The Sound of a Siren's Call

47.) Broken Hearts Will Mend

Witches' funerals are beautiful. And quick.

Ryan assured me that it was nothing compared to the ones they had in their homeland.

"Funerals are both a celebration and a place for us to morn. It celebrates our loved ones being set free, but morns that they've been taken from us."

Castor wasn't interested in the lore of funerals. He didn't seem to care that there even was one.

I glanced over at him, on his knees, his lips moving.

Praying. I hadn't known what to say to him. It helped that he seemed to be avoiding me. I spend my day with Ryan, and he spent it off by himself, only ever talking to his crew and Juniper.

Ryan had found a way to look regal even in her same old clothes. Her shoulders were just a little higher and her steps a little more graceful.

The bodies of the five men floated on the lake, witches sitting at the edge of the water.

The old witch spoke, her hands spread, and they began to sink. Ryan translated for me, but the words meant nothing to me.

The cold had consumed me. My heartbeat was smooth and regular, the pressure left, tacking the ache with it. My breath came easily, I wasn't drowning anymore.

The bodies disappeared, and then the lake lit up, light burning under the water. There was a glow, and it seemed as though it'd be there forever when the old witch lowered her arms.

"It is done," Ryan translated.

The witches by the edge of the lake stood and saplings sprang up to replace them. Smoke curled of the lake in spirals, the gray clear up the heavens.

The celebration part of it seemed fundamentally wrong, though Ryan assured me it was a shadow of what they did for themselves. I sat by myself, letting the numbness overtake me as I ate. When I noticed Juniper sitting alone, I moved toward her.

She looked at Castor's back. He was still on his knees.

"Was he close with them?"

Her eyes never left him, but she must've seen me. "He won't say. I'm guessing at least one of them."

"Has he talked with you about any of it?"

She shook her head, finally looking at me.

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

"I do. He just needs space."

She nodded, biting her lip.

"I think I made a mistake, Arriana."

"How?"

"With us. Me and him. I think us being together is probably going to hurt us more than it will help us."

"Why would you say that?" I looked at her.

"Just a feeling. I have a bad feeling, Arriana. He's hiding things. He won't tell me when something's wrong with him. He could be bleeding out and I'd only find out when he dropped dead. But then he's also so protective. I don't want him to be hurt. Especially not for me. But that seems like where this is headed, doesn't it?"

"You don't know any of that."

"But, don't you ever feel something? I can't shake it off. Every time I've felt this way, it's happened." She looked like she was about to cry.

"You're not going to break up with him over that, are you?"

She put her head in her hands. "I don't know. I don't think I have it in me."