Siren Magic

by Lucia Ashta

  “Oh dear,” Nessa said, and Irving looked at me like I was the elusive uni-horn seahorse.

  “Such a shame that this innocence will be lost,” Irving said, sounding for the first time like he was ancient and had led a life too filled with loss.

  Heat flushed my cheeks. “I can’t help being innocent if no one will tell me what’s going on.” Even though they kind of were. “I’ve been set aside as different my entire life. I’ve never fit in. I’ve never been the right anything to be a part of something bigger.”

  “You misunderstand us,” Irving said. “We think it’s wonderful.”

  Fianna didn’t do anything to agree, but Nessa nodded her tiny head enthusiastically, and Quinn looked at me with a strange longing I’d never experienced before. His fingers stretched closer, so that I could feel the heat radiating from the tips of his fingers into the flesh of my thigh.

  “Innocence in the supernatural world is rarer than a sirangel,” Irving said. “To me, it’s far more precious.”

  “Then why won’t the supernatural community allow me to keep it, if it’s so special?” I said.

  “Because the creatures consider our community only in terms of power. In a world where magic abounds, the one with the most of it will rule.”

  “Only if they wish,” Fianna interjected. “The fae hold more power than most, and we don’t seek to overpower.”

  “This is true. If only the shifters and the vampires were like the fae, this world would be far better off,” he said. I started at Irving’s unexpected agreement. “But there are those among the most powerful who wish to rule the entirety of the magical world.”

  “That’s impossible,” Fianna scoffed.

  “It is, but they refuse to believe that, to the detriment and harm of everyone else. It is these commanding elements that’ll search for you once they learn of ya, Selene. If the MCA knows about ya, it won’t be long before the mightiest of the shifters and the vamps come for you.”

  My chin began to tremble despite my desire to appear strong.

  “They won’t care that ya haven’t explored the extent of your powers,” he added. “They’ll only care that you’re different, a new kind, and so they’ll assume that you bring new magic to the proverbial table. They search constantly for that piece that’ll allow them to defeat those who resist them. They’ll believe you might be that piece.”

  “But I’m not. I can’t be.” My voice was little more than a whisper; it was all I had. Power-hungry shifters and vampires? A shiver ran the length of my body, and I sensed Quinn’s attention on me. My skin pebbled in goose bumps. It wasn’t more clothing that I desired, it was the constant touch of the water. The relative safety I’d found there under the protection of the crazy witch Mulunu.

  Irving shrugged, but it wasn’t an action of disinterest. “You can’t know that ya won’t develop strong powers, and neither can any of us. I trust in Mulunu’s magic. I’ve rarely encountered any stronger. Do you trust her magic?”

  Reluctantly, I nodded. No matter how much the crone unnerved me, I couldn’t deny she was mighty and had never once led our clan wrong. If she’d led me astray, well … I wasn’t entirely sure she’d ever considered me a real part of the Kunu Clan.

  “If Mulunu sent ya here to me, then there must be a very good reason for it, maybe one even she might not understand. She once told me she doesn’t question the magic, she only strives to obey its guidance. She might not even know what part ya have to play on land.”

  “If she doesn’t, how could I possibly know?”

  Irving’s stormy eyes stared straight into my own. As if I were in the throes of a violent ocean tempest, I met them and held on tightly.

  “Ya don’t know what you’re capable of. You might turn out to be more powerful than Mulunu in the end. But for now, all we need to do is trust in her guidance, in the magic that placed ya here, and work to prepare you so that ya might survive whatever’s coming.”

  The man, who reminded me so much of the sea, clasped one of my hands in his. His callused fingers wrapped my smooth skin like a battered shell that harbored a precious pearl within. “I wish I could tell ya otherwise, but the time for your innocence has passed. You’ll have to become a warrior if ya stand a chance at all. We can’t guard you at all times, lassie.”

  I blinked back at him, unable to come up with a single thing to say that would change anything. Yesterday, I’d stood before Mulunu and her glowing crystal with a chance at finding my place among the mertribe. I swallowed hard and blinked some more, sure I looked precisely like the naïve girl he said there was no place for anymore.

