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Ryder let ainst his chest and wrapped his arled in the back of ainst his breastbone, and the other hugged me around the waist so that there was absolutely no space between us More sobs burst fros, like lava from a volcano and they came in a torrential downpour of emotion I wasn’t prepared for
Emotion I promised myself was buried away
"Ivy, what happened to Sa and he should never have tried to medicate his pain with alcohol You cannot blame yourself," Ryder ordered in a hoarse, pained whisper
"Yes, I can," I snapped, the sadness abruptly replaced with anger "You have no idea Everything was "
Ryder pulled away from me and tried to look in ly with emotion
Finally, he settled on, "Why is it your fault, Ivy?"
"Because of who I a tone He couldn’t sooth me, not this This was pain he couldn’t take away "Because of what I do! I destroy lives That’s my whole purpose Sam, all the boys before him, Chase, you! The crash was my fault If he never would have met me, he would have been safe!"
Ryder ered conviction, "Why Ivy? What does his crash have to do with you? What does who you are have to do with any of it?"
"It’s crazy," I let out hysterical laughter that cas "You’ll think I’m crazy"
"I already think you’re crazy," he adenuine
"Siren I’m a, uh, I’m a siren," the words rushed out of me in a waterfall of truth I would never be able to take back Ryder let go of my arms and took a step back, completely shocked, or stunned, or… I didn’t know I couldn’t i as crazy as that for the first time "I told you, I told you you would think I was crazy And it is crazy! It’s co nuts"
"What do you h y? Zeus, Mount Olyoddesses, nymphs, muses… sirens? I am a siren," Sanity started to return to ly htened out Whether Ryder ever believedI came clean to somebody "It’s all true, Ryder All of it Well, Ok, not all of it Not in the context you read about it at school And Mount Olympus isn’t like some reference to heaven, it’s just a normal mountain But the rest of it’s… somewhat true"
"I don’t understand, Ivy Is this like, a, uh, uh,… he needed iant metaphor for life and I wasn’t completely insane after all
"No, it’s not a metaphor Ryder, this is truth Or at least my truth, what I’ve lived with my whole life But you have to look at it differently, like it’s not this exaggerated fairy tale that you’re taught in school The legends are eos, but for the most part… they’re true And our society, it’s not like it ay back in the day I mean, there are not that many of us and we all just kind of blend into the rest of huuys, the attention, Sam’s crash… It’s because I’m a siren That’s what I do to rowled out and I couldn’t tell if he was starting to believe me or not
"Men feel attracted to me because they can’t help it I’ve been cursed since birth by this… genealogy I don’t have a choice about what I do to guys, it just happens And the uy, the deeper the connection for et away from That’s what happened to Sam, he spent too much time with me until I destroyed him and then the crash? That was just like the end of the road with sohed bitterly
"The crash was on purpose?" Ryder gasped, grippinghands
"No!" I quickly reassured "No, it wasn’t on purpose, but it wasn’t necessarily avoidable either Iti like that For the most part, whatever elevated evolution we possessed back in the day is one by now, but then the crash with Sam happened and my circle, un, like a good sign of things to cohtened on my arms, and I winced a little He immediately droppedat me I couldn’t let myself hope that he believed me, that he wouldn’t cut off all communication with , I had to make him understand I wasn’t like them
"No, not me, I’m not like them I never wanted to hurt Sam, to hurt anybody I don’t want this life But I was born into it Right now, I don’t have a choice But I have this trust fund I’e, or whatever and I’et out"
Ryder let that sink in, his breathing was deep and ht Finally he looked up at me, his jawline tensed with soure out "Suppose I… suppose I believe you Who’s Nix?"
"My uodfather," I explained but that didn’t really explain anything
"No way, Ivy The way that guy looks at you, how he acts around you… it’s like he’s trying to own you Like you’re his possession Who is he? You’ve been honest with me this far" His words cut at ht I had been honest this far
"In the big perspective he’s Poseidon’s nepheasn’t lying, he really is odfather But he’s also my mom’s boss And he’ll be mine too one day I mean, if the trust fund plan doesn’t pan out"