Daughter of the Siren Queen (daughter of the Pirate King, #2)

The second installment in a duology that began with Daughter of the Pirate King, the story follows Alosa, a 17-year-old pirate captain who is also half siren, the daughter of the feared pirate king Kalligan and a siren queen named Ava-lee. Alosa commands the Ava-lee, a small, fast ship crewed almost entirely by women, and possesses siren abilities inherited from her mother: She can sing magical commands that compel men to obey and sense what a man desires in a woman. These powers require her to absorb seawater to recharge, a process that temporarily strips away her human mind and transforms her into a dangerous, predatory creature.

The novel opens with Alosa leading a nighttime raid on the stronghold of Vordan, a pirate lord who once held her captive. With the help of Athella, her crew's spy, who infiltrated Vordan's ranks and switched the inn's door locks to trap his men inside, Alosa uses her siren song to force Vordan to surrender the final piece of a three-part map leading to the Isla de Canta, a legendary siren island rumored to hold vast treasure. After a fight breaks out, Alosa detonates piled gunpowder to destroy the inn and escapes with Vordan as her prisoner.

Back aboard the Ava-lee, Alosa offers Riden, a former enemy pirate recovering from wounds Vordan inflicted, a deal. If he serves on her crew for the voyage, his brother Draxen, imprisoned in Kalligan's dungeons, will remain alive. Riden agrees, provided Draxen is eventually freed and Alosa never uses her siren abilities on him again. During Vordan's interrogation, a second tension emerges. Vordan claims his spy infiltrated Kalligan's secret study at the keep and discovered a device that allows Kalligan to control sirens, meaning he has been manipulating Alosa her entire life. When Alosa verifies the claim, Vordan genuinely believes it, and doubt takes root.

At the pirate king's keep, a hidden island fortress carved from ancient lava tunnels, Alosa delivers the final map piece and witnesses her father's brutality when he severs a bookkeeper's hand. Kalligan convenes his captains to plan the fleet's voyage. Unable to silence Vordan's claims, Alosa recruits Riden, Athella, and Sorinda, her assassin, to break into the study. She finds the alleged device and recognizes it as a forgery, but notices two chairs and two glasses in a room her father supposedly occupies alone. Behind a tapestry, she discovers a hidden chamber containing her mother, Ava-lee, whom Kalligan has imprisoned for over 18 years. Ava-lee reveals that Kalligan locked her away to prevent her from influencing Alosa and to produce more siren children he could control. Alosa is devastated; her father told her all her life that her mother was a mindless sea monster who abandoned her.

Alosa smuggles her mother out of the keep, ordering Sorinda and Athella to free Draxen from the dungeons as well. On deck, Ava-lee reveals Alosa's full siren name, Alosa-lina, meaning "protector," but explains she has been too long without the sea and her siren sisters need their queen. She leaps overboard, transforms into a luminescent being underwater, and swims away. Alosa cannot follow without losing her human mind. Devastated by this second abandonment, she retreats to her quarters; when Riden comes to comfort her, she kisses him desperately, but he stops her, saying she is acting out of pain. Alosa formulates a plan to steal the siren treasure, buy Kalligan's pirates, and establish herself as pirate queen. She sends Sorinda to reveal the keep's location to the land king, hoping his armada will weaken Kalligan's forces. At a supply post, Draxen disembarks, but Riden chooses to stay.

As Kalligan's fleet pursues, a devastating storm snaps the mainmast. Riden falls overboard after giving his safety rope to six-year-old Roslyn, the ship's lookout and daughter of the crewman Wallov. Alosa dives in and discovers that physical closeness with Riden restores her human mind even underwater. The broken mast forces a stop at an uncharted island inhabited by siren-enchanted cannibals, former pirates of Kalligan's left behind years ago. One crew member, Lotiya, is killed. Riden, furious that Alosa used her abilities on him during the rescue, compares her to his abusive father, wounding her deeply.

Alosa and Riden begin deliberately practicing to control her siren nature, discovering that his voice, when he speaks within her line of sight, instantly restores her human mind. A bathtub attempt nearly turns fatal when the siren enchants Riden, but Sorinda intervenes. A sea battle with the ship of Tylon, a captain in Kalligan's fleet, costs the crew another member, the rigger Haeli, and destroys most of their freshwater. Facing dehydration, Alosa refuses to stop at a visible island, knowing the fleet will overtake them. After her first mate, Niridia, confronts her, Alosa and Riden try submersion again; this time he holds her throughout, and the siren never surfaces. With this breakthrough, they swim to the fleet under cover of darkness, steal water barrels, and destroy the rudder of Kalligan's flagship, the Dragon's Skull.

Riden asks why his presence uniquely keeps her human. Alosa admits she believes it is because he loves her and confesses she loves him in return. They kiss, but siren singing from the approaching Isla de Canta enchants the men on board. After the crew subdues the men and plugs their ears, the ship reaches the island. Alosa dives with Riden and meets the charm, the collective community of sirens, hundreds strong. Her mother, restored to full strength as queen of the charm, welcomes Alosa, shows her an enormous underwater treasure hoard, and grants permission to take what she needs.

While Alosa is underwater, Kalligan's fleet captures the Ava-lee and locks the crew in the brig. To coerce Alosa, Kalligan shoots Niridia in the knee, then kills the rigger Reona and the crewman Deros. Kalligan battles the charm and captures Ava-lee. All seems lost until Roslyn, hidden in a secret compartment in the crow's nest, steals the cell keys from a sleeping Tylon and frees the crew. Tylon wakes and shoots her, but the bullet only grazes her skull. Wallov, Roslyn's father, beats Tylon to death in a rage.

Alosa leads her disguised crew aboard the Dragon's Skull at night. She finds her mother bound and beaten in Kalligan's bedchamber. Kalligan, feigning sleep, blocks her dagger strike, and a brutal fight erupts; he shoots her through the right arm, and his numbers begin overwhelming her crew. Bleeding, Alosa sings from the railing to the grieving sirens, appealing to them as their princess. The sirens surge aboard in the hundreds, overwhelming the pirates. Kalligan drops his sword in surrender, but Ava-lee, whom Alosa freed from her bonds during the fight, launches herself at him and drags him into the sea. Three bubbles rise, and the water goes still.

In the aftermath, Alosa spends days with the charm but declines to stay permanently, explaining that she loves piracy, her crew, and her human life. Ava-lee gifts the Ava-lee with treasure. Alosa learns that Kalligan was immune to siren song not because of a device but because his relationship with Ava-lee made him permanently resistant. The crew, reduced from 34 to 22, sets sail for the keep to rebuild the pirate empire under Alosa's rule. Riden commits to staying at her side, and the two share a final kiss as the Isla de Canta recedes behind them.