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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Every pair of eyes were on me instead of the magnificent sight before us.
Where there had once been a barrier of sand creating a dune separating us from the wonders of Hefeta, the walls around us came down and we were entrenched in the Siren world kept invisible by strange magic.
Wards, Oren had called them, placed there by a rare mage who the Sirens of old had allowed inside their home in order to protect it and keep it hidden from those who wanted to invade and take their powers as their own.
Interspersed amongst rolling green hillsides decorated in plush grass and decadent, rich hues of wildflowers of every color imaginable were large looming mountains with homes chiseled out on the sides of them.
Sirens who hadn't been attending our apparent welcome ceremony had started running, abandoning baskets of lavender and silks and pales of water or handfuls of wood logs in order to see who the new arrivals were.
One look at me, however, and the whispering began, but I was too enraptured by the scenery in front of me to notice them.
The Elders, aside from one, Olesia, had left—apparently done with the spectacle, but that didn't mean that the rest of the Sirens had followed suit.
Soraya and Yuni were nowhere to be found, either, and I was starting to wonder what the point had been of them traveling with us if they had been going the complete opposite direction in the first place, but then the sight before me distracted me to the point where I didn't wonder about it any longer.
I was too under the spell of the crystalline waters of deep fresh water ponds large enough to be considered lakes to notice Oren nudging me forward on unsteady feet.
I was too beguiled by the swaying trees with bark so twisted and gnarled that the trunk resembled a petrified body on the inside to be mindful of Inala grabbing my elbow in hers even as Oren tried to wrench away her hold on me, but she won that game by pulling me forcefully forward so that I almost stepped into the shallow bank of a nearby pond.
"I'm going to show her around with Olesia. Oren, you can go ahead and set up your bedroll on the men's side."
"But I don't need to stay over there if I'm immune to the Siren song. I also need to keep an eye on Josephine—"
"You kidnapped me. How much more control over me do you need, exactly?"
A few of the Sirens nearby actively dropped the things in their hands and gasped audibly, shooting daggers at Oren with their eyes, and I realized that if this was truly a matriarchal society, then I supposed I was going to get on amazingly here.
There had to have been about ten Sirens lingering on the outskirts of our conversation, though Oren and Inala paid them no mind, as if they were insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
Oren stepped in front of me just as the crowd began to thicken, pushing the only Elder in our midst off to the side, but I didn't shy away from him or his large stature.
