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CHAPTER 23—SIRENS
“A siren?” I asked, holding back my laughter. “You? And I?”
Luc pouted his lips as he looked to the side. “Why is it hard to believe? Is it because I’m a man? I realize that in the mythology sirens are usually women, but that’s rather sexist, I must say.”
I shook my head at him. “It’s impossible.”
“You saw the sky split open with a pillar of fire, and you still think there are things that are impossible?”
I looked into his glowing eyes, an unmistakable power in them, no irony to be found in any of the edges. I swallowed, trying to hold on to my disbelief.
“Haven’t you ever noticed the way others fawn over you?” Luc asked. “How they bow to your whim? Laugh at all your jokes? How you can see their true emotions the longer you look at them? I admit, you haven’t harnessed your powers well. They’re unfocused. With some training, we can fix that.”
“Powers?” I scoffed. “Training? It’s too late, and I’m too tired for jokes, Luc.”
“And I’m not laughing, Esmeralda,” he replied, his tone more serious than I was used to. “But I understand your resistance. I didn’t believe it at first either, but it’s true. We’re both from the spirit world. I knew it the moment your heart didn’t race for me.”
I swallowed, trying to find my words. “What does my heartbeat have to do with anything?”
“We can manipulate anyone, little dove,” he said. “People fall at their feet for us. Their heart races. Their palms sweat. They get obsessive and possessive, yet they don’t know why they do it. Our charm captures them regardless of whether or not they want to be captured. You could ask any man on this boat to marry you, and they’d do it. All you have to do is raise your voice a little.Just like this.”
He made his last sentence sweet, raising the note of his tone and turning it into a small melody, as he did often. He smiled as I connected his meaning.
I shook my head, starting to step away.
“No. No!” I said. “You’re a terrible storyteller, and I won’t have you insulting me in such a manner.”
I tried to walk away, but Luc pulled me back, his lips flat. “You know as well as I do that if I was lying, you could tell.”
Words failed to form. The look in his eyes was so serious, so intense that I thought it could break me. Even though it was completely ridiculous, I knew he believed it full-heartedly.
“But…the sirens on the ship…” I started. “They looked completely different.”
“We’re incarnates,” he replied coolly. “We have human bodies, but siren souls. The sirens we saw that day were the first stage: pure. Pure sirens and merfolk have no body shape. Like the merfolk you saw when I threw you overboard. Then there are the full-formed sirens, those who have wings. We’re the third form: cursed incarnates.”
“Cursed?”
“Full-formed sirens are given the task of judging the human world. Should they abuse such power, they are put on trial, same as the humans. Sirens who have been found guilty of power abuse are…executed in a sense. Their souls are embedded into human bodies—over and over again—with no recollection of the past.”
I took a few minutes to process, looking for the flaw in his argument.
“If we don’t remember our past,” I asked, head spinning, “then how do you know we’re sirens?”
He chewed his lip for a moment before speaking. “When I was searching for my fiancée in the spirit world, I met with dozens of fortune tellers and astrologers who spoke of spiritualcreatures. One of the fortune tellers tried to read my fortune to tell me about my past life. She couldn’t. She said something was blocking her from reading my past. It was a first for her. I didn’t think anything of it, but she felt it was incredibly important.
After a month, she tracked me down and told me that there was something about me that wasn’t of this world. She told me of the sirens and spirits that forgot their homes. I laughed at her. I thought she was just adding salt to my open wounds. To be a spirit creature and not find the spirit of the woman I loved was just insulting. Then she convinced me to try the powers of a siren. You see, even in our cursed forms we can’t lose it completely. We have charmspeak and the ability to see everyone’s true self.”
I swallowed, trying to put all the pieces together. I didn’t want to believe it. It didn’t make any sense. A siren? With the ability to charmspeak? Was that why my father’s business partners always praised me? How I knew which aristocrats and politicians Father should work with and which ones were scoundrels? Was it the reason I was always the center of a party or the first to be asked to a social event by the gentlemen in town?
Was it the reason Henrik had suddenly become so angry and possessive only moments ago?
“I know you’re scared,” Luc said, gently tucking my hair behind my ear. “I’m here to help you.”
I looked into his soft eyes, the realization hitting me.
“You’ve been charmspeaking everyone on the ship,” I said. “That’s why they listen so closely to your stories. That’s why they don’t reprimand you for your behavior. That’s how you controlled Henrik just now.”
He smiled wide. “Oui. But you’ve been doing it yourself without realizing. Henrik’s been affected by your powers. Sohas Adrian. Their thoughts are so easy to see, even without me reading their minds.”
