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Chapter 1
Cheering and applause breaks out all around me. I don’t join in because I have nothing to celebrate. It’s the end-of-term assembly, and everyone else is leaving campus to enjoy their week off. Me? I’m sticking around to study and take my exams—the ones the other students just finished—while they’re off partying and having fun.
Not that I want to party or have fun. I’m still processing, well, everything. My life has changed so drastically since arriving at Valora. And that’s putting it mildly. I have far more questions than answers.
“You coming, Marra?” Bash asks.
I pull myself from my thoughts and realize everyone is clearing the auditorium. “Oh, yeah. Right.”
He helps me up. “Everything okay?”
“Sure.” I haven’t told him or Halen the latest news. It’s too much. I hardly believe it myself, but it’s true. Not only are my mom and Tiberias planning on getting married, Tiberias is actually my father. I thought I killed my dad, but it turns out Drake Ayers was my uncle. So, if I’m going to be forced to fulfill the Queen Sirena legend, now I have to kill Tiberias—the kind and loving twin. The king everyone adores.
That entire mess isn’t something I can bring to words. Not even to those closest to me. Maybe it’s because I was given the news at my dad’s funeral. I mean, my uncle’s.
Why is this my life?
Couldn’t I have been born to boring parents? Being invisible was so much better than this.
Bash puts an arm around me as we exit. “You’ve been quiet lately. Anything you want to share?”
I shake my head no.
He kisses my cheek. “I lost my parents too, remember. If anyone knows how you feel, it’s me.”
If only. “Thanks.”
“It takes a while to process, but it does help to talk about it. Don’t keep it in too long. That’s what I did, and it wasn’t good.”
“Wasn’t good how?” I meet his gaze.
“That was the beginning of me getting in trouble all the time. I was carrying around so much hurt and anger, I blew up at the smallest offense. Let it out now. Don’t become me.”
The corners of my mouth twitch as I take in his ridiculously good looks—his intense blue eyes and jet black hair, his sculpted features, and that crooked grin that always gets me.
“Would that really be so bad?” I ask. “Becoming you?”
“I’m not sure Valora could handle two of me.” He chuckles.
“It wouldn’t be so bad, but I really should study. I have to take all three of my tests by Friday.”
“That gives you a full week. Why not blow off some steam now? If anyone needs that, it’s you.”
“I don’t know.”
He gives me a sideways grin. “We could sing karaoke again.”
My stomach knots. “I don’t ever want to sing again.”
Bash stops and stares at me. “What? Is that why you haven’t been practicing with the band?”
“Don’t you remember what happened last time we sang? Every guy in the bar passed out because of my voice.”
“Because you sound like a siren. That’s what they do.”
I frown. “How would that help the band if half your fans lose consciousness?”
“With practice, you’d get it under control. You’d only make mermen pass out when you wanted to.”
