Read Sound of Sirens: (Tales of Skylge #1) for Free Online Page A

I interrupt her. “I didn’t tell you, but Sytse brought me an LP. Because he loved the music on it, and he said I might have an opportunity to listen to it some day. And that opportunity knocked sooner than I could have dreamed. Royce Bolton wanted to buy it off me, but I refused.”
    Dani giggles. “What? You refused the unofficial prince of Brandaris?”
    “Well – yeah.” I shoot her a grin. “I told him where he could stuff his wallet. But then he suggested listening to it together instead, so we could share it. In secret.”
    Dani’s bug-eyed stare makes me shift uncomfortably.
    “You went to his house?” she squeaks.
    “No, no.” My hand dismissively waves her anxiety away. “He owns a cottage in Stortum where he goes if he wants peace and quiet. He’s got an LP player there. So he invited me to go there and enjoy my present with him.”
    Dani has turned pale. “He could have reported you,” she hisses. “The Baeles-Weards will arrest you for this.”
    “Of course he’s not going to report me.” I roll my eyes. “Come on, he offered. If he rats on me, he’s going down with me. He’s not supposed to share electricity outside the Current community.”
    “Okay.” Dani breathes out slowly. “That’s true. But holy Fosta – Enna, what did you guys do all evening? I mean, wasn’t it majorly awkward?”
    “We just enjoyed the music,” I shrug. “It was magical. I can see where Royce gets his inspiration from. We didn’t talk much, but we talked some. About his family and mine, mainly. He’s not that bad once you get to know him.”
    “But you’re not supposed to get to know him,” Dani says firmly. “A guy like that is going to hurt you sooner or later. You know what happened with me and Hank. Imagine what would happen if you and Royce – you know.”
    “No, I don’t know,” I say grumpily. “We’re just music buddies. That’s all.”
    Dani cocks her eyebrow skeptically. “Uhm, yeah. I can totally see how you can be platonic besties with a drop-dead gorgeous guy like that.”
    I don’t respond. Instead, I get on my bike and point at the dyke. “We should go. If not we’ll be late.” Without waiting for her answer, I hit the pedals and take off.
    “Hey, wait! Enna!” She follows me and catches up with me after a minute. “Don’t be upset. I just wanted to help.”
    “If you want to be useful, you can help me memorize some German words now,” I say a bit snappily.
    “Okay.” She shakes her head almost imperceptibly before droning: “ Das Fenster . The window. Das Meer . The sea.”
    ––––––––
    B y the time we get to school, the words are stuck in my head. I suspect I have a knack for German because I listen to Marlene Dietrich a lot. The words sound familiar – and of course they’re also similar to Skylgian.
    “I’ll help you out if you get stuck,” Dani says under her breath as we both slip into our chairs at the front of the classroom. We already figured out a long time ago that these are the best seats for tests we haven’t studied for. Mrs. Atsma always paces around in the back of the room during tests because that’s where the slackers are. It pays off to have an impeccable track record.
    One of our fellow pupils hands out the test papers, and silence descends in the room. Quietly, I try to concentrate on the words and sentences I need to write down, prompted by Dani every now and then when she sees me hesitate. I am done fairly quickly because I unfortunately don’t remember that much after all, so I use the extra time to slyly observe the other students in the room.
    To my left is Alke. He’s a repeater – he failed his exams last year, and most teachers use him as an example whenever someone is found out not having done their homework assignments. “You want to end up like Alke?” they’ll say. It’s pretty mean. A good thing Alke doesn’t care that much. He goes his own way and doesn’t mingle with the other students much. He’s