by Zoe Chant
I base my offer on your past behavior, Saina said with no kindness. You cast out your eldest son for something as trivial as compassion. Clearly you value your family reputation above any treasure.
You are blackmailing us, his mother exclaimed. You are threatening to tell people about Keylor’s dishonor!
Bastian felt Saina’s grim smile. Blackmail is such an ugly word.
He tightened his hand in hers. This was the part of the plan with the most uncertainty.
You are a remarkable woman, his father said thoughtfully, and Bastian relaxed. They were impressed by Saina, as they should be. It is a pity you are not a royal dragon. That would simplify this situation considerably.
There is a story that sirens were once dragons, his mother added, cocking her head at Saina as she lowered her face to inspect her more closely. Are you royalty among your kind?
Saina looked back at the dragons without flinching or stepping back, despite her small comparative size and their impolite crowding. We have a similar origin story, she conceded. But sirens do not have royalty.
Then she laughed dryly. But my name does mean ‘princess’ in Hindi.
Bastian’s parents exchanged a significant look and a private exchange, then turned to Saina.
We would accept this as fulfilling the terms of the contract, his father said proudly.
Bastian had been trying to decide which of his shoulders hurt worst, and whether he could gracefully go sit down on the bench to recover for a moment while his parents treated with Saina, then realized where the conversation had moved.
He blinked up at his father. You… you’d take me back?
Even as he tried to wrap his tired mind around the idea, Saina spoke.
You can’t have him.
She was drawn up to her full height, tiny against his monstrous parents, and she brought them to silence with her statement.
Bastian is mine, by bonds more powerful than family blood or title, Saina snarled. He is better than any of you, by any standards of human or dragon or siren, and you may not have him. He has a family of his own making, in a place that accepts him as he is, where he has a hoard that puts your gaudy pretension to shame, and if you try to take him from me and from his true family, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth and sing the sky down on you.
Her words echoed in their minds and in their ears. Bastian was not sure when she had started singing the words out loud, but the magic in the courtyard was tangible and full of anger.
She took two firm steps forward. I came here to treat for my Voice, taken from me by your dishonorable son, and you try to take from me the treasure that you discarded in foolishness. I will give you one chance and only one to redeem yourselves.
Bastian’s parents gaped at her.
Give. Me. My. Voice.
Chapter 39
Are you sure about this?”
Bastian’s parents had flown away with Keylor’s limp form once the deal had been struck. Saina had even managed to make them promise to see him through his withdrawal, using every non-magic negotiating tool that she had.
Saina and Bastian stood alone in the courtyard at last.
“I’m sure,” Bastian said firmly, leading her up the steps to the grand entrance.
“I don’t want you to feel tricked,” Saina insisted. “It isn’t fair, and you shouldn’t have to.”
Bastian drew up at the top of the stairs. “The only thing that isn’t fair about it is that they beat me to the punch and robbed me of the chance at a deeply romantic speech that I’d undoubtedly have forgotten in the panic of the moment anyway. You were saved the awkwardness of having to accept a ring from someone who looked like a beached fish with stagefright. As grievances with my parents go, this is fairly far down on the list.”
Saina twisted the pearl ring on her finger and smiled foolishly. This was not the bargain she had expected to drive, but she was delighted with the outcome. The rings the dragons had produced from their hoard were surprisingly compatible with their tastes; Bastian’s was a simple gold band and hers was a pearl cradled by four diamonds. It was likely that his parents felt like they were ridding their hoard of items too pedestrian to keep.
“Let’s go find your Voice,” Bastian told her, when all she could do was smile at him.
He took her hand, and they walked into through the modest man-sized door within the larger door.
Keylor’s lair was dragon-sized at the front, but more human-sized to the rear, and a quick search revealed a set of cozy rooms. Saina’s heart caught in her throat as an elegant silver-haired figure in a plush chair turned to look at them.
“My Voice!” Saina cried, and rushed forward.
