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He’s awfully perceptive. My eyes are blue when I have the strength of the sea with me. Once it’s all gone, they shift back to green.
“My eyes are blue-green,” I say.
“No. They’ve definitely changed.” He leans against the railing, looking surprisingly unafraid. “What are you?”
“As if I’d tell you.”
“Are you a siren?”
I cringe at the word. It’s so strange to hear it coming from Riden’s lips. “Not exactly.”
“Your mother is a siren. That story. The rumor that your father is the only one to have bedded a siren and lived—it’s true.”
Is there any point in denying it? My father will be hunting down this ship shortly anyway. “Yes.”
“But why are you the way you are? Sirens depend on human men for their survival, but they produce more sirens. What makes you more human than sea creature?”
“That is an excellent question. You’re right: I’m not fully a siren, more half siren–half human. And there is something special surrounding my birth. I’ll tell you what it is if you tell me where you hid the map.”
“Tempting as that is, I can’t tell you that. Why don’t you get it over with and make me tell you?”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Then how does it work?”
“I’ll tell you. Just please hand over the map, Riden.”
“Sorry, Alosa.”
“Fine. I’ll get it out of you. But I’ll have you know I loathe doing this.” I reach down to that unnatural part of me. Suddenly, I’m uncomfortable in my own skin. Goose bumps rise on my arms and legs. My hair seems to stand on edge. Mentally, it’s exhausting to be so aware of everything around me.
“You’re doing that thing again,” he says. “You’ve changed.”
I’ve never had anyone be able to detect the change in me before. Not even my own father can tell, so how can Riden?
“I’m tapping into the part of me that comes from my mother. I hate using it. Feels awful and unnatural.”
“Does it give you the ability to read my mind?”
“No, I can only tell what you’re feeling.”
This seems to give him great alarm. His emotions turn from a glowing, vibrant red to light gray almost instantly.
Gray is an interesting color. When it’s the dark gray of storm clouds, the emotion is tied to guilt. In a lighter hue, the emotion is grief.
A deep sadness has come over Riden. But the change is so immediate, it causes me to believe he’s thinking about something extremely sad to him on purpose so I can’t get anything else out of him.
“Are you thinking sad thoughts on purpose?” I ask.
“It’s terrifying that you know what I’m thinking.”
“Not thinking. I don’t know why you’re sad. Only that you’re thinking about something that causes you grief.”
Now I need to play on his fear. His fear of me finding the map. He won’t have hidden it on his person. He had to have known I would search him for it. He’ll have hidden it somewhere on the ship. I’ll have to gauge his fear if I’m to find it.
I start moving about the ship, but I keep him talking as I do. “How did you figure out that I’m… different?” I ask as I walk to the starboard side of the ship. I’m near the entrance that leads belowdecks. The men laugh and talk loudly. They’d have to be for me to hear it from up here. Probably grateful for some downtime.
“That time I woke up and couldn’t remember what happened before I passed out. At first I assumed you knocked me out, but I couldn’t remember any sort of a struggle. In fact, I remember something quite the opposite.”
