“Then take my hand,” he said with a sad smile, reaching out toward me. “Let’s dare to dream just a little bit longer.”
Chapter 24
Nerion
By the time we got back to the hotel and rinsed the sand from our bodies, the sun was coming up in Boston. Between the bar and Greece, we’d stayed up all night. And the moment Teddy collapsed into the bed beside me, still damp from the shower, he was out. His soft snores filled the room as light leaked through the curtains across our bed.
But I couldn’t sleep. Not with all the conflicting thoughts running through my head.
Teddy was pressed up against me, his warmth creating a soft buzz throughout my entire body. He had an arm draped over my waist possessively, like I belonged to him. And I guess, if I thought about it, I’d hadn’t given him much reason to think otherwise.
We were supposed to be friends with benefits and nothing but. But clearly, I’d been just as bad at maintaining that boundary as he had. We were fucking constantly now, without any protection. And we’d been hanging out more and more. I’d been to his swim meet and even rescued him from his parents before whisking him away for the weekend. That wasn’t what friends with benefits did.
We were squarely in boyfriend territory.
I let out a long sigh and stared at the ceiling. The thing I was most afraid of was happening right before my eyes. I was starting to care about him far more than I should. Far more than was safe. For either of us.
The memories of our time in Greece kept replaying in my mind. The way he stared at me every time I showed him my true form, without fear or disgust. The way he touched me, like I was something precious rather than a dangerous monster. And the way he’d suggested we could just... stay there. Build a life together. Like it was the easiest choice in the world to make.
And the worst part? For one fleeting moment, I’d actually considered it.
I carefully extracted myself from Teddy’s grip, sliding out from under his arm as gently as I could. He stirred slightly but didn’t wake, his face peaceful in sleep. I stood by the bed for a moment, just watching him. His golden hair was tousled, his lips slightly parted, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. He looked so young, so unburdened in sleep. So different from the weight he carried when awake.
Moving quietly to the window, I pushed the curtain aside just enough to peek out at the city below. Boston was coming to life, people hurrying to work, cars honking in the early morning traffic. Normal people living normal lives, untouched by ancient curses and impossible choices.
My parents’ faces flashed in my mind. The way they’d looked at each other, even at the end. Even as they dissolved into seafoam on that same beach I’d just shown Teddy.
“We loved too much,” my mother had told me the night before it happened. “But we wouldn’t change a thing, Nerion. Remember that. Some things are worth dying for even if they don’t last forever.”
I’d been thirteen, too young to understand what she meant. But I understood now.
Sirens weren’t meant to love. We were meant to enchant, to lure, to destroy. And if we ever truly fell in love, not just the passing fancy or lust that humans called love, but the deep, soul-consuming love that transcended time and space… then we were doomed. The moment our love was unrequited, the moment the object of our affection stopped loving us back, we would dissolve into seafoam, returning to the sea that birthed our kind.
My parents had known the risk. They’d loved each other anyway. And for years, it had worked. Until my father’s eye had wandered, until his heart had shifted, just a fraction. That was all it took.
I’d watched my mother dissolve first, her body becoming translucent, then foamy, then nothing at all. My father, realizing too late what he’d done, had followed minutes later, his love rekindled by loss. But by then, it was too late for both of them.
It was the most horrifying memory I kept locked deep inside me.
I turned back to look at Teddy, still sleeping peacefully on the bed. He didn’t know about the curse. I hadn’t told him the full truth. Not yet. But I’d asked him not to fall in love with me, and he’d agreed. Though, I think we both knew they were just words. We’d already started our slippery descent by then and it was only getting faster now.
What would happen if I told him? If I explained that for me, love wasn’t just an emotion, but that it was potentially fatal?
Would he run? Would he stay out of pity? Would he try to save me, the way witches always thought they could with enough magic and perseverance?
I ran a hand through my hair, feeling the dampness still clinging to the ends. I should leave. Now, while he was sleeping. Cut this off before it went any further. Before I lost myself completely.
But as I looked at him, at the way the morning light filtered through the curtains and painted gold across his skin, I knew I couldn’t. Not yet. I was too selfish, too greedy for whatever time I could steal with him before reality caught up with us.
I slipped back into bed beside him, and his arm immediately found its way around my waist again, pulling me close even in sleep. His warmth enveloped me, and I let myself sink into it, just for a moment.
“Just friends with benefits,” I whispered to myself, the lie bitter on my tongue. “That’s all this will ever be.”
But as I finally drifted off to sleep, the truth I’d been running from settled over me like a shroud. I was already in love with Theodore Voss. And unless he somehow, miraculously, loved me back with the same intensity, with the same forever kind of love that humans rarely achieved, I was already doomed.
That’s why, once we got back to campus, I’d disappear. If either of us ever expressed our feelings out loud, that would seal the bond.
I couldn’t let that happen.