Siren - Hazel Grace Page 0,82
right off to the battlefield to possibly die. We don’t want to do that anymore.”
“Why would we believe you now?” Atarah challenges. “You’ve been here for weeks and not uttered a word about these living, fire-breathing things.”
“I ignite fire,” I tell her. “It’s not impossible. I’ve seen them in books.”
“But they don’t exist,” Atarah retorts.
“We’re not supposed to exist,” I carp back over my shoulder. Bringing my attention back to Dagen, I’m about to speak, but he beats me to it.
“I know I’m blocked from Kali’s powers,” he admits. “And Atarah and Brylee, I don’t know why, but what I do know is that they can confirm it.”
He nods at his men, who stand perplexed and nervous behind Edda.
“They won’t spill a word,” Edda counters as she raises her chin. “You are no longer—”
“Your animosity on the matter,” Brylee interjects, “makes me believe him.” It’s then that Edda rushes her, slamming into Brylee and almost knocking her to the ground.
Atarah reaches them first, yanking her off her twin while I’m only inches away. Everything happens in slow motion, but it’s my name that thuds in my skull over and over again.
It’s Tobias.
He’s never seen this side of me—the rage, passed the point of return where the target in my path doesn’t have a prayer unless it possesses some sort of magic.
It’ll disgust him, he’ll never be able to look at me the same. Never understand the stress that has been prickling at my sanity for weeks. How I can speak out loud now and humans can come freely onto the island.
The veil isn’t a cover of safety anymore. My sisters and I are wide open to every single enemy on this Earth, and Edda was no exception.
My palm encloses around her neck for the second and last time as I let go of every single ounce of stress, anger, and hopelessness.
Every burst of energy I release through me goes into her. Her screams and pleas at the top of her lungs ring in my ears as my whole body feels engulfed in flames.
With her hands tied behind her back, she can’t push me off. She can’t try to pry herself from my grasp, but she’s trying to drop her weight so I release her.
The longer I hold on, the more I can feel the heat between the two of us. Flames reflect in my eyes as I watch the distortion of Edda’s face in pain, the wails that she releases in my face are all muffled now.
My name is called out over and over to let go, but she touched two of my sisters. Called herself Dagen’s woman when clearly she’s not.
And she tried to save someone I wasn’t ready to give up yet.
Edda’s skin starts to peel off her face as my head starts to feel airy and cloudy. A sharp gasp hisses behind me as I think I felt someone try to touch me.
The once pretty girl who stood before me looks like a black and red mess. And the strength that boiled through me, fleets from my body.
Edda’s body buckles under my fingertips, and I don’t remember anything else except the blackness that surrounds me and another shrilling scream filling my ears.
My eyes flutter open to blurs of bodies in my range of view. A warmth of blankets over and around me, followed by the movement of a large hand on my lower back.
I blink a few times, letting my perception focus in to find all of my sisters lined up at the bottom of my bed staring at me with amusement, distaste, and irritation.
Shifting to sit up, my palm lands on a hard chest, and I glance to find Dagen sleeping next to me, his breathing calm and faint through the air.
“Good morning,” Nesrine greets the moment my eyes fall back to them.
“How long have I been out?” I ask, rubbing my eyes then my forehead.
“Few hours,” Brylee replies. I glance out the window to see the moon on full display, illuminating the sky over the trees.
My focus lands next on Kali, whose shoulder is bandaged in white cloth. “How are you feeling?”
“Better than the woman you burned alive,” she snorts with a chuckle.
My eyes widen. I know I hurt her, but it really didn’t register until now. I recall the flames, the smell of burning flesh, the screams—multiple screams.
“I remember another voice,” I convey. “Another scream, but I don’t think it was that Viking wench.”
“Taysa,” Rohana voices. “She was coming up from the ocean, it