“Go back to where you came from,” I tell Lira. “Right now.”

As though it’s apossibility that I let Lira live because I really am that stupid and not becauseI really am that human.

I wish I had killed her. I wish she hadkilled me

“Oh, I’m not a recruit,” Lira says. “I’m just here to kill him.” She starespointedly at the princess. “And anyone else who gets in my way.”

I think of the taste of her kiss, with the stories of stars roofing us. Anentire galaxy watched while her body curved into mine. As she asked me tokiss her and it was all I could do to keep myself steady.

then she would have killed me.Lira would have killed me.

where Elian stands.His face is slack and expressionless, eyes lingering on the eye in my hand. Iblanch and my heart goes still in my chest. Suddenly nothing feels solidexcept for the air that lodges itself in my throat.I believe in you.For a moment I entertain the pitiful notion that maybe he didn’t hear. Butwhen his eyes hit mine, I know he knows. I know he has pieced together thepuzzle I tried so hard to shatter. And when he reaches for his sword, I knowthis night will end in blood.

I WAS SUPPOSED TO be happy when it failed

I give him a carefree smile. “I told you that I would be useful to keeparound.”

He’s suspicious – perhaps he always was – and though he has everyright to be and part of me is proud of him for it, it hurts all the same. Icannot be trusted and it kills me that he might know that.

Lies and lies, all mingling with half-truths on my tongue.

Elian’s hand finds mine. He squeezes, just once,and everything in me quickens. Heats. My body curves toward him and Ipress my free hand to the glacier walls. When we find the curve to thecorner, Yukiko’s light illuminates our faces once more.I don’t drop Elian’s hand.

Elian’s glovedhand hovers dangerously close to mine, and though I feel the air spark andwarm between us, I don’t look at him

And he does.

“You said I was more charming when I was unconscious.”

“Are you ever going to kiss me?”Slowly, Elian says, “That’s not a favor.”

“Genocide doesn’t seem quite right, does it?

Because I can’t help but hateseeing him stand submissively by her, not giving him a choice in his ownfuture. Using him for her devious plans, just like I intended to. It’s too muchof a reminder of my life before the Saad. Before Elian made me realizewhat it was like to be free. The very person who gave me a glimpse of hopeis now so willing to sacrifice his own.

Yukiko is Elian’s side effect, as the Flesh-Eater was mine.

“You maycare about her,” Yukiko says, “but it won’t change anything. Love is not forprinces, and it’s most certainly not for kings. You promised me that youwould become a king. My king. I want to remind you of that promise.”

There’s part of me that wantsto – a part larger than I’d like to admit – but I wouldn’t know what to say ifI did.

Always a prince, never just a man.

“You’re putting your entire kingdom in danger by letting yourself bemanipulated by a power-hungry princess who—”She breaks off and looks to the floor with an unreadable expression

“Are you really going to marry her?” she asks, and then shakes her headlike she doesn’t want to know the answer. “It’s a smart plan, I suppose,” shesays. “You get the Crystal of Keto and an alliance with a powerful kingdom.Even if you have to give up life on the Saad, you still come out a winner.”Her forced smile falters a little at the last part, and when she speaks again,her voice is quiet and severe. “You never quite seem to lose, do you,Elian?”

Lira snatches her hand from mine. “Kye thought it was funny.”“While I’m glad the two of you are bonding, you should try to rememberthat Kye is an idiot.”

our locked hands

I squeeze my hand across her waist to silence her.

“I wonder if she can feel anything at all,” Lira says. She shifts, and whenshe turns to me, her eyes are vacant. “I suppose we won’t need to wonderfor long.”

“Do you really hate the sirens that much?” she asks.“They kill our kind.”“And you kill theirs.”My eyebrows pinch together. “That’s different,” I say. “We do what wedo to survive. They do it because they want to see us all dead.”“So it’s revenge, then?”“It’s retribution.” I sit up a little straighter. “It’s not as though the sirenscan be reasoned with. We can’t just sign a peace treaty like with the otherkingdoms.”“Why not?”The distance in Lira’s voice gives me pause. The answer should comequick and easy: because they’re monsters, because they’re killers, becauseof a thousand reasons. But I don’t say any of them. Truthfully, the idea ofthis not ending in death never crossed my mind. Of all the outcomes andpossibilities I considered, peace wasn’t one. If I had the opportunity, wouldI take it?

A blanket iswrapped loosely around her shoulders, and when it slips, she shrugs ithigher

I think of Crestell, shielding Kahlia from me and laying down her ownlife instead.Become the queen we need you to be.

I don’t know why, but Elian has evoked the same feral feeling that used tobe reserved only for her. The desire to allow sparks of loyalty and humanityin me to take hold. We’re the same, he and I. Just as looking into mycousin’s eyes feels like looking into a memory of my own childhood, beingaround Elian feels like being around an alternate version of myself.Reflections of each other in a different kingdom and a different life. Brokenpieces from the same mirror. There are worlds between us, but that seemsmore like semantics than tangible evidence of how dissimilar we are.

I pushed him from the bullet the same way he pulled me from the ocean.Without thinking or weighing up what it could mean or how it might benefit

He shrugs. “Maybe. But the little circus medic fixed you up okay. Heeven taught me how to dress your wound so he could focus on helping theship stay afloat.” Kye nods to the bandages with a smug look. “Prettyperfect, aren’t they? My first.”

