my brother. Some Siren, not Caspian, I was sure of it, wrapped his grey arms around my waist, pinning me against him with his webbed hand against my stomach. Kai and Caspian had also been caught by Sirens. It took three of them to hold Caspian down.
I wrestled with my captor’s grip and struggled to break free so I could kill the bitch that took my only remaining family member from me. She would never be family. Never.
Llyr was gone. Father was gone. I was alone.
Whoever had a grip on me tugged me toward the surface while I watched the scene below in horror.
Raven had no heart at all.
I watched Raven push my brother’s body off the point of the Trident and then share a laugh with the remaining Sirens over the dead. Over my brother’s body now sinking to the bottom of the sea.
I’d kill that bitch if it was the last thing I ever did.
13
The only thing louder than my screams were those of Pearl. She never stopped thrashing and scratching against the Sirens that took us to the surface by force. They dragged each of us through the surf and onto the sands. Pain surged through my tail but it refused to shift back to my legs. Kai and Pearl were facing the same challenge, their tails still flopping while their faces pinched with anguish from not shifting back when they should’ve.
Caspian, of course, had no problem shifting and used the upper hand, or leg, to struggle harder against his captors, zapping them whenever he gained the right angle.
My physical pain was triumphed by something greater. My anger, my grief, my rage, and my hate. I slapped and batted the webbed hands that held me as they pulled my body toward the drier sand, now on land, but stopped as I saw Raven and what was left of her army emerge from the white-capped waves. Her shimmer and shine faded as her tail swiftly turned to legs. She laughed as she observed the rest of us struggling against nature. The Sirens under her command had already shifted easily, their slimy fins becoming legs in seconds.
From dry, stinging sand to the hard bumps and valleys of dirt, they dragged our bodies, not caring about the damage they were doing to our tails and our scales. Kai continued to struggle against their holds and more than once he got zapped for his insolence.
Even in my grief and rage, I had to make an attempt to get a hold of myself. Where were they taking us? Scanning the area, I knew that we were near Pirate Cove Academy but not near enough for anyone from there to actually realize what was going on. Not that anyone from there seemed to really care what was going on. I recognized the buildings in the distance but it looked like a children’s sandcastle from my vantage point.
“I found Llyr not far from here,” Pearl said in a murmur like she was talking to herself. “If I had known they were so close, I would’ve investigated,” She said between chest-wracking sobs and swats at the Siren who held her by her hair.
I cried out as my tail began to tear in half, inch by inch, slowly stretching out the pain as much as possible. The ripping sounds were grotesque at best. Raven began her cackling again and even turned to the other Sirens who laughed along with her. Their pointed teeth looked extra sharp as they did. Their gray skin seemed to want to slide off their skeletal bodies, while their eyes were yellow and almost sickly. I almost gagged at the look of them.
Gross.
“Oh, you think you can shift back so easily? I don’t think so. It’s no fun if you’re allowed to walk around. It’s much more entertaining when you’re flopping around like an injured dolphin. Trill for us, Princess!” She goaded me, and while the Sirens continued to drag me mercilessly across the hard terrain, I managed to flick a rock at her, making her laugh even more.
Soon, my ass hit concrete hard and rough, and it ripped layers from my tail as though this almost-shifting thing it was already doing wasn’t enough pain for one day.
I looked over my shoulder and saw the huge building where they were dragging us. Metal walls scaled up so high that I couldn’t see a roof. No windows, and only one door marked the side of it. The metal showed signs of wear in