The Silver Siren (34 page)

He looked serious. He crumpled his
hands into fists and took deep breaths to calm himself.

Sevril didn’t look happy either,
pacing back and forth, eyeing the door. As if hoping Tomac would
burst through. Or maybe he was waiting for the Raven to come in so
he could crow about how he lured me in to his trap to finish the
job.

“
Did you kidnap Joss’s
sister? What happened to those people out there? Are you a part of
it?”

Xiven looked anxious, but he saw that
I wasn’t going to make it easy on him unless he gave me some
answers. “Thalia, I’m on your side.”

“
From where I stand, I’m
surrounded by enemy.” I cocked my head upward, indicating the
Septori and Elite battling it out to the death somewhere above
us.

“
Right. I understand. It
can seem confusing and complicated, but what if I told you that
there is no good side in this war? Everyone’s wrong. Everyone’s
made mistakes and you now have to choose the lesser of two evils.
No matter what happens, there will be no happy endings. Just the
possibility of an ending that has less people dying horrible
deaths.”

Why did he have to make sense…now?
“Then I would choose the outcome with least amount of death,” I
stated.

“
And what if I told you
that that outcome comes at your own expense—your own
life.”

“
I’d say that you a liar.
That you can’t know the future. I can change my destiny, if I’m
given the choice to do so.” I pointed at the table.
“
That
is not
giving me a chance to live.”

“
Thalia.” Prince Sevril
gently took my elbow. “Everything we are doing is so that you will
live. That through you, our kind will live on.”

I shook my head, the anger slowly
dissipating. I didn’t understand anything anymore. I was so tired
of hurting. I just wanted to wake up from this
nightmare.

“
Okay Thalia, listen. The
Horden journals were never clear on what the final step was in
creating an all-powerful super Denai. It’s why the experiments
didn’t really start to work until they found you. They gave you
Denai gifts—”

“
What? How did they give
me Denai gifts?”

“
By infusing you with
Denai blood.”

I had both Denai
blood
and
SwordBrother blood in my veins?

“
You started to grow in
power, even taking on the traits of the Denai. You were the first
to succeed, but you were also the answer. To make the Denai
stronger, they needed Siren blood…yours. All of those sessions were
to harvest your blood, to make a serum, to create
that
army, Thalia.”
Xiven pointed upstairs.

“
That’s why they’ve been
after me? So they can use me to create more…more mind-controlled
soldiers!” I felt sick. What they had done to Joss and Tenya and
all of the others was done because of—maybe
with
—my own blood. “That’s why they
went after Siobhan. They were trying to find another like
me.”

“
I saw her upstairs.”
Xiven acknowledged. “They’ve drained her pretty good, but I’ve seen
her eyes. They made sure to turn her fully into a Siren before they
did it. Probably so they could work faster and she’d be strong
enough to live through the process. It means that they probably
sacrificed a Denai to do it.”

“
But she’s being
controlled.” I wiped my tears on my sleeves. “Can we save
her?”

Prince Sevril came forward and shook
his head. “We can’t worry about her right now. Right now we have to
focus on stopping them. With you.”

“
We can’t stop that!” My
voice rose in frustration. “They have an army of Denai and we have
one—a spoiled rich girl who is going to die trying to defend a
country she has no allegiance to. I’m completely blocked and I’m
completely useless here in Sinnendor. Unless you can break through
this seal.”

“
I believe we can,” Xiven
said excitedly.

“
What?” I said in
disbelief.

“
I can give you all of the
serum we’ve extracted from Sevril already over the last few weeks.
The overflow of Siren power may be enough to shatter the seal
forever.”

“
But won’t I go insane? No
offense, Sevril.”

Sevril shrugged his shoulders. “None
taken. I don’t want it back.” He gestured to the bottles filled
with blue liquid.”