I picture Lira, and it’s like I can feel her cold blood drippingthrough my hands like melted ice. If she dies, then my plan and this entiremission dies with her. More than anything, I’m counting the minutes untilour rookie engineer emerges and tells me that everything is fine. That Liradidn’t die for me and that she can still offer the last piece of the puzzle tofree the Crystal of Keto from its cage.

Nail marks so similar to theones along my own chest.I hesitate, caught off guard as a distorted image of the Princes’ Baneflashes across my mind. She could have snapped my neck or done anymanner of things to disable me, but she let her claws tear slowly throughmy chest instead. That was the thing about sirens. They always wentstraight for the heart.

“I saved a monkey with a knife wound to the ribs once. There was anaccident with a balloon bursting. It’s not that different.”

“I don’t want her to die, Elian.” Kye squeezes my arm, keeping mesteady as the fraying parts inside threaten to dismantle me. “I never did.Besides” – Kye shoves a hand into his pocket and sighs through the nextwords – “she protected you when I couldn’t.”

m not sure how long I was dead, because my father refuses to speak ofsuch things and I never asked my mother. It felt like an eternity. After, theworld must have felt particularly sorry for me, because of all the crazy,deadly things I’ve done since – which far outweigh a mile-long swim – I’mstill alive. Untouched by another brush of mortality. Made invincible,somehow, by that first fatality.

“Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Elian says.“Too late.”He grins. He’s still grinning when I see Rycroft’s head rise from thefloorboards. The pirate’s hand is at his waist in barely any time at all, andwhen he lifts it into the air, I’m surprised to see that the pistol is as black assquid ink. Just as Elian turns his head – as his crew lurches forward inpanic – a shot fires out.It’s not the first time I’ve heard a gun fired, but the sound seems louder. Itshudders through my bones and drums in beat with my heart. Everything isa rush of sounds. The smell of gunpowder and the awful scream of warningthat shoots from Kye’s lips. And then Elian. The way his smile drops whenhe notices the dread in my eyes. Three life debts.It’s almost a reflex when I push him out of the bullet’s path.There is an instant quiet that blankets the room. A fragment of a secondwhen the world seems to have lost all sound. And then I feel it. The pain ofscorching metal tearing through my human skin.

When he turns back to me, his eyes flicker over my face. His lips tense toa thin line as he notices the scrapes burning into my cheek. The blood thatcovers me, so much of it my own and so much of it not mine at all.“What are you doing here?” I ask.He shrugs. “What I do best.”“Getting on my last nerve?”“Saving you,” he replies, picking up his sword. “This is the second time.Not that I’m counting.”It’s the third, actually, if we count how he pushed me from Rycroft’s pathon the deck of the ship. Elian may not be counting, but I am.“I can’t believe you came back for me,” I say.I don’t bother to keep the gratitude from my voice.

When he reaches me, he throws it to the floor andbraces my shoulders. His smile is like nothing I have ever seen.I say the first thing I can think of, mirroring his words to me fromEidýllio. “I’m pretty sure I got rid of you already.”

Elian doesn’t even glance at Tallis Rycroft.

with a piece ofRycroft inking the corner of my lips and a smile like the devil goddess whomade us all. I swipe my tongue across my lips, snarling as his filthy bloodclots in the edges of my teeth.

Elian left because I told him to and he would have stayed if I had asked. Hewould have died, perhaps, if I would have let him. But I didn’t. I salvagedsome small part of myself that I forgot existed – a part I was so sure mymother had gutted from me – and I let him go

Elian must have missed anyarteries.

her heir, or simply command theFlesh-Eater to help make her a new one.

The girl he can’t seem to save.“Go,” I tell him.Elian’s eyes harden. Darken. That green disappearing under a whirlpoolof anger. “Being a martyr doesn’t suit you,” he says.“Just go,” I hiss.“I’m not just going to leave you here.”The sound of gunfire pierces the air. And a scream – a roar of fury – soloud that I wince. Elian turns to the doorway. Outside, his crew could bedying. The men and women he calls family marking their lives as forfeit tosave their captain. And for what? For him to surrender his own life to savethe very monster he has been hunting? A girl who has been plotting to stealhis heart from under him? A traitor in every sense of the word.Both of us have put our lives and our kingdoms on the line to find the eyeand overthrow my mother. If nothing else, I won’t stand by and watchsomeone else lose their kingdom just so I won’t be alone when I lose mine.“Elian.” My voice takes on a murderous calm.“I—”“Run!” I scream, and to my surprise, he does.

I stare in disbelief as he tries to pull his hand from therestraints, his left thumb now slack.

“Lira?” His voice is as coarse as sand. He must see blood somewhere – itseems to be everywhere – because the next thing he asks is, “Where are youhurt?”Again, I lick the crack in my lip where Tallis struck me.The blood is warm and bitter.“I’m not.” I angle my face away so he doesn’t see otherwise. “You bledall over me.”Elian’s laugh is more of a scoff. “Charming as ever,” he says.

I whip my head back a secondtoo late, and a blinding pain explodes against my skull.

“Maybe not,” Lira says. “But it was funny.”

Lira pulls out the small dagger she slipped into her boot earlier, and Ipress my back to hers. Rycroft’s shadows surround us, and from the cornerof my eye, I see snipers gather on the quarterdeck. I can take a dozen men,maybe, but even I’m not bulletproof. And Lira, for all the fire that runsthrough her veins, is not invincible.

