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Once upon a time, in a land known as Nuvinia, there were two statements that all inhabitants knew to be fact. First, the two kingdoms of Nuvinia, Dral and Proghund, despised one another and would spend eternity at odds. Two, one should practice extreme caution when at sea, because the waters were infested with seductive sirens who would happily sing you to your grave.
For a young siren named Vivian, there were also two statements that had always been accepted as fact. One, she must not reach the age of eighteen before mating with and drowning a human man, or else be cast out from her pod to fend for herself. And two, she could not kill someone, even a human, for it would tear her apart.
Warm, salty ocean water sprayed into the young siren's eyes as she propelled herself across the surface of the sea, toward the pod of dolphins she'd seen swimming towards the horizon. When she breached the next wave, a fin or two could be seen poking out of the water, only about one hundred yards ahead. Heart racing, the siren pushed herself forward, faster and faster towards the creatures. When their playful whistles and clicks came within earshot, Vivian grinned.
Dolphins made for great racing competition, although at this rate, the siren would be much too exhausted to be able to match their speed. But she cared only for the feel of the water slipping over her skin and the power coursing through her body as she flicked her tail again and again.
Out of breath, the siren broke the surface again and kept herself afloat with a few gentle flicks of her tail. She turned her eyes skyward and relished in the feel of the blazing sun, the warmth of the summer wind against her skin. The sparkling blue ocean stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction, boundless and never-ending. The ocean was open, free—precisely the reason she loved it so much.
Suddenly, something large came barreling into her tail, knocking her back below the waves. Bubbles and sea foam blocked her view of her assailant for a moment as her heart thundered. Please not a shark, please not a shark—
"Well, you were supposed to move out of the way."
The siren's vision cleared just in time for her to observe her sister swimming in rapid circles around her, leaving a trail of bubbles in her wake.
"Come on!" she called, and raced after the dolphins once again. With a huge smile on her face Vivian followed, catching up to them quickly and swimming alongside the smallest of the creatures, craning her neck a bit to watch it as it swam.
Her sister beamed at her from several feet away and then pulled ahead a bit, clearly challenging Vivian to a race.
"You won't win this time, Aiyana!" Vivian declared, and threw all of her strength into swishing her tail as hard and as fast as she could. Last time she and Aiyana raced, Vivian had just eaten a huge meal of sea kelp, so she lost the race as well as the half-digested food. But this time, she wouldn't lose.
The dolphins remained by the sides of the sirens for only a minute or so before falling behind them. Aiyana and Vivian raced neck and neck, laughing in the face of the competition and because of the sheer speed, the feeling of the water gliding across their skin.
Vivian's smile grew, her teeth pearly white in contrast to her dark skin. Hours spent in the sunlight combined with the dark color of her mother's skin had gifted Vivian skin the color of hazelnuts. Sometimes, when the sun was beginning to set or to rise, her skin acquired an almost golden tint.
She glanced backward for just a second when some of the dolphins released high-pitched whistles, almost as if saying goodbye. Vivian waved to them once before turning back to focus on the race, and the pod branched off from the sirens and headed to the east. She'd see them again, Vivian knew. She was familiar with that pod; they were always found in the waters near Syrin, the island she and her own pod called home.
"To the edge of the reef!" Aiyana yelled, reaching an arm forward to show Vivian where their race would end. It was about two hundred yards ahead, at a massive forest of coral growing over piles of boulders and dirt. Only the very tip of the reef came within several feet of the surface. The majority of it was deep underwater and surrounded by fish of all colors who fed and thrived off the coral. The reef itself grew in every color under the sun; deep sapphire, sunset orange, red and green the same colors as the roses roses on Syrin—purple, like lilacs and calla lilies—and every shade in between.
The reef grew in a massive underwater valley surrounded by mountains on every side, but once you cleared the steep inclines, the legendary Rainbow Reef stretched on as if it would never end. The coral forest seemed to give off a light of its own, illuminating the deep blue water around it.
