Two

Each day in the palace was like living under a blanket. Some days the blanket smothered, other days it was light and fluffy.

The next morning, birds flitted by the lake's edge, dipping their beaks into the water. They scattered when I jogged past, my feet hitting the dirt with heavy thuds. Sweat trickled down my neck and between my breasts. The Tioatian Lake sparkled, not because of the sun's reflection but because the basin was lined with gold.

Mother would be waiting for me. Our training sessions had been increasing in intensity. She would not go easy on me, and she would punish me for sneaking out the day before. I knew my mother loved me, though she never told me so. It was one of those implied things. She wanted the best for me. She pushed me hard so I'd be worthy to be named her heir.

My legs burned. I pushed them harder, forcing one in front of the other. When Prince Charming and Cinderella divorced, Mother found me crying in the wardrobe. She pulled me out and wiped my tears. She told me, "You didn't stop being mine the day your father and I divorced. It is more important now than ever that we show the seven kingdoms nothing but power." But what if I wasn't a siren? What if I was mortal like my father?

I shook my head, my heavy braid slapping my back. Surviving the academy until my siren awakened would be a challenge, and it was a challenge I was prepared for. I had to be. But first I needed to prove I was physically ready ... and receive my punishment.

The translucent walls of the Glass Palace loomed before me. Aidan nodded solemnly, then watched as I jogged through the open gate and paused in the courtyard to catch my breath. A pile of baby-blue clothing dropped from my mother's hand to the marble tiles.

"You're late." Dressed in a gown with side slits for her legs, Mother tapped a glass slipper and pursed her perfect bow lips. "Get changed and meet me in the arena."

Gathering up the clothes, I hurried inside. Diamonds were hand-sewn into the fabric of the top, and it had horrendous, fluffy shoulder pads. The silk shorts left my legs exposed to the cool spring air and I tucked my glass dagger back into the sheath at my thigh.

I entered the palace's training dungeon, a cavernous, mirrored room. We had no need for a real dungeon since the queen kept no prisoners. Cinderella was the judge and executioner. She nodded approvingly at my outfit, "You will wear that during your combat lessons at the academy."

I bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty." There was no way I was ever wearing this outfit again. I drew the line at ridiculous baby-blue shorts and puffy sleeves.

We took fighting stances.

"At the academy, you will no longer be treated as a princess but as just another student, striving for a powerful position in the seven kingdoms. You must prove yourself worthy to be my heir. Never let the other immortals perceive you as anything but strong," Cinderella commanded.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

We sparred for an hour. I could tell Mother was going easy on me, which was never a good thing. The only time she went easy on me was when she was preparing to teach me a painful lesson.

Sirens were physically the weakest of all immortal creatures. Something Cinderella, the last siren, would never allow me to forget. Which was why she'd trained me since I was a child in physical combat.

"I raised you on bedtime stories of the brutalities perpetrated against our kind. Do you know why?" she asked, throwing a punch I barely dodged.

"To help me understand why I must become strong." My heart raced as I caught a punch in the palm of my hand and returned one of my own, catching her in the gut. She grimaced, pushing away from me, fire burning in her violet eyes.

"In the old days, our species were hunted by werewolves and vampires because of the threat sirens posed to them. Young sirens were slaughtered before their abilities developed, while older and more powerful sirens were set upon in the night and beheaded in their sleep. Yet I survived." She flipped back her hair and shook out her wrist.

"You were smart. You hid, enduring a life of poverty and pretending to be human until your father remarried and you were adopted by the Dark Witch." A dark expression clouded my mother's face and I immediately regretted mentioning the Dark Witch, Cinderella's stepmother.

"That nasty hag used me. When she looked at me, she didn't see a child but a play-thing for her magic. But I waited, keeping a record of every injustice she committed against me, until my siren awoke."

"Then you met Father." She used her siren to fool him into believing he was in love with her, forcing him to marry her. And when she'd risen to become the most powerful queen in the seven kingdoms, ensuring her dynasty would continue with my birth, she broke my father's heart.

"Yes." She grinned, indicating for me to return to a fighting stance.

