SHORT STORY: His Siren - Part 1

Hey! Been a bit of a while. My book is coming along pretty good but I wanted to share part one of a little project that I’ve been working on whenever I need a break!

HIS SIREN

Part 1

Year 6498 AC
Heartfair, Kingdom of Aiova
Flower District

Immeral opened his front door to see Sienna outside—pink and purple wings fluttering behind her. She entered immediately, and he had to step back lest she crash into him.

“Just come in then,” he snarked with no real bite behind the words.

She sent him a familiar, flirtatious smile, and Immeral would be a liar of the tallest order if he claimed it didn’t make his heart stutter for just a moment.

“You’ve had the chance to slam the door in my face many times and you’ve never taken it,” she pointed out, eyes gleaming.

He rolled his neck in frustration, locked the door behind her, and followed the fairy further into his small home. “What do you want now?”

She raised a hand to her chest in mockery of a wound. “You hurt me, Immeral. Who says I need anything? Maybe I’ve just stopped in to visit a friend?”

He couldn’t resist saying, “You don’t have friends.”

A playful smile graced her lips. “Of course not. Friends don’t understand me like you do.” She flew closer to him and he resisted the urge to take a step back.

She was practically half his size, annoying, mortal—and enchanting. Sienna was his personal siren, luring him, tempting him to destroy his life. Anything she wanted, he’d give her in a heartbeat. He just had to hope she didn’t know the kind of power she held over him. Sienna would ruin his simple, uncomplicated life in seconds, and the worst part was he wouldn’t just let her–he would welcome it.

A thread of longing wove through Immeral and he sighed, stepping backward—putting distance between them. The triumph on her face hit him like a physical blow.

He tried to keep his voice steady as he spoke, “I will ask again, what do you want?” 

The fairy’s red-painted lips curved in a frown, and she began to exaggeratedly clean under an already pristine fingernail, refusing to meet his eyes any longer. “I have a new job I thought you might be interested in, now that we’re partners.”

He leaned against the wall, tension coiling within him. She made their fledgling business arrangement sounds lewd. But at least this was familiar. “What is the job?”

A slight smirk replaced the frown and he couldn’t help but feel like he’d fallen right into her trap–one he didn’t know she’d set. “So glad you asked. You see, there’s this beautiful jewel a merchant is bringing from Wirrowwir, and I-we were contracted to acquire it. This job requires muscle.” Her gaze flicked to him.

Immeral made a show of rolling his eyes. Forever predictable. “You mean you want me to do it for you.”

She stopped picking at her fingernail and straightened up. “Of course not, I would obviously be there helping. It’s not my fault you won’t let me near any danger.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Fine. Let’s go then.”

“Now?” Sienna let out a small laugh, tinged with what he knew was mockery. “Immeral, the gem isn’t going to be in transit to steal for a couple days. We have time.”

His head tilted as he regarded her. “So then, why are you here? Planning ahead is rarely your style, especially for something as simple as robbing a caravan.”

She moved closer to him, wings fluttering as she lifted further off the ground until they were eye-to-eye. “Maybe I wasn’t kidding about wanting to come see you.”

His heart gave a thud he’d have sworn she heard. Before he could respond, she turned away—a wing brushing his face as she continued, “Or, maybe, I did feel like planning this one. I can always leave if you’d prefer to sit here alone, brooding.”

Immeral swallowed thickly and reached out to grasp her shoulder–stopping right before his fingers brushed her skin. It was a constant fear he had with her, a fleeting worry that if he touched her, he’d hurt her unintentionally. Mortals were so much more fragile than celestials, and that knowledge ate at him.

Sienna seemed to sense he’d reached for her because she turned around, green eyes narrowed and alight with fury. “What is it with you?” she snapped, her hand knocking his frozen one from the air.

He blinked at her, confused. “What do you mean?”

She huffed and started flying back and forth in front of him—her version of anxious pacing. “You always treat me like I’m made of glass! Even though I was doing just fine before you showed up!”

“You hired me first,” he couldn’t help but point out.

She made an annoyed noise in the back of her throat. “It was a big job! I am capable of taking care of myself. I’m not going to break!”

Immeral’s mind felt jumbled as he asked, “If you can take care of yourself, why do you keep hiring me to help you with jobs? Why did we form a partnership?” He stirred the word, using her previous insinuation against her. Irritation overtook the confusion and he took a step forward. “If you do not want muscle to shield you from the violence your jobs and constant reckless actions attract, why have me help at all?”

She stopped flying for a moment. Green met blood-red as their gazes locked–she was studying him. Time stood still for Immeral as he let her eyes search his own, looking for something he didn’t understand and wasn’t sure he possessed.

Finally, Sienna shook her head with a dark chuckle. “I’m gonna leave. I can’t have this fight with you right now. If you don’t get it, I’m not explaining.”

“Just tell me!” The words burst from him as irritation gave way to rage, anger fueling a wave of sea-green magic that snapped out to the side with a whip-like crack.

Immediately he regretted losing his temper and handle on his magic as the fairy flinched away from him and floated closer to the exit.

“Maybe,” she whispered as she opened the door, “Maybe, I just wanted to spend time with you. Maybe, I’ve been hiring you because that seemed like the only way to be around you for even a short amount of time. Maybe that was a motivation for the partnership.”

“Sienna!” he called, panicked adrenaline flooding his body. Somehow he’d misjudged whatever was going on between them. Misjudged that there was nothing between them.

She ignored him, her wings carrying her through the door before he could make his legs move to stop her.

It shut with a quiet click, and then he was alone in a house that had never felt empty—until he’d met her.