16. ZARA
ZARA
Working with Morpheus was certainly making the nights easier to bear, and I was thoroughly enjoying his company and growing far fonder of him than I’d have thought possible when I first met him, but it wasn’t doing anything to stop me from going stir crazy during the day.
I needed to find something to do with my days as well, which was why I had finally got around to asking Terrah to set up a meeting with Taryn for me.
It was time I started finding out more about my siren powers, especially with the way they’d been threatening to get away from me lately.
The sound of waves breaking gently on the shore was the last thing I’d expected to hear when I stepped out of the portal.
“Aren’t we in Fae?” I looked around in confusion. I’d expected to see a house, or maybe a garden, certainly not the beach.
“Why would you think that?” She gave me a puzzled look when I pointed at the water. “Beaches aren’t confined to the mortal realm.”
Huh. For some reason, I hadn’t thought things like the tide would exist in a magically created realm. Guess the magical bit should have been a clue.
“Taryn is waiting for you.” Terrah gestured along the beach to a couple of deckchairs set under a big sun umbrella and the man who’d just got up from one of them and was heading towards us. “I’ll leave you to it. Call me if you need me for anything.”
In typical Terrah fashion she turned and strode away before I could answer her, but hopefully I wouldn’t need her. The plan was to speak to Taryn about my siren heritage, then have lunch with him and Alissa before they took me to the palace to see Alara and Gideon.
I took a deep breath and tried my best to look confident.
I’d been putting this meeting off for weeks, and I still wasn’t sure if I was ready for it, but I was here and there was no going back now Terrah had abandoned me.
Maybe that’s why she’d left so abruptly – so I couldn’t change my mind and ask her to take me back to the manor.
My uncertainty melted away when Taryn reached me, a smile lighting up his face and crinkling the weathered brown skin around his aquamarine eyes.
“I’m so glad you asked to meet with me, Zara.
” I let him tuck my hand into the crook of his elbow and guide me towards the deckchairs.
“And Alissa is so excited she’s hardly slept for the last two nights.
Come and sit down and have some of the lemonade she made for us, then you can ask me anything you want.
I know you must have lots of questions.”
I let him fuss over me, getting me settled in one of the deckchairs, fascinated by the way the tiny bells woven into his dark braids tinkled musically as he moved.
“So what would you like to know?” he asked as I accepted the glass of lemonade he insisted I have. I stared at him wordlessly, not having a clue what to ask first. “Would it help if I started by telling you a bit about me and your grandfather?”
“Please. I want to know everything, but I’m just not sure where to start.”
“I can only imagine. It must have been a huge shock for you finding out you’re a siren when you’d spent the last twenty five years thinking you were human.
Your mother sent you away to protect you but…
well, we can’t change what happened, but I’m glad you’re willing to let us be a part of your life now that we’ve found you.
And I can start that process by telling you exactly who your ancestors were. ”
I nodded for him to go on.
“Your grandfather and I were twins. I’m not sure how much you know about siren fertility, but sadly children are rare and twins even rarer. There are very few family lines they appear in, only two in fact, and ours is one of them. Until Castien and I were born, twins were always female.”
I groaned. “Please don’t tell me there’s a prophecy.” What I really wanted to say was ‘please don’t tell me there’s another fucking prophecy’ but this man was the closest thing I had to a grandfather and cursing in front of him didn’t seem right.
He grinned. “No prophecy. More like a genetic trait. Usually within a generation or two of twins being born, a dream walker would come along, born into the same family line. In our case, with us being male everyone assumed that we were just an anomaly, not that we heralded the imminent arrival of a dream walker. You’re the living proof that they were wrong. ”
“But I don’t understand. I’m only part siren, a quarter in fact if Alara is half siren.”
He shook his head. “That’s irrelevant. The majority of sirens are hybrids due to our low fertility rates.
If sirens only ever procreated with other sirens, we’d have died out as a race long ago.
Being a hybrid doesn’t stop the gene from being passed on.
Of course, siren-fae hybrids are pretty rare, as fae fertility is far lower than that of a mortal. Most hybrids are siren-human.”
