to tie Isra and Merissa together. Elara could barely grasp on to her magick, and so instead she grasped on to her fury. She conjured pure threat into her eyes and turned her gaze to the creature closest to her.
‘Get off him,’ she snarled. The creature stopped her singing, glancing in shock at Elara. The siren quickly recovered, however, a slow smile formed on her face, revealing razor-sharp teeth.
‘You can’t be controlled by our song,’ she sighed. ‘Do you know what that means, little human?’
Elara’s head pounded, darkness threatening to envelop her again. Her energy was spent, and she swayed. Enzo ran to her side, having secured Leo, Isra and Merissa tightly together with the rope, his hands ready to wield.
‘What a pretty pair,’ the siren hummed. ‘You know, I can hardly decide who I’d like first.’
‘I’ll char the scales off your withered fucking tail if you so much as touch her,’ Enzo promised.
The siren’s lovely face shifted before them, her smile turning into a sneer, what was once beautiful turning ugly with venom and spite.
‘A human does not survive a siren. If you won’t come willingly, you will come by force.’ On her last word, the entire crowd hummed in harmony behind her, rippling as the sirens lunged forwards. Elara heard Merissa scream behind her as the boat lurched violently.
‘I want him,’ she heard a siren screech beneath them.
There was a chuckle as the boat lurched again, and Enzo stumbled this time, nearly falling overboard. With a shriek, the first siren lunged, her arms reaching up over the side as she dug taloned nails into Enzo’s forearms.
‘Kiss your sweetheart goodbye,’ the siren said, as Enzo struggled to fight back, bright flames and light rippling off his hands and body. But they were to no avail, sputtering out on the siren’s damp body. ‘You’re mine now.’ And with a sharp grin to Elara, the siren pulled Enzo off the boat and under the water.
For a moment, there was nothing in Elara’s vision but the light that surrounded Enzo, growing dimmer the further he descended into the lake’s depths. And something took over her. It wasn’t the horror and disbelief at seeing Sofia die only hours before, or the sheer desperation when seeing her parents murdered. It was a killing calm. She knew then that she would part the lake in two before she let that creature keep Enzo.
With a guttural cry, Elara dived.
The lake’s ice-cold water felt like a blow to the gut and every instinct told her to take a breath at the shock. She ignored those instincts as she forced her eyes open to the murky waters around her. What she saw nearly stopped her heart.
Below the surface, illuminated only slightly by Enzo’s waning light as it sank deeper, were skeletal bodies and tails, rotten flesh hanging off in scraps. She bit back a gag reflex, saving her precious air as she whirled around in search of him. Finally, she saw his light, further off now, drifting towards the middle of the lake.
Gritting her teeth, Elara kicked out, swimming furiously lower and lower, the pressure of the surrounding black waters making her ears pop. She reached the lake bed a moment after she saw the siren land with Enzo, clouds of sand kicking up around her. Elara squeezed her eyes shut against the grit in the water as she continued to swim towards the siren. And it was then that she remembered that she was powerless. No shadows to cause any damage, her illusions and dreams useless when faced with life or death.
She stilled as the siren turned, a look of feral glee on the creature’s face. Enzo was unmoving, the light around him fading fast, his hand limp in the siren’s.
The last glow of his light flickered and extinguished, leaving Elara in the pitch-black waters.
That was all it took—his warmth, his light, gone—for something deep within to erupt from her as all hell broke loose.