Chapter 17 #2
The siren’s earnest words tightened my throat with emotion. Though she was obviously deadly and built to slaughter men, something about her felt safe, and for some reason, tears pricked my eyes.
“Oh, no.” She tilted her head. “I have said something offensive. Please, accept my apologies. My sister sirens and I don’t often get to speak with human women.
However…” Her webbed touch lingered over my braid before she met my gaze with her pitch-black stare.
“You don’t smell entirely human. You feel…
there is some of the sea inside you, isn’t there? ”
The rope on my tears broke, and I let out a small sob, wrapping my arms around the siren’s scaled shoulders.
Her body tensed for a moment before softening.
The wet warmth of her arms wrapped around me, and she rubbed my back.
“All is well,” she shushed as if I were a baby.
“We aren’t going to hurt you. I believe you’ll find that none of the ocean will ever harm you. ”
I shook my head, still clutching her tight as the ocean rocked the boat and I hung over the side, attached to a mysterious siren. “I miss him… Vore. I miss Vore. What if I fail him? What if I don’t find him?”
The siren ran her claws lightly over the back of my head. “You have cried this whole ocean of tears, haven’t you, little enchantress?”
A small laugh pushed from my throat. “Yes, it feels like I have.”
“Tell me, how are you connected to the sea? It is all over you, yet you have no fin.” She swished her long, glorious blue tail out of the water.
Pulling back, I wiped my blotchy, tear-stained face. “Both of my mothers were witches. One, a hedge witch, the other, a sea witch. Maybe my matri is who you sense.”
The blue siren scrunched her radiant yet eerie face and examined me.
“You are a daughter of the sea. No wonder it brought you here to find us. Wait here,” she ordered.
In a flash, she sank into the water. Leaning over the side, I looked over and saw nothing but my reflection gazing back at me.
My cheeks less rosy, my hair and skin pale.
Though, the braid and the shell were indeed lovely.
With a sigh, I sat back in the crook of the leaf’s stem, Fuzz joining me.
I idly wondered what would become of Viceroy, and what I’d do if the sirens left me here for good.
Would I simply float on, forever adrift?
We floated a while, and I staved off my anxious thoughts by grounding myself in Fuzz’s softness, tracing my finger along the lines of orange fur where his past-life snare scars remained etched. I was petting the past, I realized. A tangible piece of my formative years.
Just then, splashes sounded all around the leaf boat.
Pairs of hands appeared and grabbed onto the edges, pulling the flimsy makeshift raft down.
Fuzz yelped, jumping onto my shoulders as water quickly filled the leaf.
A scream left my chest as we sank, the leaf soon submerged.
As the boat sank, four pairs of eyes stared at me just over the waterline.
Two sets pitch black and the other two slitted like snakes…
Sirens.
And I was alone with them, in the ocean, without a boat.
Perfect. As kind as the last one seemed, sirens had a legendary reputation for a reason.
Luring sailors to their deaths with their songs and beauty.
Would they pass up the chance to devour a human girl?
Or, well, an enchantress, as everyone seemed to call me.
My heart beat rapidly as Fuzz moved up to the top of my head. I’m sure I looked as if I were wearing some sort of ridiculous furry, wailing hat. Just then, the siren from before swam forward, rising from the surface. “Swim with us? We’ve much to show you, daughter of a sea witch.”
I waded, kicking my feet and finding it was very unsettling not knowing what lurked beneath me. “I’m not the best swimmer,” I confessed. “And now my boat is gone.”
A coral siren giggled, and it sounded like the chiming of bells. “That won’t do.” She reached out her webbed hands. “Would you like a tail?”
I furrowed my brow. “A tail?”
The sirens, in unison, revealed their strong and iridescent fins from the water. If I were anywhere else and not fearful I’d become a meal, I would have laughed. “I know what a siren’s tail is,” I amended. “I mean, I have legs, I cannot have a tail like yours.”
“Can you not?” the blue siren asked, quirking her brow. “Are you quite sure about that?”
The sirens reached out their palms toward me; the sunlight shining through their webbing.
A peachy siren, then a purple one, a green, and a blue.
They all had long, beautiful hair stretching down their backs.
Each time they spoke, it was as if listening to the most melodic music I’d ever heard.
They were as entrancing as they were terrifying.
A good combination for any woman, really.
The blue siren tilted her head. “Trust us?”
“What is your name?” I finally asked.
“I am Estuary, and these are my sisters, Bathyal, Knoll, and then Merose, you’ve met.” The sirens bobbed in the tides, still extending their palms as if waiting for something.
Something inside me told me it would be okay.
A small voice told me to surrender to the ocean.
What were these sharp yet beautiful creatures if not embodiments of the waves?
I’d always related so heavily to my mother’s earth gifts, her hedge witchery—but now I felt my matri with me in the smell and taste of sun and salt.
“My matri never got to take me to the ocean,” I answered.
“I wish she were here to see this and meet you all with me.”
“You are a daughter of the ocean,” Estuary said. “We all have to choose whether we wish to drown in our own love, or to swim within the abyss of love given to us.”
The siren’s way of words, the feeling of the warm ocean on my skin, the sun warming my cheeks, all resounded in my mind, confirming there was no room for fear here. My hesitancy had no place in the sea. The water waited for no one and nothing; it asked no questions and offered no apology.
Her offer was as clear as it was a guiding light. Did I desire to drown in grief or swim in the love that existed so plainly all around me?
The saltwater compelled me, the sirens’ slitted and black eyes entranced my senses, and I reached out my palm to meet with theirs.