I was glad when he didn’t press me to talk for a while, giving me as much time as I needed to absorb what he’d told me so far.
“What about the other stuff?” I asked when I felt ready to take in more.
He gave me a questioning look. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to be a bit more specific. What other stuff are we talking about?”
“The siren battle cry thing,” I elaborated.
“Oh, and the way the lights flicker and everything in the cupboards starts rattling when I get angry. It’s like a build-up of energy coming from inside me.
So far I’ve managed to contain it and not let it completely get away from me, except that one time on the battlefield when that vampire was going to hurt Eli. But it scares me.”
“That’s interesting.” More like freaking terrifying.
“I haven’t heard of a siren possessing the battle cry since my great, great, great grandmother.
There may even have been another great in there.
A very long time anyway, and I don’t think she was a dream walker too.
The electrics flickering and things rattling will almost certainly be connected to the battle cry.
Tell me more about what happened with this vampire and Eli, was it? ”
“It was during the fighting between the guardians and the rebel vampires on Four. I saw a vampire about to cut off my friend Eli’s head and something in me just snapped.
I screamed and the next thing I knew, all our enemies were tumbling down like a line of dominos.
Well, there was a bit more to it than that,” I amended, “but I don’t think I could even begin to describe how it felt. ”
“And you’d never felt anything like that before?” I shook my head. “So seeing your friend in trouble was the catalyst then. What about the siren song? I’m assuming you have that power too as most of us do?”
“Seth says I do. But I would never use it to try and influence anyone.”
“Well of course you wouldn’t, my dear. I’m not for a moment suggesting that you would. I’m just trying to establish exactly what abilities you possess. So, dream walking, battle cry and siren song. Anything else?”
“I don’t think so. If there is, I haven’t experienced it yet. And apart from being able to glamour myself to look human, I don’t appear to have much in the way of fae magic.”
“Yes, I noticed you’re wearing a glamour. From what I’ve heard, you’re the spitting image of Alara underneath that pretty human disguise. Is there a reason you choose to hide your true self even when you’re here in Fae?”
“It’s complicated.” I’d insisted on still wearing the glamour for now because I knew with my striking resemblance to Alara, as soon as anyone saw me, there’d be no doubt that I was her daughter. And I wasn’t quite ready to ‘come out’ yet.
Alara had tried to persuade me otherwise, but Gideon had seemed relieved if anything.
My guess was that he was holding on to the hope that I’d discover some previously untapped well of fae magic inside me before he had to publicly acknowledge me, to give me a bit more credibility as his heir.
I had a feeling he was going to be disappointed.
“Well, I’m sure you have a good reason, even if you’re not ready to share it with me just yet.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “What else would you like to know?”
What I really wanted to know was how he’d ended up in a relationship with his twin brother’s lover, but it was probably too soon to be asking about personal stuff like that.
“You can ask me anything,” he added, “I’m very hard to offend.”
Well in that case… “How did you and Alissa end up together?”
“Hmm. We wondered if that would seem a little strange to you having grown up in the mortal realm. Here in fae we are far more accepting of such things. In our case nobody else knew that Alissa and Cassien had been together of course, but even if they had, no one would have cared. How much do you know about the relationship between Alissa and her husband, Eladrin?”
“I get the impression she didn’t like him much?” Which was hardly surprising considering she’d been married off to him while she was in love with someone else.
“That’s an understatement. She hated him.
He wasn’t a good person, and he didn’t treat her well.
She would have rejoiced at him going off to fight in the uprising if not for the fact that Cassien and I had to go as well.
By the time I got back, she’d already received the happy news about Eladrin’s demise and was eagerly awaiting Cassien’s return so that they could openly build a life together.
Telling her he wasn’t coming back was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.
I was grieving too, the loss of a twin is…
” He trailed off and we sat in silence while he gathered his thoughts.
“Anyway,” he snapped back to himself, “we were both devastated and found some measure of comfort in each other. One thing led to another and here we are. Are you shocked?”