Conversation stilled and every eye turned to her. She forced herself to look away from the examining gazes, focusing instead on the glittering rocks, the tiny lights floating in the air, and the music emanating faintly from somewhere behind her. Evaline, who had walked out of the tunnel at Beth’s side, lifted her hand and laid it lightly on Beth’s lower back as she began speaking. In tones as mesmerizing as any master storyteller’s, she presented Beth to the siren community, spinning a heartwarming tale of homecoming and reunion. Beth noted that her previous lack of magic and forced exile from the community at an early age were never mentioned.
Evaline finished her story by encouraging everyone to make Beth feel welcome. The chattering started up once more, the music grew louder, and Beth felt her mother’s hand pressing against her back, urging her forward. She took a few hesitant steps, trying not to meet anyone’s gaze. She knew people were still looking at her. Still talking about her. Was she meant to approach someone and just begin a conversation? Or wait for someone to walk up to her?
This was awful. It was worse than the first day at a new school.
She was contemplating hiding behind a rock when she noticed someone coming toward her. Delphine, moving with gliding grace, her glorious copper curls tumbling over her shoulders. She greeted Beth with a grin. “I can’t believe you’re back.” She leaned in as if for a hug, but, perhaps noticing the way Beth’s arms tightened self-consciously around her chest, Delphine opted to rest her hand on Beth’s upper arm instead, squeezing lightly before letting go. “I’m so happy you turned out to be magical after all. I was completely devastated after your mother sent you away. I cried myself to sleep every night for weeks.”
Beth allowed herself to relax into a smile. “I’m willing to bet I cried a whole lot more than you did.”
“Oh no, it must have been terrible! I’ve never even been into the human realm. Is it as boring as they say it is?”
Beth shrugged. “It has its perks.” Like Jack … Let him be okay, she pleaded silently.
“Well, anyway.” Delphine swung her arms at her sides. “Isn’t it pretty out here tonight? We don’t often have gatherings that involve the entire community.”
“It is lovely,” Beth said, wanting to smack herself over the head for not being able to come up with anything more intelligent to say.
“Do you remember how we used to sneak out here and watch the older girls training?” Delphine said, nodding toward the rocks on the other side of the pool. “I always thought it was so silly we had to practice the traditional arts, singing from the rocks to call the sailors. Don’t we have better ways to draw men in these days?”
Beth chuckled. “Don’t let my mother hear you say that. I’ve been back little more than a day and I’ve already heard her practicing her singing.”
Delphine rolled her eyes. “Your mother? I shouldn’t let my mother hear me say things like that. She’d remind me how inappropriate it is for the Ruler’s niece to oppose The Way Things Are.”
“Oh, it’s your aunt who’s Ruler now,” Beth said as the connection clicked into place. “That’s why I thought she looked familiar.”
“Yes, the previous Ruler was killed just over three years ago. We still don’t know what happened. Aunt Lillian was voted in, but not everyone wanted her as Ruler. There was public disagreement and fighting. It was all a bit messy.” She sighed. “You really do have a lot to catch up on, don’t you.”
Beth rolled her eyes. “Don’t remind me. Here I am, sixteen years old, and I have to do control lessons like a five-year-old.”
“Well, don’t think about it now. Come, let’s dance.” Delphine grasped Beth’s hand and tugged her toward the pool, where several women were twirling and giggling and splashing. Perhaps it was Delphine’s willingness to include her that made Beth suddenly feel more confident than before. Whatever it was, she let Delphine lead her to the edge of the water. But then the copper-haired beauty slowed. She looked over her shoulder at Beth, an odd expression growing on her face. She frowned and raised her free hand to her forehead.
“Delphine? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” Delphine stood still, breathing slowly and purposefully, as if each breath caused her great effort. “I feel so … faint.”
Abruptly, something changed. Pure, raw power—delicious and head-rushing and addictive—shot through Beth’s body. Delphine’s breaths became gasps. Her hand slipped out of Beth’s, she stumbled a few steps backward, and then, amidst a rising chorus of screams, her limp body collapsed into the water.
* * *
“How dare you?” her mother hissed. “How dare you? Using energy-drawing magic against another siren? It shouldn’t even be possible.”
“Is she okay?” Beth asked, her shaking fingers pressed against her mouth. “Please tell me she’s okay.”
“She’ll live,” Lillian stated, marching into Evaline’s sitting room. “Explain yourself,” she directed at Beth. “How did you do that?”
“I—I just touched her. I didn’t plan it, it just happened.”
“Lies,” Evaline spat. “That isn’t how our power works. Even you know that. You’d been taught the basic laws of our magic by the time you left here.”
Beth did know that. She knew exactly how siren magic worked—which was why she’d wanted to point out to Zoe that eating men had nothing to do with the way sirens obtained their energy. But she thought back over the past day, remembering each person she’d encountered, and realized it wasn’t a lie. When Evaline hugged her on the beach yesterday, she’d touched Beth’s jacket, not her skin. Jack’s jacket, a voice reminded her silently, but she pushed the thought away. Lillian had touched her hair last night, and this evening, Evaline’s hand had rested against Beth’s back where the soft blue fabric covered her skin. And finally, when Delphine had greeted her, she’d touched Beth’s sleeve. It was only when Delphine took her hand and pulled her to the water that everything had gone wrong.
“I’m not lying.” Beth wrapped her arms around herself as she began shivering, from cold or shock or both. “Delphine was the first person to touch my bare skin since I arrived here. That must be how it—”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Evaline snapped.
“It’s easy enough to test,” Lillian said. “Bring another girl in. And stop that ridiculous shivering.” She grabbed a shawl from the chaise longue and threw it at Beth, who drew it quickly around her shoulders. Two of Lillian’s guards must have been just outside the room, awaiting orders, because they appeared less than a minute later, leading a scared young girl between them. “Touch her,” Lillian commanded.
“What?” Beth recoiled. “No, I don’t want to hurt—” But Lillian grasped the girl’s hand, raised it, and pressed it against Beth’s cheek. For a moment, nothing happened, and Beth almost laughed out loud in relief. But then the girl’s eyelids fluttered and her breathing became shallower. She staggered and fell to her knees. The guards came forward and dragged the terrified, gasping girl from the room.
“What is wrong with you, Beth?” Evaline demanded. “Turn it off!”
“I can’t!”
“Of course you can turn it off. You’re a siren. You choose when to exert your influence or power over someone else.”
“But … how?”
“By simply willing it! Goodness, Beth, it’s not that hard. This is instinct, not something that requires training. You touch a man, and you either want his energy or you don’t. It’s as easy as that to switch it on and off.”
“You’re missing the point, Evaline,” Lillian said quietly. “She should not—should not—be able to draw power from any female. That is of far greater concern than her inability to control her power.”
“It hadn’t exactly escaped my notice,” Evaline muttered, pacing between Lillian and Beth.
Lillian clasped her hands together. “Let us not forget that she is a halfling. Their magic—if they have any—can often manifest in unusual ways.”
“Unpredic
table,” Evaline growled. “That’s the word everyone likes to use.”
Lillian sighed. “I hate that word.”
Evaline surveyed her daughter, then reached for her. “Take my hand. This time, tell yourself that you don’t want to draw any energy. Remind yourself that you are satisfied, in this moment, with what you have. It’s as easy as that.”
Beth slowly shook her head. “I don’t think that will help. I never wanted to take anyone’s power, so how will telling myself not to want it make any difference?”
Evaline made an annoyed sound at the back of her throat. “Perhaps you subconsciously wanted their energy. You are half-siren, after all, and my daughter. The desire for power should be strong within you.”
Lillian’s stern gaze flicked toward Evaline, and her eyebrows pinched together slightly. Beth wondered briefly what subtext she was missing between the two women, but now was not the time to ponder the possible power struggles within the siren community. Beth focused on her mother and her outstretched hand. “I don’t want to hurt you … Mom.” It was the first time she’d used the word in almost ten years, and she hoped it might have a softening effect upon Evaline. After all, the woman was offering to end up in a gasping heap just to help Beth get this horrible life-sucking ability under control. Surely that meant she cared, even if just a little bit.
Evaline’s expression remained stony. “I told you to take my hand. It was an order, not a suggestion.”
Pushing aside the hurt Evaline’s words caused her, Beth focused on Jack instead.
I never wanted to hurt him.
I never wanted his energy.
I’m content with whatever power resides within my own body.
Then she took her mother’s hand.
There was no delay this time. Life-giving energy flooded Beth’s body. Evaline tore her hand from Beth’s grasp. She stumbled backward and caught herself against the wall as she breathed slowly and heavily, one hand pressed to her chest. Her gaze, horrified and cold, slowly rose until it locked on Beth’s. “I told you to turn it off.”
“I can’t!” Beth wailed. “I don’t know what this is. I don’t know how to stop it.”
“So,” Lillian said, her tone sounding final. “She can draw energy from anyone, and she has no control over it. She’s dangerous. Clearly she can’t stay here.”
“But … I …” Beth turned to Evaline but found her mother’s expression as harsh as Lillian’s. “You’re saying I’ll never be able to control this?”
“It should be easy, Beth,” Evaline said. “If it isn’t easy, then your magic isn’t like ours and we can’t help you. And obviously you can’t stay here,” she added. “You need to leave.”
As pain swelled in her chest, Beth imagined the cracks spreading across her heart. Cracks formed by her father and now deepened by her mother. “But … where will I go?”
“That isn’t our concern. Return to your father. Go off on your own. It doesn’t bother me as long as—”
Evaline’s final words were lost as Beth turned and raced out of the house. Tears blinded her as she ran across the corridor and into the oval garden. She should never have come back here. Of course she wasn’t welcome. Of course she didn’t belong. And now, thanks to the sudden awakening of her deadly power, she didn’t belong in the human realm either. She was—
A figure stepped out from behind a fountain, and Beth nearly smacked right into the girl she’d almost killed. “Delphine,” she gasped, taking a few hurried steps backward. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I—”
“What did you do?” Delphine asked.
“I don’t know.” Beth continued backing up as Delphine moved with feline-like grace toward her. She expected anger, outrage, but the girl seemed almost … fascinated. A slow smile curled her lips upward, sending a chill slithering down Beth’s spine. That smile was somehow more dangerous than anger. “I can’t control it,” Beth explained quickly. “It happens whenever I touch anyone, man or woman.”
Delphine slowly advanced on her, like a cat preparing to pounce. Beth turned to run but found a bench behind her. She swung back around, clutching the ring on her left forefinger. The ring that had brought her here. If she turned it now, would it take her back to the human realm?
She twisted it.
One—Delphine raised her hands—two—and pushed a flash of blue light at her—three.
And in a glittering, spinning swirl of magic, she was sucked out time and space and thrown into darkness.
CHAPTER FIVE
Beth was flung onto icy, white ground. Bone-chilling wind swept past her, lifting snow into the air and tossing it about in gusts of misty white. With shaking fingers, she tugged the shawl closer. She climbed carefully to her feet, which already ached from the cold. Turning slowly, she took in the harsh environment. Steep slopes, jagged mountain peaks, distant trees she could barely make out through the blizzard, and not a single living being in sight.
How had she ended up on this bleak and lonesome mountainside? Surely the ring hadn’t brought her here. Evaline had told her years ago that it was enchanted to take her between the human realm and the sirens’ beach. Shouldn’t it have transported her home? With fingers stiff and sore from the cold, she reached for the ring—but the pearl atop the metal was a mottled ashy grey, and a narrow crack ran across it. She tried to twist it and found it wouldn’t budge.
The reality of her situation settled over her with horrifying clarity. She was lost and alone with no way home, and the deadly power that had awoken within her could never be put to sleep. She could never touch anyone ever again. Never touch Jack. And the cold. The cold, cold, cold was everywhere. Her nose, her lips, her feet. She dropped onto the snow and crumpled in on herself. Tears burned hot against her frozen cheeks. She longed to feel Jack’s arms around her, to hear his warm voice as he comforted her. You mean everything to me, my beautiful scarlet lady. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she moaned repeatedly until her voice gave way and her lips continued moving in an endless, silent plea for forgiveness.
She was vaguely aware that her magic might have the ability to warm her, but if that was the case, she didn’t know how to do it. Besides, she thought as her shivering ceased and the pain in her fingers and toes eased into numbness, it didn’t feel that cold anymore. An enticing drowsiness tugged her toward sleep. She blinked slowly, trying to remember if there was a reason to stay awake.
Yes. There was a reason, and his name was Jack. Through the haze of falling snow, she saw him coming toward her. When he was close enough for her to see his smiling eyes, he bent down and offered her his hand. “My scarlet lady,” he said. “I’ve come for you.” She reached for him with her stiff and frozen arm—but the memory of her deadly touch surfaced at the last moment, shocking her to the core. She yanked her hand back. The movement sent her head reeling, and the blizzard spun around her in an endless spiral. She tucked both hands beneath her chin as darkness closed in on her, wrapping her in blissful numbness.
* * *
Light flickered across Beth’s closed eyelids. A crackling sound met her ears, and a sharp smell—herbs?—stung her nostrils. She twisted her head, trying to get away from the overwhelming scent as she blinked past the blurriness of her sleepy eyes. She stilled as the herb smell lessened and her vision cleared enough to focus on shadows flickering across walls. Walls? Was she back with the sirens? No, that couldn’t be right. There was none of the clean, white opulence of Evaline’s home. The walls here were rough stone with tapestries and animal skins hanging from them. And she must be far from the warm climate of the sirens’ home if a fireplace was necessary here.
“You’re awake,” a voice said.
Startled, Beth tried to sit up. It took her a few moments of struggling against her own weak body and the thick, handwoven blanket wrapped around her, but eventually she managed it. A girl—a little older than herself, perhaps—moved to her side and sat on the edge of the couch Beth found herself on. Her mass of golden hair fell in waves ov
er her shoulders, with thin braids peeking out here and there. “Who are you?” Beth asked. “And where am I?” Wisps of dark, snow-covered images tickled the edge of her memory. A figure she had thought was Jack but couldn’t possibly have been him. “Are you the one who found me out on the mountainside?”
“That was my older sister, Malena,” the girl said in accented tones. The corners of her ice-blue eyes crinkled as she smiled. “My name’s Tilda. What’s yours?”
Her name? Beth didn’t know if it was tales from the human world that she was thinking of or a genuine lesson she’d been taught in her early years with the sirens, but she didn’t think it wise to share her real name. She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, concealing her necklace from view. “Scarlett,” she said, telling herself to believe it so it would sound like truth and not a lie. “My name is Scarlett.”
She heard voices then, women’s voices speaking a foreign language, and she sat up straighter to look over the edge of the couch. Looking around, she realized she was in a kitchen. A room with a large fireplace, battered pots and pans hanging next to it on the wall, a table with vegetables piled on one end, and another table with a bench on either side. The couch and a few old chairs were gathered into a sitting area within reach of the fire’s warmth. As she took in the scene, two women entered the kitchen. They were older than Tilda, but Beth could see the family resemblance. Similar facial structure and blonde hair. Their eyes, though …
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