Vivian came to a halt as her eyes fell over the reef, her sister shooting forward and leaving Vivian in her bubbles. "We're not supposed to be this close to the coast!" Vivian protested, but Aiyana paid no attention to her and surged forward at full speed until she reached the finish line. Then she turned back to grin at Vivian across the reef. She could feel her sister's infuriating pride over her victory, even if the race was unfairly won.
"We are if we're hunting," Aiyana replied. Her voice carried easily across the reef, through the water, to Vivian—who shuddered at the word. Aiyana knew it bothered her. "Oh, Vivian. You know you have to do it someday. And your someday is coming very, very quickly."
Vivian's breath came quicker as she took in the vision of her sister across the reef, hovering in the water just above one of the mountains, suggesting that Vivian join her in hunting and killing a human.
Aiyana was beautiful—in fact, Vivian thought her to be the loveliest person she knew. With shoulder length blonde curls and large, captivating green eyes, as well as skin significantly lighter than Vivian's, Aiyana and her sister looked almost nothing alike. In fact, the only features they had in common were the thin, angled nose and full lips that their mother had passed to them. Other than that, they were entirely different from one another. This was to be expected, of course, because the two girls had different fathers. Nonetheless, Vivian still wished that she looked more like her sister.
Yes, inside and out, Aiyana was beautiful. Save for one thing—her willingness to kill.
"No." Vivian wished her voice to be firm, but it came out shaking instead. Shame quickly crept in, coloring her cheeks even against the cool water. Shame because of her fear and because of her refusal to do what every other siren could do without hesitation.
Aiyana's mischievous grin morphed into a softer look of pity. "I'll help you," she offered. Vivian felt sick to her stomach. Her sister thought her hesitation was because of a lack of self-confidence, not a moral dilemma. "You don't have to do it alone."
Four.
The number echoed in Vivian's mind, louder than the sound of waves crashing against rocks. It was the number of men that Aiyana had sung to a watery death. She was barely twenty-two years old. Her first was when she was fifteen, the average age for sirens to begin their lives of seduction—yet, only a month from turning eighteen, no man's ears had ever heard Vivian sing. There was no longer any true purpose for hunting. There hadn't been for centuries. Sirens lived easily off of many types of fish and underwater plants and had no real need for human flesh in their diet. In fact, most sirens left the bodies of their victims to the ocean when they were done with them rather than making them into a meal anyway. Hunting now was used as a way to create offspring and as a rite of passage for young sirens. A tradition of sorts.
Vivian's pod knew well that Vivian couldn't kill as they could. But they stayed hopeful that she would grow out of it.
Vivian was running out of time, and she knew it better than anyone.
The ways of siren society had been the same for generations—during the spring, if a siren had reached sexual maturity or her daughters were able to swim and catch food on their own, she would go onto land to mate with a man, lure him out to sea with her song, and swim downward. She would continue to sing underwater, her voice beautifully distorted, and the unlucky man, desiring only her, would follow her deeper, deeper, deeper...until he drowned.
While the humans mostly thought sirens to be only myth, they weren't clueless. They realized the number of deaths by drowning skyrocketed in the spring. Stories of beautiful women with razor sharp teeth and a thirst for blood spread across the land like wildfire, effectively halting the desire of Proghundese and Dralian men alike to bed random maidens they find on the beach or in a tavern. During the spring, at least.
So the sirens adapted. Instead of mating during the spring like other animals, they took to the land whenever they felt. Alone, rather than in hordes, and during spring or fall, summer or winter, rain or shine. This way, it was impossible to predict if the woman in your bed was a human or a siren.
The foolish men soon forgot about the mythological danger and slackened their caution as generations passed, to the delight of sirens everywhere, and hunting continued as before.
"I don't need help," Vivian replied.
What a lie her words were.
By the age of eighteen, every siren is expected to have mated with and led one man to a watery grave. If the siren fails, for whatever reason, to complete this task, she is cast out of her pod, away from safety, and into the jaws of the perilous ocean. She'll be completely alone then; no other pod will take her in. Outsiders are not accepted, precisely for the reason that they may have been cast from their own pod. It is for fate to decide whether or not the ostracized siren will survive or perish. Usually, it is the latter.
