“I can’t!” she spits, and rushes around the cage, planting herself in front of me. “You think I’d waste my time with the likes of you if I had any other option!?”
Shrugging, I don’t respond.
“No, I wouldn’t. I’m a runt, Succubus. Do you see how small I am?” She pushes herself back slightly, and I have nothing to compare her to, so how would I know? I’ve never met a Siren before, and she looks to be the same size as Sydni, who is about five-and-a-half feet.
“No,” I answer honestly.
“Look closer,” she demands.
Truly, I don’t want to, but what am I to do? I can’t kill myself. Can’t sit in silent misery. Can’t doshitbut entertain this creature in front of me.
So, I look closer.
Her head does appear small, but it could just be her wide shoulders. Then there is her fin; the tail only has one fluke, instead of two. Her scales look oily, which I can’t imagine is right. Then there are her hands that are coming back to grab the bars. It’s now that I notice one is significantly smaller than the other.
Our eyes meet, and nothing in my cold, dead, heart cares more or less than I had before.
“I gain nothing from helping you,” I say without kindness. “And even if you promised me something, I wouldn’t believe shit you say.” I can’tsmell anything, and I don’t sense any auras surrounding her. Plus, I think everything that has happened has mentally fucked me up, because even with Tali and the others, I couldn’t distinguish their truths from their lies.
“You’ll have a long sleep.” She counters my reasoning. “I won’t put the Dreb back in your throat and you can die for a long while.”
It’s tempting, but… still…
I look down at my chest.
“It will come back…” she continues. “Every part of your kind does, and that includes your heart.”
Squeezing my eyes tight, I put my metal-covered hands up over my face and shake my head. “You don’t understand, I can’t…”
“You can’t, or you are unwilling?”
“Both.” My tone is slipping from the strength I know I have, to that weak girl in my dream. The one I want to be because I’m so tired of being strong.
Sinnix’s voice raises. “It will come back!”
“It isn’t mine to give you. What don’t you get?!”
“Selfish—”
“I am!” I scream and begin pulling myself from the sand. “I couldn’t protectanythingelse! My body! My mind! Everything they’ve taken from me!EVERYTHING!” My tears blend into the water, my muted sobs bubbling out of my lips. “They don’twantmy heart, and it’s the only part I’ve kept from them. It’s the last part of him I have.”
We stare at one another, my body just far enough away from her that she can’t grab onto me through the bars.
“I am not sorry for trying to protect what little I have left of him.”
Sinnix hasn’t allowedme to die again, but I’m sure in no time I’ll starve to death.
“How long have I been down here?” This is the first time I’ve initiated a conversation with her, but I’m curious enough to ask the question.
“A full moon cycle.” She is resting on the seabed; her shoulder pressed against my prison bars. The constant berating for my heart has stopped, and I think she’s just hoping that I’ll give up one of these days.
My desire to see Kai, even in my dream, is beginning to make me think I will inevitably give up, but I’m hoping she’ll die before me, or I will under some sort of duress.
“Twenty-seven days?” I ask, needing clarification.
“Thirty-three moon risings to be exact.”
“Can’t you just fucking say days?”