I smirk and look over at Lira. She blinks, not in shock, but as though sheis considering what he’s saying like a proposition rather than a threat. Ifshe’s scared, she does a good job of hiding it.She lifts her rum from the table with a slow and steady hand. “Just so weunderstand each other,” she says, swirling the goblet indifferently, “I’m nothis lady.”Before I can register the look on Rycroft’s face, Lira lurches forward andthrows the golden liquid straight into his eye. Rycroft lets out an ungodlyhowl, and I jump to my feet, knife drawn as the pirate clutches his facewhere the gold dust slices with every blink

bristle. Rycroft had played the seducer, using a charm conjured fromhell knows where, while I had put my country on the line. He had nothingto lose, so he’d traded nothing. Whereas I had an entire kingdom to lose andI’d offered it at a bargain price. Too caught up in my own crusade to evenstop to think. Pathetic. I was starting to feel really damn pathetic.

The one who started this quest by pointing me in thedirection of the Sea Queens’s weakness.He’s one of the Xaprár.It was Rycroft who sent me after the crystal.

I let a flicker of practiced irritation cross over my features. “Not going tohappen.”

His eyes flicker to Lira and she smiles coyly. I didn’t realize she wascapable of looking coy, but it seems I’ve underestimated her skills of deceit.She wraps a winding piece of hair around her finger, so convincing that I

When Lira runs her tongue over her lips, my hands unclench and theanger seeps from me. Everything she does is sensual, playing her part asperfectly as she can. Or maybe she doesn’t need to act and simply enjoysthe lustful way Rycroft’s teeth scrape his lip when he watches her.

There is a spot of blood on her tongue when she licks her lips, fromthe shards of gold that dance inside the bottle.

keep my arm wrappedprotectively around Lira

Never a pirate, always a prince

Adeep burgundy turban wraps around his head, and from it large pieces ofgold and silver hang like droplets,

I widen my eyes, outraged, but Lira only smiles.“Just remember,” she says, blue eyes glistening,“if you want this scum tobelieve you and I could be together” – her voice echoes with shamelessdisbelief – “then you need to take off that ridiculous hat.”“Just you remember,” I say as we step out from behind the shrubs andapproach my lounging rival, “if we’re caught, there’s no way in hell I’mrisking my neck to save you.”

but to hunt the Princes’ Bane and her sea witch mother, or hold aprince whose heart does not beat but crashes like ocean waves

I make to take her hand and head toward Rycroft’s ship, when Kye grabson to my shirtsleeve. He doesn’t need to say anything; I can read the look inhis eyes telling me that he’d rather be the one by my side if we’re going togo head-on with Rycroft. Truth be told, I’d feel better having him there too.Thing is, as pretty as Kye might find himself, I don’t think Rycroft wouldagree, and what I need right now is an inconspicuous companion, not apirate-shaped protector.

“If you’re ready,” I say to Lira,“I give you permission to risk your life forme.”She lifts her chin. There’s something about the way she carries herselfthat reminds me of the women at court. She has the air of someone with alifetime of never knowing anything but her own way. I know because I havean identical look. Though I try to hide it, I know it’s still there. Theentitlement. The stubbornness that can never truly be lost.It’s not a look that belongs on the face of a lost orphan girl.

strolling through the docks with a new woman onhis arm, too brazen to be a sleuth or a spy . . . that just might work

She looks like a portrait, with deep copper hair pulled fromher star-freckled face, only confirming the fact that she isn’t capable oflying low. Not saying whatever crosses her damned mind. Lira can keepsecrets but she can’t, by any stretch of the imagination, keep peace. While Ihave ample practice in pretend, there’s too much fire in Lira’s eyes for suchthings. Some people burn so brightly, it’s impossible to put the flames out.Thankfully, that’s just what I need.

Kléftes breeds thieves, but more than that it breeds ghosts. Men andwomen traded like cattle, reared to be demons and killers and whatever elsetheir masters demand. Subject to the whims of slavers who would soonersell their own people than lose a trinket. They are trained to be as invisibleas they are deadly, able to sweep in through the night unnoticed and carryout deeds that never could be done in the true light of day.

but I know the most likely of them is anarranged marriage, ordered by the Midasan king to bind their kingdom toanother. Maybe the weight Elian carries is born from the shackles of a royallife and a kingdom that is unwanted but needed all the same. It’s somethingI can understand. Another similarity between us that I’d be blind not tonote. In the pits of our souls – if I amuse myself with the notion that I havea soul – Elian and I aren’t so different. Two kingdoms that come withresponsibilities we each have trouble bearing. Him, the shackles of beingpinned to one land and one life. Me, trapped in the confines of my mother’smurderous legacy. And the ocean, calling out to us both. A song of freedomand longing.OceanofPDF.com

I’m supposed to say, and something about the moment seems so personal –too personal – that I find myself searching for anything to fill the quiet.“You’re right,” I tell him, trying to shake the melancholy from my voice.“Spending a lifetime with you would be a sacrifice.”“Oh?” A glow returns to Elian’s eyes and he smiles as though the lastfew seconds didn’t happen. Erasing whatever parts of his past he doesn’twant to remember.“What would you be losing?” he asks.“If I married you?” I stand to tower above him, pushing away theunraveling thing inside me. “I suppose it would be my mind.”I turn, and the ricochets of his laughter follow me out of the room. Buteven with that infectious melody, I can’t shake the look that crossed his facewhen I mentioned marriage. It makes me more curious than I ought to be.