  He squeezed my hand. “You’re a sirangel. I owe Mulunu a debt. I’ll see ya through this.”

  Despite my earlier protests, I’d become a new breed: a sirangel. It seemed it didn’t matter at all what I wanted. How could the course of my powers lie in a path that I’d never have chosen for myself?

  My tumultuous thoughts screeched to a halt.

  A pop so loud that it left my ears ringing echoed throughout the room, leaving me gaping at what looked like a cloud of fog taking shape before me.

  Had the power-hungry supernaturals found me already?

  8

  Irving and Quinn rocketed to their feet, both of them moving to stand directly in front of me. White fur rippled along Irving’s forearms as he fought to restrain his shift. Quinn growled, setting the hairs across my arms on end; he sounded like an animal, I just couldn’t figure out which one.

  Even the fairies bolted from their baths, dripping water onto the tea table, unconcerned by their nudity as they squared off to the developing form in the middle of the large room.

  “No one’s allowed in here like this,” Irving growled. “Treat whoever this is as an aggressor.”

  Red sparks flicked to life in the palms of Fianna’s hands, and her hair stood up, electrified by whatever brewed inside her. She pulled back her lips in a snarl, looking vicious despite her diminutive stature.

  Nessa uttered words a mile a minute—a spell, I guessed—until finally blue, the same shade as her hair, ignited between her hands. She bounced on the balls of her feet like a fighter—a tiny, wet, naked fighter. Was the fairy, who was even smaller than Fianna, going to physically attack whatever came through?

  Just the thought of it made me shoot to my own feet, wincing at the tug at my wings where they met my shoulder blades; I hadn’t been careful when I went to stand. I wouldn’t let a creature as small as my fingers fight my battles for me, even if I desperately wanted to.

  I bounced on the balls of my feet in imitation of Nessa, only much less smoothly since I wasn’t accustomed to having feet. I also opened my wings at the ready as she did, but I had no idea what I might do if I attacked. My magic came in the form of influencing others—oh! I tucked my wings against my back, settled on my heels, and waited. All I had to do was sing—unless whatever appeared was immune to my siren song, which had never happened to me before, but my mom had warned me about.

  If that happened, I would be back to having no way to protect myself. I searched my mind for answers. What could the other merpeople do, the ones who weren’t sirens? What might an angel be able to do? Every thought fizzled before it could take proper shape.

  The cloud in the middle of the room began to settle and Fianna shot bursts of red light straight at its center.

  “Hold your fire!” erupted a woman’s voice from the cloud, along with a flash of green light. “I’m a friendly.”

  The fairies looked over their shoulders at Irving for confirmation.

  “I haven’t invited a soul to invade my house,” he said, “which means y’aren’t a friendly, no matter what you say. Proceed, girls.”

  Nessa unleashed the blue waves of light she’d amassed between her hands, launched them straight into the center of the fog, which was beginning to resemble a person, and immediately began speaking another spell to reload. She hovered off the table and inched closer to the shape, a woman from the looks of it.<
br />
  Another eruption of green light flashed, but a second after Nessa’s blue hit its intended target, a grunt of pain arrived, and another shout, “It’s Naomi Nettles! Cease fire!”

  Again, the fairies held their attack positions while looking at Irving.

  His thick, bunched shoulders tensed while he wrestled with indecision. “You shouldn’t be here, Naomi,” he said, but as the cloud dissolved to leave behind a striking, impeccably groomed woman—who was much too large to fit inside a small, plastic box—the ripples of white fur along his arms disappeared and he put up a single hand to indicate that the fairies should wait for his command.

  “State your intentions,” he barked.

  Naomi brushed nonexistent dust from her shoulders, although she’d taken a hit and the gesture seemed pointless. “Is this the kind of welcome you give an old friend?”

  “No. You’ve broken into my house. Are ya here to attack?” White fur began its undulation across his exposed forearms again.

  “Of course I’m not here to cause trouble,” the witch said in a tone that bespoke trouble. Her head bobbed as she sought me out. Irving and Quinn closed ranks in front of me, doing much to shield me from sight with their bodies, so much larger than my own, but unable to conceal me entirely. I wished I could hide in their back pockets.

