Daughter of the Siren Queen

“Then do your worst now, lass.”

“Having second thoughts?” Riden leans on his forearms at the railing, letting his skin touch mine.

“No. I am exactly where I want to be. I only wish I could have all the years back I missed with my mother.”

“You could have them now,” he says gently. “You could live your life among the sirens and leave this all behind you.”

I smile and turn to him. “You and my mother are both missing one important thing.”

“What’s that?”

“I love being a pirate, and there’s nothing I want to be more.”

He relaxes considerably. “Thank the stars. I was trying so hard to be supportive and forget what I want most.”

“And what’s that?”

Those beautiful brown eyes glint. “You.”

“You need not do anything alone again if you don’t want to.”

I may not have been born in the sea, but I was born to rule it.
I am the daughter of the siren queen.

My methods of interrogation have been known to make men lose their minds.

sound of my knife slitting across a throat feels much too loud in the darkness.

I catch the pirate before

“You happened to be right one time,” Kearan says. “That does not make the rest of your superstitions real.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because—” Kearan cuts himself off. “How am I having this conversation? Enwen, go blather to someone who wants to listen.”

“You like listening to me.”

“I really don’t.”

“Niridia Zasperon, I’d really rather not spend the night in the brig. It puts me in a mood the next day.”

She steps away from the netting and looks at me. “Only the next day, Captain?”

“Very amusing.”

“Trouble?” asks a voice.

A masculine voice.

Riden’s voice.

“Nothing new,” I say. “The pirate king wants his siren back.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“I didn’t deign to respond.”

“That ought to cheer him up.”

“You can’t be serious. Kearan has the emotional depth of a clam.”

“Well, a man can try, can’t he?