“I don’t want it to be that way,” Elian says. “When I marry, it won’t beabout power.”“What will it be, then?”“Sacrifice.”His voice is crisp. There’s a certainty to it, as though he’s resigned to thefact rather than proud of it. He swallows, just loud enough to catch me offguard, and the action makes me shift, his discomfort snaking through the airtoward me.Elian’s eyes drop to the floor, and I feel as though I’ve exposed him orhe’s laid himself bare and suddenly regrets it. Either way, I’m not sure what

I think back to the Flesh-Eater and the way my mother’s voice turnedinto a song when she told me she had chosen her finest warrior to continueour line. The orange rusted blood in the corners of his lips as he regardedme with a mix of hunger and regimented disinterest. And on the Saad, justnights before, when he claimed me even in my human body. An uneasinesscreeps through me at the memory

Elian and I sittogether. We plot in the most ghastly ways, scheming through each detail ofhis plan, including how to get the princess her family’s necklace withoutgetting a bullet in our hearts. Key points I’m keen to clarify.

I look to Elian, who stands like a statue beside me. It’s surprising not tohear him chime in with his crew’s tender insults, or smile as they carelesslythrow cheers around. He brings his hand to the back of his neck, unsurewhat to do with himself when he’s not smiling.

“Fine. I look forward to you layingdown your life for mine, comrade,” at which point I debate whether or notto push him back down the stairs.

In the reflection, I see Elian. He stands behind me with an amusedexpression, leaning against the doorway, his arms tangled over his chest. Hedoesn’t say anything, and we continue to watch each other through thepathway of glass until an odd feeling washes over me, worse than dread.

The Flesh-Eater takesahold of my chin and jerks my face to his so I can smell the sour blood onhis breath. When he slides his viscous lips against mine, I keep deadly still.My teeth grate together, but it’s only seconds before I feel flesh crawlingalong my tongue. I can taste the decay in him.

Ridges crisscross down its body like scars, patched by motes of gray thatseep into its flesh. Each of its fins are set apart in razors, and its large torsois carved into endless folds, leading to arms that end in inky talons. Half-shark, half something far more demonic.The Flesh-Eater.

Thinking of Elian makes the night seem colder. I know whichever plan Igo with will lead to his death. Either I try to kill him now, or I wait to killhim after, but there’s no path I’ve mapped out for myself that doesn’t endalongside his life.Every action will betray. Every choice will slaughter. Despite what mymother says, I seem to be the exact kind of monster she wanted.

There’s something about the easy routine of the Saad that settles theawful parts holding true inside my heart. Nights are spent taking in theuncanny tranquility of the ocean, far from my mother’s wrath, and thecrew – even Kye, who isn’t at all afraid to be entirely unwelcoming – offersa unique comfort. The easy rapport they share reminds me of home. OfKahlia. They look at Elian the same way my cousin looks at me: withdevotion that isn’t offered in blind fidelity, but earned through somethingfar deeper. Trust. Friendship. Maybe even love. At the very least, I canpretend not to be my mother’s daughter. Live like I’ve never killed, andspend hours of a day without worrying that everything I do might be usedagainst me.I can almost see why Elian chose to abandon his birthright in favor ofsuch a nomadic life. Though I plan to return to the Diávolos Sea and takemy mother’s place, I can’t deny the appeal of a life spent far from theweight of kingdoms. It definitely isn’t the worst idea the prince has had.Most likely. At least he knows what he wants.

It’s an odd sensation to be able to sing and havenobody suffer a consequence for it. To use my voice in the completeopposite way it was intended, with neither death nor sorrow in its wake.Leaving behind nothing but a melody.I feel at peace.

My mission, my kingdom. The world. They existsomewhere other than in this moment, and now there is only this. Me, myship, and a girl with oceans in her eyes

it’s her feminine charm that’sspurred this whole thing on.As though she has any sort of charm

Lira places a hand on her hip and tries to pretend she doesn’t feel self-conscious, but it’s the first true thing I’ve seen on her face since we met.She may look like a pirate, but she’s got a way to go before she can pass forone.

I dare another look at Elian. His hat shields his eyes from the middaysun, but I can still feel them on me, watching. Waiting. For me to slip upand reveal my true intentions or, just maybe, for me to do something to earnhis loyalty. Let him watch. If Madrid has her way, the next time he sees me,I’ll be as much of a pirate as he is

“The men,” she says. “Ever since we pulled down to skeleton crew,there’s been too much testosterone aboard.”

Under order of the Sea Queen, these are the creatures we mate with.Before I was thrown into this curse, I was promised to the Flesh-Eater.Mermen have no time for names and other nonsenses and so we call themas they are: Phantom, Skinner, Flesh-Eater. While mermaids are fishthrough and through, laying eggs to be fertilized outside of their bodies,sirens are not as lucky. We must mate. And it’s the brutality and savagery ofthe mermen that make them a worthy combination to create more of ourmurderous race. At least, that’s what my mother says.

The truth is, I don’t. When it comes to relationships, I don’t know muchat all. In my kingdom, there’s no time to get to know someone or form abond. Humans speak of making love, but sirens are nothing if notregimented. We make love the same way we make war.

“You’re thinking too much,” Madrid says, settling beside me.“I’m making up for the people on this ship who don’t think at all.”

“Just so you know,” I say to Lira, “if you’re lying, I might kill you.”Lira tips her chin up, eyes defiant and too blue for me to look at herstraight. At first I’m not sure if she’s going to say anything back, but thenshe licks her lips and I know it’s because she can taste the sweetness ofwhatever insult she’s about to throw.“Maybe,” she says as the light whimpers against her skin, “I might justkill you first.”

