Chapter 4
A week later, Lillian’s voice roused Esme from a dreamless sleep, note by note dissolving what was left of the night. Her lilting song, floating up through the now-familiar house at 8 Nestor Street, sounded like a siren calling from the deep—and Esme would know. She and Lillian had met real sirens earlier that summer.
On that visit, Melisande, chief guardian of the sirens’ songspells, had told Lillian that she was destined to become a songstress. That was the very Gift Lillian had always desired: the ability to imbue her music with magic and influence the world around her through melody. Since Melisande’s prediction, Lillian had been practising her singing twice as much each day, but so far, her renditions of Melisande’s songspells, while beautiful, had remained distinctly unma
