Song of the Sirens by Kaylie Austen Read Free Book Online

bare feet and ankles.
    The creatures obeyed. They hissed and
dispersed. The beast retracted its claws and fell back into the water, verified
by the sounds of a splash.
    I heaved and pulled away from the gap to
sit upright. Crossing my arms over my chest, I pressed down on the wounds at my
shoulders. I hadn’t glimpsed the young man, hadn’t raised my eyes to meet the
guy who repeatedly saved me in these nightmares. His voice gave him away, as if
things could not get any weirder.
    Another shrilling cry erupted in the
distance. I twisted around and stumbled to my feet. I narrowed my eyes and
watched as something moved in the water. Something breeched the surface, fell
back in, and breeched again. It swam hard and fast toward the dock.
    In the far distance, the creature looked
like a tossed pebble. As it neared in a rapid swim, it grew in size. It
appeared to be a large rock, then a mermaid drenched in obscure shadows. Thin
hair pasted to her head, a slender upper torso swam in and out of the water
like a skidding torpedo followed by a long tail. As she neared, her features
clarified. Maddening eyes, low brows, and lips curled over sharp teeth.
    The whisper returned, this time
singular. It captivated me, and I couldn’t move. I knew I had to run, to turn
and retreat to the safety of the beach, but my cursed legs defied command. I
stood like a petrified corpse, waiting for consumption by the water she-beast.
    The mermaid swam hard and fast. Within
seconds, she dipped back into the water for the final moment before assault. As
quickly as she vanished, she reappeared. She breeched the surface and flew
high. She headed straight for the wooden dock, straight for me.
    She pressed her hands against her sides
for optimal speed until she flew across the air. She raised her arms and
extended her hands, prepared to claw into my already cut and bleeding flesh.
    Just when I anticipated the cold,
steel-like nails to rake into my body, Riley dashed behind me. From the right
corner of my eye, I caught a flash of his super-human movement.
    He shoved a three-pronged spear, a
trident, into the mermaid’s bare chest. It sliced through her, and a ghastly
amount of blood leaked out. It seeped down from every wound opening, and doused
her torso and tail with dark liquid.
    Riley held onto the other end of the
staff. He stepped forward and brought the writhing mermaid, who resembled a
gutted fish squirming to get back into water, toward him. She screeched in
absolute pain.
    “Release her, siren.” Riley narrowed his
brows and pressed his lips together. His eyes glowed with an intense green
color, which seemed to pulsate in the night.
    Riley flung the mermaid from the trident
like a fisherman who crudely tossed back a fish. She vanished with a splash.
Blood dripped from the tips of Riley’s trident onto the dock and stained the
wood.
    I swallowed. With trembling hands, I
turned to face my savior, and breathed. “What are you doing here?” I asked with
quivering lips.
    He seemed surprised by the question.
“What?” he asked, and stared at me as if I shouldn’t have been aware of his
presence.
    “I’m dreaming, and you shouldn’t be
here.”
    “And they should?” He pointed to the
ocean.
    “No, but something’s not right.”
    He relaxed. His shoulders slumped and
his fists loosened. “Bad dreams, nothing make sense.”
    I shook my head and blinked. Riley
vanished.
    I sharply inhaled and wheezed when I
came to. The whispers, those zombie mermaids, sirens, whatever the heck they
were relinquished their hold and tossed me back into reality. I opened my eyes
and focused on the dark ceiling above. Things were not right, not normal, and
Riley knew something that he refused to tell me.
    I sat up, flung the sheets off, swung my
legs over the side, and jumped from the top bunk. I didn’t check to see if Dad
slept below before leaving. I slipped into my coat. I grabbed my sneakers and
donned them outside in the hall, jumping on one socked foot at