Chapter 7 #3
I’d seen plenty of miraculous things by now.
Still, I tripped over the word “magic” when saying it out loud.
Thinking of it as anything but an imagined concept felt incredibly weird.
In this world, however, magic was a part of life.
I didn’t need to believe in it. I just had to open my eyes and look.
Kye sat back on the coral branch. Hugging one knee, he dipped his other foot into the water below.
“A siren’s song is always filled with magic,” he said. “I didn’t choose to sing this particular one. I hadn’t sung in so long, I was simply trying to remember a melody or any lyrics, and this one just...came. I didn’t mean for it to be a searching song. It just happened.”
“What do you mean by a searching song?”
“It’s what one sings when one is lonely and is seeking a mate.”
“Is that why it was so...heart-wrenching?” I guessed.
He arched an eyebrow with a flash of a peculiar interest in his gaze. “Was that how it sounded to you? Heart-wrenching?”
That was exactly how I felt when hearing him singing that time. Like someone had wrenched my heart out of my chest, leaving a gaping hole that I’d never fill again, no matter how long I lived or how many people I met.
“Yes,” I admitted. “I nearly jumped into your arms, didn’t I? Just to stop you from feeling so desperately lonely.”
A smile of deep satisfaction curved his lips. “After all these years, I’ve still got it.”
I grinned back, finally feeling lighter at heart. “Clearly you do, Your Majesty. Is that how male sirens charm women into their beds? By singing their panties off with their sad, searching songs?”
“No,” he corrected, lifting a finger for emphasis. “That would require a mating song.”
“You just have a song for everything, don’t you?”
“Pretty much. For every mood and any activity.”
“Does that really work? Can you sing someone into having sex with you?”
It didn’t feel like too much of a stretch to believe. Hadn’t I been ready to jump to my death just a few minutes ago, just because he was singing?
“Probably not everyone,” he admitted. “It helps when there’s some kind of attraction already in place for the magic to take hold. Which means...” that cocky grin lit up his handsome features again. “Your response to my songs is so strong because you like me.”
“Like you?” I rolled my eyes. There certainly was a pull of attraction between us, but it wasn’t real. This world’s magic had clearly taken control of my emotions. “There is a slight but important difference between liking someone and being attracted to them.”
“Is there?”
“For me, there definitely is. I may be attracted to you—”
“Of course you are,” he murmured with glee.
“To some degree,” I added. “But I’m still trying to decide if there’s anything in you that’s really worth liking.”
“Hm.” He leaned back, staring at me as if assessing a challenge he would be delighted to accept.
“Should I help you with that? There is at least one mating song I believe I now remember in full. Or would you prefer a courting song first? I’m sure I could make you fall head over heels for me, given some time. ”
I shook my head with a laugh.
“You really do have a song for everything. But you can’t court me.” I lifted my left hand and wiggled my ring finger, weighed down by the massive diamond. “I have a fiancé.”
“A fiancé who isn’t here,” he dropped casually.
“His absence is not an excuse for you to court me.”
“Alright, no courting. Just sex then?” he asked with so much hope in his voice, it made me laugh again.
Flirting came naturally to Kye. He looked more himself than ever. That cocky grin suited him so much better than the murderous frown he’d sported when I first saw him back in the great hall. Yet he seemed to have completely forgotten that he couldn’t even hug me, let alone have sex with anyone.
Well, at least the mood between us was light and airy now, instead of the fear, sadness, or longing of before.
“Nope,” I replied. “Not happening. And please keep all your witchy spell songs away from me, especially the mating ones.”
“Mating songs aren’t spells,” he argued. “They work the best on those who are in the right mood for them and who are already attracted to the singer. The purpose of the song is simply to voice one’s intentions and to serve as an invitation for the potential partner.”
And that was the problem. I seriously feared I’d have no willpower to resist such an invitation from him. I had felt his magic, and it had warped both my sense of reality and my free will.
“No, please, I don’t trust them,” I said resolutely.
I didn’t like the feelings that kind of singing caused in me.
The loss of control was unnerving. The desire to be there for him was overwhelming.
The all-consuming need to hold him was dangerous.
Those weren’t my true emotions anyway. How could they be?
I didn’t care about Kye like that. I barely knew him.