Whenever I think of the people I’ve left behind, or the burdens of akingdom I’ll never feel ready to rule. If Lira’s story is true, then thenecklace probably belonged to the siren who killed her family. A talismanto remind her of the revenge she must carry out.

She reaches for my knife again, tentatively, and this time I let her. I cantell she’s enjoying the fact that I’m wary, as though it’s the greatestcompliment I could give. When her hand touches the knife, there’s a sparkin my chest, like a cog being pulled loose from a machine. I’ve always beenconnected to it in a way that I struggle to explain. When Lira touches it, Ifeel a sudden coldness passing from the blade through to my bones. I watchher with steady eyes, not risking a blink. She hesitates with the blade in herhands, as though considering all the possibilities it could bring. And thenshe takes a breath and swiftly cuts a line down my shirtsleeve.The blade grazes my skin but, miraculously, doesn’t draw blood.I snatch the knife back from her. “What do you think you’re doing?” Iask, surveying the tear below my shoulder.“Now you look like a pirate,” she says, and continues walking

Elian turns to him and gasps, placing a hand to his heart. “Gods,” hesays, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “What if she’s apirate?”

In spite of myself, I edge closer to Elian. There’s comfort in hispresence and how relaxed he disguises himself to be. As though he couldbelong anywhere if he truly wanted to.

Never the queen, always the minion.

I bite down on the corner of my lip and imagine holding somethingthat powerful.A knife that absorbs life and light.Elian’s stance goes rigid. His knuckles whiten on his hips, and his headtilts ever so slightly back toward the ship. To me. As though he can sensemy thoughts. When he turns, it’s slow and meaningful, and it takes a fewmoments for his eyes to find mine among his crew. He stares, unblinking,and just when I think he’s going to raise his hand and signal for Madrid toshoot me, or for Kye to throw me back into the crystal cave, he smirks. Theleft side of his mouth tugs upward, and the action, somehow, feels like adare.Then the look is gone and Elian turns to survey the rest of his crew.When he does, his smile becomes real and wide enough to dimple hisbronzed cheeks.

“What else do you need in life when you have love?” Madrid asks.Kye snorts. “Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?”Madrid swipes at him and when Kye sidesteps her blow, she narrows hereyes. “This is supposed to be the land of romance,” she tells him.“Romance is for royals,” Kye says just as Torik throws an empty bag inthe middle of their makeshift circle.

I find it hard to believe the prince is a romantic. He seems as though hemight find the notion as ridiculous as I do. I would know in an instant thatMidas isn’t his favorite kingdom; men don’t make homes if they have themalready. But my guess would have been Ágrios, a nation of fearlessness. Orthe warrior kingdom of Polemistés that I chose for my origin. Lands forsoldiers on the precipice of war. Fighters and killers who see no use inpretending to be anything else.I would not have guessed that the infamous siren hunter had humanity inhim.

He takes off in a run and jumps the last of theway, so that when his feet touch the tufts of grass, small droplets explodeinto the air like rainfall. He pulls his hat off and takes a sweeping bow at theland. Then he reaches up a tanned hand, ruffles the wisps of his raven hair,and slips the hat back onto his head in a flourish. He takes a moment,surveying the canvas, his hands hitched on his hips.

I’ve shed Elian’s damp shirt, which clung and dried against me like asecond skin.

“You promised that you would set me free!” I shout to his retreatingfigure.“I promised you more comfortable living arrangements.” Elian’s handflickers over the switch. “I’ll get Kye to bring you a pillow.”I catch one last look at his angled smirk before the lantern dims and thelast speck of light is pulled from the room.

“This isn’t a bargain, it’s a deal.”“I’m not in the business of striking deals with girls in cages.”I twist my lips into a cruel smile. “Then by all means, let me out.”Elian laughs, pulls a pistol out, and shakes his head once again.“You know,” he says, approaching the cell, “I think I might like you.Thing is” – he taps his gun against my prison – “there’s a differencebetween liking someone and trusting them.”“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never done either.”“When we get to Eidýllio,” Elian says, “we can drink to that.”The thought is enough to make me wince. Eidýllio is a land devoted toromance. They celebrate love as though it’s power, even though it has killedfar more humans than I ever have. I would rather be surrounded by theblinding gold of Midas than be in a kingdom where emotion is currency.“You trust me enough to buy me a drink?”Elian pockets his pistol and heads back to the switch. “Who said I’d bethe one buying?”

“Become the queen we need you tobe.”

My cousins gasped around us, their faces contorted in terror and grief.This was their choice: watch their mother die or see their sister killed. Istammered before my aunt, ready to scream and swim as far away as Icould. But then Crestell shot a look to Kahlia, who trembled on the seabed

“Kill her,” the Sea Queen said

the stench of myregret for killing the Kalokaírin prince. And no matter how much I tried toavoid looking at her, the queen could tell I had been crying. The tears werelong washed away, but my eyes remained bloodshot and I had done toogood of a job trying to scrub the blood off my hands

And I lost my chivalry around the same time.”

Hidden under my seaweed lies, there’s truth.

thought princes liked saving young women in need.”Elian laughs, teeth flashing white against his handsome face. “You’re adamsel now?” he asks. “It’s funny, because you didn’t seem like one whenyou were trying to claw your way past me to attack a siren.”“I thought killing sirens was what people on this ship did.”“Usually not with their bare hands.”“Not everyone needs magical knives to do their dirty work for them.”“Not everyone can speak Psáriin,” he says.I keep a coy smile on my lips, playing my role well. “I have a talent forlanguages.”“Your Midasan says differently.”“I have a talent for interesting languages,” I amend, and Elian’s greeneyes crinkle.“What about your own language?” he asks.

