My reflexes, honed from my time at Ullanyth HQ during the civil war, was the only reason I avoided being hit in the head by the chair that Tanzeem threw at me in a mocking fit of rage.
"Are you trying to murder me?" I shouted, taking shelter under the dining table.
She reached for another chair, her blue eyes blazing. "You little wretch, allowing me to believe that you and hot-boy Tyler had nothing between you, and then you hit me with this!" She shook the magazine, crumpled in her fist, the pictures from Tyler's photoshoot filling its pages.
"There is nothing between us! We're friends!" I protested, still under the table.
"Do you take me for a fool? Don't feed me that bull!" Tanzeem abandoned the chair and attempted in vain to smooth the badly rumpled magazine before jabbing a finger at the picture - or, more specifically, our lips. "That does not belong in a platonic friendship!"
"I'm not attracted to him! I barely know him!"
She scoffed. "Your attempts at lying are so cute."
The rest of my family offered me no support - mainly due to the fact that they all supported Tanzeem's views and completely disregarded my denial. After all, aren't I supposed to know me best?
My mother and aunt did little to hide their squeals and smirks, their adult-like exteriors fading and replaced with the typical chatter of two young sisters. My grandfather, thankfully, kept his thoughts private, although the warm expression on his face whenever I walked into the room betrayed him.
Unwilling to deal with my immature family for another second, I decided to take a walk around Delmitii's market, intending to distract myself and allow time to fly by with a large glass of taefolia and a bag of profiteroles. I'd seen a miniature bake stall when I had come here with Tanzeem. I was craving them. I hadn't even managed to fully enjoy Livia's profiteroles like I should have, thanks to Tyler.
Why does everything go back to that godforsaken boy? Stop it, Sarah.
What I failed too late to realise was that the magazine was popular with most sirens on Delmitii, and many instantly recognised me. An eager crowd swarmed me, practically throwing pictures of the photoshoot in my face. They all spoke at once, their voices overlapping each other as each of them fought to be heard.
"Who are you? You're not a local, are you? Are you a model?"
"You have such lovely eyes. The colour of violets."
"What's your name?"
"Are you Tyler's girlfriend?"
I coughed loudly in mortification at the last question especially, backing away as their hair rested on my cheeks - yes, they were that uncomfortably close to me. Knowing that there was no way out of this, I started with the easier questions. "My name is Sarah. I'm a siren, but I live on Jendilya."
One of the sirens released an exaggerated gasp that had me almost rolling my eyes. "You live on the mainland? That must be awful, being apart from your kin!"
I shrugged. "Not really. Well, it was pretty bad in Jendilya over the past years. There was a civil war recently, until the Queen of Hearts returned and took the throne." If Kameron were here, she would've scoffed, reprimanding me for making her sound too 'majestic'.
The eyes of my apparent fans bulged in both shock and astonishment. "That sounds dangerous! How did you survive?"
I resisted the urge to frown at what I perceived as quite a stupid question, really. "I fought back."
YOU ARE READING
Sleeping Nightmare
Fantasy[Fairytale Series, Book 6] The deaths of her friends had left Sarah's heart shattered, tossed to the floor in tiny fragments. Determined to leave the past behind and not let another loss break her, she and her mother travel to the siren island of De...
