Awaking from a numb nightmare, paralyzed and frozen with cold sweat dripping down the back of my neck, a warm washcloth was placed on my forehead as I opened my eyes to find myself in a room with walls decorated in sapphire blue rugs.
Blue rugs with intricate golden swirls adorning each and every open space.
Sabira's home.
Somehow, I had made it from the field where the Siren who'd been sobbing for her missing daughter and back into Sabira's homeâand her bed, apparently.
Cracking open my eyelids dusty with sleep even further, slanting sun nearly burning my eyes from the sky light opening atop the stone roof, I blanched at the sight of not one, not two, but three Sirens standing at the foot of the bed made from tufts of furs and cottons.
"Goodmorning Princess, how are you feeling?"
I almost groaned had it not been for the well-intentioned look on each of the Siren's faces, deciding to answer Erinna gently, especially seeing as how she genuinely cared for my wellbeing.
"I'm feeling better. And you don't need to call me Princess, that's Inala's nickname for me, and I never told her she could call me that, either."
"Uh, I hate to be the one to tell you this but...we actually do need to call you 'Princess'. Because you are. Our princess."
Sabira's words finally registered in my exhaustion addled brain as I sat up with a start.
"Oh. Oh, that's right. My mother was supposed to be your leader, until she ran away with me and my sisterâ"
"The only heirs to the Elder claim in Hefeta. Exactly. So, we can call you our princess. Right Inala?"
Erinna turned optimistic, hopeful and shining eyes onto Inala who smirked at me with far too much amusement dancing in her eyes as blue as the azure rugs covering the walls.
"Princess, Jo...I don't think what we call her matters. But what Oren calls her? That is absolutely scandalous. What was it again, Jo? Temptress? Bewitchingâ"
I cut Inala off from her attempt at embarrassing me by throwing a rough, thick pillow at her face as the other girls fell into giggles and raucous laughter.
"I'm sorry, it's justâ" Erinna started, but then Sabira cut her off.
"No one's ever put Inala in her place like that except me, so it's nice to have another girl in the group who's not afraid of her."
"Afraid of Inala? Me? Only when she was attacking me in that hot spring I rescued her from."
Erinna gasped, her long dark braids swinging around her shoulders as she whipped her body to Inala.
"You attacked the Princess?"
"In my defense I had no idea who she was at the time, so it wasn't like I did it on purpose. And now she's my blood claimed, so I physically can't do anything to hurt her again. Ever."
"Not until you decide to give the claim to someone else, though. But you'd need to break it with Josephine first before doing that," Sabira added, some sense of amusement and teasing entering her voice.
"Oh, is she talking about Soraya? She did seem rather jealous when you were standing in front of Josephine," Erinna spoke, shifting closer to the girls as if we were all in a gossiping circle of some kind.
A stirring began somewhere deep in my chest, like there was a longing for this kind of connection but I'd never had it.
Sure, I could gossip and talk with my sister about things, but it had always been sisterly love, never something born from just friendship.
It was something I couldn't have with the other girls in the villages where we lived because of our constant need to pack up and move each and every season so that we weren't caught and captured by the King.
"How would she have known Inala was standing in front of me, though? I thought she was blind."
Sabira turned to me, that same fierceness that bound each and every Siren together in their looks shining forth in her glimmering eyes.
"Soraya has special gifts, like you, Josephine. She was being groomed to take your position in our community because of her unique powers of sight, butâ"
"But then Oren came and dragged me back. No wonder she hates meâshe thinks I'm stealing her position and Inala from her, too."
"What do you mean, stealing me? We were never exclusively together. She told me that I could see other people when I left the community two years ago wanting to get away from her and her possessiveness. I just wanted a breakâand look where that got me? Attacked, kidnapped, and tortured, among other things."
My heart broke for the things she listed, but my soul cried out in agony for the 'other things' that she didn't have to name for me to realize what she was talking about.
Though I hadn't felt its effects thanks to my gift automatically killing the men near me who wanted to do me harm, other Sirens like Inala weren't so lucky.
Neither was my sister.
"And anyway, why would I want to break the blood claim with Josephine? She's our princess; I have a high honor now. Not to mention how painful it would be to sever the connection between us. She saved me from my doom, now it's my turn to save her life as well."
"Why does my life need saving, exactly? I'm sure I can take care of myself with my gift, andâ"
"You're not in any danger Josephine," Sabira began. "Inala here just doesn't want to admit that she can just break the blood claim to be with Soraya."