Cristian’s murderer could be on my ship

“Parakaló,” I repeat. “It means ‘please.’ ”

“Lira,” he says. “You better have a damn good explanation.”

I’m about to break free, but the second Elian releases his grip on mywaist, his hands clamp down on my shoulders. He twists me around and I’mthrown against the door of the lower deck. When he leans over me, thescent of black sweets is fragrant on his breath.I dismiss him and make to move past, but he’s too quick, even for me,and blocks my path, pushing me back against the varnished wood. Slowly,he brings a hand to the paneling beside my head, closing me in.“You speak Psáriin.”His voice is throaty, his eyes as dark as the blood that seeps from hishand

“Afterwhat she just called me

She grins at this last part, smiling as though we’re old allies. As thoughshe has reason to feel comfortable around me.

“Please,” I say, and Elian’s eyes dart back to me.I’ve never used that word in any language, and even though Elian can’tpossibly know that, he looks unsettled. There’s a crack in the bravado. Afterall, I’m a half-naked girl being held prisoner and he’s a human prince.Royal by birth and destined to lead an empire. Chivalry is in his veins, andall I need to do is remind him of it.

Instead I say,“You’re a good swimmer,” in my best Midasan.“You’re not,” he retorts.

feeling newly blunt teeth against my skin

I’ve also never seen a dead womanbefore. At least, not one who wasn’t half-monster.

My jaw tightens. “I’m not letting anyone else die because of a damnedsiren.”

“What’s a girl doin’ in the middle of the damn ocean?

Then, through it all, my mother’s voice calls, “If you are the mightyPrinces’ Bane, then you should be able to steal this prince’s heart evenwithout your voice. Without your song.”

Barely a whisper, barely a word. A crack in the air masquerading as avoice, just like my aunt Crestell’s had before she was killed

And I have never heard it from my mother’smouth. I’m not even sure what it really means. To me, it has always beenjust a word that humans treasure for reasons I can’t comprehend. There isn’teven a way to say it in Psáriin

The end of the Saad and the oceanand the world I have seen twice over and would see again a thousand times.I would live the life of a king, as my father has always wanted, with asnow-born wife to rule by my side

I think about what a shame it is that she’s twice my age, becauseshe’s striking when she’s wicked, and wild underneath the pretense.

I reach out and grab the prince’s ankle, dragging him down so his body islevel with mine.I nudge his shoulder and when he doesn’t move, I roll him onto his back.Sand sticks to the gold of his cheeks and his lips part ever so slightly, wetwith ocean. He looks half-dead already.

My fingers press deeper into the mermaid’s skull and disappear inside herrainbow flesh. I can feel the sharp bone of her skeleton. The mermaid stills,but I don’t stop. I dig my fingers deeper and pull.Her head falls to the ocean floor

“It’s you.”My eyes shoot upward. The Prince of Midas stares down at us, horrifiedand awestricken. His lips tilt a little to the left.“Look at you,” he whispers. “My monster, come to find me.”I regard him with as much curiosity as he regards me. The way his blackhair sweeps messily by his shadowed jaw, falling across his forehead as heleans to get a better look. The deep dimple in his left cheek and the look ofwonder in his eyes.

“I’ve missed you,” he says to his ship. “I bet you missed me too. We’llfind it together, won’t we?

greener than seaweed

The Midasan prince is our murderer,” I say. “If I bring the queen hisheart as my eighteenth, then I could win back her favor.”

She doesn’t want to punish me. She wants to humiliate me. Show akingdom whose fear and loyalty I’ve earned that I’m no different fromthem. That I don’t stand out. That I’m not worthy to take her crown

The heart explodes into a gruesome mass of blood and flesh.

Every queen begins as a siren, and when the crown passes to her, itsmagic steals her fins and leaves in their place mighty tentacles that hold thestrength of armies.

molokhia

argest pyramid

And the Midasan monarchs are crafted from gold itself

kohl-rimmed eyes

Madrid

And so now I carry around a magic blade that drinks the blood of itskill so quickly that I barely have time to admire it.

TECHNICALLY, I’M A MURDERER, but I like to think that’s one of my betterqualities.

“You are so beautiful,” says the queen, staring down at Kahlia withreverence. “I’m unsure how I’ve ever considered another.”

The wonder of whether the lips of a prince taste different from those ofany other human.

ndwhen they steal the hearts we keep, it isn’t for power. It’s because they thinkthat if they eat enough of them, they might become human themselves

Can a four-letter word hold all of these?

We’ll all get dragged down in the mud, and whenthe dust clears, all that will remain is the question: What if Juniper Songwas right?And this will become, in time, my story once again

I must make them see myside of the story. Athena was the leech, the vampire, the ghost whowouldn’t let me go; Candice her deranged wannabe proxy. I am innocent.My only sin is loving literature too much, and refusing to let Athena’s veryprenatal work go to waste

I scroll down past the deal announcement to the comments. Some areviciously celebratory; others express revulsion at the commodification of apainful, personal tragedy. A few people express disbelief that a first-timewriter would earn such a high advance for a book that doesn’t even existyet

I wonder how they feel whenever they walk past a bookstore, whether theyget a gnawing desire in their gut for the fairyland that cast them out

O HERE I AM, FINISHED.I crash through one week, and then another, with painkillers and sleepaids. Consciousness is a burden.

