Chapter 2

By the time I mopped up the last drop of blood, the sun was rising.

The seaside estate woke around me. Another day, same as any other.

Lucian stepped out of the bedroom with red marks scattered across his neck. He paused in the hallway, frowning at the floor still damp from my cleaning.

"Why was there so much blood?"

I kept my head down and bowed.

"I'm sorry. It's been taken care of."

A few steps away, two maids were trimming flowers in the garden, talking loud enough for everyone to hear.

"You should've seen it — that freak spent half the night staring at the bedroom door. She's obviously trying to throw herself at Mr. Voss."

"Her? She should take a good look at herself. Her back looks like it's been through a meat grinder."

Lucian's footsteps faltered for just a second.

Then his hand locked around my wrist, and he dragged me down to the underground lab.

Vivienne was hosting friends at the estate that day.

The banquet hall was alive with champagne glasses and laughter, the kind of easy warmth that only comes from people with nothing to worry about.

The room went silent the moment I was brought in.

Vivienne sat at the head of the table, cradling her pregnant belly, smiling sweetly.

"Seren, my friends have been dying to hear a mermaid sing. Would you do us a little song?"

Every guest in the room turned to stare at me — the way you'd watch an animal being led out at a circus.

Lucian sat beside Vivienne. He didn't stop her.

I opened my mouth.

What came out was a shattered rasp, thin and grating, the sound of nails dragged across rusted metal.

Guests covered their ears. Someone actually laughed.

Vivienne clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide with horror.

"Oh my god, that's awful... Seren, did you do that on purpose? Are you trying to curse my baby?"

Lucian shot to his feet. His hand closed around my throat and slammed me into the wall.

"Who do you think you're messing with, Seren?"

I couldn't answer.

Not because I didn't want to. Because I physically couldn't.

Three years ago, Lucian was diagnosed with a genetic disease. Night after night, the pain kept him from sleeping.

A mermaid's voice can mend that kind of damage.

So every night that he slept soundly was a night I spent kneeling beside his bed, singing until my vocal cords tore.

Three full years of that.

My voice had been destroyed long ago.

But I couldn't tell him that.

Lucian threw me to the ground and turned to comfort Vivienne.

I lay face-down on the cold tile, and somewhere in the fog of it all, my mind drifted back.

I was three years old the first time I met Lucian. He took one look at me and turned to his mother.

"Mom, is she the bride you found for me?"

Our families became close after that. We grew up in and out of each other's lives.

When I was fifteen, the hunting began — humans tracking and killing merfolk wherever they found them. I had no choice but to leave.

Still, I'd sneak ashore to see him whenever I could.

Once, someone asked who I was. I was about to say I was his sister.

He answered before I could, completely serious.

"She's my girlfriend. And my future wife. Her name is Seren."

That was the moment I knew I was in love with him.

Years later, the merfolk struck a deal with a group of top human scientists. A secret collaboration. The go-betweens on both sides were our parents — mine and Lucian's.

Then his parents vanished.

I was one of the suspects.

He hated me for it. I understood. But I couldn't explain.

So many times I wanted to just tell him the truth.

But I couldn't.

None of it mattered anymore, though. I wouldn't have to hold out much longer.

...

After the guests left, Lucian hauled me back to the lab.

That was when he finally noticed my back — the patches where scales had been torn out and never grown back, leaving only hollowed, scarred skin.

His fingers grazed one of those dips, and for a split second, he went still.

I let out a numb little laugh.

"I'm dying, Lucian."

He yanked his hand away as if he'd touched something burning. Then the rage hit.

He grabbed a bottle of pills and shoved them into my mouth.

"You don't get to die without my permission."

He forced my head into the chemical bath. Ice-cold liquid flooded my nose and I held my breath with everything I had, my face swelling red then purple.

He didn't pull me out until the drugs kicked in.

He hauled me up by the hair. I was still coughing so hard I could barely breathe.

By then he'd already fastened the shackles back onto my ankles and chained me to the railing outside his bedroom.

Vivienne poked her head out from the doorway, leaning against the frame to watch me.

Her gaze drifted. Then her red lips moved slowly, forming four silent words.

"I want you dead."