At first, it looked like debris. Then it shifted—light blooming faintly beneath the waves.
“What in the abyss…” I muttered.
The glow grew stronger as the storm tossed the shape closer. A woman.
Limp. Motionless.
A faint glow burned on her forehead.
I didn’t think.
I vaulted the rail.
Cold slammed into me, crushing the air from my lungs, searing every nerve. Waves battered me under, salt burning my eyes. I didn’t know why I’d jumped—only that something deep and old refused to let me watch her drift away.
Instinct. Memory. Failure.
I fought through the current, the glow guiding me through the chaos. My fingers closed around her arm.
Her tail brushed against my leg. Not human. Amermaid. Cold. Unresponsive.
For a heartbeat, I thought the storm had claimed her. Then the crescent mark at her brow pulsed—faint, but alive.
There was no time to wonder. I pulled her close and kicked hard, muscles screaming as I drove toward the ship. The Black Marrow loomed ahead, her shadow slicing the storm.
“Pull us up!” I shouted.
Ropes dropped. Hands reached. Garen steadied me as the crew hauled us over the rail.
We hit the deck in a rush of water and motion. The crew gathered, wary and silent.
I barely saw them. My focus locked on her.
She was the most striking mermaid I’d ever seen. Iridescent hair clung to her pale skin, shimmering beneath the storm-dark sky. Pale scales flashed in the lightning. The crescent on her forehead glowed softly, pulsing in a slow rhythm that echoed the artifact’s hum below deck.
The connection twisted tight in my gut. I’d seen her before.
“Captain,” Kael said quietly. “What is she?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But she’s coming with us.”
No one argued.
In my quarters, I wrapped her in blankets, fighting the cold bleeding from her skin. The artifact’s hum grew louder, its glow intensifying in her presence.
I stayed with her while the storm raged on. Hours passed before she stirred. When her eyes opened—
Starlight. Bright. Unsettling. Enough to leave me momentarily hollow. Beautiful.
I swallowed hard. “Comfortable?” I asked.
My voice stayed steady. Even if I wasn’t.
7
Nerina
The Black Marrow, On Course to the Forgotten Trench
