I didn’t wait.
I lifted her carefully, cradling her against my chest. She was too light. She had withered under my watch. A faint warmth brushed my neck—weak, fleeting. Cold hit like a lash as I stepped in, seeping into my boots, rising to my knees with a numbing pull. As I lowered her into the basin, it sloshed violently, seawater slapping the rim as the crew threw buckets in—hissing as it met her skin.
Like the ocean was sighing in relief. The change was immediate.
Light bloomed beneath her skin, dancing like bioluminescence through her veins—first a flicker, then a storm. It spilled in waves, curling over her shoulders, down her back, until her body shimmered with liquid starlight. Her dull glow reignited into something luminous. Alive. The cracks on her lips sealed as if they had never been there. Color returned to her cheeks—rich, full.
Then, before our eyes, the magic took hold.
Her legs melted away, the shift seamless as her skin turned smooth and iridescent—deep blues and silvers swirling like the tide itself, as if the ocean had reclaimed its own. Her tail—her true form—curved beautifully beneath the water, the fin twitching, waking from a long slumber.
The sight was mesmerizing.
The entire crew stood still—silent, entranced, afraid to disturb the moment.
Even I, who had seen the depths and the horrors they hid—ships swallowed whole in dead of night, creatures with too many eyes lurking just beyond lantern light, men vanishing into the black abyss—had never witnessed a transformation so raw, so ancient.
The first time, I really saw her.
Not just a mermaid with fiery temperament and too many secrets. Not just the defiant girl who crashed into my world like a storm—buther.
Light clung to her like a second skin. Hair like molten silver drifted around her in the water, threaded with violet starlight. Her skin shimmered with hues I didn’t have names for—blues, violets, iridescent fire—etched with glowing patterns that pulsed like a map of constellations. The crescent on her forehead blazed softly, the mark of something ethereal.
Moonlight caught on her tail like silver flames. For a moment, I forgot how to breathe. Every scale shimmered with its own light—soft, haunting, impossible. Hues of violet, rose, and pale blue rippled across her skin, like the night sky itself had sunk into her flesh.
The water clung to her like glass, tracing the lines of her tail as she moved. Each motion sent a slow, hypnotic gleam through the dark—moonlight scattered through the depths. The fin fanned behind her, delicate and translucent, catching the faintest glow of the stars.
I’d seen beauty before. But this… this was something else.
I’d pulled her from death—twiceif anyone is counting—but she looked like something reborn.
I’d hunted legends my entire life, but in that moment, watching her tail shimmer beneath the moon, I realized I was looking at one. Not a creature born of the sea—perhaps something beyond it. Something I’d never be able to possess, no matter how much I wanted to.
The ocean never truly let its daughters go. If they lingered too long, the sea would call them back, one way or another. This was proof their connection to the water was more than myth. It was law. And yet she had been on the ship for weeks—over the ocean, not in it. Did that delay it somehow? Had the ocean been waiting for her to return—its pull dulled, but still present? Or had she simply been stubborn enough to resist for longer than she should have?
Nerina gasped, her whole body lurching upright. Water sloshed over the sides, crashing against the deck as she thrashed, sending the crew stumbling back. Her chest rose and fell in rapid bursts.
Panic moved through her eyes, soft but consuming, erasing their usual spark—the mischief, the defiance I had always known. Moonlight fractured in them, fear and recognition braided together, as if she were standing at the edge of something vast and nameless. Her gaze faltered, searching, before it found mine, and when it did, my chest tightened in a way I didn’t understand and couldn’t escape. Stars had drowned in those eyes.No—that wasn’t right. They hadn’t drowned at all. They had chosen to fall. And I realized, with a clarity that felt likesurrender, that she was the sky itself—and I was already lost to it.
I barely moved, my body going still.
She stilled.
A slow, lopsided grin spread across her lips.
Then, to my complete and utter disbelief, she giggled. I narrowed my eyes. "What—"
"You," she drawled, lifting a dripping hand and poking my chest, the cold touch shocking against my skin, "areveryhandsome."
Garen drew in a breath beside me. His nose wrinkled. "By the seas, she’s deep in the drink."
I frowned. "She’s what?"
He huffed a laugh. "Aye, she smells like she bathed in rum."
My gaze snapped back to her. Nerina swayed slightly in the water, eyes gleaming with amusement, and the scent hit me like a tide—seawater and rich spiced rum clinging to her skin. She radiated heat now, magic and alcohol tangled together in a haze of impossible recovery. She must have gotten into my stash—and judging by her state, more than just a sip.
I arched a brow, glancing at Garen. "Great. She’s waterlogged and drunk. Perfect combination."
