Chapter 7 Aria
Chapter Seven: Aria
Days have passed since we handed over the mage woman to the ship in the middle of the ocean, and my unease regarding the entire situation has only grown.
I have kept to my room as much as possible, a decision that certainly isn’t wise considering I have orders from Nia, the queen, and a meeting with a fae to prepare for.
I just can’t bring myself to care about those things yet, not when acknowledging them means accepting what had come to pass.
Mashaka is gone, my cave is no longer a secret place of refuge, and I’m being watched more than ever before. And now there is this.
I stare at my entwined fingers in my lap, filtered sunlight from my window reflecting red flares from the scales near my stomach onto my dark brown skin.
“Aria, did you hear me?” Lyre’s voice is soft from where she sits on my bed behind me, the silky kelp stuffing it shifting as she slides closer.
“Yes,” I answer, though I can’t bring myself to look at her yet.
I had a sinking feeling when she showed up at my door this morning, her lavender eyes holding mine with something that resembled pity.
Pregnant. It isn’t the first time Lyre has become so, the nature of our lives as sirens giving us frequent opportunities to grow our bellies with offspring.
Still, this reveal by my older sister is yet another sickening twist of the imaginary blade that has taken residence in my gut lately.
Her being pregnant changes everything.
“Does Mother know?” I ask, finally looking over my shoulder to meet her eyes. They droop in sadness, the corners of her full mouth resting in a tight line. She gives me a single nod that makes me squeeze my hands more tightly together. “She must be happy.”
“I could no longer hide it,” Lyre says, gesturing to her already growing belly. It isn’t an obvious thing, something only noticeable when specifically looking.
Siren pregnancies are short, only lasting four months. For her to already be showing even a little, she must be close to her second month. “I know this is less than ideal, Aria, but we will figure it out. Perhaps, I can convince Mother to let me continue going on hunts for a while longer with you.”
I shake my head, swimming off of the bed as I begin to pace my room.
“That’s wishful thinking, Lyre. You know that she will make you stay within the walls of the palace until you give birth to ensure you stay protected.
” Chewing on my lower lip, I let my talons dig into my arm to help ground me.
“There will be no hiding my lack of magic now.”
The last time Lyre was pregnant, I was too young to go out on hunts.
I haven’t yet had to navigate around my secret without her help.
With our mother insisting she stay within the palace—as she has done for every other sister to get pregnant—I’ll be alone at the whim of Allegra and all the other sirens present on those hunts.
The magic that flows in my veins is confusing.
Uncharted. I am meant to lure males under my spell, but I recently learned that the opposite is true.
My song only affects females, and without Lyre’s help during hunts, without her singing next to me to make it seem like my magic is working as it is supposed to, it is only a matter of time until someone finds out the truth.
Lyre’s silence only adds to the anxiousness swirling within me. She leaves the bed, swimming until she is floating next to me. Her finger curls beneath my chin, tilting my head up until my gaze meets hers. “What if this pregnancy marks a different change?”
“What do you mean?”
Her voice drops to a whisper as her eyes scan my face before she releases her hold on me.
“What if we don’t follow the rules this time?
What if we decide that enough is enough and just leave?
” My heart beats at my ribs as I watch Lyre gently rest her hands on her belly, the tender display lodging a rock in my throat.
Her eyes turn wistful as she rubs at the skin above her womb.
“Last time, I tried to detach myself from the babe that was growing within me,” she starts softly, referencing her first pregnancy.
“I focused as much of my attention as I could on you while also busying myself around the palace under the guise of trying to impress our mother. But I was only fooling myself.”
“What happened?” I had assumed that Lyre actually wasn’t attached to her pregnancy. That it, like everything else, was just another part of our life beneath our mother’s rule that held no emotional value. By the devastation on her face, I can see just how wrong I was.
“It’s hard to ignore when you feel that fluttering of movement for the first time.
When it grows as the weeks pass into something that demands attention.
