Serenade: A Novel by Emily Kiebel

Author:Emily Kiebel
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781940716046
Publisher: SparkPress
Published: 2014-07-15T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“You feeling better?” asked Deidre, placing a mug and small teapot on Lorelei’s bedside table.

“I feel fine. Actually, I feel great. Can I come downstairs yet?” Lorelei pleaded.

“Nope. The doctor says you need to rest a little longer. You don’t just get hypothermia one day and pretend it didn’t happen. Sorry.”

Lorelei sat up in bed and poured herself a cup of tea. The truth was, she still felt weak, but she was tired of the round-the-clock care given her since the incident at Monomoy Island. She had told the doctor that she had slipped and fallen overboard, not wanting him to think that she had jumped in intentionally. Once back at the Deleaux’s, Lorelei had told the others what had happened and Helen spent the last two days trying to determine what it was that Lorelei experienced.

“Are there any updates?” Lorelei asked.

“Helen was on the phone with Veronique Merchansons this morning. None of the sirens in Montreal have seen anything out of the ordinary lately. And nothing unusual in Virginia or the Southern coast, either. But Veronique does have a theory.”

“Go on…”

“She thinks it might have been a banshee.”

“A banshee?”

“It’s only a theory, but she remembered a story her grandmother had told her once that sounded similar to what happened to you.”

“Back up just a second. What exactly is a banshee?”

Deidre sat down on the bed beside Lorelei, “They’re basically rogue sirens.”

“Huh?”

“Every once in a while, a siren turns away from her family. She either gets pissed off and leaves, or simply decides to go it on her own. Most of them are just crazy old women who live solitary lives and don’t do much harm, but every once in a while, one of them gets angry enough that they try to tempt fate. Banshees live outside the realm of Idis, but they still have their powers. It doesn’t happen very often, but they’ve been known to terrorize entire towns, and they can get violently mean. The thing about the banshees—well, they aren’t doing the work of the Fates anymore, but because they’re separated from the Song, they literally go mad. An aggressive banshee usually believes she’s doing the work of the Fates when she’s busy killing people, but that’s just because she’s become so disconnected from reality.”

“What would make a siren choose to leave her family?”

“Usually because they’ve had some sort of disagreement with the matriarch of their assembly. The eldest member of each family has the final say on all decisions, and some sirens have a difficult time living under the authority of another. We all know that someday we’ll each have a turn to be in charge, and our whole life is spent learning and leading up to that day, so that when we finally are the head of the household, we’ll make wise decisions and be able to teach the new sisters that join us. Personally, I think it sounds awful. Too much pressure.”

“And a simple disagreement would be enough to make a siren turn her back on her whole life?” Lorelei asked.

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