Eden is listed as one of the publishers whohave reached out to Candice’s agent. Daniella herself is quoted in the finallines: “Of course we’d love to work with Ms. Lee. It would be the ideal wayto make amends for the part we played in this tragedy, which we deeplyregret.”

THE DOCTORS LET ME LEAVE THE HOSPITAL AFTER FOUR DAYS, AFTER myclavicle and ankle have been se

She bites my wrist. Pain shoots up my arm. I jerk back, shocked. She’sdrawn blood—Jesus fucking Christ, it’s all over her teeth, all over my arm.Candice thrashes once more.

That the world should put them on a pedestal and shower them withopportunities. That reverse racism is okay. That they can bully, harass, andhumiliate people like me, just because I’m white, just because that counts aspunching up, because in this day and age, women like me are the lastacceptable target. Racism is bad, but you can still send death threats toKarens.

It all boils down to self-interest. Manipulating the story; gaining theupper hand. Doing whatever it takes. If publishing is rigged, you might aswell make sure it’s rigged in your favor.

“Yellowface. By Candice Lee.”

that her dad killed himself on the twentiethanniversary of Tiananmen.

“It’s Athena’s favorite workout,” says Candice. “She wouldn’t shut upabout it on Twitter. Wait, you didn’t know?” She registers my expression,then bursts into laughter. “You thought this was personal? That’s so good.That’s so good. I hope I got that.”

Like she’s been waiting forever to get her monologue in the spotlight.

“‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’” Candice mimics. “Is thathow you get away with everything? By batting your eyelashes andpretending to be a fucking idiot?”

“Candice?”“Hi, Juniper.” She drawls out my name like poison. “Long time nosee.”

IT’S NOT ATHENA.

There’s something off about her voice. I’ve only just noticed. It’s notthe voice you use with your friends. It’s pitchy and artificial, like she’sputting on a performance.

“It’s so good to see you again!”IT’S ATHENA. THAT’S UNDOUBTEDLY ATHENA’S VOICE, AFFECTING THATdisinterested, so-transparently-artificial-it’s-ironic-which-makes-it-realtimbre I’ve heard her employ dozens of times on radio interviews andpodcasts. “It’s been aaages.”

exorcist steps.tomorrow night.eleven.

My cheeks are hollow. My hair’s unwashed, my eyes bloodshot andsunken against dark, mottled bags. I haven’t slept. I haven’t talked toanyone who wasn’t my doorman in days. I’ve been living a hauntedexistence from hour to hour, trying to distract myself with my manuscriptso that my thoughts don’t torture me, and I can’t do this anymore. I’m sofucking tired of it all—the visions, the paranoia, the nightmares. I’m tired ofseeing Athena around every corner, hearing her voice, her laughter. I didn’task for this. I didn’t ask to witness Athena’s death in the first place. I didn’teven want to be there that night, but she insisted, and there I was, and it’sclearly fucked me up even more than I realized.I’m tired.

I take in her bright, hard eyes, razor-thin brows, the brilliant gash ofred lipstick across thin, angry lips. My stomach drops.It’s Diana Qiu.

ut what do I do with the ending?

The ghost devours me whole. The ghostrips me apart limb from limb and bathes in my blood. The ghost sinks intomy body and takes over my life for my remaining years as reparations. Theghost impels me to suicide, and I join her in the underworld: two miserablesouls without justice.But none of these produce the necessary catharsis. Athena is notsatisfied

The wildest thing about all this is that even now I cannot stopcomposing. I’m trying to funnel this awfulness into something lovely. Mysalacious roman à clef will become a horror novel. My terror will becomemy readers’ terror. I will take my fugue state of delirious panic and compostit into a fertile bed of creativity—for aren’t all the best novels borne fromsome madness, which is borne from truth?

I order incense sticks on Amazon and kung pao chickenfrom Kitchen No. 1 and place both before a framed photo of Athena, but allit does is stink up my apartment. I print paper cutouts of all the things Iimagine Athena could want in the underworld—stacks of money, a lavishapartment, the entire IKEA catalogue—and light them up with a match, butthat only sets off the fire alarm, which pisses off my neighbors and landsme with a hefty fine.

so many Chinese ghosts arehungry, angry, voiceless women

They areobsessed with death without peace. I learn that the most common word forghost, “gui,” is a homophone for a different “gui,” which means to return. Ilearn that the female revenant is a common theme in early Chineseliterature, a trope employed to explore the regrets of single, unmarriedwomen who died violent and unnatural deaths. I learn about a trope calledthe “amorous ghost,” in which all the female ghost needs to sate its haunteddesire is a good fucking. I learn about something called jiangshi, which asfar as I can tell is like a zombie, a corpse reanimated by a spell written on aslip of paper. Perhaps someone reanimated Athena. Perhaps I composed thespell myself, when I published her words against her will

The futility of itall. Like Echo looking at Narcissus. Like Icarus, hurtling straight at the sun,just to feel its warmth on his skin

But Athena is the reason for any modicum of success I’ve ever had.My career as an author does not exist without her.Without Athena, who am I?

Athena always thought that what she did was a gift. Adistillation of trauma into something eternal. Give me your bruises andhurts, she told us, and I will return to you a diamond. Only she never caredthat once the art was made, once the personal became spectacle, the painwas still there.

