Page 80 of Seas the Reckoning

Another siren. And they’re trying to call the people I care about to their doom.

While I’m stuck inside a whale with no way to fight back.

30

THE VOICE

Someone could knock me over with a feather. Another siren. If they realized I was in here, maybe they would help us. Or they might hinder us. Great-great-grammy Inktus was no saint, and I can’t assume I know the character of whoever is out there in the water.

Ji-hwan has walked up to the bristles at the front of Thomas’s mouth.

“Beautiful. I know I shouldn’t, but I want to go out there,” he says.

“We all do,” Exos calls. “The siren is trying to lure us.”

My nails lengthen, and my teeth sharpen. It’s possible we’re buffered from the full impact of the song by Thomas’s bulk, but I have no idea how long the whale can hold out.

“Thomas! Thomas! I need you to let me out!”

Nothing, as expected. Starla gives the whale another shock. There’s a vibrating sound in response, and I can feel us rise just a bit.

I hate that she’s zapping him with full force, but he’s so large that it’s probably no more annoying than a bee sting.

“Again!” I shout.

Starla repeats the action.

“Leena!” Jackal yells and I see Ji-hwan scrabbling at the baleens, trying to force his way out. “He’ll drown us!”

I leap for the Were, wrapping my arms around him to help the hyena haul him backward.

I hear the rushing of water outside the whale’s mouth.

“I think we’ve reached the surface! I’m going out to meet the siren,” I say.

“Please be careful, Leena,” Jackal says.

I want to ask them to come with me, but I’m afraid the full force of a siren song would be too much.

“Cover your ears, now!”

I slide between a few of Thomas’s bristles and then scramble out from the whale’s mouth. I’m granted a bit of relief when I see that I was right about us being on the surface, and I haven’t sent water crashing onto my friends. But now I can hear what he’s fighting against.

Not just one voice, but several.

“Swim to us, shifter.”

“Tell us what you’re hiding. We can feel the magic.”

“Show us what calls to us.”

I’m shocked he’s held out against the demands of so many.

I reach for the shell at my throat and find it’s warm to the touch. The scales on my arms shimmer as I leap from the whale and swim toward the voices. I round the side of Thomas’s massive whale form and come face to face with five individuals in the water. Three naiads, and two mermaids.

For a moment, the singing stops as we blink at each other.

It would be impossible to see them if not for my own glowing green eyes. It’s dark out here. When I swim at Carolina Beach, I see the lights of the boardwalk in the distance when I surface. But we’re in the middle of the ocean, with only the stars.