And poor Vivian, just twenty-eight days from the deadline, had yet to shed a drop of blood.
Aiyana swam closer to her sister, her light hair trailing behind her. Vivian's could not have been more different. The two of them were like night and day when it came to their hair, and Vivian wouldn't have it any other way.
When Aiyana reached Vivian, she took her sister's hands in her own, swinging them gently between the two of them. Big green eyes watched Vivian until she had no choice but to meet her sister's gaze. "I love you. My sister, I love you, and I seem to be more concerned about your future than you are. You will be exiled if you don't do this!" Vivian opened her mouth to protest, but Aiyana shushed her with one finger. An affectionate smile came over her lips. "Now is as good a time as any. I'm sure we could find a man around here somewhere—there are always ships sailing these waters. Dralian men are easy, and—"
Vivian's stomach churned. To hear her sister, who she loved most in the world, speak about someone's life as if it were a game—
She squeezed her sister's hands affectionately and then dropped them from her grip. "Aiyana, no. I can't."
Aiyana's smile turned into a frustrated scowl before Vivian could even blink. "You mean you won't!" she exclaimed. Her beautiful features morphed into an expression of utter frustration and anger. She had a short temper—a trait both she and Vivian acquired from their mother. Aiyana swam closer, eyes narrowed. "You'll die on your own. You realize that, don't you?"
"Of course I do," Vivian snapped.
"Then?" Aiyana asked. The water seemed to drop ten degrees. "You never even sing."
Vivian swallowed painfully, her throat dry and scratchy. "Yes, I do."
Aiyana folded her arms across her chest, across the ripped violet tunic draped over her shoulders that she returned from land with several years back. "Sing, then. The hunting song."
Vivian opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Not even a squeak.
Aiyana threw her arms up in the air. "You don't even remember how to!"
Vivian flicked her tail once and moved away from her sister a bit. "I couldn't forget it even if I wanted to. You all sing it constantly, like what it does to men is something to be celebrated—"
Aiyana, with her eyes blazing, covered Vivian's mouth with her hand. "You can't say that."
Vivian pushed her sister's hand off of her face and moved farther away from her. "I can. And I will. What we do to humans is despicable—"
"The elders will—"
"I don't care about the elders," Vivian interrupted, although it wasn't true. Vivian cared very much about the elders, as they were the ones who could exile her from the pod at a moment's notice.
Aiyana pursed her lips. "You've never met a human," she said. Anger darkened her lovely green eyes. "They are vile creatures—they care only for themselves. Hurting others to get what they want—" Aiyana shook her head, eyes full of sorrow. "It doesn't bother them."
"Neither does it bother us," Vivian replied, but she was softer this time. She knew her sister had been hurt during her time on land, although Aiyana never shared the details. "We're no better than they are."
But Aiyana shook her head again. "Come ashore with me. You'll understand."
Vivian's stomach churned again. Go onto land? She'd done it before, of course—she lived on an island—but she'd never been to Dral or to Proghund, where there were humans everywhere.
"I–I don't know," she managed. Vivian had only seen the human lands from far away, from the safety of the Ogin Sea. Curiosity pulled her closer to the shore, but fear pushed her back out into the water again.
She opened her mouth to refuse, even took a breath, but then she paused. Surely she would be safe with her sister by her side, and it would be a quick visit—
Vivian took a steadying breath. "Okay. Let's go."
I've decided that after every part I'm going to thank a reader/readers who have been consistently commenting/voting on previous parts and really being engaged with the story! Since this is the first part I'm just going to shout out the person who made the AMAZING cover: elphadora !!! I can't stop staring at the cover. I seriously love it, and I hope y'all do too! So thank you very much to Amy for making it for me, I appreciate it :)
How do you guys like Vivian so far? I'm attempting a third person limited POV for this book. It feels so weird after LOTWW...I keep accidentally switching into first person!!