---
I thought maybe I'd dream of him again—the glowing merman from the trench, the voice that echoed inside my skull—but my sleep was empty. Just black water stretching forever.
When I woke, there was salt in my mouth.
I sat up in my bunk, heart hammering. My lips were dry, the sheets tangled with sweat. But the taste lingered. Not just salt. The ocean. And something else.
Iron?
I threw off the covers and rushed to the mirror in the tiny staff dorm washroom. At first glance, nothing looked wrong—same curly mess of hair, same pale skin—but then I saw it.
The mark.
It was faint, resting just below my collarbone—like a shimmering tattoo. Circular. Almost like a seashell… or a spiral of tide currents. I brushed my fingers over it. It shimmered brighter, reacting to my touch.
"What the hell…"
The mark pulsed once and faded. But I couldn't unsee it.
It wasn't there yesterday.
I yanked on a hoodie and headed for the research deck, ignoring the looks I got from the others. I wasn't exactly popular after yesterday's... incident. Most thought I'd cracked under pressure. Only Dr. Voss seemed to believe me—and even that felt like a trap.
I walked to the edge of the dock where the sub had returned yesterday. The sea was calm again, but it didn't soothe me. It called me. Whispered in a language I felt I almost understood.
Then it happened again.
A whisper in my mind.
> "Lirael…"
The name echoed like a memory—not mine, but familiar. My knees buckled, and I gripped the rusting rail.
> "Come to the tidepool. Midnight."
What tidepool? Who was speaking? I swallowed hard, heart thudding like a war drum. It was the same voice from the trench—deeper than thought, laced with something ancient.
I turned abruptly. Someone was watching me.
From across the pier stood a man—tall, dressed in black, soaked from head to toe, even though the sun was shining. His eyes locked with mine—sea-glass blue with a dangerous glint. Something about him made my pulse race, and not in a good way.
A chill crawled up my spine.
He blinked once, then vanished behind the corner of a shipping container.
I followed, against every ounce of common sense. But when I turned the corner, he was gone.
Nothing but puddles remained.
---
Midnight came like a secret—cold, heavy, and full of teeth.
I shouldn't have gone. I should've stayed in my bunk and told myself it was all in my head. But the whisper had settled deep into my chest like an anchor. I needed to know.
So I snuck out, flashlight in hand, following the trail past the labs, past the harbor, down to the edge of the protected reserve.
That's where I found it.
The tidepool.
A wide, rock-ringed basin nestled between jagged cliffs, hidden from the main shoreline. I'd never noticed it before, though I'd walked past this stretch a dozen times.
It shimmered under the moonlight.
The water looked deeper than it should be. Bottomless. Alive.
I crouched beside it, heart pounding. "Okay," I whispered. "I'm here."
A ripple formed in the center. Then another. Then the water glowed faintly with bioluminescent blue.
He rose slowly—first the head, crowned with silvered strands of kelp-like hair. Then the shoulders. Bare, lean, gleaming with water and light.
The same merman.
My breath caught.
But this time, he wasn't glowing like before. He looked human now—mostly. Except the eyes. Too ancient. Too intense. Too sad.
"You came," he said. His voice wasn't telepathic now. It was real. Soft and deep. "Even with your cursed blood."
"Cursed?" I blinked. "What are you talking about?"
He climbed from the pool in one graceful motion, standing barefoot before me in black, ocean-wet clothes that clung to his frame. The wind didn't seem to touch him.
"You are not fully human," he said.
I swallowed. "That's ridiculous."
He stepped closer. I should have backed away, but I didn't.
"I can smell the salt in your blood. The song of the reef echoes inside you." He paused. "You're one of us. Or… half of one. A betrayal that should never have been born."
I flinched. "You don't know anything about me."
"I know you saw me. And lived. That's not an accident."
I stared at him, shaking. "What do you want from me?"
He looked pained. For a moment, just a flicker, something human slipped across his face. "I want what was stolen returned. The Coral Heart."
I blinked. "I don't know what that is."
"But he does." The words were laced with venom. "The man you serve. The scientist."
"Dr. Voss?"
His eyes flared. "He stole our relic. And now the ocean sickens. My world is dying."
A weight settled on my chest. I thought of Voss's cold eyes. His obsession.
"Why tell me this?" I asked. "Why not just go after him?"
His gaze softened, barely. "Because you might be the only bridge between our worlds. And because…" He hesitated.
"What?"
"…Because your mother was one of us."
I staggered back. "That's not true."
But in my heart, I knew he wasn't lying.
"You will remember," he said, turning to step back into the water. "Soon. And when you do, the ocean will ask you to choose."
"Wait!" I called. "What's your name?"
He paused, half-submerged already. "Isaac."
Then he was gone, melting into the tidepool, leaving behind nothing but silence and salt.
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End of Chapter 5