Josephine's voice kills any man who hears it-except for the assassin sent to capture her for the king that's been chasing her all her life...but what happens when he decides he doesn't want to hand her over and keep her for himself instead?
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The climb to shore was slow and silent as I fell into step with Inala, my newfound blood claimed Siren by my side.
"So, since we're blood claimed or bonded or whatever it might be called—does that mean that I can't lie to you, too, or is that just you? And can you tell me what to do as well?"
"If you weren't a Siren yourself, then no, but you are. So let's test it out. Josephine, slap yourself in the face."
There was a slight tug to my hand, as if my body wanted me to do what she'd directed, but it was easy to ignore, like not following the urge to sneeze or cough if I didn't have to.
"Hm. Interesting. Tell me, what's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?"
I couldn't stop it that time, couldn't clamp my mouth shut to keep the words from spilling out of my mouth.
"Once, when I was twelve years old, I was on the run with my sister. We ran into a parade of soldiers from Valencia. They captured us and forced us to dance in the stockades for them half dressed. It was...humiliating, to say the least."
"Why didn't you just kill them?"
"I did. All of them. They put their hands on Marlisa, and then everything went black. I woke drenched in their blood."
She snorted.
"Good riddance."
"So, you can't tell me what to do, but can force me to tell you the truth? Why is that?"
"I don't know. I'm supposed to be able to, if you really are a Siren. That's why the sailors did what they wanted with me—Sirens can't tell their blood bonded what to do if they're not a Siren as well. That's why we don't allow blood claims outside of the Sirens if we can help it—if both bonded Sirens have the power to tell the other what to do, the power isn't imbalanced. How can you breathe white smoke-fire?"
I bristled, but was still forced to tell her.
"I have no idea."
Inala hummed to herself, then went to work digging underneath her fingernails with her suddenly elongated talons.
"You can turn forms at will? I thought Sirens needed water for that?"
"You're not the only special one. I inherited this trait from my mother, wherever in the Everworld she might be. It's usually only reserved for the most powerful of us, so it seems like she gave me one good thing, at least."
Wispy strands of sharp sea grass grazed along my bare calves thanks to Oren's handiwork with his blade to the bottom half of my dress and decorated my already glittering skin with more golden trails of the powdery substance from the dried sea water that glowed in the high daylight.
My fingers scraped along the sharp edges of the weeds burrowing out of the sparkling sand and tried not to glance ahead at what lay before me—at the terrifying future awaiting there.