Xiven shook his head. “You won’t go
insane if I immediately balance out the Siren in you by flooding
you with pure Denai essence.” Xiven paced back and forth, his
fingers tracing invisible calculations in the air. “We’d do what
the Raven couldn’t. Create the ultimate new hybrid. That’s what
Lord Horden hinted at too. An Archangel.”

“
A what?” the word made me
feel sick. Wasn’t it enough that for the last few months I felt
like stranger in my own body? That it was slowly turning and
changing me into a monster? Now they wanted to fully do that, turn
me into something completely different?

Another monster.

The ground shook and dust floated down
from the ceiling. A loud crashing could be heard and I could only
assume that Syrani couldn’t hold Joss back.

“
Thalia,” Prince Sevril
begged. “Please, help protect my people. Don’t let the Raven use
our kind to create mindless drones.”

“
Why can’t you do it?” I
pointed my finger hard into his chest.

The Prince grimaced and wouldn’t meet
my eyes. “Because I’m too far gone. I’m too human. We wouldn’t have
enough time,” he turned and picked up a small glass jar and handed
it to Xiven.

“
He’s right,” Xiven
answered. “We’ve been spending weeks draining the Siren essence out
of him.” He went to the table and picked up another glass jar
filled with the eerie liquid. It swirled around gently, constantly
moving, never stopping. “With each session I collected the Siren
essence…here.” He pointed to the table filled with bottle upon
bottle. “At the time we thought we were doing the right thing. We
were making him human. But now we truly need a Siren to fight this
war.”

“
I can’t.” I backed away
from Xiven and the machine. They were asking me to go back on the
iron butterfly. To willingly subject myself to my most terrifying
nightmare. And not over a period of time, but in a supernatural
speed attempt to break everything in my body.

“
Please don’t ask me to.”
My hands started to shake and I found it hard to breathe. The room
felt like it was growing smaller and smaller. “I can’t do it.” My
legs went weak and I started to crumple. “No, no, no.” I was
gasping, hyperventilating. Then I was on the floor, looking up at
the ceiling and couldn’t help but notice how the constantly falling
dust motes looked like shooting stars.

Hands grabbed me around the wrists and
ankles, and I felt myself lifted into the air. The room spun and I
screamed as I felt myself placed in the machine. I screamed and
screamed. Braces clamped around my arms and tears burned at my
eyes. Pain laced up my arms.

And I knew I was going to
die.

Chapter 32

“
Thalia…Thalia.” A dark head leaned over me and I reached out
for him and grabbed on for dear life thinking it was Kael. The room
stopped spinning.

I looked around to find that I was not
on the machine, but on a large cot off to the side of the room. The
pain around my wrists stopped when Sevril let go of them. I blinked
at the worried look on Xiven’s face and the anxious one on
Sevril’s.

“
What’s going on?” I asked
in confusion and saw the blanket placed over my lap, why are you
not…why?”

Xiven sighed in relief. “Thalia, I
will not put you on the machine without your consent. I won’t
change the very essence of who you are without your willingness to
do so. Unlike the Septori, I believe that using the machine against
someone’s will changes the nature of the outcome. I won’t risk it.
You have to be the one to say yes.”

Sevril’s eyes were moist, and he was
now sitting on the floor, his head against the wall. He kept using
his thumb and forefinger to rub his eyes. Little paths of
glistening tears had left trails down his cheeks. He looked around
the room dejectedly and stood up, brushing his hands on his pants.
“Come on. If there is nothing more that we can do down here, then
we need to go back up and help. I will not hide down here like a
coward when innocent people are dying.” His voice, though full of
disappointment, rang with pride.

Xiven nodded his head in agreement and
went to stand by him. Sevril would truly be a great king one day,
if he didn’t fall to the insanity of the Siren.

No, I couldn’t let anything happen to
Sevril. He might be our only hope for the future. It wasn’t about
me. It had never been about me. It would always be about what was
good for the people. Not just his people, but all races. That was
what made a great king. Someone willing to die for
others.

Sevril would make a great king, if I
had anything to say about it.

