Siren's Calling (The Sea King's Daughters Book 4)

by Piper J. Drake

  Not what I had intended, but I wasn’t going to take the opportunity for granted. Instead, I swam hard for Keegan. Two of the Deep Dwellers had remained behind to guard their prisoner but I could take two of them.

  I dodged the spear thrust of the first, grabbing the weapon as it came past me and yanking it and its bearer toward me. I opened my own mouth and bit down hard at the junction between my opponent’s neck and shoulder as I reached up with my right hand and yanked his head to the side. The Deep Dweller’s body fell away as I turned to face his comrade, the head ripped almost completely away from his body.

  The remaining Deep Dweller brandished his spear, and I bared my shark’s teeth at him as I emitted a controlled siren’s scream. He dropped his weapon, clutching his head. At this range, as focused as my siren’s scream was, it scrambled his brain.

  The area clear, I turned to Keegan and clawed through the magic bubble prison. As it burst, both Keegan and I raced for the surface. He seemed to be swimming fine in his sea lion form but I went with him to be sure he’d make it. If he faltered, I was ready to take him the rest of the way. We made it, and as soon as he hit air, he took in a deep breath and let it out an angry bellow.

  After a moment, he looked at me, both of us bobbing in the ocean and riding storm-driven waves summoned by my magic.

  I searched for something to say. I’d spoken more to him in the space of just a day or two than I had to anyone since I’d come to Seattle. I’d run out of words that made sense so I was going to have to go with what immediately came to mind. “There was no plan, so I can’t say this worked the way I wanted it to.”

  Keegan the sea lion stared at me for a long moment, then bellowed his disapproval in my face.

  Epilogue

  I sat on the rocky outcropping with a Steller sea lion at my side. Thick fog hid us from passing boats and the forest of seaweed around the base of the rocks hid the leviathan where it lay on the sea floor. It hadn’t left me yet, following me wherever I swam. It waited in deep water whenever I stepped ashore and joined me as soon as I took my true form in the water again. I was considering how to work out a more consistent way of communicating with it, since it seemed determined to stay with me.

  Feed a leviathan a meal and survive, win its friendship for life, apparently.

  Keegan lifted his head, then changed back to human form. “I see them.”

  I nodded. I’d seen them, too. Ten heads broke the surface of the water but only one approached. I decided I would take it as a sign of trust. There were two of us on the rocks and only one Deep Dweller coming to talk to us. Of course, they could be afraid, too. They could sense the leviathan below us as well as I could, I thought.

  “Sea King’s Daughter.” The Deep Dweller’s greeting sounded almost like a curse.

  I’d let it pass because I generally agreed it could be. “Yes.”

  “We are here to…discuss, as you suggested the night you let us live.” The Deep Dweller’s features were hard to read, even for me. But he held himself stiffly and seemed ready to both fight or flee at any moment.

  That was fine, because I wasn’t nearly as relaxed as I was pretending to be. I flipped my tail fins nonchalantly, just to be contrary.

  “You let us live. Why?” The question had to have been eating away at the Deep Dweller for every minute of the last several days if this was the first question he asked.

  I considered my response. I hadn’t talked this out with Keegan, so what I had to say would be a surprise to him. In fact, I shouldn’t have allowed him to be here. But I was tired of being alone, and Keegan had expressed every bit as much determination to be near me as the leviathan did. It was a new feeling to have someone to share the burden of my secrets. At least with Keegan, I was willing to try to trust.

  “Because I am not my father.” I decided that was the simplest answer. I glanced at Keegan, then returned my attention to the Deep Dweller. “The night we fought, I had only just learned what my father did to your people. He wanted me to do the same to you, to harvest the blood magic from sacrificing you in order to open a portal to send the leviathan to him.”

  Keegan placed a hand on my shoulder, steadying and warm. Ah, I hadn’t realized I’d gone cold. It was a self-defense mechanism, my way of shutting down and disassociating myself from a situation. I was still working my way through the horror I felt.

  The Deep Dweller stared at me with its huge eyes, all iris and no whites. “Why didn’t you? You had us all.”

  “If it would take a dozen of you to give me the power to send a creature as large as the leviathan through a portal, my father must’ve slaughtered hundreds, perhaps thousands of your people to open the way to Salacia centuries ago.” My father had committed genocide, basically. It was amazing the Deep Dwellers hadn’t tried to slaughter each of my sisters as soon as we’d arrived back in this world. “The least I could do was give you your lives.”

  I looked down into my lap, considered my long tail. I loved this form, loved my life. I wasn’t sure if I was happy yet, but I was learning and exploring. I was making friends for the first time and whenever I thought of Keegan, I thought there could be more, if I let it happen.

  “We sought you for your blood.”

  I looked up, almost surprised the Deep Dweller was still here. I thought he would leave once he had my reason. They might even think me a weakling, too kindhearted to defend myself again. They’d have been wrong, but we didn’t need to figure that out in conversation.

