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Every shell in hand could hold her voice Every stone under foot could be where she stood Every whisper of wind or hush of watermore or less than wind and waves and shells and stones

I love it here If I could, I’d build a house out of driftwood for Fen and Bay and True and od froht come to rest on him

I wish I could stay Above

And Bay wishes she could be Below But neither of us can live where we’d like, and we can’t be together Bay needs to be with Fen, and Above is best for him now that their doctors will treat him And for now the Below is better foras I want--a ets easier each tiether, ork on a crew rebuilding the deepether with fire and metal Yesterday, we raced side by side in one of the lanes, and when our bodies touched, I remembered e came Above When we climbed out of the water, True kissed nored their cheers and catcalls "Whytirowing up, I often felt trapped by the constraints of my voice, the concerns ofwiththe air of the Above while the sky of the Below laps at our feet, I know I aer trapped

I am protected, shaped and built by what is outside, what they made of me, but also by what is inside, what Ito her for the first tirow still but not surprised The wind touches her hair, blows sand along our skin

"Rio," she says "Your voice"

I s back

I thought it was gone, and for weeks that was true But then I felt it again, on the day so, and it seeht when it left I spent it all and so was given it to share again It ave what she had to save others, to protect and teach them And somehow, that never diht I was the last siren in Atlantia, but now I aer sirens, those who have at last revealed themselves Someone has to tell them the stories once hidden in Atlantia’s walls

"We ended up like Oceana and Maire, after all," I say to Bay "Two sisters who have to live apart"

"I’m proud to be like them," Bay says

So am I They kept faith with each other Neither of theh they could have, the way the sisters in that siren story did

It is easy to see , to feel them in the open places in my soul I think they watch us I think they love us still

Bay wraps both arms around me and I feel her tears on my skin We are not lost irls, alive and found

We are sisters, and we did not drown