My heart was in my throat and I found
it hard to talk—so I didn’t. Xiven and Sevril had gone to the
stairwell and were arming themselves for battle. Neither one
noticed when I pushed the blanket off of my legs and stood up. My
legs wobbled, and I eased myself around the large table and went to
stand in front of the machine.

Close up, it didn’t look as scary as I
remembered it. It was a long metal table with little knobs along
the back which aligned along the spinal column. Bands would wrap
around the body, imprisoning the victim, and leather straps held
the arms to the side and in place. Only this version of the machine
didn’t look as ominous. There were no leather straps to hold the
arms in place and there weren’t as many bands. Instead, I was
fixated on what looked like a silver crown that would sit on the
person’s head.

My lips were dry, and I couldn’t
swallow. I was trying too hard not to throw up. I slid my hand up
the back of the machine and rested my hand on the crown. I didn’t
even care that Sevril and Xiven had stopped talking and watched me
with silent interest.

Neither one of them moved.

I couldn’t stop the terrified tears
that slid down my cheeks, but I wasn’t breaking down into a
hysterical mess either. I held my head high as I crawled up onto
the table and lay down. When Xiven and Sevril still hadn’t moved to
assist me in my insane plan, I reached up and pulled the crown down
onto my own head, and began to fumble and pull the bands around my
own body.

Xiven came over to stand by me, his
face solemn. “Thalia, are you sure? I will not be a part of this
unless you are completely sure.” He reached out and lightly put his
hand on my shoulder.

I closed my eyes and nodded. If I
tried to speak, no words would come out.

He slowly started to readjust the
machine for my height. He did it carefully and slowly, although I
know he was trying to hurry. A hand reached through the metal bands
and grasped mine. I turned my head and gave Sevril’s hand a
squeeze. He squeezed back and refused to let go.

Xiven started to bring the glass jars
of Sevril’s Siren essence over to the machine and place them on a
table next to me. He started to talk incessantly about what he was
doing, as if trying to not make me nervous. It didn’t
work.

“
So I will activate the
current through the machine myself after I’ve given you the
injections.” He took out a syringe and filled it with the liquid
blue essence of Siren. He felt along the underside of my arms and
gently touched the old scars. I had to turn away and not look when
I felt the first prick of the needle. The headpiece is different;
it’s of my own design. It seems to help the process go faster in
unlocking the seals, because it seems to mostly be a mental block.
I call it my
Crowning
Glory
…get it?”

Not the time for humor. I couldn’t
help it, I let out a whimper at the first sting. Then, a foreign
feeling filled my body. Then another sting, and another, as he gave
me more doses of the serum. I wasn’t looking forward to the pain I
knew would come.

“
That was the last one,”
Sevril spoke softly and I opened my eyes to see his sad but
grateful ones looking at me. “Thank you,” he whispered.

The sound of the cot being pulled and
scraped across the floor as it was scooted over to the machine made
me curious enough to turn my head and look. Numerous needles and
small tubes led from a table filled with bottles to my right arm,
but half of the tubes led off of the table and just out of
eyesight. I couldn’t see where they led, but I could hear Xiven
moving around.

Finally his voice came out strong and
clear. “Are you ready, Thalia? To save us from our past, you must
become the future.”

“
No,” I whimpered out,
barely audible. “I don’t want to do the saving. I want to be
saved.”
Oh Kael, please forgive me.
I prayed that I would have the strength to
survive this for both Kael’s sake and my own. My mind started to
flip out and flash forward and backward as Xiven started the
machine. I felt a jolt of electric current shoot into the bands and
into my spine. I spasmed and started to scream, and it wasn’t even
that painful yet. My mind spiraled into a nightmare as I relived
every session on the machine at once. The currents began to pulse
through my body in a steady stream and each one made my heart
flutter faster and faster, until I swore it stopped on more than
one occasion. Then the next current would feel like it jumpstarted
my breathing again.