Chapter 6
Kye
Iwas no stranger to women's tears. I’d disappointed many in their expectation of me and had witnessed quite a few female breakdowns as a result. Fuck, I’d even managed to make my own mother cry.
But there was something especially heart-wrenching in witnessing a strong woman like Maren break.
Throughout the day, I’d watched her trying to keep it together. She’d managed it quite well by being skeptical, pushy, snappy, and even aggressive at times. She’d asked questions, demanded answers, and undoubtedly plotted something in that blonde head of hers.
It surprised, amazed, and thrilled me to find a challenge in her. It didn’t hurt that all that challenging personality came packed in an alluring body complete with a pair of most delightful breasts and full pink lips I’d sell my soul to kiss.
My cock had twitched in her presence. Weighed down by my bitterness and numbness, it hadn’t stirred for years. It’d been quite a shock to see it come to life, and it was all her doing, Maren, that perky little minnow with the bite of a shark.
She’d be cross with me if I called her a “perky little minnow” to her face. She’d bite her plump bottom lip, knit her pale eyebrows into a frown, and probably demand again that I call her Ms. Blackwell or some other such nonsense. I chuckled at that, mirth spreading through my chest like a balm.
I’d felt so many emotions today because of her. Glee spread through me in anticipation of tomorrow. For the first time in many years, I was looking forward to waking up in the morning just because that meant spending more time in her company.
She made me feel again.
Maren was brave and had handled herself well around me when my own people had panicked and fled.
Or maybe she simply didn’t fully realize the danger that fate had put her in.
Either way, it proved entertaining and immensely enjoyable to have someone to talk to again, even if that someone clearly hated my guts and would likely escape if given a chance.
She had managed to keep it together. Even the unexpected visit by a monster from the Abyss didn’t turn her into a whimpering mess.
It definitely rattled my nerves, however.
I hadn’t seen a creature from the Abyss before, and the sight of that shapeless, repulsive monster made me wish it had stayed that way.
My people believed it was a bad omen when the Abyss came up to the surface. Only I refused to give any real meaning to such things. Omens, lore, and even prophecies often were nothing more than the result of people’s imagination.
The birth of a crown prince was always accompanied by a prophecy. I got one too. I had no say in it. No one had asked me if I wanted to know my future. The kingdom wished to find out what to expect from their future king, and the hags delivered.
Before I had even taken my first step or sprouted my first tooth, everyone in Olathana knew I’d be their ruin. It was said I’d bring devastation to the kingdom on the scale no enemy had ever managed to accomplish before.
I would break the Crown of Olathana. I’d raze the palace of my ancestors to the ground. I’d end my royal bloodline, and I’d do a whole lot of other terrible things, many of which I’d already done. Unless...
“Unless through wisdom, strength, and pain,
He’ll prove his worth and rise to reign.”
And that was the problem with prophecies. They often made no sense. The palace still stood, even if not in its original state anymore. And worthy or not, I was the king already. There was nowhere to “rise” for me anymore.
It was a good thing the prophecy was nonsensical, because if it were true, the best course of action for me would be to jump into the Abyss and spare everyone more pain I was still prophesied to bring them.
Confined to my palace, with not a single soul around for decades, I wondered just how the prophecy meant for me to accomplish any more devastation.
The unexpected visit from the darkness of the Abyss came to my mind again.
I had to let my uncle know about it. As the acting ruler of the kingdom, Prince Arnon had the counsel of the brightest minds of Olathana, including the wisest hags and the most experienced statesmen. They would figure out if there was any imminent danger to the kingdom and what to do about it.
With the decision made, I was ready to go to sleep. But that was when I heard the sob from behind the screen separating my human from me.
I didn’t immediately recognize the sound and just sat on my rock-hard bed, listening through the incessant whisper of the waves. Another sob came. Muffled by a hand or a pillow, it was quiet, but still an undeniable proof of my guest’s miserable state.
The nerve-racking events hadn’t left her unscathed after all, no matter how hard she had tried to act unaffected by them.
She was crying. Her attempts to stifle her sobs with a pillow made it even more painful to hear. She was hurting while desperately trying to hide her pain from me.
Her tears disturbed me. The unexpected but very welcome excitement about tomorrow fizzled out in my chest. It was hard to feel excited about a banter with a woman who was very obviously broken.
