Elara Meadows's Arc

Chapter 6 of 7

The pulse had gone out across the water, and now the water answered. Elara stood in the shack where it had all begun. She had come back here to hide Rath, thinking the shore was safer than the stronghold. She had been wrong. The bond that saved her had also drawn the enemy straight to this door. She eased Rath into the wicker basket. The soft blanket settled over him. His small chest rose and fell. She tucked the pearl into her pocket and turned toward the window. The door burst inward. A tall figure filled the frame. Black hair hung past his shoulders. His fingers ended in dark claws, and his mouth opened on rows of long fangs. This was the king Maris had fought. She had never seen him herself, only felt him coming in the dark. Now he stood close enough to reach her. "You lit a fire in the sea," he said. His voice scraped low. "Did you think I would not follow it?" Elara stepped between him and the basket. "Get out." He laughed and came forward. His claw rose toward her throat. She had power now, but no time to shape it. She braced for the blow. It never landed. Rath stirred in the basket and made a small sound. The air cracked. A ring of force spread outward from the child, sharp and bright, rippling through the room. It struck Malachar in the chest and threw him back through the door. He hit the sand outside and slid. Elara gripped the basket's edge. Rath's green eyes were open now. He watched the doorway. The force still hummed off his skin. Malachar climbed to his feet. He tried the threshold again. The same unseen wall shoved him back. He could not cross. His black eyes went wide, then narrow. "Siren blood," he hissed. "The child is one of ours." He understood at last. He could not touch a siren-blooded child. He could not enter where one guarded the door. Rage twisted his face, but the old law held him out like a chain. "You cannot stay behind that basket forever," he said. He backed toward the water. "I will bring the tide with me. The child cannot hold a whole sea." He turned and slid into the waves. The dark closed over him. Elara knelt and lifted Rath. He was warm and heavy in her arms, already quiet again. She had come to the shore to keep him hidden. Instead she had learned what he was. Not just her son. A siren, with power in his blood that had thrown a king across a room. She held him tight and looked at the empty water. Malachar was alive. He would come back with more than himself. And the thing that had saved them both was a baby who could not yet walk.