No Longer Our Sea (Book 1)

2

The feeling of Kahliteia's hand around my wrist shakes me out of my traumatized state. She tugs at my hand, trying to force me to follow her. I refuse.

"Lila, come on," she says.

I shake my head in disbelief, how could she be so calm? "Why?" I asked. My thoughts had got the best of me.

She looked at me; confused, "Why?" By this point, she had let go of my hand, "Why what?"

My brown eyes drifted to the gardens of coral under us. Even in the darkness of the night and blood, the luminous forest of coral still looked magnificent. "Was all of this necessary?" I motioned to the two dead men below us.

Kahliteia's arms crossed into each other as she tried to hide her taunting laughter, "Sister, you can't be serious." Her eyes seemed to roll into the back of her head, "You need to learn. They are just humans, they're lives don't mean anything to us."

Her words made me feel as if I could explode. But despite the aggravation, I tried to keep calm, "Do you hear what you're saying?" I questioned her as my voice began to rise; matching my emotions. Forget trying to mask feelings.

She nods as she smiles a little too wide, "Yes." Her eyes seemed to look me up and down as her expression turned cold, "Do you hear what you're saying?"

I swim back from her, drawing a line between us. Back home in Draesa, expressing my regard for human life could cost me my title and wealth. Even though my veins flow with royal blood, I could easily be imprisoned for my words of treason. My opinions on the two-legged creatures go against everything my Mother has worked so hard to build. Despite being a princess, the rules still and always will apply to me. No one wants a weak siren princess as their future Queen's right hand. No one wants me. To show mercy is a weakness, and mercy is all I'm made of.

Her eyes never leave me as I brood in the darkness of the ocean. "Open your eyes, listen to yourself!" She scolds me, "None of us have the choice to kill, we all must. It's the law."

"Don't remind me," I mumble.

"Well, it seems you feel the need to make me!"  Kahliteia lectures me, "You need to see their lives don't matter." She comes closer to me, closing the line between us and takes my hand, "We are above them."

I shake my head, "You might think that" I jerk my hand away from hers; a warning. "But that doesn't make what we do right." I look at my sister head to tail in the darkness of the ocean, our only light being the faint moonlight. "How am I even related to you?" My voice sounds hoarse, bruised, and hurt.

She slightly shakes her head, "Sometimes I ask myself the same thing," She pauses and raises one of her eyebrows, signifying her meaning, "Sister." The tone of her voice is mocking and hurtful; it's meant to sting.

I turn around, afflicted by her choice of words. Putting a lock of brown hair behind my ear and my eyes straight ahead, I swam away from Kahliteia. She let me go.

~

I swam away from my sister for hours before I stopped in the dead of the open sea. From where I was, I swam idly while I stared up at the ocean separating me from the surface. Up above the waves, the night still reigned over the sky, causing the same pitch black light to encapture the ocean. My eyes went to my surroundings as I searched for someone who might have followed me. Thankfully, another siren couldn't be seen in this part of the ocean.

My tail moved violently as I was greeted by the blowing air of the human world while the moonlight soon crept over my face once I had risen from my watery home. For a second, I let myself get lost in the cooling breeze's of a summer's night as I enjoyed my isolation. I threw my head back, letting my stress and worries slip away with my movements.

I felt I could stay where I was forever, caught between the middle of two worlds just as I was formed to be. The wind picked up my wet brown hair and slowly began to dry it as I took in a deep breath of the fresh winds around me. I had begun to forget myself in my relaxation until my eyes opened to take a look around me. My eyes searched my surroundings and found a large wooden ship sailing across the seas in the near distance; no doubt they knew the danger of these hours.

I recognized the elaborate noble design of the ship and soon realized it could be housing human royalty: the perfect victim.

I put my own leisure aside as I dove into the deep, now fearing for the lives of anyone who might be onboard the sailing death trap. Now underwater, I swam toward the wooden contraption, hoping to stop my murderous species who could be lurking at the bottom of the transport. To my surprise, I didn't see another tailed creature but the ship's detail caught my eye instead.

The ship was exquisite. From what I could see, the ship had perfectly polished, dark, smooth wood and golden tipped edges with brims that matched. Other than that, the ship had more to look at. In the middle of the ship was the royal symbol: a crown and an anchor, painted in gold. Gold, not being a natural color in the ocean, was easy to spot and probably not the smartest decision for the humans.

The chosen symbols for human royalty had a deeper meaning than what they appeared. The anchor symbolizes the ocean and the sirens as the King struggles to control us while the crown symbolizes the iron grasp on the King has on the human kingdom but lacks in us.

While scanning the ship, I also thought about the placement and coloring of the symbol. Why wouldn't the King put his symbol on his sails instead of giving my Mother a direct sign of his presence?

The answer was quite simple. The King wanted us to see the ship, he wanted us to recognize him and it was working. Dozens of sirens surrounded the ship upon orders as I watched in horror to what was happening.

The other sirens now surrounding me didn't see the danger in their orders.

They didn't see they were swimming straight into a trap.