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My scream was swallowed by the ocean, the air in my lungs escaping in bubbles that cascaded from my mouth as I sank into the deep.

The sea poured down my throat, my lungs screaming against the invasion. Every instinct demanded I fight, to claw my way back to the surface, as though my body refused to believe I belonged beneath the water.

Crimson light from the blood moon filtered through the depths, shimmering across the silver scales forcing their way through my skin like a thousand razor blades. Water poured into my lungs, the searing agony giving way to the strange relief that always came when I stopped fighting it.

The Siren had vanished as if the sea had swallowed every trace of her.

Empty water stretched in every direction, the towering rockface behind me the only reminder I hadn't drifted into an endless abyss.

With one powerful sweep of my tail, I surged through the water, the vast silhouette of the ship emerging from the darkness like a sleeping leviathan.

I glided through the water as fast as my aching muscles would let me, desperate to reach Aldric and Solas.

I did not care if she was the last Siren left, I would rip her scales off one by one and shove them down her throat if she hurt the people I loved.

A whispered song floated to me on the current and I stopped, letting myself drift in the water.

A shiver tingled through my spine, hairs standing at the back of my neck as if I were being watched.

Nothing but endless water surrounded me.

The song swelled, more voices joining the melody until it echoed through the sea like a forgotten prayer.

Below me, something shifted in the darkness.

The crimson moonlight glinted across it.

Eyes.

Sirens erupted from the depths, surging towards me at impossible speed.

Hundreds of them.

Their powerful tails carved through the water with effortless grace, each stroke sending currents spiralling around me until my hair fanned out like a silver halo.

They circled faster and faster, scales catching the crimson light filtering down from the blood moon above. The sea no longer felt empty. It was alive.

My heartbeat thundered through my chest. I twisted in every direction, desperately trying to follow their movements, but they became nothing more than flashes of vibrant colours slipping through the water.

A Siren shot from the vortex with terrifying speed, stopping her momentum so suddenly the water whooshed around me. I flinched, but fear bled to anger in a heartbeat.

It was the Siren from the rocks.

Dark hair drifted around her like ink spilled into water. Moss-green scales shimmered with every powerful sweep of her tail, climbing the length of her abdomen before disappearing beneath the curve of her breasts. Ancient eyes studied me with unsettling patience.

“Maraveth—”

“My name is Lyra Meridian,” I cut her off. My voice fractured into layered harmonies, countless voices speaking with mine until the sea itself seemed to pulse in time with my heartbeat. Power surged through every vein, vast and endless, eclipsing every intoxicating feeling I had ever known.

Her head tilted with a slow, serpentine grace, suspicion narrowing her eyes.

Without warning, her tail snapped through the water.

Pain bit across my forearm. I hissed as a thin line opened through my flesh, black blood unfurling into the current in twisting ribbons that danced between us.

The Siren drew closer, nostrils flaring as if she were scenting me.

“I am the Goddess of the Sea,” I said, the words carrying less like a shout and more like a command. The water trembled around me, and the current stilled. The Sirens around us stopped their frenzy of movement as if responding to my power.