The siren hissed when he kicked the rock at it. Eli bit his lip, already missing that pretty song. The sea was a weedy green and the sharp brown rocks of the cliff face disappeared into the lapping waves. Eli crouched on the edge of the bank next to the ocean, staring in wonder at the creature’s enormous blue tail. It dwarfed his own body at least five times over.

“I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry.” Eli called.

The siren bared her sharp teeth.

“Please, I was listening to your song. Don’t swim away.” Eli dug into his pockets, snatching at the crushed biscuit his father had bribed him with to leave him alone to speak with the guests. “I’ll give you this?” he held it out.

The creature stopped hissing, perhaps lured by Eli’s stupidity in reaching out to it. It wasn’t aware of the solid silver dagger in his pocket. It was tiny but made from deadly metal mined from a fallen star.

“I’m coming down, don’t be frightened of me.” Eli gracefully hopped down. He supposed it wasn’t entirely the siren’s fault for letting him close. After all, the weapons deadly to it were also deadly to him, not to mention sirens drowned men, not women.

“Can I sit here?”

The siren turned up her nose but didn’t protest. Eli saw his wicked grin reflected in the water and changed it into something more pleasant. Up close, he could see that the siren wasn’t as large as he thought. Good. The old ones were wary, especially on these shores.

“There’s not very many of you around here anymore.” Eli said, making conversation. He offered the biscuit. It was more for the gesture than anything, since sirens ate fish with those sharp teeth. “Someone, a healer, told the men that your blood has special properties, like a unicorn’s horn—they hunt your kind for eternal life.”

The siren snarled.

“I agree. If they were worthy of it, it would be granted.” Eli tucked his feet underneath him. Wild creatures liked it when you placed yourself within their power. They were more likely to linger and satisfy their curiosity if there was no danger. “My kind aren’t eternal, but we almost are. Under the right circumstances.”

The siren’s chin jutted to Eli’s chest. He ran his hand over the shining pendant.

A wave crashed over the rocks below. The siren’s tail flapped, directing the spray up onto both of them. The cold shocked him. He giggled.

“You must be so free in the ocean. I can’t go very far. Everyone acts like I’m this… fragile jewel, to be kept nearby, safe and sound. Even now, he chased me out of the house so he can speak to the man coming to offer his hand to me. What do you think of that?”

“You have teeth and claws.” The siren lifted her hand, stretching out webbed fingers, and claws longer than Eli’s, longer than even his fathers. “Lure with beauty, then rip out their throat.”

“Or drown them.”

The siren smiled. “You lead them here, I will drown them for you.”

“That is tempting, but, the men today are a little different.” Eli shuffled closer to the siren. “One of them is this old wolf, a creature of war, and he’s fine I suppose. But, the one with him, his son—” he took in a deep breath, filling his lungs with the salty air, “he is fire, like the burning stars. With him, I could be the shining jewel inside a box that spans this world, and the next.”

Distaste flared in the siren’s eyes. “Men take more than they give, always.”

Eli pitied her. A siren’s purpose in life was to drown the men who’d wronged them in life. If only they could see past their vengeance, they could conquer the world with their songs. Eli didn’t have their particular talents, but there were others at his disposal, and he was willing to use all of them. “Nobody will ever take what’s mine.” He promised.

He stabbed the siren with the cursed blade. Through the gills, into the creature’s heart. When she realised what he’d done she tried to leap into the ocean, but Eli kept a firm hold of her hair and kept her on the rocks. He panted and grinned in victory down at the siren’s bleeding corpse. Once she stopped twitching, he pressed his lips to the wet, leathery skin and drank in the black-inky blood. The blood from a siren, pumping from their heart, blessed the one who consumed it with their alluring power.

Nobody could resist it.

Eli straightened, panting. His father would kill a man for the corpse, it was worth a small kingdom, but he let the evidence of his crime sink below the ocean waves. Let the fish be blessed with allurement, rather than any who could work against him.

He climbed the bank and walked through the grain field toward his house. He smelled like death, but there was something else—so sweet, and overpowering—it was in his blood, pumping through him, making him strong, changing him forcefully in a way he hadn’t expected. Eli struggled a little, wishing that the hut his father lived in was closer than a hundred paces.

At the back of the house where forest replaced the fields, he found the young wolf seated on a log stump. He stared, eyes shining gold.

“You’re the old wolf’s boy.” Eli said.

He saw the boy’s nostrils flare, saw his hands twitching. He was reacting strongly. Eli approached. “My father said he’d settle the matter with yours, but, I have my own test as well. Has he told you yet?” He came close, standing just before the young wolf’s feet. Those eyes were fire and the sun.

“What is your test?” The young wolf had a powerful voice. Simple, but commanding.

Eli stepped into the space between the young wolf’s legs, bending down. He saw the young wolf take in a deep breath, and his eyes turned from solid golden to silver. The young wolf reached out, taking a long blond curl and pressed it to his nose.

“I’m afraid your father, mighty wolf that he is, may not be able to pass it.”

“What is your test?” The young wolf repeated, putting aside the blade he’d been sharpening with a black wetstone.