And I’d yell something desperate, something vulnerable, only tofind those same words published in a short story the very next month.Sometimes, when we fought, she would give me this very cool, narrow-eyed look. I knew that look, because it was the same look she got when shewas drafting a scene. And I never knew if she was really there during ourrelationship, or if the whole thing for her was some kind of ongoing story, ifshe did what she did just to document my reaction. I felt like I was losingmy mind.” He presses his fingers against the bridge of his nose.“Sometimes she would say things that made me upset, or ask about thingsI’d been through—and as time went on all I could think was that she wasmining me, using me as fodder.”

She stole from me, too,” Geoff says. “Constantly.”

I can’t believe that, though. Something else is going on here. Arandom troll doesn’t explain Athena showing up to my reading, or the factthat her specter haunts every professional move I make. Someone is pullingthe strings.

It’s Athena’s account, posting for the first time since the morningbefore her death. In the photo she’s sitting at her writing desk, smilingsweetly, but everything is off—her eyes are a bit too wide, her toothy smileso stretched it looks painful, and her skin is ghost pale despite the sunlightstreaming through her window. She looks like one of those CreepyPastamemes: an image that should look normal, but that makes your skin crawlwith its deranged intensity. Lying open by her right hand is The Last Frontin paperback. By her left, a slim hardcover of Mother Witch.I click to expand the caption.Thought you could get rid of me? Sorry, Junie. I’m still kicking. Glad you had a good writingday! I had a good writing day too—here’s me, flipping through some old works for inspiration.Heard you’re a fan ☺

But as I dig into the past, I find myself lingering on good memories,too. There are more of them than I realized. I haven’t let myself dwell oncollege for so long, but once I scratch the surface, it all comes bubbling tothe fore. Starbucks every Tuesday after our Women in Victorian Litseminar: an iced mocha for me, a Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher forAthena. Nights at slam poetry events during which we’d sipped gingerbeers and giggled at the performers, who were not real poets, and whowould one day certainly grow out of this nonsense. A Les Mis sing-alongparty at a drama major’s apartment, where we’d shrieked at the top of ourlungs, “One day more!”As I transcribe all this, I wonder if our friendship had indeed been asstrained as I’d perceived it. Was that jealous tension always there? Were werivals from the start? Or had I, in the throes of my insecurity, projected it allagainst Athena?I remember the day during our senior year that Athena received thefirst offer on her debut novel, when her agent called and told her on her wayto barre class that she would soon have her book on shelves. She called mefirst. Me. She hadn’t even told her parents yet

What more can we want as writers than such immortality? Don’tghosts just want to be remembered?

that Daniellahad a habit of saying all sorts of bigoted things during meetings (“Wealready have a Muslim writer,” she’d told the team once duringacquisitions. “Any more and we’ll be outnumbered.”

I’ll play up the sapphic quality of it all, too. Readers will love that;queer love stories are all the rage now. Drop in a little hint of girl crushingand the TikTokers will go rabid.

’ll write about us. Well, no—a fictionalized version of us, a pseudo-autobiography in which I blur fact and fiction. I’ll describe the night shedied in all its heart-stopping, lurid detail. I’ll describe how I stole her workand published it. I’ll describe every step along my way to literary stardom,and then my horrifying fall. Academics and scholars will have a field daywith this text. They’ll write entire books about how I cleverly blended thetruth with lies, how I reclaimed the rumors about me, subverted the uglygossip about a treasured friendship into a tale that confronts the reader withtheir own sick desire for scandal and destruction. They’ll call it radical.Groundbreaking. No one’s ever refuted literary expectations like thisbefore.

daisychain453

A musicianneeds to be heard; a writer needs to be read. I want to move people’s hearts.I want my books in stores all over the world. I couldn’t stand to be likeMom and Rory, living their little and self-contained lives, with no greatprojects or prospects to propel them from one chapter to the next. I want theworld to wait with bated breath for what I will say next. I want my words tolast forever. I want to be eternal, permanent; when I’m gone, I want to leavebehind a mountain of pages that scream, Juniper Song was here, and shetold us what was on her mind.

A musicianneeds to be heard; a writer needs to be read. I want to move people’s hearts.I want my books in stores all over the world. I couldn’t stand to be likeMom and Rory, living their little and self-contained lives, with no greatprojects or prospects to propel them from one chapter to the next. I want theworld to wait with bated breath for what I will say next. I want my words tolast forever. I want to be eternal, permanent; when I’m gone, I want to leavebehind a mountain of pages that scream, Juniper Song was here, and shetold us what was on her mind.

toput Rory and me through good schools with minimal student debt

Juniper Song and Aurora Whisper.

I don’t have the heart to tell her that it was Rory who liked Chinese,and that Chinese food makes my stomach roil,

and no onecares about the inner musings of a plain, straight white girl from Philly.They want the new and exotic, the diverse, and if I want to stay afloat,that’s what I have to give them.

Marketing and publicity make you distill hundreds ofpages of careful, nuanced reflection into cute, tweet-size talking points.

pixie cut

ut then I take stock of the whole situation, and it’sastoundingly pathetic. I don’t need to engage in a she-said, she-said battlewith a seventeen-year-old. I’m too big for this

I’ve won. It’s a pathetic victory, sure, but it’s better than sitting hereand suffering their mocking glares.

“You think she took it right out of her apartment? Like, the night shedied?”“Oh my God,” says Skylar, delighted and horrified. “That’sdiabolical.”“Do you think she killed her?”“Oh my God, don’t—