Chapter Fifty-Three Myla
“Can you swim?” The question pulls me from my focus on our impending discovery, and I give Aria a look that conveys as much. But she repeats herself, leaning in more closely. “Can you swim?”
“Yes—”
“Good, come on.” She grabs her bag, and I move to follow, unsure of how the fuck she is going to sneak past the rider and his dragon to get to the ocean when she gestures towards the pool of water behind the platform. I stop, heart pounding as we stay crouched low.
“What are you doing?”
“We need to get in the water.” Her voice is overshadowed by the dragon’s chuff behind us, the King’s Rider speaking low to his bonded but still close enough for me to hear. Fucking stars above.
“How is that—”
“Myla”—her opposite hand grips my wrist, fingers squeezing tightly—“I need you to trust me.”
The scoff that leaves me is automatic. There is no world in which that can happen. In which I want it to.
Her eyes plead, more orange than hazel now as the gleam. “We don’t have time. I can help us both, but you can’t fight what I’m about to do. At all.”
“I—”
“Is anyone up there?” The male’s voice reverberates off the stone, and Aria’s eyes grow wide at the sound.
“Please.” The single word is whispered, her lips trembling as she drapes her legs over the platform, the dark water before us rippling from the contact.
Stupid. This is so fucking stupid. I’ll be the first fae willingly led to their death beneath the water. But the sound of rustling leather permeates my logic and rationale. Aria sees my silent, reluctant agreement because she wastes no more time tugging me into the water.
It’s colder than I thought it would be as I suck in a lungful of air before our heads dip below the surface. I keep one hand on the dagger strapped to me, Aria’s fingers still wrapped around my other wrist to keep us tethered.
The sunlight seeping in from cracks in the ceiling is meager, but there is still enough to see the vines of jasmine crawling up the walls and, beyond that, the larger holes in rock.
Beneath the surface, the Spell shimmers behind us as it cuts through the water, and lower in the dark water, tunnels that I assume lead back out to the ocean are just barely visible.
“Keep treading water, no matter what else happens.” My gaze collides with Aria’s, my mind struggling to reconcile the fact that she is speaking to me beneath the water.
Her curls are now replaced with tightly woven braids, glimmering gold beads decorating some of them.
The braids suit her just as well as her curls.
Still wearing the white tunic I brought for her, it floats around her, giving view to the scales that have grown brighter at her hips and thighs.
My gaze traces down her body to where a tail has replaced her legs, the color of her scales shifting from that brilliant red to golden yellow and then to a light green.
It’s mesmerizing watching the way she moves, her body as fluid as the water that surrounds us.
Every bit of grace she lacks above the surface is made up for in her siren form.
When her gaze flicks upwards, I follow suit, the sight above making me pull my dagger from its sheath.
“He can’t see us,” Aria says, her voice softer and more melodic than before.
But even with her assurance, she pulls me a little farther down.
The male searches the water from above, and I suppress my urge to kick back towards the surface, my lungs beginning to burn from holding my breath.
Even in the water, the deep and throaty growls of the dragon that hails from the Khar line can be heard, and I know that we will not leave this beach alive if we are spotted.
My heartbeat is loud in my head, and the urge to take a breath grows stronger. The rider above pulls back from the platform’s edge, and once he is out of sight, I begin kicking to the surface, white stars bursting to life across my vision.
“No!” Aria shouts, swimming until she’s right in front of me as one hand plants on my shoulder, the other gripping tightly to a dagger that I’ve never seen before. “I can still sense them up there. You can’t—”
Shaking my head, I push her back and mime a choking gesture. The weight of my soaked cloak and boots makes it difficult to tread the water, and when Aria says to wait, panic begins to set in despite the way I try to push it away. We’re trapped here.
“I think they might be testing us to see if we’ll break the surface,” she says, her gaze holding mine.
I’m trapped here. The thought makes my lungs contract, every sensation abruptly feeling like it’s too much as I again struggle to kick upwards.
“Remember when I told you not to fight me? Now is that time.” She moves closer to me, keeping her hold on my wrist as she gets close enough for her chest to brush against mine.
I jerk back, tugging on my hand as my heart flails in my chest, those spots in my vision growing while darkness creeps in along the edges.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” It’s Aria speaking, I know it is.
I watched her lips move. But her voice… it comes out like a song.
A melody of notes that is as pleasing to my ears as any I’ve heard sung in the palace by performers.
“I promise,” she adds, her eyes glowing brightly.
Then her mouth presses onto mine.
