Kai #2
She turns to face me fully then, emotion flickering behind her eyes.
“You are your father’s son,” she says. “Whether you like it or not.” Taika stops pacing.
“I know it was the right thing to do, son,” she says softly.
For the first time, she sounds like a mother, reassuring her son. I hate how it splits my heart in half.
I’ve spent my whole life hating her, believing she abandoned us, that she poisoned my father. But this is something so much bigger than her or any of us. And we walked straight into it. She’s standing in the heart of it with me.
The room falls into an eerie silence, broken only by the rattling of cages and the quiet shuffling of whatever else lurks within her hut. “Why do the sirens want you?” I ask. “What did you do to them?” Taika’s grin twists into something unsettling.
“If you want to be freed,” Mira says, stepping forward, “then we need to know the truth.” Taika begins to hum an old siren song, warped and off-key, as she drifts around the hut, moving objects, muttering, her mind clearly splintered, poisoned like my father’s.
“I used to do bad things to them,” she finally says, hauntingly casual.
“Such as?” Mira asks.
“I had pirates capture them. Bring them to me,” she continues, turning over a cracked bottle on the table.
“Then I’d use their scales, their tears.
For spells and potions. Afterwards… I’d let them go.
” She lets out a snicker, blackened teeth glinting through cracked lips.
There’s no remorse in her voice, not even a flicker of shame.
Fury flashes through Mira, sharp and barely restrained. “You did this because you wanted to?” Mira asks. “Or because you were ordered to?”
Taika turns slowly, the grin crawling across her face like a shadow. “Both,” she whispers.
Mira’s heart is pounding. Rage surges through her, I can feel it as though it’s my own. “Do you even know who I am?” she demands, raising her voice.
Taika doesn’t flinch. “I know exactly what you are, girl. I’ve known since the day you were born.”
The color drains from Mira’s face. I want to end this woman where she stands, but Mira beats me to it. “And you thought it was a good fucking idea to ask me for a favor?” she snarls. “After what you did to my bloodline?”
Taika stops fiddling with the mess on her table.
Her expression shifts to something almost proud.
“I thought it was my most clever idea yet,” she says, voice low.
“I knew the sirens would come for me eventually. And they’d use you to do it.
You were my way out. I hoped they’d drag me down, drown me, so I wouldn’t have to rot in this hell any longer.
But I also knew”—she pauses, cruelty slipping into her tone—“you owed me a wish. And you’d use it to free me.
Not out of kindness, but out of duty. Then my soul could finally escape.
Because the only thing stronger than what binds me here is that fountain. ” Clever witch.
Mira goes still. All the fire in her eyes fades, and suddenly they grow cold.
“If it’s death you crave, then death you shall have,” I say grimly. “The sirens will see to it that it’s slow and cruel.” Taika’s smile widens as she turns a handful of tiny bones over in her palm, bones too small to belong to anything kind.
“Good,” she rasps, her voice cracking like dry earth. “Let it come. That is exactly what I wish. And you dear boy, you’re living a very slow and cruel death already. Aren’t you?” Her gaze finds the black veins on my arm.
“A siren’s curse isn’t reversible. You’re lucky you’ve been able to live this long with that wretched thing in your veins,” Taika says.
“I know what I have. I don’t need you to tell me,” I say with my hand raised.
“Hopefully you both have enough pieces of a siren for all the debts you owe and enough to save your souls.” She lets out an evil laugh, and the critters coil in their cages.
Mira steps forward. “I’ll free you,” she says. “But only if you tell me what has a hold on you. What’s keeping you here.” Taika’s fingers begin to tremble, the bones snapping under the pressure, brittle splinters falling to her feet. The sound cracks through the silence.
Her eyes lift, wide, glassy, and rimmed with terror. Then, barely above a whisper: “You.”
“What did you say?” I growl, stepping forward. Her hand rises slowly, stained with soil and time, a single long finger pointing directly at Mira. “You,” she repeats, louder now. Certain.
I move in front of Mira on instinct, blocking the witch from reaching her. But Mira steps out from behind me, undeterred. “Me?” she asks, her voice low.
Taika’s gaze never wavers. “Yes,” she breathes. “The Soul. The song. The ocean. You.” Taika’s voice coils through the air like smoke. “You are the new Soul, are you not?” My heart drops.
“I am,” Mira answers, claiming her title with conviction.
Taika’s eyes gleam, dark with something ancient and bitter. “Then you are what controls me.” The truth hits like a wave crashing over rock. Mira, my Mira, isn’t just tied to the ocean. She is the ocean. She will become all that is good… and all that is ruin.