Page 65 of The Song of the Void

“Aw, Reiven…I appreciate your apology.”

The smile I gave him was utterly fake, and judging from how he blanched and started to back away, he knew it. But I was too quick.

Reiven got a face full of water as I smacked him with a Siren-made wave, leaving him gasping as it retreated. I roared with laughter. Seeing him stunned, dripping wet, would never get old. “I wouldn’t miss a second time.”

Reiven shook his soaked hair out of his eyes and lunged for me, and my laughter devolved into a cry of protest. He curled his arms around my waist and hoisted me into the air with no effort, holding me tightly against him. “Something tells me I shouldn’t challenge a Siren in the ocean.”

“Listen to your gut, Rei.”

His response was only to brush his nose against mine before muttering, “Alright. I surrender. Do your worst.”

My feet hit the mushy sand as he waited—for more punishment, maybe? I shoved my hands out at my sides, willing the ocean water to gather into an enormous bubble that surrounded us, before releasing it into a shower over our heads. I giggled like a child, spinning around to let every drop land on my skin and in my hair.

Rei chuckled again. “I love seeing you so happy.”

My heart tugged and twisted and melted all at the same time. I couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t even want to.

You love seeing me happy…Do you love me, Reiven? I can’t actually ask that, can I?

I settled for giving him a smile and a peck on his cheek. His skin tasted of salt and coconut water, sun-warmed and delicious. Those dimples I loved appeared in his cheeks as he lifted me into his arms like I was his bride, keeping his face close to mine so that I could pepper him with more butterfly kisses. I got a bit too eager and ended up making him laugh and fall back into the water, but he refused to let me go as he sat amongst the waves.

“Zephra,” he said softly. He nudged my cheek with his nose and smiled. “Let’s stay here forever.”

My Siren blood should have screamed at the thought. But I nodded and wrapped my arms around him in an embrace that I never wanted to end.

I shook out Rei’s newly cleaned and dried shirt, grinning at how soft the fabric was. No seawater damage, no crusty bloodstains. Curious, I slipped his shirt over my head and enjoyed the warmth of it around me. It smelled of sunshine and the tropical island breeze, with a distant hint of wood smoke and Rei’s musky scent. It just barely reached my thighs from where it hung loosely off my slender frame. I giggled at how much bigger and stronger he was compared to me as I considered my warped reflection in the rushing water of the stream amidst the jungle palms.

I started back towards our campsite, but a strange sound caught my ear as I fought my way through the ferns and gnarled trees. Aside from the musical calls of the birds and insects in the jungle and the distant crackling of a bonfire, laced within the wind was a deep voice, humming a familiar song. My song. The one he originally claimed drove him crazy, that he then admitted he couldn’t sleep without.

The Song of the Void.

He finished it and started over as I crashed through the brush until I reached our camp. I found Rei throwing another branch onto the roaring bonfire, but he went oddly still and did a double take when he saw me gaping.

I jabbed a finger at him. “You!”

He did the same to me, almost at the same time.

“You’re butchering my song!”

“You’re wearing my shirt!”

I was surprised that he could carry a tune, and I told him as much. “Wait, are you upset I’m wearing your shirt? Since I don’t have proper clothing, I figured this way, together we’d make one fully clothed person.”

A summery ocean breeze carried away the smoke from the bonfire as he stepped closer to me, chuckling. He rubbed my back through the fabric and even slipped his hands beneath the shirt to caress my skin down to my hips. “I’m the furthest thing from angry. You have to keep wearing it. This has to be the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen you in, and just when I thought you couldn’t get more attractive,” he said with a wolfish grin.

I hurried to change the subject. “Do you think they’ll be able to see the smoke?”

“If they’re in the area.” Rei touched his earring, wrapping his other arm around me as he spoke to Ashkade. “Hey, bonfire’s going. See anything?” He nodded and craned his neck to look up at the plume of gray smoke stretching into the perfect sky. “Alright, just keep an eye out. I’ll keep the fire going for as long as I can.”

I touched his earring too, unsure if it would work, but I whispered, “I miss you, Ash.”

Reiven’s smile widened. “Zephra says she misses your pretty green eyes and your lunatic ramblings.” I punched him in the stomach, but that just made him laugh. “Ash says he misses you too.”

Everything felt warm, so I buried myself in more warmth by leaning into Reiven’s bare chest. Eventually, he had to let go of me to add more wood to the fire, and we watched over it together until the sun dipped behind the tops of the jungle palms behind us.

“Almost sunset,” I murmured.

Reiven bounded to his feet comically fast, throwing a wide-eyed stare at the retreating light. He cursed and seized my hand, yanking me into the jungle with no explanation. “Hurry, Blue. We’re going to miss it.”