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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"Why did you do that with Lord Oren? Why didn't you submit and end the fight? You wouldn't have gotten as many cuts and bruises if you just gave up early."
"I don't...really know how to give up. Plus, I wanted to beat him. Someone needed to put him in his place, after all."
The group of Sirens gathered around the flickering fire in the middle of Hefeta tittered with laughter, and the young girl who had asked me the question seemed to blush under my attention.
Her dark brown skin matched that of her mother, Minna, who I had found the night before sobbing uncontrollably on the ground begging for someone to save her child.
I supposed that someone had been me, in the end.
"Is it true you were raised by your sister all alone in Avanth?"
I turned to the girl once more. She'd only just introduced herself to me once the battle had ended and Inala had chastised me and forced me to sit upon a log in front of the newly lit fire in order to tend to my wounds.
She'd come to thank me for saving her life.
Sigrid was a young girl of about eleven or twelve years, her hair pulled straight back by dark as night braids that gleamed in the bright moonlit expanse in the sky.
Sparkling brown eyes met my own, and she smiled tentatively at me.
It was strange—being a life saver instead of life taker.
It felt...good. Satisfying.
It felt like power.
Having the means to save someone's life instead of taking them out of this world would be a blessing more than the curse bestowed upon me by the gods of old.
The rest of the Sirens gathered around were waiting for my answer, and I glanced around at all who had come to sit and listen to my stories.
Erinna and Sabira were seated next to Warrick, who held his love's hand in his own. Inala was astride a log while attempting to ignore Soraya's presence beside her, and Yuni was busy trying to flirt with a Siren who seemed to be twice his age.
None of the Elders were in attendance, but I had come to know that just because you couldn't see them didn't mean that they weren't somewhere nearby, listening intently.
"We weren't only in Avanth. We traveled as far west as Port City, as far south as Caprici, and as far north as the small village of Laria in Avanth. Sometimes we'd get there on our own but most times we'd be captured and have to fight our way out and that was how we ended up somewhere new."
"You used to live in Caprici? My father is from there," Sigrid offered up, her mother beside her smiling lightly as if remembering fond memories of her time somewhere else.
"We haven't left the safety of Hefeta in over twenty years. It's become too dangerous. Anytime someone leaves, we say goodbye to them as if it's the last time we'll ever see them again."