Teasing her couldn’t be fun without her fighting me back.
It’d be like kicking a puppy, not something even a rotten man like me would derive any pleasure from.
I didn’t remember how I got up from my bed but I found myself standing in the middle of the room, my gaze fixed on the wooden screen that hid the crying woman from me.
Throughout the day, I had wanted to do many things to Maren. I’d wished I could touch her, kiss her, fuck her. Now, the thing I wished the most was simply to be able to hold her.
At this very moment, I would give my kingdom along with the crown I broke for just the ability to give this crying woman a hug. But a hug from me, no matter how well-intentioned, would kill her.
I searched for any other way to comfort her.
Throughout my life, I’d caused plenty of grief to others, but comfort was not something I’d had much experience with.
I couldn’t think of the right words that would soothe her.
I had no hope to offer her. I feared that even letting my presence be known would distress her further instead of calming her.
Unexpectedly, a hum tickled up my throat. It wasn’t even a sound yet, just a vibration that started deep in the area of my heart somewhere and spread. I still had no words to share, but a melody was already forming.
Song was a vital part of every siren’s life. My mother sang to me before I was even born. These walls used to be alive with music before I smothered it with silent glass. I’d killed both the songs and the singers, and the music had died inside me too.
I hadn’t felt the urge to sing for decades, just as I no longer felt the ocean. The urge came back now, the need to soothe, to sing...
With my lips still closed, I hummed a long-forgotten melody, and note by note, it came back to me. All of it. Then the words formed. I remembered the first lines of the lullaby my mother had sung to me so, so long ago:
“Don't be scared, my little one,
I'll keep you safe ’til the day I’m gone.”
As a child, I remembered being comforted not just by the simple words of the song, but by my mother’s soft voice and her gentle touch as she ran her fingers through my hair.
Those memories flooded me, breaking through the walls I hadn’t even realized I’d built around them. I’d forgotten the joy of being alive. It’d forgotten how much I used to be loved. Instead, I’d wasted an entire century on bitterness, anger, and petty self-loathing.
My voice grew stronger with confidence, rising to the ceiling, reaching beyond these walls, and blending with the rush of the waves. Words and music flowed through me with the swell of magic and love:
“By ocean and wind, my promise in song,
You will never face the darkness alone.”
The last notes of the chorus rang through the room, resonating between the glass walls like inside a bell. I felt drained but oddly elated, like I had accomplished something profound, giving it my all.
Silence vibrated through the palace, demanding to be broken again, wishing for its own death through song all over again.
“Kye...” her voice called softly from beyond the screen. “It was beautiful.”
She sounded weary and vulnerable but no longer broken. And that made it all worth it.
“Thank you,” I exhaled, lowering to the floor.
My limbs felt too weak to move, as if the tension that kept me up had drained along with the last notes of the song.
A long sigh came from behind the screen, then she called again, “Kye?”
“Hm?” I lay on my side, resting my head on my arm.
I didn’t think I could make it to bed right now. My muscles felt oddly liquid, my body light but immobile. What point was there in going to bed anyway when the bed was just as hard as the floor?
“Let me go home, please,” she said suddenly.
Her voice wasn’t pleading, but she sounded raw and unguarded, as if revealing her heart’s deepest desire to me.
Her request caught me off guard. Had I not made it clear to her before?
“You’ll never get back to the home you have left, my darling,” I replied softly, still holding on to the tenderness brought on by the song.
“You said there was a chance—”
“The chance is as slim as finding a lost grain of sand in the ocean. You’ll die, Maren, and I would never know when or how it happened. Besides,” I reminded, “you’re not mine to release.”
She drew in a shaky breath, and I feared she’d start crying again. But she kept quiet, breathing so softly, I could barely hear it.
Her silence bothered me more than any insults would.
I waited for her to say anything. A curse.
A huff. A snappy retort. I’d take anything.
But I got only the same heavy, suffocating silence in response, and I couldn’t come up with anything better to break it with but echoing the line from the lullaby I’d just sang.
“I’ll keep you safe,” I said and added in my mind, “’til the day I’m gone.”
Because really, what else did I have to do with the rest of my life? At least while Maren stayed in my palace, I had a purpose.
I would keep her safe.