The soft velvet of the mare's fur beneath my fingertips grounded me as I attempted to keep the back of my body far away from Oren's.
Despite the warmth that attempted to stretch between us like a welcoming hand, beckoning me to relax back against him, to lower my guard and allow his body to shield me from the wicked cold that had crept into the caves we'd been traversing for over twelve hours, I did not slump back against him.
After the piercing arrow of shock that Soraya had delivered after I'd attempted to glean the truth out of Inala had fallen upon my shoulders, the rest of the group had fallen silent yet again until Oren beckoned them to travel with us.
They'd roped their own horse to the carriage and decided to take a break from riding on the saddle and took up residence inside the small carriage while I decided to ride on the horse with Oren, much to his surprise.
It was only after we were well on our way that I languished over the questions of what they were doing traveling in the caves in the first place, and why if they'd been headed the opposite direction they'd decide to go back the way they had come to travel with us.
"You're rather quiet for someone who couldn't stop complaining the first half of the trip."
"I don't see how I possibly could have complained while drugged and gagged and tied up out of ear shot."
Oren tensed behind me, the stiffening of his muscles flowing through that energy of warmth that was still coaxing me, still stroking my cloak-clad back, still whispering to me to simply relax.
"I meant when you were in the carriage with Inala. Your talk of escape and whatnot."
"Oh. You mean when she called you a dog? I rather liked that moment of the trip."
I could've sworn I heard a snort of laughter come from the carriage.
Continuing on, the slow and steady clomp-clomp-clomping of the hooves against stone echoed off the cave walls as the passage grew more narrow and my breath thinned.
The glowing crystals ranging in shades from an electric blue to a vivid green, the colors casting shadows off the walls were awash in an eerie tinged luster that made me think of the monsters hiding in the corners of my nightmares as a child.
That warmth pulsing behind my back attempted to soothe the thoughts that had been running through my mind of old nightmares and invisible monsters instead of the one behind me, but instead of an invisible hand trying to comfort me, the energy transformed into that of a lone finger, sliding down the back of my neck and raising chills along my skin.
I shuddered in both revulsion and pleasure, though those two emotions need not be placed together, ever.
"Are you alright?"
Oren's voice was entirely too far away and yet not close enough at the same time.
I needed to focus, to clear out my straying and drifting thoughts and ask him questions, try and glean the truth from answers that he might guard from me, and discern whether I was making the right decisions or not.
I couldn't do any of those things if he was attempting to seduce me.
Again.
I pushed myself back against his solid body and suddenly that pulse of energy between us flared and winked out like the blowing out of a candle in the night, as if all that power had wanted was for me to do exactly what I had done, to relax back against Oren's front and...surrender.
Perhaps I was surrendering the battle in order to find the secrets I needed to win the war that was coming my way.
I pretended to get comfortable against him, shuffling my back even closer into him as his warm breath coasted past my ear, flicking a few stray strands of my hair (a veritable bird's nest at this point) and turned my face into him.
"Tell me about this Siren community you're taking me to," I said softly, my hands no longer glued to the pommel of the saddle and instead placed strategically atop his upper thighs.
He sucked in a breath at my hand placement but did not point out how precariously close I was to touching his most favorite part.
I would've snorted if I believed any of this was inherently funny, in any way.
I didn't know much about Oren's gifts, but the way that he'd lulled me into a lust addled fog with not his touch but his mind, I realized that the energy that had been blasting between my back and his front only moments ago was of his own creation as well, but the question I wanted answered was why.
Why did he feel the need to seduce me, to lure me into a false sense of security, as if he had something far more wicked in store for me?
"What would you like to know?"
"Everything. Why they know about me, what it's like there, the temperament of the Sirens who live there..." I trailed off, not trying to be too obvious that I was trying to glean information from him by feigning to trust him by allowing myself to 'relax' against him.
One of his hands dropped the reins and placed both in one hand, the other coming to snare itself around my waist, and for a moment I couldn't breathe.
His grip was tight, but not suffocating. He didn't know that it made me feel trapped, stuck, unable to escape.
