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Blood rose from the wound in thin, deep blue ribbons that unfurled into the sea between us.

The Siren watched it spread with cold recognition as the wound knitted itself back together.

“Liar,” she whispered, drifting closer. “You are something else.”

The Sirens swirling around us stopped, watching us intently.

She darted forwards, abyssal eyes widening inches from my face. “Yours is the first ship to sail in generations. You bleed like a monster yet lies spill from your mouth like every other male. My goddess is dead.”

My chest was starting to burn without air, and I knew I did not have long left.

“Maraveth…” I forced the name through the water, bubbles tearing from my lips. “Has risen.”

She screamed, sharp teeth gleaming in threat. The rest of the Sirens screeched around us. My limbs dragged through the water, and I began to sink deeper into the depths.

“Seven Hells,” I choked. “She’s trapped.” My vision darkened around the edges.

The Siren’s gaze narrowed, her eyes sweeping over me with open suspicion. Whatever she saw, she did not trust.

Good. She fucking shouldn’t.

The burn in my chest sharpened, my lungs brutally demanding air. I glanced toward the surface, where the ship’s dark shape rocked above me, blurred by the churn of the Dead Sea. The song still drifted through the water, curling around the hull, reaching for Solas and Aldric.

I kicked upward, but the Siren moved faster.

Her hand clamped around my arm, fingers digging into my skin with inhuman strength. I snarled, bubbles tearing from my mouth as I twisted toward her, but her grip only tightened.

Dread pooled low in my stomach as I struggled against her. I could not die from drowning or the touch of the Dead Sea. But if she dragged me to the depths, I would drown over, and over again.

Her moss-green tail snapped beneath her, powerful enough to send a violent current rolling through the water. The motion hauled me upward towards the surface.

My head broke the surface of the swell, the ship towering above me. I gasped, oxygen filling my lungs in a relieving wave.

The Siren slowly emerged from the water, brown hair clinging to her pale skin.

“You will take me to my goddess.” It was a statement, not a question, and she gripped the rope netting and began hauling herself up with her arms.

I gripped the end of her tail, dragging her back beneath the surface in a violent splash.

She twisted, hissing, brown hair fanning through the water.

“Give me your tears,” I snarled, “and I will take you to her.”

The Siren narrowed her eyes, studying me as though weighing whether I was desperate enough to lie.

“You don't have enough leverage to make demands, Commander.” She bared her teeth in a slow, vicious smile, her iridescent eyes never leaving mine. “If you would prefer your men not be dragged beneath the depths until their lungs fill with the sea while we take turns on their cocks, then you will acknowledge that I hold the power here.”

Ripples spread across the black water.

Sirens rose soundlessly from the depths until the sea was littered with pale faces and shimmering tails beneath the surface, watching with an eerie stillness that made the hairs along my arms stand on end.

“A Siren's tears are not freely given. They carry power older than your kingdoms, and I will not waste one on a male whose tongue is so poisoned by deceit.”

The Sirens surrounding us watched silently, an eerie presence pressing against me like a physical weight.

“If Maraveth truly lives, let me look upon her with my own eyes. Only then will you have my tears.”

This time when she gripped the netting, I did not stop her.