"I don't want to be with Soraya! Can we please discuss something else? Like how about the fact that our princess here saved one of our youngest Sirens from being abducted by some of the king's men on her very first night here?"
"That was amazing. I looked out from the windows here and saw the mist floating from your mouth searching Hefeta for that girl. Poor Minna was out of her mind looking for her baby. You are truly a hero, Josephine."
Erinna bowed her head deeply, the braids on her head jingling around her shoulders as the jewelry she'd looped through them clanged with one another.
Sabira followed suit, clasping her hands together and bowing deeply.
It was only when Inala began to lower her head that I shot up from the bed and declared, "That's enough of thatâI don't need anyone bowing to me. Wasn't it Oren who killed the men and found her first? And besides, how were the men able to enter Hefetaâor find it, for that matterâif the entire community is supposed to be invisible? Surrounded by magical wards to keep the king's men out? What happened?"
"That's why we need your help to summon Nicos. When the mage came to place his magic upon Hefeta, he warned that in time the magic would lessen. It's been hundreds upon hundreds of years, and it was bound to happen."
Inala's explanation made sense, but still, there could be more that they could do aside from summoning an actual god, right?
Surely that was a last resort kind of idea, though.
"What about another mage? Why can't the Elders reach out to another magic wielder and ask them to place another barrier on the land?"
"The King of Valencia has been slowly gathering every wielder of magic over his long reign as king. There are no mages leftâand any that are would be deep in hiding so as to not catch the attention of the kingâjust like you. Summoning the god is our only way to keep our people safe. And with your power? Inala, just imagine how much easier it will be to summon him, now that we have the princess on our side," Sabina answered.
"Assuming Nicos doesn't take one look at us and strike us all down with his power for being so reckless as to summon him, yes, it should be quite easy."
Inala's words did not cause me to want to jump right in and join their cause.
"That doesn't make me any more likely to help you with this, Inala."
"I know, but it's the truth. Isn't that what you're owed?"
Something from an old, foggy memory tugged at the edges of my mind, but Erinna spoke again before I could latch onto it.
"Oh goddess above, your clothes. Come into the bathing chamber, we'll help you out of those ratted clothes, wash and braid your hair, and find you something acceptable to wear. Sabira, would you mind putting on something for her to eat?"
"Of course. I've got some brand new sweet onions to add into a soup that makes it taste divine, as if Iraida the Goddess of the harvest herself had planted them."
"Wonderful. Come with me, Josephine."
Hours later, I had been thoroughly washed in a deep basin that turned brown with muck and dirt from my travels along the countries and the few quick brushes with death I'd had in that time.
My hair had been stripped of its tangles and combed through with a suds that had given it a floral lavender scent and left it soft as silk in my fingers before Erinna had used her expert fingers to braid it into a crown that curled my light strawberry hair around the top of my head, using some pins to keep it tightly secured.
And the dress...made with cotton of the deepest sapphire matching the rugs on Sabira's walls with golden accents had been laid out on the bed once I had finished washing up, I slid the material along my clean skin like sleek satin.
"Josephine Raphelia. You are an absolute beauty in blue," Sabira said as she came up behind me to help with the corset back.
"Allow me to feign a guess: blue is your favorite color?"
Her laugh was one of mirth and a husky rasp.
"How ever did you know?"
"Maybe I have the Sight like Soraya."
"I mean no offense my lady, but Soraya's Sight is more a curse than a gift. She can see most tragedies coming before they happen, but she cannot decipher the images she receives before it's too late to do anything to stop it. If anything she must envy your great power. The way you took away all of the pain yesterday from the Sirensâit was unlike anything I've ever seen before."
"What do you mean? I took away their pain? I had just assumed their song had flowed through me."
"Each and every Siren I've spoken to since the incident last night has not been able to stop praising our princess Josephine and her ability to give us our happiness back, to take away the curse of our song which forces us to sing our trauma. None of the Sirens have had to sing since, despite normally being compelled once, twice, or even three times a day to do so. You've given them a giftâyou truly did take away their pain."
"I had no idea I could do that," I answered her truthfully just as she pulled particularly hard on the last string of the corset, tugging my abdomen into a tight form just as she tied it off.
"There. Perfectly presentable now."
I yanked on my salvageable boots that had been set out by the edge of the bed and followed Sabira into the sitting room where Erinna and Inala were waiting with soupâand the Summoning book from the night before.