Eli came closer, mouth to his ear, letting him breathe in more of the scent. “You have to catch me first,” He whispered.

He turned, leaping from between the young wolf’s legs, and was surprised to find he’d only just escaped his hands. Eli saw, victoriously, that there was no intention to pass the test along to his father. With a laugh, he jumped away again, shifting, taking the chance to show off his glorious, gleaming coat—

“Eli!”

“Eli! Wake up—it’s fuck, fuck, dad! Dad, I don’t know what’s—”

Hands pushed on his shoulders, forcing him flat onto his back. He fought them. He fought the hand trying to stroke his forehead. He fought the hands on his knees. He fought the voices from his mind.

“You’re okay, it’s all g, I promise, the ambulance is coming—wait, have you called the ambulance yet? We need to—”

“Noah, take a deep breath.”

A horrible sound was ringing in his ears. His throat ached. His bones—they were breaking. All of them. His muscles were breaking too. Something ice-cold dropped onto his chest, and the terror and confusion paused. His breath hitched in surprise, and that sound cut off. The sound had been him screaming.

He still felt the pain, but the cold on his chest was cutting off the core source of it. The swelling inside that was about to make him burst lessened. All of him cooled, including his mind. He became aware of the surrounding voices, all low and soothing, telling him it would be okay. He opened his eyes to see three faces peering down at him.

“You’re okay, sweetie.” Jenny soothed, petting his forehead. His sweat was quickly drying into chills, though he still panted to catch his breath.

“I’m okay.” He echoed in a hoarse voice.

Noah wasn’t as put together, stress evident in his expression.

“I don’t need to be pinned down,” Eli said.

They all let go. Eli reached for his chest and lifted the bag of peas. “That was a good idea.” He said lamely. He was getting his bearings even more.

“My mother used to get panic attacks.” His dad said, “Shocking her with something cold used to work for snapping her out of it.”

Eli was shivering and shaking. “Dad?”

“Yes?”

“Did I hear Noah say, ‘it’s all g’?”

Noah choked, “I couldn’t even hear myself say that over you.”

“Right.”

They were hovering. It was because of how hard he was crying. The pain had gone almost entirely, but panic had left a large bruise that was still forming inside him.

“We’re going to help you sit up now.” Dad said.

Eli didn’t like that, and he was right, because he almost passed out when he got vertical. His head was heavy. His dad helped prop him up on the headboard with Jenny on the bed next to him, and Eli heard a familiar rattling as he opened the pain killers. Eli closed his eyes. “It’s okay,” he said.

“One will help, and then we’ll take you in to see the doctor.”

“I had one last night. And the pain is already gone. It was more—it was a dream, and I was hurting in the dream, and that carried over, but it’s gone now.” Eli couldn’t say it wasn’t actual pain, because it was, but it had passed quickly. He’d grown used to waking with aching joints, but this had been different. This had been agony ripping through his body, and it had left him just as fast.

Dad rubbed his back. “A nightmare?”

Not really, but saying he’d woken up screaming from one seemed the easiest way to explain it. “Yeah.”

“Are you okay?” Noah asked him softly. He was the only one not sitting on the bed now, but he still held Eli’s knee. Eli went to the effort of opening his eyes to nod at him.

Noah let out a shaky breath. “I’m going to send the guys home.”

Eli reached past his dad for his phone and saw it was going on half seven. Ah, right. He remembered going straight to bed after school, and that Noah had had friends over. Friends who must have heard the screaming. Eli grimaced.

“Don’t worry about it.” Jenny said to him.

Eli leaned forward, away from his dad, and stretched out. His muslces bent and moved easily. Jenny and his dad hovered close to him. The panic was gone, leaving him with the absolute certainty that it hadn’t been a dream. The young wolf was a younger version of the man he’d met with the Luna, her mate, and all of it had just been too vivid. Awake, the details didn’t fade at all, but rather they strengthened. He could recall exactly how he’d moved his body when he stabbed the siren, and knew if he had to do it again, to aim for the fourth gill down. He remembered reading it in a book.

“I’m okay.” Eli eventually said.

Noah re-entered the room with a cup of tea. “Can he have this?” He looked at Jenny for confirmation.

“It’s all g.” Eli said.

Noah shot him a look, but he seemed relieved.

Eli’s voice was still hoarse, and the tea was like heaven. “It’s actually very good g.”

Noah groaned dramatically.

Dad and Jenny were having a silent conferral through eye-contact, and Eli drew his knees up to himself. He sipped his tea, and the second sip was even better. “It’s excellent g.”

“I get it, I’m never using that phrase ever again.”

“I’m hungry.”

“Because you skipped dinner,” Noah pointed out. Despite his tone, he’d put his hand on Eli’s knee again, though Eli wasn’t sure which of them it was to reassure. They must have been freaked the hell out to hear Eli screaming out of nowhere. They might have thought the rogue was back. Noah knew nothing about it, but Jenny and his dad did.

“Are you up for a visit to the doctor?” His dad asked Eli.

Surprisingly, the decision was being left to him. “I can last until tomorrow.” He said. “I really am hungry though.”