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August 17 - September 27, 2024
I HAVE A HEART for every year I’ve been alive. There are seventeen hidden in the sand of my bedroom. Every so often, I claw through the shingle, just to check they’re still there. Buried deep and bloody. I count each of them, so I can be sure none were stolen in the night. It’s not such an odd fear to have. Hearts are power, and if there’s one thing my kind craves more than the ocean, it’s power.
“But a princess must have her prince.”
TECHNICALLY, I’M A MURDERER, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.
Slay (literally)
I make shapes of them, and from those shapes I make stories. Of all the places I have been and will be. Of all the seas and oceans I’ve yet to visit and the men I’ve yet to recruit and the devils I’ve yet to slay.
Though humans have kings and queens in every crevice of the earth, the ocean has only one ruler. One queen. This is my mother, and one day it will be me.
Siren blood is nothing like human blood. Firstly, because it is cold. Secondly, because it burns. Human blood flows and drips and pools, but siren blood blisters and bubbles and melts through skin.
Once a siren steals a human heart, we become bonded to it. It’s an ancient kind of magic that cannot be easily broken. By taking the heart, we absorb its power, stealing whatever youth and life the human had left and binding it to us. The Adékarosin prince’s heart is being ripped from me, and any power it held leaks into the ocean before my eyes. Into nothingness.
“A heart of gold is worth its weight to the queen.”
“Is this about Cristian?” my father asks. “No.” “Lies aren’t answers.” “But they sound so much better than the truth.”
“That’s the thing about risks,” Kye says. “It’s impossible to know which ones are worth it until it’s too late.”
I still can’t get used to the sound of my name in his accent. Like one of the songs I used to sing. A melody as sweet as it is deadly.
If Madrid has her way, the next time he sees me, I’ll be as much of a pirate as he is.
“Wars aren’t won by running,” she says. “You can’t win a war,” I tell her. “Someone else just loses.”
We continue on that way, swords arcing through the air, our breath ragged. Soon there’s sun in the distance, or perhaps even moonlight. Everything is muted and as Lira swoops her blade down on mine once more, I let it all fall away. My mission, my kingdom. The world. They exist somewhere other than in this moment, and now there is only this. Me, my ship, and a girl with oceans in her eyes.
“I know enough about knives to stick them where the sun don’t shine if you aren’t careful.”
“It’s not good form for someone like me to sleep on the floor. I’m practically an aristocrat.”
“You’re an aristoprat,”
Some people burn so brightly, it’s impossible to put the flames out. Thankfully, that’s just what I need.
It’s a jab. A double-edged sword to point out what I’ve not yet become and mock me with what I will one day be. Never a pirate, always a prince.
Love and madness are two stars in the same sky. You cannot build a roof to keep out last year’s rain.
You’re letting yourself be manipulated,
Royalty never owes anyone anything.
“People don’t tell secrets because someone needs to know them. They do it because they need someone to tell.”
How strange that instead of taking his heart, I’m hoping he takes mine.
Any human who takes a siren’s heart will be immune to the power of their song. Only Elian didn’t need to take my heart; I gave it to him.