Her thumb gently slides along the sensitive skin of my inner wrist, eyes still boring into me when the tip of her tongue pushes against the seam of my lips.
What the fucking stars above is happening?
I keep them clamped shut, Aria’s face in front of me almost fully blocked out by the darkness invading my vision.
My kicks become lazier, the weight of my body heavier as the thumping of my heart reverberates in my skull.
“Please, Myla,” she says against my lips, her own panic reflected in that ethereal voice.
I don’t know if it’s her fear or my own that motivates me, but I submit and open my mouth to her.
The moment her tongue sweeps in, caressing against my own, my lungs expand.
There is no breath of air—there is no air at all—but the sensation of breathing fills my chest anyway, the stars in my eyes slowly vanishing.
This is the magic of the sirens. More than just luring males to them, they have the ability to keep them alive beneath the water.
As the oxygen rushes into my system, it heightens everything around me.
The coolness of the water at my back and the warmth of the siren at my front.
The softness of Aria’s lips—the slickness of her tongue—each sensation bottoms my stomach out while simultaneously filling me with the primal urge for more.
Aria makes a soft sound as her fingers twitch around my wrist, her lids lowering halfway while her body arches just slightly towards me.
This is survival, and I am only acting on my instincts when I plant my hands on her hips and tug her closer to me.
It’s only her magic that drives my tongue deeper into her mouth, desperate to know if that slight sweetness that lingers is how she tastes everywhere.
It’s a lapse of judgement, one that blurs reality until there is only the feel of Aria in my hands. On my lips.
Suspended in the cold waters of this cave, time itself halts, bowing down to this moment between us that should be impossible.
And then, like a punch to my gut, it all rushes back in.
The palace guard and the dragon. My distrust of the female in front of me.
My eyes fly open—I’m unsure of when they even closed—and I rip myself away from Aria, ignoring the way her eyes flutter open too as I kick my way up, gasping for a breath the moment my head breaks the water.
She doesn’t stop me, surfacing a few seconds after I do, her gaze heavy on the side of my face as I scan our surroundings.
“Myla, I—”
“They’re gone,” I interrupt with a relieved exhale, kicking until I reach the platform.
“Do you need help—”
“I think you’ve done enough,” I snap, my back muscles contracting in pain as I hoist myself up, my clothing waterlogged and boots squishing as I come up to stand.
Aria is silent as she exits the pool, her transformation back to her mortal form happening behind my back as I ensure the cavern is empty on the other side of the platform. But when she speaks again, it’s the anguish in her voice that sends tension rippling over my shoulders.
“Myla, I’m sorry. My magic— I didn’t mean to make you—” She exhales in frustration from behind me. “I thought I was only using enough to ensure you could breathe beneath the surface. Just enough to keep you alive.”
I press my palm into the curved blade at my thigh as I turn to face her, recoiling at the shame I see on her face. But on land, I am the weapon. I have the advantage. I am the one she should fear. Not pity.
“I’m sorry,” she says again, and my restraint falters.
“That is enough!” I brush past her as I barrel towards the rocks to climb down to the sand.
“No,” she rasps, rushing to keep up with me. “I stripped you of choice, and that was never my intent. I promised you could trust me and then—”
“I was never going to trust you, Little Siren,” I interrupt, jumping the last few feet despite the way my body protests.
The salt from the pool has settled into the tender wounds at my back, and I breathe through the sting of it with gritted teeth.
“We are done discussing this.” When I turn to face her again, her mouth is open as if she is poised to discuss it further, but a nearby roar silences her protest, her hand diving into the bag still strapped around her and producing the dagger I saw before.
I slide my own blade out of its sheath as we both peer to the sky above through one of the holes in the rock above.
When the skies remain clear, I step back from the opening and put my blade away.
Aria still holds hers in her hand, her shoulders hiked towards her ears.
I study it in her grasp, noting the longer, more slender blade that is similar to the one I lost in the Hiravar’s leg.
“Never would have pegged you as a female who carries a weapon.”
She exhales an incredulous laugh, holding the blade out in front of her to show me. “I’m not usually.”
A line forms between my brows as I stare at the hilt, the off-white color tugging at a memory in my mind.
I have seen a weapon like this before, down in the vaults of the palace where relics and treasures are stored.
“That is a dragon bone hilt,” I whisper.
It’s an item that was made before the war.
Swallowing at the sudden tightness in my throat, I lunge for the dagger, easily taking it from Aria’s grasp.
My gaze flashes up to hers as I spin it in my hand, pointing the blade at her while my next words come out as a low growl.
“Care to tell me why the fuck you have a dagger that belonged to my father?”