Mira #2
Then he lunges. I roll in the sand, barely dodging him, scrambling to my feet. And I run. I run like hell, toward where I know the ship has to be. Please let it still be ours. Please don’t let them take any more of my crew.
Thoughts race through my head, knowing I’m going to have to end him.
I remember one night on The Siren, years ago, just the two of us sitting beside a small lantern while the sea rocked beneath us.
I couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old.
He looked at me with tired eyes and said, “You’ve always been like a daughter to me.
And one day, I won’t be there. So you fight.
You run. You kill if you have to. Even if it’s me. ”
Like he always knew this day would come. He knows every move I make before I make it. That’s the worst part. He trained me, and now he’ll use that training against me.
He has to be possessed. He has to be. Because the man I love, the man who raised me, would never betray me. So I keep running. My legs burn and my lungs claw against the smoke, but I don’t stop.
I finally see the ship. And the water surrounding it has gone black. The sirens. They’re here. I don’t know whether to feel relieved they’ve joined the battle or terrified of why.
Their song begins to rise, soft at first, then louder, carrying through the burning sky like a curse wrapped in silk. It slithers under my skin, curls around my ribs. Men start to stagger toward the shoreline. The water darkens further, inky and unnatural, reaching for the land like it’s hungry.
I step into the shallows, heart pounding.
Please let Kai still be alive. Their song grows louder with every step I take toward the shore.
I know they can’t walk on land, but the closer they come, the more lethal their voices become.
A single verse can shatter a man’s mind. And now, they’re singing for me.
A massive hand yanks me from the water and slams me into the sand. The wind tears out of my lungs. Before I can move, his blade is at my throat.
“Stupid brat,” Smith hisses, breath ragged. “You carry all this power while everyone else rots.” The steel presses into my skin, sharp enough to split it. Warm blood slides down my throat, trailing along the edge of his blade.
“I spend my life protecting you,” he spits.
“Every broken bone, every scar, I take those for you. And what do I get? To watch you play captain? Spoiled. Soft. Blind to everything we gave up.” His hand trembles, just slightly, like he’s battling himself.
“You becoming captain is the worst thing that’s ever happened to this crew,” he growls. “To me.”
He sneers down at me. “You’re a witch,” he says, voice dripping with venom. “And you deserve to burn.” He spits into the sand, but I keep my eyes locked on his, those eyes that once watched over me like a guardian. Now they are obsidian black. Empty. Possessed. Or worse… willing.
My fingers inch toward my cutlass, slow and quiet. Then in one fluid motion, I twist out from under him and slice into his leg. He roars and spins around. I quickly scramble to my feet. Steel meets steel.
“You think you can take me?” he snarls, breath ragged. “I taught you everything you know.” My blade doesn't waver.
“Then you’re facing a weapon of your own making,” I say, voice cold as the sea. I drive him back, step by step, toward the black water and toward what waits beneath.
He’s slower now, older and heavier. My strength isn't in my size, or even my anger. It is in my clarity. In knowing exactly who I am, and who he no longer is.
I slam the hilt of my cutlass into his face. His nose crunches. Blood sprays. Still, he smiles through it, teeth stained red, wild and ruined.
“I have to say, Smith,” I breathe, never lowering my blade. “I didn’t think it’d be you.” He sneers, blood still dripping from his nose. “But I guess”—I step back, arms crossing over my chest—“one more life gets claimed because of mine tonight.”
His eyes widen. “You stupid, foolish man.” I spit at him; he opens his mouth, no doubt ready to spit more poison. But he never gets the chance. A webbed hand shoots from the black water. Claws—long, jagged, and hungry—sink into his ankle like a trap snapping shut.
Smith screams out in pain. The siren yanks. His body slams against the sand, dragged so fast the mist tears up in sheets. He claws at the earth, kicks, and howls. One final scream, then silence.
He's gone. Swallowed by the black water. Gone beneath the surface with no trace left behind. His soul now belongs to the sirens.
I walk to where his body was claimed and let my toes touch the dark water.
Relief floods me. The black, salty tide seizes me like I belong to it.
Maybe I do. I step deeper into the ink. Gold light blooms around me beneath the surface, flaring like fire beneath the waves.
Behind me, the town is in flames. Smoke claws at my throat, the taste of ruin thick in the air.
I look up and see them. Sirens, dozens of them, swimming toward me through the darkness. One surfaces in front of me. Her voice slices through the chaos, sharp as broken glass yet hauntingly angelic. “Mira,” she says, “you will always be protected. We are your home.”
Her eyes shimmer like stars scattered across the night sky. The sirens are not beautiful, not by any human standards. Their bodies are covered in jagged black scales, each one edged like a blade. Their hands are webbed, fingers ending in long, hooked claws designed for shredding.
But still, I don’t flinch. “We will help take you back to your ship,” she says. And despite everything, the war, the fire, the betrayal, I feel calm. How can something so eerily terrifying make me feel this safe?
I swim underwater toward the ship, fifteen sirens at my sides. They move like shadows through the black water, silent and lethal. When I reach the ship, I grab the rope ladder and climb, saltwater dripping from my skin.
At the top, I turn back. The siren who spoke to me hovers just beneath the surface, only her eyes above the water. “Thank you,” I say softly. “Please help me get Kai back. Don’t harm him. He’s part of me.”
She blinks slowly, then smiles, revealing a row of gleaming, razor-sharp teeth.
“We know who he is,” she says. “He will make it back safely. You have my word.” Then she slips beneath the surface, her body gliding through the water like silk, leaving only a small ripple behind as the moonlight dances across the black water.