The siren king was attractive, no doubt about that. But who wouldn’t be attracted to that perfect body, or to his magical voice, or to the intensity of his feelings that he tried to hide behind his teasing and flirting and that could be glimpsed through his songs?
I blinked again, trying to ground myself back in reality. Dammit, he wasn’t even singing, but my head was spinning from his presence alone.
Warmth rushed my body under my dress.
“It’s a hot day today, isn't it?” I said, pulling on my neckline.
I understood perfectly well now why sirens used light, flowing fabrics for their clothes and why they left so much of their bodies uncovered.
“Hot? Is it really?” Kye mused, watching me fanning myself. “I find the weather rather pleasantly refreshing today.”
“Maybe it’s because I spent the entire morning in the palace? It’s like being inside a greenhouse with all that glass.” I eyed with longing the cool waves beating against the rocky shore of the reef. “Do you think there’s a bathing suit for me in that trunk by my bed?”
“What’s a bathing suit?” Kye asked, looking genuinely puzzled.
“Um, it’s a special garment for swimming.” I gestured over my boobs and groin areas to demonstrate where the bathing suit would normally be worn.
He frowned in confusion. “Do humans need a suit to swim? Does it help you stay afloat?”
“No. It’s just to cover up all the...um, indecent body parts.”
“Indecent?” He smirked. “What could possibly be indecent about that delightful body of yours?”
Was there a point in explaining modesty to a man who spent his days wearing absolutely nothing? He probably didn’t wear much even back when he could have, judging by the confidence with which he handled his nudity.
I was no beauty queen, but before coming to Nerifir, I considered myself fairly conventionally attractive.
No human body could be called beautiful when compared to a siren, however, but Kye didn’t call me beautiful.
He called me “delightful,” accompanied by a very delighted smile that proved his point.
“Are you saying that my swimming naked would not be considered scandalous in Olathana?” I clarified, actually considering it.
There were just Kye and I here, and he had seen me naked already when I’d lost my sheet to his touch that morning, I reasoned, itching for a swim.
“My dear Maren, I’m the one responsible for the majority of scandals in the recent history of Olathana.
And believe me when I say that the ones involving nudity have been the least egregious of them.
Go ahead,” he said, granting me his royal permission with an elegant wave of his hand.
“Enjoy yourself, and allow me some joy too by letting me see you gloriously nude once again. You know I can’t do much more than just look anyway. ”
At that moment, however, his gaze remained firmly on my eyes, not straying anywhere else. Even so, a warm thrill of excitement coursed through my veins as I brought a hand to the ribbon of my lacing on the back.
“Alright,” I said, turning my back to him. “Skinny-dipping it is then.”
If his nudity didn’t bother him, mine shouldn’t bother me either. No one else could see us here, hidden behind the cliff from the view of those on land.
“Are you not going to tell me to turn away again?” he asked.
I glanced over my shoulder to find him staring at me from his perch on the coral.
“Why?” I shrugged.
It was a bit too late for modesty since he’d already seen all of me anyway. I just wanted to go for a swim.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe because you have a fiancé, and he would likely want to gouge out my eyes for ogling your naked body?”
“Liam would never do that,” I laughed, loosening the ribbon, then tugging the dress off my shoulders.
“Are you saying he wouldn’t care?” Kye exclaimed in genuine disbelief, then added, pondering, “Of course if you were mine, I would never let you out of my sight long enough for a brack to take you.”
I would’ve been offended on Liam’s behalf if Kye hadn’t spoken with a dream-like quality to his voice and expression. His words sounded less as an attack on Liam’s vigilance and more like another fantasy, the one where Kye had claimed me as “his.”
His eyes remained on me when I dropped my clothes and stood in front of him naked as he was. As his touch turned things to glass, his stare could probably melt it. The ocean breeze caressed my skin, but the air around my body seemed hotter than ever.
“Except that I’m not yours,” I said, a little raspy. “I’m not Liam’s either. I’m my own person. Always have been, always will be. Even if Liam and I didn’t have an open relationship like we do.”
“What exactly does that mean?” He raised his bent leg in a way that concealed his dick from my view. A belated gesture, since I’d already noticed the raging hard-on he was now sporting.
He made no effort to hide his hungry stare, however. It felt almost tangible on my skin, making up for his inability to touch me. The phantom caress swirled up my body, puckering my nipples and pooling low in my belly with heat.