I took a few deep, calming breaths to chase away the lingering panic that always flooded my veins at the mere thought of being trapped against a man I didn't know.
"They live in the large cove placed between the Temples of the Gods and the white sea cliffs with a large mountain range at their backs. They remained hidden by allowing a mage inside their community long ago who placed magical wards all along the edges of their city making them invisible to the outside eye, and Hefeta has been hidden ever since."
"Hefeta? That's the community's name?"
"Yes. Named after the demigod born into the world by the goddess Nalini, Hefeta created the Sirens and an entire community of them in order to increase their numbers and keep them safe."
"The Goddess Nalini's daughter created the Sirens? My sister always told me it was the sea god Jarek who created them in his anger for the sailors who didn't respect his waters."
"A common mistake in the lore by those who've never lived amongst their kind. The sea god is rarely involved in creating much of anything, aside from waves and natural disasters."
I tried to come up with a good follow up question that wouldn't make it seem like I was prying too much, but Oren continued before I could speak again.
"The Elders you will meet are Hefeta's great-grandchildren."
I sucked in a shocked breath. Depending upon Hefeta's age, the Elders had to have been...
"They are descendants of an actual goddess?"
"Yes, but Nalini's child Hefeta did not give birth to all of the Siren line physically, only imbuing the line with the powers she chose to give them. As far as the Elders go, though, they're quite ancient, so don't stare too long into their eyes, or legend says they could tear your soul right from your body."
My heart sped up in my chest before Oren's chuckle rattled my body that had practically molded itself to him.
"You are not funny," I quipped, even as my cheeks stung from the blush that crawled along the skin there from falling for his lie.
"I take offense to that, Lady Josephine."
"Just Josephine," I corrected, cheeks burning even more as his arm around my waist tightened by a tiny fraction.
"Shall I call you 'Just Josephine' from now on? What about those previous names I'd found for you? I believe...temptress was one of them," he spoke directly into my ear.
His breath tickled the sensitive inner shell of my ear as a shudder tore through me.
"Are you trying to flirt with your kidnap-ee? I believe there are rules against that, you know."
"Oh, are there now?"
"M-hmm. I do feel your employers will be very disappointed in you. Whoever they might be..."
"You must think you're so clever, Josephine. So very clever."
"What? Am I not allowed to flirt back with my kidnapper? Are there rules against that as well?"
"Maybe if that were all you were doing. I can't give away my secrets so easily, Siren."
I glanced at the glowing crystals lining the walls, at the strong and steady mare beneath my legs, anywhere aside from the man pressed so tightly behind me.
Just as my head kicked back onto his chest and I sucked in a greedy breath tinged with the scent of cinnamon and smoke, the glow of the crystals began to lessen, and soon we were plunged into absolute and total darkness.
I gasped out as a sharp cool wind barreled into the cave just as Oren removed his arm from my waist and withdrew a long, broad sword from his back, the metal whooshing out of its sheath as the rattle of something terrifying grew in the caves.
"What was that?"
Oren ignored me as he handed me the reins and I fumbled for them, unable to make out anything in the utter pitch darkness.
The horses had stopped moving just as the others jumped out of the carriage, my ears alerting me to their feet reaching the stone floor.
"Oren?"
My voice was a weak whimper against my lips, but still he didn't answer me, only placing his hand against my mouth and for a moment, it was only Oren's gritty and sweat lined hand pressed to my lips, his sword drawn in his other, and my body shaking as if a leaf in a windstorm.
The rattling in the cave grew to a fever pitch and I dropped the reins to cover my ears as the sound invaded my senses, splitting my skull with its ferocity and a tremor coursed through me as the gift demanded to be let out.
It had been so long since I'd last unleashed it.
When had I last poured my voice out?
It had been too long.
I was being careless and reckless and if I didn't sing it out of me soon, it would come tearing out of me just as relentless as the sound bearing down upon us so suddenly.
"I can'tâ" I gasped out, hoping that Oren could understand me around his hand covering my mouth.
