My chest convulsed. Air. I needed air. The sunlight was nothing more than a distant flicker above me. Too far. I would never reach it in time. My arms grew heavy. My vision dimmed at the edges. I was going to drown.Again.Would I die this time?
Water pressed against my mouth, begging for entrance. I couldn’t fight the instinct any longer. I inhaled. Water rushed into my lungs. I braced for the burning. For the insufferable feeling of being smothered from the inside. But it didn’t come. I gasped again, but there was no panic. Only... strange clarity. My chest expanded easily. No burning. No choking.
A broken laugh shattered through me, turning the last of my air into a bubble that floated up towards the surface. Any doubt I had about being the Sea Goddess’s reincarnation drifted away with it.
My vision sharpened, and suddenly, the water was no longer murky. The sunlight filtered through the water, casting rays of light that glittered over a crumbling castle below me. It was carved from stone and coral, towers half-devoured by barnacles and time. The windows were dark. Broken. It would have been beautiful once. Before the war.
Swimming along the ocean floor, my hand brushed through the glistening sand. I longed to explore the castle, to find its secrets.Mysecrets. But right now, I had to focus.
The Sea Goddess floated in front of me, tears flowing from her eyes into the ocean.
“Break his curse.” Her words floated to me, crashing into me more strongly than any wave. “The light is in the dark, and the dark will see light again. Do not let him see the light again.”
She rushed towards me, diving through my chest.
I gasped, frantically looking around. Glittering caught my eye amongst the coral growing from the sea floor. The pulling in my chest turned to an urgent ache. A crown lay half-buried in coral. My hand wrapped around the cold, ancient metal. But it didn’t give. No matter how hard I tugged, the coral seemed to tighten. I slipped, the coral slicing through my palm. Black blood floated up like ribbons through the water. My blood seeped into the crown and the coral reacted, cracking beneath my fingers before breaking apart.
Black metal twisted into points that turned into vibrant blue coral at the tips, small shells nestled against it like jewels. I stared at it for a moment, enthralled by its beauty. Then power radiated up my arm. A sharp, vibrating pain flooded my veins and tore through me as the Soul Relic poured itself into me. My scream sent bubbles streaming to the surface.
Shapes rose from the depths in a frenzy. Ghostly figures flew past me, hair like liquid. Tails swishing through the water. Their bodies shimmered like fractured light. They were beautiful.Sirens.
“She is here...” one whispered, voice like a current in my mind. “The last one...”
“She has the crown...” They streamed through the water, circling me. I couldn’t move. My heart raced in my chest. One dove forward. I tried to move back, but I wasn’t quick enough. It washer. Me.The Sea Goddess.
She stopped an inch from my face. Gooseflesh broke out across my skin as her bright blue eyes bore into me. Her translucent hair floated like tendrils of ink, her dress gone and replaced by scales. She reached a translucent hand towards the crown, gesturing for me to place it on my head.
The Sirens paused to watch me.
I placed the crown on my head, the weight settling against my soul and the ghost of the Sea Goddess grinned.
Pain seared through my body.Crack.
I screamed, bubbles tearing from my mouth, hands reaching to cradle my leg, now jarred at the wrong angle.Crack. Crack. Crack.
My body contorted, pain overwhelmed my senses. I thrashed in the water. Was I being attacked? Was it the blood bargain? My bones snapped with a sickening crunch, twisting, tearing. Fire ripped through my veins, searing my flesh from the inside out.
My scream tore free— raw and animalistic.
A sob tore loose from my throat, raw and broken. Another crack splintered through my legs, white-hot pain cutting off my cry. I gasped through the torment, forcing water into my lungs. The pain ebbed, leaving me hollow, and shaking. I had sunk against the ocean floor, broken body heaped against the sand.
I looked down at my legs, expecting to see a mess of gore. A gasp escaped my lips. Where my legs should have been, a tail shimmered in their place. Turquoise, radiant,and impossibly alive. Scales overlapped like facets of gemstone, each one catching the light and breaking it into ripples of blue and green that danced across my skin.
I shifted, and the tail moved with me, powerful yet fluid, as though it had always been mine. The fin flared wide, translucent and veined with silver, delicate as silk but thrumming with strength. For a heartbeat I couldn’t breathe. Not from the water in my lungs, but from the sheer wonder of it.
My body was no longer foreign. No longer broken. It felt… right.
I ripped off the remainder of my pants with sharpened claws. Scales shimmered over my hips, ending just before my navel. My breasts were uncovered, but fine scales traced across them like a glittering veil, offering only the illusion of modesty. Every grain of sand was suddenly distinct as if the sea itself had been carved from crystal. I could see farther than I ever had, shadows no longer hiding but gleaming with secret life. The water was no longer silent… It sang.
I heard the scrape of shells against stone, the deep thrumming call of something vast and ancient in the depths, even the faintest hiss of bubbles escaping my own lips. Every note layered into a melody sharper and more alive than air had ever carried. The current caressed my skin like a thousand fingertips. Something broke the surface above me with a violent splash. The Commander.
He plunged through the water like a stone, his sword still strapped to him. He swam frantically towards me. Eyes wild. The shadows that always moved with him bled away, thinning into the dark like ink bleeding away in water. Without them, he looked less dangerous, almost Mortal.
Panic seized my chest.No.The word tore through me without sound. The sea’s curse would kill him. He wassinking fast, his dark hair streaming behind him. The sea wanted him. It wanted everything. I pushed towards him, the current slamming against me as though it meant to drag us apart. “No!” I screamed, bubbles shredding the word. My arms burned as I forced my body after him, my new tail slicing through the water with desperate power. The lines of his face softened, his mouth parted. The sight hit something deep and unfamiliar inside me. Fear, grief, maybe something older than either. I couldn’t let the sea have him. I didn’t know why. Only that it would break me if I did. I wrapped both arms around his waist and held on. His weight nearly tore me backward.
“Please,” I begged, though he couldn’t hear me.
The sea surged, angrily. The pull of it tried to wrench him away, to tear him back into the depths. I pressed my face against his chest and thrashed my tail, every stroke a fight. My body screamed, muscles trembling with the strain, but I would not let go. Couldn’t.