By the time I was far enough along to give birth, I became accustomed to the movement.
I expected it, longed for it in a way that terrified me because I knew then, as I know now, what our mother insists become of our offspring.
How we are separated from them, made strangers until they are adults. ”
It had been that way for as long as records were kept.
All sirens born within the royal line were raised by others, and only those born to the currently ruling queen got recognized as official princesses.
There were babies born to my mother before she took rule of our queendom, sisters by blood that I had never met and likely never would.
Ones that perhaps didn’t even know that the queen was their mother.
“When she was born, I didn’t get more than a glimpse at her,” she whispers, and the ache in her voice forces my hand to reach out to her.
Gripping her fingers between mine, I watch as Lyre’s eyes close and her head hangs low.
“It all happened so quickly. Mother was there through it all, watching as I pretended to not care that there was suddenly an emptiness where there had been life. Ensuring that I felt the same detachment about my child that she feels about us. But I was dying, Aria.”
That imaginary dagger within me twists deeper. To know that my sister was suffering, that for years she had held on to this pain and endured it all alone sends regret slinking through me. “Lyre, I had no idea.”
“I didn’t want you to know,” she answers simply, and if I thought it wasn’t possible to love my sister more, I’m proven wrong right then.
Giving my hand a squeeze, she releases it to cradle her belly once more.
“But I will not go through that again. I will not give our mother the satisfaction of knowing that she has once more successfully torn a piece of us away in her attempt to make us more like her. I haven’t done enough to protect us, Aria, but that is going to change. ”
My brows draw together, the determination in her words sending a jolt of fear through me. “Lyre—”
“After she is born, I’m taking her and leaving Lumen.”
“What?”
“I have scoped out a route I don’t think could be easily tracked, not even by Sade or Allegra.
It will take weeks to get far enough away, and carrying my daughter with me will make the journey hard, but I’m going to do it.
” Her eyes shine bright as the fingers cradling her belly tighten a little more. “And I want you to come with me.”
Too many emotions battle for attention as my stomach twists in on itself.
Terror and uncertainty predominantly shout in my mind, screaming that this is madness.
No one escapes the wrath of the siren queen.
Yet something else whispers from a lone corner, a voice that sounds like excitement, like hope. This could work, it says.
But the fear of what could happen is too much to ignore. “Lyre, there is no escaping from this.” No matter the outpost or town—whatever the distance away from Lumen—it isn’t far enough. It won’t ever be.
“We could do this, Aria. Together. We can protect each other—”
“I can’t even protect myself!” I shout, my arms flaring wide. “I couldn’t protect Mashaka. I—” Shaking my head, I back away from her attempt to reach me. “This is a death sentence.”
“Isn’t our life already one as it is? You think our mother won’t sacrifice us the moment it becomes convenient?
How much longer do you think you can go without getting pregnant before she decides your life holds no value and she lets Allegra have her way with you?
” Her voice carries in my room, as powerful as the current that surrounds us.
Her amethyst scales glint in the sunlight as she swims towards me.
“You deserve a life outside of this. We both do. I have had a long time to plan this, and I have no intention of failing. Just as I have no intention of leaving you behind. So, please, if you cannot trust in yourself to do this, then trust in me.”
“What if I can’t help protect you? Protect your daughter? I’m not a warrior, Lyre. I’m not strong or clever or valuable. My own magic doesn’t even work!”
Though Lyre’s gaze widens at first, she immediately softens it, resting her hands on my shoulders.
“What you have endured is no small feat. Sometimes, fighting back is as simple as existing in a world that believes you are weak for doing just that. I do not see someone who is feeble when I look at you, Sister. You are brave and caring and smarter than any—including yourself—give you credit for. After all”—a small smile tilts her lips—“you would have to be those things in order to have a secret cave full of treasures.”
I nearly choke on the water surrounding us. “You—you know about that?” In all the years I had been visiting my secret spot, not once had Lyre ever given a hint that she was aware of it.