The Siren Read Online Free

before?”
    Miaka shook her head.
    “We are singers. There are legends about us. There was a time when people believed in us, or at least suspected our existence. But now, we are a sisterhood of secrets, hidden away from the world. We belong to the Ocean. You see, She’s a very large creature, and She gives endlessly to the earth. To be strong enough to sustain this planet, She has to eat. We help Her eat by singing for Her. It’s not very often, but it is our duty, and this is what you must do now, if you choose to.”
    I watched the questions form in her head. I wondered which would be first.
    “What does the Ocean eat?” she asked.
    “People,” I said quietly.
    “People?!” She looked horrified. I saw her face start to collapse in fear, the whimpers of fright hiding just below the surface.
    Marilyn acted quickly. “Yes, but we do not assist in this often. Once a year, maybe less. People end their lives in the Sea all the time, and that helps. I tried to on purpose, and you almost did by accident. But when there aren’t enough, we help Her.”
    Miaka absorbed that. Her onyx eyes darted around, either searching for her own questions or waiting for the next explanation. It’s no small thing to discover the planet has been hiding something from you.
    She was much more composed than I had been. I had stuttered and interrupted and flailed my hands. Miaka obviously had been trained to be reserved. When she saw that we were giving her time, she looked up at Marilyn to ask one of the dozens of questions she must have had. She wasn’t calm exactly, but at least not in hysterics.
    “You said… you said ‘if I choose to.’ What if I don’t?” Miaka asked. I didn’t ask that one. She believed faster than I did; maybe she was just generally smarter.
    “I’m sorry, Miaka, but if you don’t become one of us, we have to give you to the Ocean. You were meant to die moments ago, so we would have to let Her have you. But if you choose to stay, we can explain how you must live now.” Marilyn said all of this sweetly.
    I prayed Miaka would stay. I wanted her! And I couldn’t disobey the Ocean if She asked me to drag Miaka into the water, but I didn’t know if my heart could stand me doing that with my own hands. I hoped the expression on our faces would make it clear that we wanted her. Well, at least two of us did.
    “Just walk into the water, honey, you’ll never make it,” Aisling called. She was meandering aimlessly in the water, completely uninterested.
    I threw a look at Aisling. Now there was someone I wouldn’t mind hurting. “Really,” I said to Miaka quietly, “don’t let her get to you. You won’t have to see her often.”
    Miaka looked at me. Our eyes met in a serious gaze. It was greedy, I know, with Marilyn about to go, but if there were only to be a handful of us, I wanted her here, too. I smiled at her, and I hoped she could see my affection for her. She looked from me to Marilyn.
    “Marilyn, right?” she asked. Marilyn nodded. “Can I know how I’m supposed to live… before I decide?”
    “Yes,” Marilyn said, and then repeated the words she told me eight years earlier. “If you join us, you have to leave everything behind. You can never go back to your family. You would be the fourth siren, and that’s all there ever are at once. While the Ocean doesn’t need our services, we are free to live wherever we like. There are a few adjustments to make, but I can explain those later. You can choose to live alone, as Aisling does, but in the beginning it’s best if you stay with someone else.
    “Your body is, for the most part, frozen. You won’t age, you cannot get sick, and you cannot die while you’re a siren. When your time is up, your body will pick up at this moment, and you will continue to grow older. You can get married, have a family, do whatever you want. The life you live now is the Ocean’s, but that life will be completely yours. And you will be superior to most other