"Ah, how I wish you'd been there, daughter. To see the look on the Dark Witch's face when I forced her to cut out her own tongue and eat it. When I was done with her, there was nothing left but her black heart, beating on a stick."

The Dark Witch's twin daughters, my stepaunts, escaped unharmed. Just as the Dark Witch abused my mother, she'd mistreated her own daughters. I hardly knew them. My mother refused to speak of them and their pet doves. They were headmistresses at the Academy of Awakenings, but they had no idea of my secret.

We resumed sparring, and it wasn't long before the muscles in my arms and legs began to protest.

"What will be the first stage of your siren's awakening?" Mother threw a punch at me. I slipped to the side, blocked her with my front hand, and redirected her fist.

"The ability to bend the will of captive animals," I panted.

"Then?" Her knee slammed into my stomach.

I stumbled back, gasping for air. When I could speak, I answered, "With practice, I will be able to control any creature of the land, wild or free. Including humans."

"What next?" Her voice was a melodic whisper as she strode towards me, long slender legs showing through the slits in her gown.

"Gradually, and with practice, I will be able to bend the minds of even the most powerful immortals, as you do."

"That's right." Like water filling the space between my brain and skull, my mother's powers invaded my mind. The familiar haze of her control fell over me, and she forced me to my knees. The more I resisted, the more it hurt. I cried out, squeezing my eyes shut. This was not the first time she had used her siren powers on me. I just needed to wait it out until she had proved her point.

My mother yelled, "Fight it! Fight back. Do you want to be taken advantage of? Forced to do someone else's bidding?"

"No," I groaned. It felt like my brain was expanding, pushing against the inside of my skull. As if held by invisible chains, my body went taut, and my head yanked back. I was forced to look at Cinderella. Though they watered, I refused to close my eyes.

"You want to live in fear? You want to sleep with one eye open, clutching a knife, in case a vampire or werewolf comes in the night to remove your head from your body?"

"No!"

"Then awaken your siren. Push me from your mind. Fight back against anyone who dares threaten you, or die like the rest of our kind."

Another wave of pain shot through my skull as my mother pressed her will ever more insistently upon me.

"There will be no prince waiting to save you Kira. At best, a male will lull you into a false sense of security and then abandon you in your weakest moment." Her voice was strained, her eyes dull with memories. There was a kind of desperation in the way she controlled me, worse than before. Despite the lancing pain, all I wanted was to be able to absorb my mother's demons into myself. I was not naive. I knew there were incomprehensible horrors in my mother's past. Why else would she fight so hard to make me strong?

I pushed back, ignoring the agony and trying to force her from my mind. If I could just drag my hand down far enough to reach my knife ... But it was useless. My siren lay dormant and my body frozen under her manipulation.

Sensing my intentions, Mother yanked the knife from my thigh sheath. She held it to my neck, and my mind blanked. For a moment, I believed she would do it, actually slit my throat.

"All you have is yourself. The other kingdoms will invade if you fail. They will kill you for what you are. You must grip the crown so tightly they have to peel it from your bloodied fingers. Be strong or die."

"Yes, Mother," I ground out.

My gaze caught on her chest. The gown dipped, revealing a scarlet rash over her breastbone. I'd never seen such a thing.

As if it was never there, the force on my mind lifted. I collapsed to the glass floor, gasping for breath and staring at my own warped reflection. I'd failed her. The click-clack of Cinderella's slippers receded. Come on, Kira. Suck it up, buttercup.I gathered my aching legs beneath me, preparing to stand. I lifted my gaze to the door just as Cinderella yanked it open.

"Guard, you may enter." My mother's words were a low purr. Aidan entered the room, his body stiff as if there were a disconnect between his mind and his movements. His eyes were glazed over. She was controlling him. Why?

"My darling daughter. If you are to be my heir, you must learn to overcome anything which would stand in our way, including your own weaknesses. You must become more than what you are." She handed Aidan my knife. Light reflected off it, momentarily blinding me.

"Watch, my daughter," she said, and he lifted the blade and held it to the base of his pinky finger. For a moment, awareness and accusation crossed his face. Then it was gone as he severed the digit from his hand.