"The quicker we can have you learn the chants and songs in the old language, the sooner we can prepare for the harvest moon. It's coming upon us sooner than we would like, which was why we sent out Soraya and Yuni to look for Oren to make sure he was on his way with you. We don't have much time, and if we don't complete the summoning before this harvest, I'm afraid Hefeta won't make it to the next."
I'd told myself that I would stay to hear them out, to plead their case to me, and then I would decide to stay or go.
But I still hadn't decided, not yet.
Not as all of those Sirens had poured all their pain and despair into me like I was some kind of conduit for their anguish.
Not as I felt a kinship with them, as if we were one and the same.
Not as I felt a duty to protect them, just as Oren had told me that he had a duty to me despite his warring actions and words toward me.
"What do I need to do?"
Inala's mouth curved up in a wicked grin as she began reciting something in the old language before repeating it in the language that I could understand.
"Lord of winds, God of air, free my sins, claim your share."
"That sounds much simpler than what you said before."
It was a combination of old, gruff and ancient sounds that seemed nearly impossible to replicate.
Taking my seat to eat, the three Sirens continued the chant again and again and again until I was sure I'd be hearing it in my sleep.
An explosion of taste flowed over my tongue as I finished off the sweet and savory soup before gulping down the cup of fresh water on the table before me.
Once I was finished, however, the girls were done only letting me listen.
"Now your turn, Josephine. Try out the sounds in your mouth, see how they feel."
"Fel-bech de vings, Loch de ere, nuuon el byks, ilkne uoro regea."
"That's it! Curve your L's, and round out the vowel sounds."
"Fel-bech de vings, Loch de ere, nuuon el byks, ilkne uoro regea."
The girls began their chanting along with me, and it became easier and easier to replicate their sounds.
The air turned heated, a burning fire of energy coaxing us to continue, begging us to keep chanting and to never stop until a zing of charged air stung at the skin of my back.
I turned while still chanting to find that the fire was dancing along to our words, persuading us to follow us into its warm depths.
I took three steps into the direction of the fire, the chant still singing its mighty call on my lips.
I was only inches from reaching out my fingers to caress its heat when a body slammed into me just as the final line of the chant died on my tongue.
"What the Everworld are you three doing?! You could've started the ceremony early by chanting altogether like that! We can teach her another way to learn the rest of the script for the Summoning."
Oren glared down at me disapprovingly while I attempted to pull out of his grip, but he was far too strong, even out of his beastly state.
A flicker of a conversation between him and Inala danced at the back of my mind, but before I could withdraw that memory, his eyes met mine and that pulsing energy that he commanded relaxed me into his grip.
"I hate it when you do that," I told him, not actually meaning it.
Because when Oren allowed me to lean into his arms and simply be, he let me fall into him without having to examine my actions too closely.
He gave me an excuse to melt into him, because if it wasn't his energy pulling me back into his arms, then that would have meant I was seeking out his warmth and comfort of my own volition, and there was no possible way I would ever do that.
Although...this time, the telltale sign of his powerâthe unmistakable spice of cinnamon and sweet smoke of a bonfire nightâwas suspiciously absent.
Oren's amber eyes fixated on my own and I fell into his arms just the smallest bit more.
"Come with me, Josephine. We need to talk about something."
"And why can't we come?"
"Because this doesn't involve you," he answered Inala sharply.
"It's fine, Inala. Come and find me in an hour if I'm not back by then, please."
"I'll make it half that time."
"Even better," I responded, some small part of me warming at the thought of her being worried for me, even after Oren's proclamation to keep me safe because it was his 'responsibility'.
He hovered over me, arms coming around my side as he tugged me out of the small home that belonged to Sabira after I bade the other two Sirens goodbye.
"Where are we going?"
"To the Serenity Pools. We'll have more privacy there."
There shouldn't have been that many flutters in my stomach at the thought of more privacy with Oren, my kidnapper.
The man who turned into a beast at night.
The man who'd kept me bound, drugged and starved for an entire day on the road to Hefeta.
The man who wasn't really a man at all, but still made me a melted mess in his hands.
And still I followed him, the rough callouses from his old scars on his hands caressing the skin of my own as I wondered what in the Everworld I had gotten myself into with him.
***
Author's Note:
What did you think about this chapter?
What do you think will happen next?
What do you want to happen next?
Any ideas or theories about what's going on so far?
Who is your favorite side character?
Least favorite character?
Let me know what you all think!
Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)
***
The World of Irena: