Lydia the Siren's Arc

Chapter 16 of 37

The eggs sat half-eaten on the plate. Lydia reached for the fork herself, and her hand shook worse than before. The old hunger woke in her gut, sharp and deep. Care and warm food had not filled it. Nothing filled it but prey. She felt her skin pull tight along her arms. Feathers pushed up through it. She jerked back against the wall. "No," she said. "Not now." Her voice cracked into something lower. Her fingers curled into black claws. The blanket tore under them. She had held her human shape for days, and now the beast climbed out on its own. Her true form meant the scream. It meant she would feed, and the closest warm body was his. "Get back," she snarled. "You don't know what I am." Bastion did not move away. He set the plate down and crossed to the bed. He did not flinch at the auburn crest, the beak, the talons that scraped his floor. He knelt close, took her jaw in one hand, and pried her mouth open. With the other he tipped a small vial past her teeth. Bitter liquid ran down her throat. Lydia thrashed. Her wings knocked a chair over. She swung a claw and missed. Then the shaking slowed. The heat under her skin cooled. The feathers sank back. Her hands were hands again, and she lay panting on the torn blanket, human once more. "What was that," she said. "Something for the hunger. I traveled with a healer once." He righted the chair. "It quiets bad appetites." She stared at him. Fear turned fast to a cold edge she knew better. She bared the truth like a weapon. "I am a siren," she said. "I kill men. I lure them into the dark and I feed on them. I killed a knight and dropped him in a pit.” Bastion looked at her. He did not reach for a sword. He did not back to the door. He smiled, small and steady. "I know what you are," he said. "I saw the claws before tonight. I carried you here anyway." "Then you're a fool." "Maybe." He sat on the bed's edge, near her, without fear. "Everyone gets one chance at a life. Monster or not.” Her threat had bounced off him like rain off stone. No man had ever done that. Gregorio had answered her with a sword. This one answered with medicine and a chair set upright.