Page 109 of Fallen Stars

No… That was definitely someone crying. A woman by the sounds of it.

“Hello?” he called out, scrambling onto his stomach to look around the deck. Strange, he couldn’t see anyone, not a soul in sight. He held his breath, but the sobs had quietened. Perhaps he had imagined them.

A little more uneasy, he settled back onto the nets, blaming the bottle in his hand again. He would have let it go, but then he heard a sniffle. That he was sure of.

“Who’s there?” he called again.

“Go back to sleep, sailor,” a female voice replied.

Adrian was on his feet in an instant, years on the nets gifting him impeccable balance as he worked the net taught, hands outstretched.

His eyes scanned the ocean wildly. The voice had definitely come from below him.

Heart pounding, he scanned the waves. Still, no one. Oh gods, was this one of those ocean wraiths that Santi used to scare him with tales of? He’d warned him, and Adrian had laughed. Oh shit, the wraith was going to suck his soul from him and—

“Calm down,” he hissed to himself. It was clearly a woman in distress, but where in Scorpius’s name was she?

“Where are you?”

Well, that was simple.

There was silence again. He was about to turn and make his way onto the solid safety of the deck when he heard her again.

“You won’t be able to see me—a purposeful choice,” she replied.

Sweet lords, her voice was nice. It was soft and melodic, as though it had been created precisely to entice. And then Adrian realised exactly who, or ratherwhathe was speaking to.

A siren.

“Fuck,” he hissed, scrambling away from the net. “Not today, you rotten-tailed hag. You won’t lure me to my watery demise with that voice, siren.” He hauled himself onto solid decking. Where was the bloody wax to block his ears?

He heard a delicate snort. “I’m not a siren,” she replied. “Although I’m not far from one.”

Adrian could hear a smile in her voice. “But I’m not half-dead, nor do I have any interest in drowning you. Believe me, you’d be at the bottom of the ocean if I wanted you to be.”

“Reassuring,” he muttered and heard another scoff. He crept slowly back onto the net, intrigued now.

“So you’re a mermaid?” he ventured, awe in his tone. He knew of the merfolk or rather had heard tales of them. Adrian believed in the Mythas, as many a superstitious mariner did. But even Below, he had never spotted one.

Her silence was confirmation enough to send a thrill through his chest.

“And how exactly are you doing this? I can’t see you anywhere.”

He heard her sigh. “I’m resting on one of your lower ledges. But try to look for me, and I swear I’ll disappear back into the ocean.”

Adrian stilled, feeling guilty because that was exactly what he’d been about to do.

“So what’s a mermaid doing resting on a human ship? Don’t you hate our kind?”

“Yes,” her voice drifted back. “But there are worse beings in the world—ones more poisonous and loathsome. So much so, that I would choose a sailor’s company over theirs.”

“No offence taken,” Adrian drawled. “Are you…okay?”

He passed a palm over his face. What the fuck was that?Are you okay? Adrian wasknownfor his charm and quick tongue, and that was the sentence he had chosen to conjure up?

Thankfully, the mermaid hadn’t seemed to notice.

“Yes, I just needed a moment Above to breathe.”