The tide had turned since the queen's decree.
Nerida woke in the early currents of dawn, the ocean around her still cloaked in a hush of darkness. The domed ceiling of her private grotto shimmered faintly with the bioluminescence of tiny sea creatures that pulsed in patterns she often found soothing. But not today. Not when her thoughts were a storm.
She floated for a moment, suspended in the still waters. The cool currents brushed against her skin like a whisper of comfort. Yet her chest felt tight, knotted with dread and yearning. The impending betrothal to Prince Orin weighed on her like an anchor. Duty. Tradition. Control.
She rose slowly from her resting corals, her sapphire-and-emerald tail swaying through the water with habitual grace. But every flick of her fin felt hollow. Each beat of her heart thudded with her mother's words.
"Love is a weakness."
The sea glass pendant she wore warmed faintly against her skin. It wasn't enchanted by a mage, but it held the memory of something powerful. Her first ascent to the surface. The moment she had felt the sunlight kiss her skin. The sting of the salty air in her lungs. The sight of an endless sky.
She had been fifteen barely of age. Curious. Restless. And foolish enough to defy the guards during a routine patrol and swim upward. She had only meant to look. But one look turned into many.
She had returned to the surface a dozen times since.
And today, she would do it again.
The palace was a labyrinth of elegance and rules. Crystalline towers carved from coral spiraled toward the ocean's ceiling, glowing with magical light. Guards patrolled the halls in gleaming shells, and servants moved through currents with practiced silence. Nerida had memorized every hidden corridor, every tunnel.
She slipped from her chambers wrapped in a cloak of kelp, moving like a shadow. She passed the royal gardens anemone fields in full bloom, phosphorescent fronds undulating in harmony with the currents—and swam through the hidden passage behind the statue of Poseidra, the first queen.
The outer gates loomed ahead, flanked by armored guards. But she didn't need the gates. A narrow fissure between two rocks led to an old escape tunnel, long forgotten. She squeezed through and emerged into open water.
The world outside the palace walls felt freer. The heavy magic that pressed down on the palace dissolved into open currents. Fish darted past her in shimmering schools, and the kelp forests beyond danced in slow, lazy spirals.
She swam upward.
The pressure lightened with every stroke. The darkness gave way to a shifting blue, then pale turquoise. Sunlight filtered down in brilliant shafts. She broke through the surface with a gasp.
Air.
It filled her lungs awkward, unfamiliar, glorious. Her upper body bobbed above the waves, hair fanning around her in a golden tangle. The sky stretched above her in endless hues of lavender and gold, streaked with the warmth of morning.
She closed her eyes and tilted her face toward the sun. Here, she could pretend she wasn't a princess. Wasn't destined to marry a man she barely knew. Wasn't bound by the suffocating chains of tradition.
The call of a seabird jolted her eyes open.
And that's when she saw it.
A ship.
Its black sails snapped against the wind, sleek and fast, gliding across the waves like a beast on the hunt. Unlike the grand merchant ships or polished naval vessels she'd watched before, this one exuded danger. A pirate ship. Ferocious. Untamed.
Fascinating.
Her heart quickened.
The ship was veering too close to the shallows. The reef beneath those waves was sharp, jagged, nearly invisible at high tide.
"No," she whispered.
She dove under the water, swimming swiftly beneath the surface. She kept her eyes locked on the dark shadow of the ship above. It was moving too fast.
A crack like thunder tore through the calm.
Wood splintered. Sails snapped. Screams pierced the air. The ship struck the reef and crumpled.
Chaos reigned.
Nerida surged forward. Debris rained into the sea splintered wood, ropes, barrels, the limp bodies of sailors. Some sank. Others thrashed in panic. She wanted to help them all, but there were too many. Too much.
And then she saw him.
A young man. Unconscious. Tangled in sailcloth. Sinking fast.
Her breath caught. Something about him pulled at her. His face, though contorted in unconsciousness, was strong, sun-warmed. His hair floated around him in dark ribbons. His chest did not rise.
She dove toward him, swift and sure.
He was heavy in her arms. Dead weight. She kicked with everything she had, dragging him upward. Her lungs burned. Her arms trembled. But she didn't stop.
They broke the surface together.
She gasped in air. He did not.
Frantic, she pulled him onto a floating plank. His lips were pale. His eyes closed. She pressed her ear to his chest. No sound.
"Breathe," she whispered.
She kissed him.
Magic poured from her lips into his. It wasn't a spell, not truly but it was life. The ancient lifeblood of the ocean. A gift passed down by queens. A risk.
His eyes flew open.
Startled. Confused. Ocean blue. Human.
He coughed violently, expelling water. She watched as color returned to his face, as his gaze fixed on hers. For a moment, neither of them moved. The world narrowed to just the two of them.
He opened his mouth to speak.
She was already gone.
Nerida dove beneath the surface, heart pounding. Her hands trembled. She had broken every law of the sea. Revealed herself to a human. Used forbidden magic.
She should be terrified.
But all she could see were his eyes.
Back in the grotto, she curled into the kelp bed, breath shaky. Her lips still tingled. Her heart still raced. Who was he? What ship had he come from? Would he survive?
A dangerous curiosity bloomed in her. Not just about him, but about everything she had glimpsed in his world—the fire in his ship's lanterns, the steel of his blade, the fearless way he must've lived to sail a pirate vessel.
It wasn't just about him. It was about the surface.
And she wanted more.
On the coast of a nearby island, Caspian Black groaned as he was dragged from the surf by a pair of strong, calloused hands. His vision swam.
"Found another one!" a gruff voice shouted.
He coughed violently, seawater spraying from his lips. Pain lanced through his chest. But he was alive.
Barely.
He blinked up at the sky. Memories clashed in his mind the sound of splintering wood, the pull of the sea, and… her. A face. Eyes like stormlight. Hair like flame.
Not human.
But beautiful.
And she had saved him.
He pressed a hand to his lips, where hers had touched his. There had been magic in that kiss. He felt it in his bones.
"Caspian!" another voice called familiar. Jareth, his first mate, staggered toward him, limping.
"You should be dead," Jareth muttered. "Half the crew's gone. The ship's done."
Caspian didn't reply. He looked out at the endless ocean.
Something had changed.
He didn't know her name.
But he would.
And he would find her again.
Deep beneath the sea, Nerida sat before her mother, Queen Thalassa.
"You left the palace," the queen said coldly. "Again."
Nerida didn't speak.
"You endangered the legacy of our kind. And for what? The surface?"
The queen's gaze was like a blade.
Nerida met it.
"I saw a ship wreck," she said. "I helped no one."
A lie. Her first in a long time.
Thalassa narrowed her eyes. "You are to be betrothed in three moons. There will be no more excursions. You will focus on your duties. Your role is too important."
Nerida bowed, but her mind had already left the throne room.
The tide had turned.
And Nerida would follow it wherever it led.
Even into fire.