The starwinked, its brightness dimming and shining once more within seconds.
Esmyra’s lips parted as she took it in answer. “What’s happening to me?” Her voice cracked as the words left her.
She fell to her knees in the sand, the tiny waves lapping at the shore wrapping around her. It was then she realized that the salt she tasted on her lips was no longer just from the sea air as tears ran down her cheeks.
Esmyra licked her lips, and a tiny sob escaped her as she brought her gaze back to the stars. “I don’t even know who I am anymore. For nearly a thousand years, I longed to know what I was. Where I stemmed from. And now that I know… I’d do anything—giveanything—to take it back. Discovering what I am cost me everything. It cost meyou.”
She swallowed, trying to steady her rapid breaths. “All my life, I was worried that I was a monster. But thisdarknessinside of me… It wasn’t even me, or my siren… It was Kaelypso.”
“Esmi…”
She ignored the goddess and the pain in her voice.
“What if I’m just the skin she wears?” Esmyra took a few heaving breaths and then screamed to the sky, “Who the fuck would I have been without her?!”
I never even had a godsdamn chance. This life was never mine.
“I need a sign that Esmyra Blackwood isn’t lost. If I can’t be who I was… just show me how to be something good. Something that isn’tthis,” she spat the last word in disgust as she gestured to herself. “Please just show me where I need to go.”
A breeze stirred her hair, and the surrounding tide pulled back. A sense of unease draped over her, her spine straightening on instinct. She felt something. It wasn’t magic, nor the sea’s usual hum, but was more the feeling of being watched.
And then something shimmered in the distance out at sea.
She pushed herself to her feet and took a step forward, the wavescurling around her calves now. Out beyond the shallows, where the moonlight turned the sea to polished obsidian, the water stirred.
Esmyra’s breath caught in her throat as something breached the water. Her eyes shifted, her new vision narrowing in on the motion to find an enormous scaled, horned head in the center of the dark expanse. Vibrant silver eyes shone bright against its navy scales and the darkness of the night. They locked with hers, unblinking and ancient.
She would never be able to forget those eyes even if she tried. The last time she saw them, she had been searching for Maerinys. The sea serpent Esmyra had fought in that godsforsaken trench was staring at her from across the harbor.
The beast had risen from the depths like a myth made flesh, nearly dragging her to a watery grave. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention. Every sensible thought she had that day screamed at her to flee, to leave the water.
And now here it was again. Only it wasn’t charging, nor was it baring its teeth. The sea serpent was just waiting, watching her. And she felt no inkling to run away.
Her head tilted to the side, and she lifted her stare back to that one star within the crescent of the moon. Her eyes narrowed. “Blackwood, if this is some sick joke you’re pulling from the grave, I’m not impressed.”
But as the words left her, something deep inside Esmyra shifted. It pulled tight like an anchor catching on something beneath the waves. It was the same feeling she’d had the moment she’d first set foot in the cave entrance to Maerinys, like a pulse was calling to her.
Only this time it was the serpent that was the rhythm.
Esmyra’s breath trembled, and before she realized what was happening, her feet moved. It was just like when she was in the cave, her palm reaching out for the rune-covered arch that unlocked the way to the sunken kingdom.
It wasKaelypsoreaching out.
The cold water swirled around her knees, then her thighs. The sea was rising, or maybe she was sinking. Either way she didn’t stop. Thetattoos along her arms began to thrum, a burning, icy ache just under the skin, pulsing in time with the pull of the tide.
“I know you, don’t I?” she asked softly, the sea nearly swallowing the words.
The serpent dipped its chin slightly in acknowledgment.
And then she felt it—a whisper. Not in her ears, but in her blood. It was a possessiveness as she locked eyes with the beast.
Levaia, it seemed to say. The word echoing over and over again in her mind.
Her breath hitched.
Was that the beast’s name? And… was itspeakingto her? No. At least, not like Kaelypso had. This wasn’t language; more so a feeling. A memory, even. Or perhaps she just knew in her soul.
The water was up to her waist now as Esmyra took another step. The moonlight scattered over the serpent’s scales, making it seem less monstrous—less like something to fear. A guardian, maybe.