  “There is a link,” he said. “Your blood can travel between worlds. Centuries ago, a handful of our kind escaped the slaughter and we took one of your guards with us as a captive.”

  It was my turn to stare. They’d had merfolk as prisoner all these centuries, one of my kind.

  “We kept the merfolk. We cursed his blood, used it until there was no more.”

  A curse on the blood of merfolk. Sweet moon and tides!

  Salacia had been a world of gentle seas when my people had first arrived. Then, over time, the seas had begun to churn. They’d become violent, and we saw no new celestial bodies in the night sky to explain the change in the waves and tides. My anger rose, slow and burning, for the life of the merfolk they’d tortured and the harm they’d done to all of my people.

  “For every daughter of the Sea King we catch, we have more blood to extend the curse.” The Deep Dweller rose a little out of the water and placed his webbed hand on the rock beside my tail.

  I refused to withdraw. I even flipped my tail fin again, spraying us both in sea foam.

  “But you are different.” The Deep Dweller looked back to his companions. “You fought only to defend yourself and yours. You could have used us all, and you did not. How will you send your father his prize? Will you destroy yourself to do it?”

  He didn’t seem particularly concerned when it came to that last question, only mildly curious. I wondered if he would be disappointed with what I’d decided to do.

  Keegan, on the other hand, growled deep in his chest. He’d promised to hold his commentary but insisted he’d be there to watch my back, as the human saying went. I was certain he’d be full of questions after this discussion was finished.

  I was angry for what they’d done. But my anger was a candle flame next to the awful horror of what my father had done to their people. If I struck out at them now for revealing this truth, we’d still be caught up in this cycle of centuries old hate.

  And I was tired. I wanted it to be done.

  I shook my head. “No. I will not send him the leviathan.”

  “You will not seek to kill us to add to your power?”

  I glared at the Deep Dweller and raised an eyebrow. It was an eloquent expression I’d seen humans use, and I figured I had to get used to living among them now, more than ever. “I had the chance. I didn’t.”

  “What will you do now?”

  Good question. “Live. Guard my territory. Watch over the creatures living here.”

  The Deep Dweller fe
ll silent for a time. He looked back at his companions, then turned back to me. “Truce.”

  I lifted both my eyebrows this time as the word hung in the air.

  He wasn’t finished. “We offer you alone a truce, Guardian. You will remain unbothered so long as you do not expand your territory beyond the Puget Sound. We will not seek your blood. We will not try to use it to continue the curse on your kind. We offer you this in exchange for our lives so that there be no debt between us.”

  “My sisters.”

  He shook his head. “I cannot speak for other Deep Dweller camps. If others are hunting your sisters, your sisters will have to face them.”

  Not alone. I wouldn’t leave my sisters to face the danger alone if they had need of me. But then, we’re an independent lot. I hadn’t summoned any of them to help me, either. I intended to reach out to them and brief them on the danger and what our father had done. They could make their own choices, and if they needed my help, I would be there for them.

  “A truce, then,” I agreed. Perhaps I should have bowed to seal the agreement, but I was the Sea King’s daughter and bowed to no one but him.

  The Deep Dweller nodded. Then he backed away and returned to his fellows. One by one, they vanished beneath the waves.

  I wasn’t sure how many groups of Deep Dwellers were out there. I didn’t think there could be many, not if my father had almost erased their kind from the world. But at least here, they were no longer a threat.

  Keegan huffed. “We’re going to need to sit down and talk about this entire thing from the beginning.”

  I chuckled and flipped my tail again. I wasn’t alone. I had the selkie at my side and the leviathan to swim the deeps with me. I was strong enough to meet any new challenges as they came.

  I’d found my calling here, to watch over these seas and protect. It wasn’t saving either my home world or this one, but guarding the Puget Sound was doable.

  The End

  Afterword

  Thank you so much for reading SIREN’S CALLING!

  If you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review.

  Join my newsletter to keep up to date on new releases!

  Coming soon…

  Interested in reading more about Amae’s sisters?

  Want to know what Marna is up to in her book, SIREN’S SURGE. Available October, 2018!

  Find out more here!

  About the Author

  Piper J. Drake is a bestselling author of romantic suspense and edgy contemporary romance, a frequent flyer, and day job road warrior. Wherever she goes, she enjoys tasting the world and embarking on foodie adventures. Dogs—and horses—have been known to spontaneously join her for a stroll and she enjoys pausing for a nice chat with cats of all sizes, from domestic to tiger size and beyond.

  Piper aspires to give her readers stories with a taste of the hard challenges in life, a breath of laughter, a broad range of strengths and weaknesses, the sweet taste of kisses, and the heat of excitement across multiple genres including science fiction and fantasy.

  piperjdrake.com