“Heavens, child, it certainly took you long enough to come get me,” her grandmother chided her as she rose gracefully from the chair. “And wearing that? Gracious, I hope no one sees us leaving together. I do assume you have come to free me?” The teasing, skeptical tone of her voice was achingly familiar.
Saina flung her arms around the slim figure, catching her in an impulsive embrace.
“Yes, yes,” her grandmother said, patting her with exaggerated awkwardness. “I’m sure you’re happy to see me.”
“We are here to free you,” Saina said, withdrawing to arm’s length. “Your contract with Keylor is dissolved.” She had to ask, “Was it terrible here?”
Her Voice sniffed. “The food was dreadful, and the service so spotty. Who only has maid service once a week? The internet connection was barely tolerable for streaming television, and you know how drafty and dry a dragon’s lair generally is.”
“We’ll get you back to the ocean, my Voice,” Saina told her, trying not to laugh at the glimpse of amusement in her grandmother’s twinkling eyes. “But I want you to meet Bastian first. This is my grandmother, my Voice, Gita.”
Bastian came forward from where he’d been lurking in their door for the reunion. He gave Gita his most winning smile and offered a hand. “Ma’am.”
Gita looked him over carefully, and did not take the offered hand. “You may address me as your Voice,” she conceded. The ring on his finger did not go unnoticed. “I suppose you think you are marrying my granddaughter.”
Bastian’s smile froze on his face. “Yes, your, er, Voiceness,” he stammered. “It was part of the agreement for your release.”
“Oh Saina, how dreadful for you!” Gita patted Saina’s hand in pity. “I had the perfect man chosen for you. You could have drowned him afterwards, for all I cared, but he would have made beautiful little baby girls.”
“My Voice,” Saina said gently, covering her delicate hand with her own. “Bastian is my mate. I want to marry him.” She wasn’t sure how much of what her grandmother was saying was in jest, but she answered gravely, serious to the bottom of her soul, and thought she saw a flash of pain in Gita’s face.
“Sirens don’t have mates, my darling! And sirens certainly don’t marry.” Gita gave Bastian a sweeping look. “And if you did, Saina, sweetheart, I’m sure you could do better.”
Poor Bastian looked like a beached dolphin, opening and closing his mouth as he struggled to find something to say.
Saina realized she was humming out of habit when Gita turned to her sharply. “Are you trying to enchant me, girl? You have learned a lot of bad habits while I was away.”
“You!” Gita said imperiously to Bastian, leaning her magic into the musical word. “You may fetch the bags I have packed up in the other room.”
Bastian looked befuddled, exchanged a look with Saina, and then politely nodded and walked to get her bags.
Gita watched him go. “Well, isn’t that curious. A bit more to him than meets the eye.”
“I told you, my Voice, he’s my mate. You can’t influence him.”
“That sounds like a challenge,” Gita murmured. “But no matter! Tell me what happened with our pod when I left. Why didn’t one of the others come get me, if you were going to take so long about it?”
“Our pod dissolve
d when you left,” Saina said sadly. “They fell into bickering and infighting, and I was the only one who cared to come free you.”
“Ungrateful, the lot of them,” her Voice sniffed. She patted Saina’s hand again, more slowly this time, and Saina thought she saw a glimpse of sorrow in her sea green eyes before she straightened her shoulders. “I suppose you want me to come live with you, in whatever beach hovel that lifeguard will put you in?”
“You’d be welcome at Shifting Sands, my Voice,” Saina said, though as she spoke, she wondered exactly how welcome she would actually be. She tried to imagine Gita working for Scarlet and it was nearly as impossible to picture as Scarlet being happy with Gita’s presence.
“Oh, that’s a shifters-only island resort, isn’t it?” Gita said dismissively. “I’ve heard it’s alright, if you don’t have real standards.”
“The food is very good,” Saina said neutrally. She didn’t precisely want to encourage the idea.
