How (Not) to Soothe a Siren by Reeves Elizabeth A

Author:Reeves, Elizabeth A [Reeves, Elizabeth A]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2016-02-17T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

I was a long moment before I was together enough to realize that our guide, the Huntsman, was absent from his usual space of looming on the road ahead of us.

“Coward,” I muttered.

“No,” Asher said clearly. “No. No. No. No.”

“What are you saying ‘no’ about, huh, little guy?” I asked, swooping him up in the air and making him laugh. “I thought you weren’t supposed to get into that stage until you were two!”

Asher blew a raspberry and stuck his foot in his mouth.

“Babies, like cats,” Merlin said, seriously, “appear to be made of paradox.”

A rustling in the grass alerted me that we were not alone. Gealbhan shifted, letting me get a better look.

Faerie was a strange place. I should have expected anything.

But, I hadn’t expected to see seven barefoot maidens wearing white gowns, with their long hair flowing down their back, waiting patiently for us to realize that they were there.

“I hope we did not startle you,” the girl in the front, with the long golden hair, said, her voice a soft alto.

The other maidens giggled softly, as if she had uttered something hilarious. I believed they might be tittering. I had never actually heard a titter, though I had read that they existed. I thought I might be encountering real, honest, tittering in its natural habitat.

Even if the gowns, hair, and white dresses—not to mention the ridiculously beautiful faces of the maidens—had not alerted me that the girls were Magical, I could not have missed the aura of power around them, even if I’d been blindfolded and drugged for good measure.

“I believe we have you to thank for our timely rescue,” I said.

“Oh, pooh,” said the strawberry blond. “We wanted to surprise you.”

“It’s not like we walked out here barefoot or anything, Aurora,” said another girl, this one with copper curls. She shivered delicately. “We would have gotten all muddy.”

“Girls,” the leader said, her voice gentle. “Do hush up.”

“Yes, hush up, Nuala,” Aurora hissed. “They’re going to have the worst impression about us.”

Someone behind me snorted. I thought it might be Madi, but I couldn’t be sure.

The leader sighed deeply, her eyes pointing to the sky as if she was praying for patience. “My sisters and I welcome you to our land,” she said, her voice musical. She shifted and her gown fluttered, as if it had been made of thousands of feathers.

“Seven swan sisters,” Merlin said, a rather feline smile spreading across his face underneath his atrocious beard. “So… serendipitous.”

Now it was my turn to stifle a snort. Once a cat, always a cat, I supposed.

Unlike the ice giants, I had met swan sisters before. They almost always lived and roamed in groups of seven—which, I supposed, had was because seven was a Magical number, which could offer them safety and security. Like selkies, swan sisters changed form by donning or doffing their Magical skins. Like selkies, they did not just have Magic—they were Magical by nature.

“We have been expecting you,” the leader said. “My name is Viveka.

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