Chapter Forty
CHAPTER FORTY
A thundering boom exploded outwards. Silver light seemed to fill everything around her, along with a pulsing roar that she felt in her entire body, resounding throughout the water. The light was so bright it was almost blinding, but a shape in the glare drifted near to her. Enzo. The siren had let him go. She had a second to grab his hand before the silver light burned even brighter, and both she and Enzo were propelled upwards at a dizzying speed.
They broke the surface, Elara gasping for air, desperately hanging on to Enzo. The entire lake around her was flooded with the silver light, shining up from below her. The sirens had stopped their singing, and there was only silence until she saw Leo, Isra and Merissa on the boat, blinking as they shook off their stupor. She turned to Enzo but he wasn’t moving. She couldn’t even tell if he was breathing.
‘Help!’ she screamed.
With the siren’s spell broken, Leo made quick work of releasing the rope knots tying him to Isra and Merissa, and rushed to the edge of the boat as Elara swam the still unconscious Enzo within reach.
Leo hauled the prince up, Isra and Merissa reached to pull Elara on to the boat after him. She collapsed on the floor still gasping and coughing, next to Enzo.
Leo was already pressing his hands over Enzo’s chest when Elara pushed herself up.
‘What the fuck was that?’ Isra whispered in awe as the light surrounding Elara flickered then died.
Elara could only shake her head as she took Enzo’s hand in hers. She didn’t know what it was—only that the magick itself was not unknown to her. It was the same power that had manifested in front of Enzo as a monster, had sunk its fangs into Isra.
Leo kept pumping, and still Enzo didn’t breathe.
‘You can’t leave,’ she whispered to him, a sob making her breath shudder. ‘Not you too.’
She crawled around to Enzo’s head. ‘Please,’ she begged, her lips finding his as she breathed air into his body when Leo commanded. Isra and Merissa looked on in worry. There were tears in Isra’s eyes as Elara pushed a wet strand of hair off Enzo’s forehead, his face blank and lifeless.
‘ Please ,’ Elara half-screamed as she gave one last push of air into him.
As though it was a command that reached him all the way to the point between life and death, Enzo sucked in a breath, his eyes flying open as he coughed and retched. It took him a few moments to speak, as he struggled to get his breath back.
‘You know, princess…’ he said weakly, drawing in deep lungfuls of air, ‘if you wanted…to kiss me again…you didn’t have to wait until I was near death to do it.’
Elara sobbed in relief, her hands around Enzo’s neck as he wrapped his arms around her immediately, pulling her on to his lap as she sobbed and sobbed, his hands stroking calming patterns down her back.
‘Thank the heavens,’ Merissa murmured, squeezing Enzo’s hand. Leo let out a long breath, rubbing his head as he slapped Enzo’s back, Isra squeezing Enzo tightly around Elara, before she glanced out at the lake and started in surprise.
‘Um…not to ruin Enzo’s near-death experience,’ she said, ‘but I think you’re going to want to see this.’ Her voice cut through Elara’s exhausted relief, bringing her back to the present moment.
Enzo pushed himself up weakly, but Elara put a hand lightly on his shoulder. Still soaked, her hair plastered down her back, she rose to her feet and looked where Isra was pointing out over the water. As she stared, the rest of the group around her stilled, all of them looking out in shock.
In their desperation to save Enzo, they hadn’t even spared a glance to the sirens. But now, the crowd of creatures was still. All that could be seen above the surface of the lake was a sea of heads, silently bowed to the boat.
‘What is this?’ Merissa breathed.
The first siren who had attacked them looked up, and swam slowly near to the boat again. She looked to Elara, and then to Enzo as he clutched her.
‘It can’t be, and yet it is.’ The siren’s eyes filled with tears as she pressed three fingers to her forehead. An ancient sign of respect.
As Elara’s thoughts and exhaustion crashed into her, the siren threw her head back and a new song resounded. The clear voice was not laced with seduction but with something else. Elara listened, and recognized the feeling in the song that made her heart soar. It was hope that the sirens sang of. She looked nervously to Enzo again, who was watching her in awe. The other sirens had joined in, the harmonies soaring in unison, a song this time of healing and remembrance, of a light in the darkness.
Finally, each siren gradually halted their song, one by one, until the first siren finished the tune, her voice the last to carry the note. She bowed her head again to Elara.
‘We will guide your way back to safety,’ the siren whispered. They were the last words Elara heard before the world around her vanished, her consciousness with it.