Gita waved an imperious hand of dismissal. “You two just take me to the ocean and abandon me there. I’ll find a cruise ship that will take me. I need a little rest and pampering after my long imprisonment.”
Saina looked around the well-appointed room, but held her tongue.
Bastian returned, laden with matching suitcases.
“Well, you are a strong one,” Gita conceded. “Did you fetch the case from the bathroom?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Bastian said, holding it aloft.
“Maybe you’ll do for Saina,” she said with faint approval. “As long as she has heavy bags to lift.”
They walked together to the courtyard. The smoke had mostly cleared, and the evening sun through the jungle sparkled on green leaves. Somewhere overhead, a toucan cried.
“Where’s the car?” Gita asked, once they had reached the bottom of the entrance stairs.
“Ah, we didn’t bring a car,” Saina said. “I rode here on Bastian.”
“I don’t need dirty details like that, girl,” Gita scolded.
“Bastian is a dragon, my Voice,” Saina explained cautiously. “He can fly us wherever we’d like.”
“A dragon?!” Gita took an unsteady step backwards, looking at Bastian with new cautiousness. Saina took her arm when she might have stumbled back on the last step.
“A dragon,” Saina said firmly. “My dragon.”
Gita sniffed. “This day is turning out to be more and more disappointing.”
Chapter 40
Are you sure we can just leave her here?” Bastian asked, trying not to sound as hopeful as he felt. He’d heard of nightmare in-laws, and even suspected he came with some, but nothing had prepared him for the casual, condescending cruelty of Saina’s grandmother.
“My Voice will have no trouble finding whatever she needs here,” Saina assured him. While they watched, a pair of deckhands leapt to their feet to gather Gita’s luggage, practically tripping each other to follow close at her heels. Further down the dock, a man who’d been stacking crates abandoned his task to sweep the deck in advance of her approach.
Bastian could hear the faint strains of her song as she walked away -- for good, he could not help but hope.
“Oh gosh,” he said insincerely. “I don’t know how we’ll get in touch to invite her to the wedding.”
Saina looked at him sideways. “There’s going to be a wedding?”
“We did promise to get married,” Bastian reminded her.
Saina blinked, heavy eyelashes over sea green eyes. “I guess I figured we’d just do a walk-in wedding somewhere. They have those in Costa Rica, don’t they?”
“We could go through a wedding lawyer,” Bastian said, feeling oddly disappointed. “Fill out some paperwork, show your passport and birth certificate. He rounds up some witnesses and it’s done. Er, do you have a passport or birth certificate?”
Saina shrugged. “I can wave a piece of paper in front of him and convince him it’s one.”
“You don’t… want a real wedding?” Even Bastian could hear how wistful he sounded.
She smiled at him, her true, crooked smile full of warmth and amusement. “Do you want a real wedding?”
Bastian scuffed a foot in the sand. “I do. I want to watch you walk down an aisle towards me. I want all our friends there to witness our vows. I want a giant reception with every fancy dish that Chef knows how to make.”
Saina narrowed her eyes. “You want to outshine Tex and Travis’ double wedding.”
“I guess there’s a little dragon competitiveness in me,” Bastian admitted. “They’re planning to marry early next summer after their court stuff is settled, and I was sort of thinking about an early spring ceremony.”
“We’d have to invite your parents,” Saina reminded him.
Bastian froze, imagining his parents at Shifting Sands. It was almost as horrifying as the idea of her grandmother. “I’ve changed my mind,” he said swiftly. “It was a terrible idea. Wedding lawyer it is.”
“I don’t know,” Saina teased. “Now I really like the idea. I could throw a bouquet and we could have a fancy dance. Everyone would know I was yours, and boggle at our elegance and beauty.”
“Hrm,” Bastian said, unconvinced.
Saina moved closer into his arms, sliding her curves along him. “You could peel me out of a fluffy white cupcake dress afterwards.”
Bastian swallowed, his imagination doing plenty to fill in the picture. “I’m not sure…” he said.