My breaths came in quicker and quicker pants, but I couldn't stop it, and it was as if I were nothing more than an explosion, perfectly timed to go off around others who could be vulnerable to its after effects.
"Don't open your mouth, Josephine!"
I could hardly hear Inala's voice over the rushing winds and the deep rattling that crawled over my shoulders and settled like a slimy film that would likely never wash away.
"Cover your ears!"
Oren's warning was the last thing that I heard as he removed his hand from my mouth and the gift unleashed from inside of me.
The song told my beautifully tragic story, one of a girl who was in love with a boy whom she could never be with, not truly, as she had to run for her life, and disappear every year.
But suddenly, every year turned into twice a year, and then hiding became a seasonal clock, changing identities and locations just as the leaves died and the snow came, just as the snow melted away and new flowers bloomed in its place.
The words bled into a different language, a language of old that I'd never spoken nor heard before but I could still comprehend every word and every letter like it was my own, and the story suddenly changed as the notes crescendoed, lilting and running down a scale of notes until the story was a mere afterthought, but still I held onto the tether before it could swallow me whole.
The new story being told through my voice was not one that I'd heard of before.
The woman in the story was powerful, the daughter of a goddess. Untouched on earth by the celestial influence of the gods.
Until the gods discovered her, discovered her beauty, and wanted it for themselves.
They fought to attain it, but she didn't want it, she didn't want any of them, but they didn't take no for an answer.
Tears slid down my face and pooled around the corners of my mouth, their salty brine unable to stop the voice that battled ceaselessly against the raging rattle in the caves that had even Oren covering his ears against, but I did not stop.
Not even as the golden blood ran down the sides of my face from my own ears.
Not even as the rattle with notes and lyrics transformed into a shrieking, pain filled cry that damaged any other resolve left within me.
My voice turned smoldering, fire lancing up through my throat and pouring out of my mouth in an incandescent white smoke that filled the air around us in a fog lit from within.
Wherever the white smoke unfurled, something shrieked even louder as a burning hiss filled the air around us.
I could faintly recall that I was still astride a poor mare who was whinnying in pain as the singeing white fire smoke that tumbled out of my outstretched mouth continued its assault on the thing that was attacking us, but I had no time to discern friend from foe, not as the ground shook from the force of the combined sounds, rocks rattling and tumbling andâ
Oren grabbed hold of the reins and kicked his thighs into the side of the mare that didn't have to be told twice to go.
I didn't know what happened to everyone else who had stepped outside of the carriage, not as my voice turned into an incoherent shriek in my chest even as Oren's energy wrapped itself around me like a blanketâin that moment, it was no comfort, but rather a barrier, something to keep me enclosed and caged and I couldn't take it anymore.
The white hot smoke became a beam of light as it took form into something more solid and illuminated the things that had created the noise, the creatures that slid along the walls and tried to impede our journey.
Tiny things they were, mouths half opened in silent screams as they stared out with blank, dead eyes into the piercing light of my gift.
Leathery wings attached to their bird-like bodies, half the size of a hawk with black hair and needle sharp beaks parted to allow for their cries to penetrate the ears of its unsuspecting victims.
My mouth closed as a shaft of light poured through an opening in the caves and I slumped back in exhaustion as the rest of the creatures became burned upon contact with the sunlight.
I was weak with pain and filled with anguish for the woman from the song that I'd never once heard, terrified and half out of my mind as I coughed and blood spattered my hand.
Oren had yet to speak.
I didn't even know if the others were still in the carriage behind us or if I had killed Yuni with my voice.
I couldn't think about any of that as, yet again in Oren's presence, I grew unconscious and my body finally rested, dreaming of a woman being courted by almost all twelve gods, and saying no to every single one of them.
***
Author's Note:
What did you think about this chapter?
What do you think will happen next?
What do you want to happen next?
Any theories or ideas about what Josephine is or why she can do what she can?
Any idea the might of her full powers?
And what about Oren? Any ideas about him and their romance?
Let me know what you think of the story so far!
Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)
***
The World of Irena: