“It’s the bowman!” Salem remarked in a soft voice, as he peered around the curtain nervously.

The howl did sound strangely musical. Not like any howl they had heard before. It’s tones were melodic and chilling. Beautiful but haunting.

Gemma rolled her eyes. “That’s just one of dad’s fairy tales.” But she looked at the window with an element of worry.

Amanda glanced at her daughter’s face and then walked to the window. Out there nothing could be seen but darkness and the wall of the neighbouring building. Amanda opened the window gently and peered out toward the otherwise empty and quiet streets of Hush. And she listened.

The howls stopped, and although they all waited with baited breath for quite some time, no more howls came. Eventually, Amanda turned back from the window to face her children. With a look at each of their tired faces she said, “Alright, get some sleep.” And taking the guitar with her, she left the room.

“Are you going to play me a song?” Sirius teased good-naturedly when she returned to their room with the guitar.

Amanda managed half a smile as she laid the guitar against the bedroom wall. She sat on the bed and sighed. She rubbed her forehead with both hands.

“Go easy on them, they’ve had a long day.”

“I know, I know,” she replied softly with another sigh.

She heard him climb across the bed and place his hands gently on her shoulders. “We all have,” he added as he massaged the tension out of her shoulders.

She smiled, but didn’t have the energy for a reply.

“Maybe I could sing you a song?”

She turned to him then, one eyebrow raised in a warning but curious look.

He answered her look with, “Well, not a song so much as a poem. I can whisper it.” He smiled. His eyes twinkled.

She smiled too. She couldn’t help it. Then she reached one hand up and caressed the dark stubble covering his cheek. “Okay,” she whispered. “Gimme a sec.” She rose from where she sat, then kicked off her boots, stripped down to almost nothing, and threw on an oversized t-shirt. She climbed into bed with him and snuggled up into the warmth of his arms. Looking up at his emerald eyes with her big brown ones, she whispered, “Go on then.”

He stroked her red hair gently and recited in a low deep hush,

“With twists and turns,

The sea breaks cold,

Oher my heart,

Fore I grow old.

But love’s a rush,

Her touch a dove.

She finds a way,

To take a hold.

And in her arms,

I fall asleep.

The sea is left to weep,

And weep.”

She smiled as his soft voice soothed her soul, and chased all other thoughts from her mind. “That’s not the end.” She knew the song well.

“It’s not,” Sirius agreed. “But it’s enough for tonight.”

Amanda agreed. It was a good place to stop. The rest was sad. She closed her eyes and listened to the slow rhythm of his heart.

They lay like that together for sometime, neither saying a word, until eventually each separated out onto their own side of the bed. Before she drifted off to sleep Amanda reached out a hand and gently stroked it along Sirius’s bare back, her fingers smoothing out the lines of a several decade-old scars. She wished him good dreams for once and then she slipped away into her own world.

A few hours later, in the room next door, Salem awoke with a start. He sat up and listened. Had he heard something? A cat in the alley? Another howl? Someone creeping about? He couldn’t be sure. All he could hear now was the whistling of the wind outside and the gentle breathing of his sleeping siblings.

Too alert to fall back asleep, he pulled his gameboy from beneath his pillow. He played for a little bit, until the battery dropped to 25%. He eyed the number indecisively. He didn’t want to burn through all of it, when they still had several days left.

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A creak somewhere out in the hallway made the decision for him. He turned the gameboy off and slipped it back under his pillow. Then he sat, hairs on edge, watching the door of their room. His heart beat too fast for sleeping now. Besides, he was thirsty. He longed to get up a grab a drink of water. But he had definitely heard something out there. He licked his lips nervously.

Taking a deep breath he used his magic and made himself transparent. He climbed down off the bunk, quiet as he could so he didn’t wake his siblings. He hesitated at the door, but hearing nothing beyond it, he silently turned the handle and slipped out into the empty hallway.

He winced as the one of the floorboards creaked underfoot. Then he leaped to the edge of the hall, figuring the floor might creak less along the edges. On tiptoes he crept toward main eating area. There had been a water fountain in there. The inn keep had shown them that in case they needed any water.

He tiptoed across the darkened room, keeping his invisibility up, then bent over the fountain for a drink.

“Salem?” a deep voice asked.

Salem nearly jumped out of his skin. He also gave a loud yelp of surprise. And in his shock he completely forgot to maintain his invisibility. It didn’t matter though for once he spun to face the speaker he knew who it was.

Sirius, equally unable to sleep had gotten up for a walk and had been quietly sitting and pondering things at one of the tables when Salem had entered the room. Neither had noticed the other at first. The room was dark and Sirius had been sitting quite still in that dark overcoat he loved so much, when suddenly the water fountain had started going. Familiar with his son’s powers and no believer in ghosts, Sirius had guessed who it was.

“Couldn’t sleep either huh?” Sirius said. He nodded at a nearby stool.

Salem climbed up onto the stool. “I thought I heard something.”

“Ah. Oh, sorry, that might have been me.”

Salem wasn’t so sure. “Hey dad, you know the sirens...”

“Yeah?”

“Well...” Salem paused and frowned. He wasn’t sure how to word what it was he wanted to know.

Seeing his son struggling for words, Sirius said, “Don’t worry about it. My first time encountering a siren, I nearly walked into the deep too. My first three times in fact.”

Salem blinked in surprise at that. His father was always so in control. He had a hard time imagining him falling for the song of the sirens. “How do you stop their song from getting to you?”

“Well, it’s all about learning how to recognise it, and then you have to respond quickly before it takes over. It takes some practice.”

Salem winced. It must be hard to get practice with something that’s always trying to kill you. “How’d you survive the first few times?”

“Other crew. All you gotta do is get the earplugs in someone’s ears. There are other methods too but that’s the easiest. That and fish anyone out of the sea who’s gone in. The second time I heard them I did end up in the water. But the sirens don’t like to come too close to the boat you see, not at first. Siren scales are a sought after ingredient in some spells. If you can catch one they sell for quite a pretty penny. The point is, you’ve always got a little bit of time. Problem is, someone transfixed by a siren’s call isn’t usually a very good swimmer. You forget a lot when you are under their spell. Some captains like to tie their new recruits to the masts when sailing through siren waters, just so they can get a feel for what it’s like. Some say you can fight it, but I’ve never met a man nor a woman who could hear them and fight them off.”

“How come most woman can’t hear them?”

Sirius shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t think any could until I met your mother. There’s not many who can.”

“Do you think, they can get us here?”

“Oh land? No.” Sirius chuckled softly.

It was such a relaxed response that Salem might have believed him if he hadn’t heard other stories. “I heard there were some ports where sirens have lured sailors from shore into the sea and drowned them in the breaks of the waves.”

Sirius gave his son a serious look and then nodded solemnly. “That is the case in some places. But I think we’re safe here.” He gave his son a reassuring smile. “Even when I hear them in my sleep now I can wake fast enough. On the boat, I knew it wasn’t a dream. Falling asleep can be very dangerous in siren waters but I knew. If it happens again I’ll wake and I won’t let you walk into the sea. Okay?”

Salem nodded. It did make him feel better. But there was still one more thing. He glanced in the direction that the howls had come from earlier. “What do you think is out there?”

“Sirius followed his son’s eye line. “I don’t know. But the villagers don’t seem too worried, apart from the sound, so I think we’ll be alright, as long as we’re quiet.”

Salem nodded again. That made sense. His dad seemed so calm. Salem stifled a yawn.

“We should get some sleep yeah?” Sirius said.

“Yeah, alright. Thanks Dad.”

“Good night.”

“Night.” Salem slipped from the table and was surprised to find his mum standing in the doorway to this room. How long had she been there?

He slipped past her, not sure if he’d be in trouble for being out of bed so late. But she gave him a knowing smile and simply said. “Good night Salem.”

“Good night,” he replied. Then he returned to his room and climbed back into his bed, less wary than earlier.

As Salem drifted back to sleep, Bobby stirred in the lower bunk.

Outside in the alleyway there came suddenly a loud crash!

Bobby’s eyes blinked open and he leapt from his bed. Sicking his head out the window he was surprised to see the shape of a figure bent over near a fallen stack of crates.

As they stood and stepped into the light of the moon, Bobby saw that it was a girl. She looked about his age, and she was holding a small white cat that struggled in her arms. The cat was as white as her hair, which contrasted sharply against her brown arms.

As Bobby leaned further out the window to get a look at her, the hinges creaked. The girl glanced sharply his way and Bobby was too captivated by her beauty to look away. No other girl at his school had a jaw as defined as that, nor hair so long and flowy. There was a grace about her movement that he couldn’t describe. She stared at Bobby and he stared back. An eternity seemed to pass, neither one able to look away.

Then, still holding the struggling cat, the girl raised one slender finger to her lips, then she turned from the alleyway, and disappeared into the night.

Bobby stayed staring after her until eventually he heard Salem ask from the top bunk, “What is it?”

Bobby turned from the window, feeling like his whole world was a dream, and replied with a frown “It was a girl.”

“A girl?” Salem whispered.

Bobby nodded. Then as if in a daze, and much to Salem’s confusion, he got back into bed and would say no more. In Bobby’s mind he thought of many words though, like all the things he might say to her, when he found the girl tomorrow. And he must, for he was sure, even though he’d only seen her for a moment, that there was no beauty in the world, not even the song of a siren, that could compete with that of the witch he’d seen in the alleyway.