“Maybe your parents wouldn’t come?” Saina suggested, slipping her arms up around his neck.
Bastian kissed her, hands at her waist. “Is that a chance we’re willing to take?”
“I’ll risk it,” Saina purred in his ear.
When he put her down at last, drawing away with bruised lips, Bastian remembered something she’d said. “My parents said that they had a story that sirens used to be dragons, and you said that you had heard a similar origin story.”
Saina laughed. “It has significant differences. We say that dragons came from sirens. They were sirens - siren men - who preferred war to love. They could not reconcile their natures, and changed to shifters with two forms, one of scales and violence and one of humankind. I don’t have a mermaid voice within me, not like you have a dragon. I am a siren, it’s just who I am. Sometimes I have legs and sometimes, I don’t.”
She tapped the middle of his forehead. “It must be crowded in there.”
“That’s not where my dragon is,” Bastian corrected, catching her hand. He pressed it against his chest, feeling the flutter of his heartbeat against her palm. “He is here, deeper, and it still felt empty before you came.”
She looked at him with glowing eyes.
“Marry me,” Bastian said, falling to one knee.
“We’re already engaged,” Saina reminded him, showing him her ring.
Bastian slipped it off her finger. “Pretend we’re not,” he suggested.
Saina left her hand extended. “Bastian, my love, I will marry you. I pledge my life to you.”
Bastian eased the ring back onto her finger. “I love you, Saina,” he said, standing up and sweeping her into his arms.
When he’d kissed her breathless, he set her back onto her feet. “Let’s go home.”
Epilogue
Someone to love,
Someone to hold.
A prize of silver,
A treasure of gold…
Saina let the words and the magic with them fade away in the low-lit bar. She gestured for the audience to join her in the final refrain, and they did so eagerly, needing only the tiniest thread of encouragement from her magic. She convinced them that they each sounded amazing.
Someone to love,
Someone to hold.
A prize of silver,
A treasure of gold!
Saina stepped off the little stage to a round of gleeful applause and a chorus of requests.
“Fight Song!” someone yelled.
“Take Me Down!” someone countered.
“Part of Your World!” Breck hollered down from the restaurant deck above.
There was scattered laughter from the audience members who got the joke. Sania flipped the bird in Breck’s direction and gave the rest of the audience a more decorous wave.
They returned to their chatter and drinks cheerfully.
“We might have to get Wrench to provide nightly concert security,” Tex joked. “They adore you.”
Bastian met her at the bar with a kiss. “They’d let you sing until tomorrow morning,” he observed.
“I’m on the schedule for tomorrow at dawn to do a morning meditation,” Saina said. “Lydia’s doing some kind of certification or training until next week, and Scarlet thought I could probably fill the gap with a morning song-and-stretch sort of thing. If I don’t cut them off now, I won’t get any sleep first.”
“Sleep is overrated,” Laura said, from the far side of the bar where she was helping Tex fill drink orders. “And just try to convince me that you’ll be getting any tonight. You’re just looking for an excuse to head back to your room.”
Saina grinned at her, aware of Bastian’s arm, which was still around her waist possessively. She was wearing the evening dress that had been salvaged from her sodden suitcase, washed thoroughly clean of the last traces of goldshot.
“I am so glad you’re taking over the dawn class,” Jenny said, putting a tray of empty glasses down on the bar. “I am incapable of doing yoga at that hour. We spent ten minutes in the child pose this morning before I could even think of anything else to do.”
Saina fabricated a yawn. “I may not do much better,” she joked. “My only hope is that I won’t accidentally sing a lullaby and put us all back to sleep.”
She took Bastian’s hand and left the cheerfully lit bar behind them as they crossed the bar deck to the staff gate.
The white gravel path past the staff gate was a ribbon ahead of them as they walked, hand-in-hand. The staff house ahead of them, aglow from within, was the home that Saina had never had, that she’d never known she wanted. She could feel the safety and harmony of Bastian’s hoard from the doorstep.