  “You wouldn’t return my calls and I needed answers,” she said. “My wards don’t fail or attack without reason.”

  When Fianna’s magic made an audible crackle, Naomi spared the fairies her first glance. She smiled at them without feeling, sweeping her calculating gaze up and down their bodies, a frigid gesture that instantly made me dislike the witch, though I hadn’t yet decided whether I even liked the fairies.

  Naomi arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow at Irving. “Naked fairies? What have I interrupted?”

  Irving didn’t answer or relax.

  “You can stand down,” Naomi told the fairies. “Besides, it’s not like your magic will harm me.”

  Fianna stared pointedly at the smoking burns on the witch’s forearms, which the sleeves of her form-fitting calf-length dress didn’t protect. “We’ll stand down when we’re certain you aren’t a danger, which isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. Your reputation precedes you.”

  “As does yours, Fianna the Crimson, which is why I can tell you with authority that whatever you throw at me, I’ll nullify. You’re just wasting your energy with me.”

  “Well, we’re wasting not only our energy, but also our time with you, but for different reasons. Irving?” Fianna said, without taking her attention from the witch. “What’s your call? We’re ready to take her down.”

  “Indeed we are,” Nessa said from between gritted teeth. She’d completed her spell and held handfuls of bright blue light again.

  When Irving didn’t answer right away, Naomi took a couple of steps forward in high heels that clicked across the wooden floor, stopped when Fianna hissed at her like a cat, and batted her dark long lashes at the man. “You know me, Irv. I never mean any harm.”

  “Y’er right. I do know ya. Which is why I know that isn’t true. Ya mean harm if it’s in your interest to do so. The real question is, what’s your interest here and why the hell did you break into my house?”

  “Oh, darling,” Naomi started, and everyone but me bristled at the endearment. “I didn’t break into your house. I came here to repair the wards and protect you and whomever you have with you.” Again she bobbed her perfectly-coiffed blond head, trying to see around the shifters’ broad shoulders, lined up side to side. Quinn reached a hand behind him to pull me closer to him. I pressed against his back, tucking my wings in as tightly as I could in hopes that I wouldn’t reveal anything of myself to this witch.

  She clicked together nails painted a glossy, bloody purple. “You hung up on me, remember? So I worried. I figured the best thing I could do would be to show up and help you out, in person.”

  I didn’t believe a word she said; I figured the others didn’t either.

  “My wards shouldn’t have attacked any creature that entered your house at your invitation. I set them up taking into account every known creature. Which can only mean that you must have—”

  “Something that’s none of your business,” Fianna snapped.

  “Oh, I think it’s very much my business, don’t you, Irv?” Naomi batted her eyelashes some more. I wondered how often the move worked that she was so confident that her good looks would be enough to sway a hardened shifter into believing her lies. “All I want is to keep anyone or anything important to you safe from outside harm. My wards are meant to protect, not hurt.”

  Quinn snorted. “You aren’t believing this, right, Uncle?”

  Irving hesitated. “What do you really want, Naomi?”

  She took another step forward and this time didn’t even bother looking at the fairies as they leaned toward her menacingly. “If you have what I think you might have here, then I want to keep it alive.”

  “Why? What’s it to you?”

  “Let’s just say I don’t want certain parties to take control any more than you do. The status quo agrees with me.”

  “The status quo only agrees with you because you bully everyone else around,” Quinn said.

  Naomi’s eyebrows jumped as if in delighted surprise. “Why, I’m no bully.” Her voice dripped feminine seduction, and I responded by pressing even more of my body against Quinn’s back. I wanted to yank him away from her—a bit strange given I’d only met him a short while before.

  “I just like to get my way. A girl like me deserves to.” She batted her eyelashes some more as I peeked around Quinn’s shoulder.

  “Come out, dear,” she said, this time to me. “I won’t hurt you. I’ll modify the wards so they won’t harm you but will keep everyone else out.”

