Chains of Fate

Chapter Five

A/N: The media video is what I imagined the "theme" of the sirens to be. It's very eerie and beautiful, so if you want to listen to it while reading, go ahead! The media picture is what the sirens resemble. Credits go to Varges on Deviantart for this artwork.

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Chapter Five

“You have to do something, Lannie!” Clarice tugged Lucan by the arm, but an invisible force threw her against the deck. Even Mayra’s attempts to pull Titus back resulted in failure. The song of the sirens not only forced the victims forward, but it prevented anyone from interfering with the spell.

And I could only stand, paralyzed by fear as my heart thumped painfully against my chest.

The voices from the sirens didn’t only contain songs of death. There were also words of anger and despair. Of love and desperation. I covered my ears, willing the voices to stop. I cried out, but that did nothing to dispel the voices from creeping into my mind and taking out every rational thought.

I couldn’t think.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t summon Eden.

I could do nothing but stare at the ground as Titus stumbled over to the rail of the ship, preparing to jump into the ocean below.

My pendant glowed with a powerful blue light in the darkness, combining with the white of the moon above us. The voices continued to assault my mind as one of the crew bent their knees and dove into the water below. Another man followed.

Then another.

And another.

Tears of desperation rolled down my cheeks as I saw Titus climb onto the rails, his face mutated into something completely unlike him. Something I never wanted to see on his face.

Ever.

I gritted my teeth and forced my legs forward. Step by step, I made my way to the center of the ship—the most I could do with the deathly singing raging in my head.

Then, with a deep, fathomless breath, I closed my eyes. And I screamed.

“STOP!”

The silence came like a cold wave of death.

I opened my eyes to a world frozen in time. No one moved. No one breathed. Not even Clarice or Mayra, their eyes wide as they stared at me in shock.

I approached the bow of the ship, clenching my fists to quell the turmoil inside me. As I grabbed the rope attached to the mast and hoisted myself on the railing, I could only think, What the heck am I doing?

There were near a hundred sirens waiting in the depths of the ocean. Some had long white hair, while a few had black. Their pearlescent tails flipped back and forth beneath the water, reflecting brilliant moonshine. The sailors who had thrown themselves off the deck were nowhere to be found.

I gulped when I noticed there was one siren peering at me. She was far different than the rest. Her ebony hair was streaked with gold. Thin bones in the shape of runes etched across her pale, scaly skin. Her unnerving ivory gaze focused on me from beneath long lashes. There was no anger in her eyes. Only apathy.

And that ignited a fire within me that stirred memories of Kasib’s indifference toward my mother and Philippa’s death.

I gripped the rope tighter as I stared at the sirens below. “As the Harbinger of Water,” I said, feeling my voice reverberate across the ocean despite the fear inside my stomach, “I order you to back down from this ship and return from whence you came.”