Chapter 127
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Seven
Folami
The water lapped lazily against the dock, the gurgling sound a balm to my broken soul. I’d repaired this dock with my own hands after Solace’s forces destroyed it weeks ago. After the initial reunion with Itanya and our return to Alvor, I did whatever odd jobs I could to stay busy.
No one was interested in training for war anymore—the survivors were exhausted and reasonably disenchanted—so my skills with a spear were unneeded.
Lex and Ilyas found their place quickly, easily meshing into society as they worked to calm the population that emerged from the caves and returned from the plains.
Alvor was a shell of what it once was, the people rightfully scared and wary of what happened and what was to come.
I’d accompanied them one day, hoping to be of some help, but my morose mood only served to bleed Lex dry faster than normal. The guilt I felt over consuming his Pleasure Magic when it was made for the citizens of Alvor had me fleeing to the safety of our temporary home, embarrassed beyond belief.
Itanya, in her newly given infinite wisdom, had fixed me with a blank, unseeing stare before instructing me to find Talamh. “He’ll send you where you need to be,” she’d said cryptically, which was how I found myself repairing the docks.
It was mind-numbing manual labor, but I felt calmer near the water, as if I was closer to Peytor’s spirit somehow.
I talked to him as I worked, telling him of Itanya and the world now that Solace was gone. It helped ease the ache, but it wasn’t the same as having him here with me.
I knew Lex and Ilyas felt it, too, but there was little time for us all to talk about it after a day filled with both emotionally and physically exhausting labor.
The times that we did get together, we took solace in each other’s bodies, moans and slick thrusts saying more than our words ever could, yet there was a gaping, obvious hole where Peytor should be, even if we tried to cover it as best we could.
I sat on the dock, dipping my bare feet into the icy water as the sun retreated behind the horizon, sending shoots of vibrant purple and pink across the heavens before it winked out with a flash of green, allowing the moon to take full residence in the sky.
There was something comforting about the dark in Alvor, the way the moon shone and the millions of stars glittered in earnest. Brilliant swaths of blue, green, and purple danced above, only made visible by the retreating sun.
I craned my head back, eyes fixed on the sky, as I breathed out through my nose.
“I miss you, Peytor,” I finally said, breaking the reverent silence.
My toes swung back and forth in the water, creating a quiet sloosh with each pass.
“More than all of the stars in the sky. You were my best friend and confidant when neither of us had one. You were my rock and touchpoint when I felt most lost. I—” My voice broke.
“I don’t know how to go on without you. I love Lex and Ilyas, but they are only a piece of me.
You . . . you hold so much of me, and that part of my heart died with you.
It’s buried beneath these waves, Peytor, and I want nothing more than to reach out and take it back, to be whole again.
But I know that will never happen. I gave that chunk of me to you willingly, and I could never take it back. ”
I sighed, my legs stilling in the water as I closed my eyes.
“I wish you were here with me. I love you,” I whispered.
My eyes flew open at the sound of something large moving through the water, and I pulled my legs out and underneath my body in a flash. There, on the dark horizon, was something swimming through the waves.
Uncertainty and fear built in my gut, my palms sweating at my lack of weapon.
What if Solace has returned? What if there are more of them? Oh, gods. Bile rose in my throat, my jaw frozen shut as fear replaced blood in my veins.
Closer, the object moved, and faster my heart beat until my vision started to blacken around the edges. My breath sawed in pants until it stilled in my chest completely as what I thought was a mirage, crested the water.
A singular thin tail shimmered beneath the moonlight, the colors of the scales and fin the same as the lights in the sky above. The tail disappeared, only to reappear again seconds later as if something was swimming.
A dolphin? Some other underwater creature?
I frowned, trying to think of the animals native to the waters this far north, but came up blank.
A second tail joined the first, this one with scales as black as night, just before two heads broke the surface not ten yards from the end of the dock.
I blinked rapidly, pawing at my eyes in an attempt to clear my vision.
This . . . this can’t be right. I must be hallucinating.
But the heads—one obviously female and the other male—bobbed closer to me. I started to shake, unnerved and completely fearful of the unknown.
“Who are you?” I called as they came within speaking distance. The woman smiled something terrifying, her mouth wide and full of razor-sharp teeth. The male glanced at her before rolling his eyes and nudging her with his elbow, whispering something in her ear.
She huffed, splashing him playfully, before diving beneath the waves.
I leaned over the end of the dock, straining to see her beautiful scales in the deep blackness and screamed in surprise when she surfaced inches from my nose, clinging to the edge of the dock with her hands.
My scream bounced around the empty docks as I threw myself backward, landing hard on my hands and back.
“You know that’s not fair, uunnasta,” the male admonished in exasperation.
The woman giggled and huffed before swimming backward into the arms of the male.
“I won’t hurt you,” she said. “Though I find it interesting you have no idea who we are.”
“Sirens,” I breathed, eyes wide.
“So you have heard of us,” she giggled again, the sound slightly unnerving and absolutely hair-raising.
The male muttered something along the lines of “play nice” into her ear, moving her wet silver hair as he did so.
The female hummed before shrugging from his hold, approaching the dock once more.
“Come closer, I don’t bite.”
I shook my head so hard the beads in my hair rattled and whipped my exposed arms.
She growled with a roll of her eyes. “I’m not going to pull you into the water, if that’s what you’re afraid of. Or eat you. We’ve advanced beyond that. But I can’t give you your gift if you’re way back there.”
Cautiously, I scooted forward on my hands and butt. “G-g-gift?” I stuttered.
The woman smiled that terrifying grin again. “The ocean gave us a gift. Now, we must give it back. It’s the secrets of the waves, Folami. They whisper, and we respond.”
There was too much information to unpack in that statement, though something had the hair on the back of my neck standing to attention.
The siren stiffened imperceptibly, her eyes flicking to the entryway to the docks. She hissed before diving beneath the ocean once more, the male following suit.
Seconds later, they appeared once more, a soggy, naked body clutched between them.
“The Ocean gives just as she takes,” the female siren whispered, depositing the body onto the dock at my feet.
“Our purpose is fulfilled. May Fate bless and keep you,” the male muttered before diving beneath the dark waves once more, the female following shortly after. The sea didn’t ripple as they swam away, leaving no evidence they were even here.
A wet coughing and sputtering jarred me from my stupor, sending me to my knees as I rolled the body onto its back.
I gasped loudly, hand flying to my mouth, as a familiar face stared up at me, water streaming from his nose and mouth.
“LEX! ILYAS!” I screamed.