  “They should’ve kept you out, that’s what they should’ve done,” Fianna said.

  “I think I hear a fly buzzing somewhere,” Naomi said.

  “Fly, my round behind,” Fianna snarled and threw red sparks at the witch, whose burns had almost fully healed while she spoke.

  A flash of green fog erupted around the witch, intercepted Fianna’s attack, and then slid away.

  “Watch yourself, fairy,” Naomi hissed, her eyes still seeking me out. I retreated against Quinn’s back again, scrunching my wings in.

  “Only if you watch yourself, witch,” Fianna said. “We know exactly who you are and exactly where you come from. We don’t trust you, and we never will.”

  Naomi whirled on the little red fairy, who continued to defy the witch as if she were dressed in armor instead of fully naked. “Mind your tongue or I’ll take it from you.” Though I couldn’t see Naomi’s expression, I had no doubt it was vicious.

  “Don’t you dare threaten me, you witch! Your lineage has nothing on mine. You—”

  “Ladies,” Irving interrupted. “Table it for now. Naomi, you’ll allow Fianna the Crimson to bind your magic—”

  “I’ll do no such thing,” Naomi gasped, turning her fury on Irving, who didn’t even flinch.

  “Ya will if you want to take a seat in my house and have a cuppa and talk like a reasonable person. Fianna can bind your magic in a way that prevents ya from using it against us only—”

  “Fine,” Naomi growled, “but I’ll be the one crafting the binding.”

  “All right, but Fianna supervises.”

  Naomi hesitated.

  Irving added, “It’s my terms or ya can leave. You’re an uninvited guest in my house and I have every right to destroy you for intruding. I’m giving you the courtesy of remaining due to our past dealings, but don’t think for a second I don’t know what ya’re capable of. I won’t allow ya to hurt anyone here, no matter what you say or how you pucker your pretty lips.”

  Naomi tried to look at me again, and Irving said, “Take it or leave it. Ya have thirty seconds.”

  She took twenty-nine of them before saying, “Fine, but what kind of operation are you
running here? The fairies are naked.”

  “Yes, they are.” Irving didn’t miss a beat. “Q, will you please fetch them some napkins?”

  “What about…?” Quinn trailed off.

  “Naomi won’t hurt Selene, or I’ll hurt her.”

  Quinn nodded, turned to share a concerned look with me, then moved away to fetch napkins for the fairies.

  Which meant I was fully exposed to Naomi.

  She made the most of the opportunity, smacking purple-painted lips and clicking her polished nails together. The look was unmistakable. She wanted me, and she didn’t care what she had to do to secure my power for herself.

  I scooted to hide behind Irving’s back before he whispered, as softly as he could, “Never hide or show your weakness.”

  “It’s a good lesson,” Naomi said. “Strength is a valuable commodity in the supernatural world. You either have it or you fake it.”

  I was hoping the witch was faking, because if not I worried she might be more powerful than Irving. She looked at me like I was lunch. I didn’t move from Irving’s side. Her advice might be good, but not when she was the shark and I was the minnow.

  9

  After the fairies toweled off, Fianna ran a hand across their small piles of clothing, resting atop the table next to the couch, where Irving, Quinn, and I were once more back to sitting. A flash of scarlet converted short skirts and miniscule tops into what appeared to be battle wear, long pants with thick patches across the knees and long-sleeved shirts of coarse material, which became especially thick across the chest. For the first time in my life, I felt underdressed. Though the fairies’ feet remained bare, everything else was covered up to their chins.

  I tugged down the top that continually rode up to the underside of my breasts and pulled down my short skirt, but it didn’t help much. When I got the chance, maybe I’d ask Fianna to magick my clothes too.

  Even Naomi the witch had changed between the standoff and a second round of teatime—one where the fairies actually drank instead of bathed. In a swift burst of green, the witch’s lipstick and nail polish color coordinated to a shade of mauve, along with her dress and high-heeled shoes. The burns along her forearms were fully healed, and her appearance was once more impeccable. Regardless, neither the shifters nor the fairies seemed impressed with her. The tension in the air was thick enough to saw through with a butter knife.