“I will free you. You have my word.” I extend my hand, ready to seal the pact. Varn’s cold, blue fingers reach for mine, but then he hesitates. His eyes narrow, and the air around us thickens.
“One more thing,” he says, voice low and laced with weight.
My brow furrows. One more thing? Of course there is. “The girl,” Varn murmurs, a rare softness in his tone. “She is important.” Confusion knots in my chest, but I already know who he means.
“Yes, boy. Mira,” he confirms, as if plucking the name straight from my mind. “She is the key. If you truly want to find the fountain, she’s who you’ll need. She doesn’t know how important she is yet, but she will. And soon, the entire ocean will know too.”
I rake a hand through my rain-soaked hair, trying to make sense of it. Why Mira? Why is she tied to something as ancient and closely guarded as the fountain? “What is it about her that makes her so valuable?” I ask.
Varn leans forward, his voice certain. “Her blood,” he says. “She’s part siren and they trust her. And trust goes farther than magic with those wicked little creatures.” Disgust curls in my gut. A siren, the one creature I hate the most. I would rather come face to face with a nyx before a siren. Varn continues, “Her birthmark, it’s the final key to the map. Without it, nothing unlocks. Not the path. Not the power. Nothing. She must be protected at all costs.”
“Protecting someone I loathe will be… challenging,” I breathe slowly, measuring the angle of this new plan. “Fine. I’ll keep her alive, if it gets me to the fountain.”
My mouth is careful, but my aim is not. Finishing what my father started, what he broke himself on, becomes my calculus. I will be steadier, smarter, and colder. I will become everything he wasn’t and complete everything he failed to do. If Mira is the key, then I’ll treat her exactly like one: useful, expendable, and precise. I’ll hold her close, pull what I need, and walk away when the lock clicks open.
Varn stares at me for a moment, then speaks. “She’s the female ruler of the ocean,” he goes on, reverence softening his voice. “A force more powerful than even she understands. When she unlocks what she is, she won’t just belong to the ocean. She will be the ocean.” He looks out toward the waves, as if something ancient stirs just beyond sight. “The sea cannot carry her soul forever,” he says. “Even it must rest. Mira was chosen before she even took her first breath. The ocean marked her in her mother’s womb.” Varn’s voice lowers, barely more than a whisper. “Her family knew. But they passed before they could tell her. She wasleft unaware and yet, she’s the only one who can carry the ocean forward.”
Mira is the new Soul of the Ocean? The one living force that keeps the balance between dark and light in a sea crawling with wretched creatures. The power in her veins is ancient, and once she inherits the Soul, nothing, not blade, not beast, not god, will be able to touch her.
“Seems she’s found you,” Varn says, his eyes narrowing like he can sense her through the waves. His gaze drifts past me, sharp, knowing, and settles on something in the distance. I turn slightly, following his line of sight.The Sirenis approaching, gliding through the water like a ghost returning home.
“I must go,” he says, still watching her. “We’ll need to take her eventually since she holds the most power. No one can know about our bargain. Not your crew. Not the girl. Keep her safe until the time comes. Let her find who she is. Do not tell her, or the prophecy will need to be rewritten. She is meant to find who she is on her own. Collect all the pieces of the map. They will arise when they are meant to.” A pause. Then, calmly, “I’ll be seeing you soon.”
I never agreed to handing her over. It seems she will be more valuable when she’s with me. He can think what he wants for now.
He extends his hand, blue, bloated, slick with death and sea rot. I take it. The cold seeps into my skin like a curse. We have a deal. Without another word, I return to my ship. I watch as his vessel cuts through the water with impossible speed… then dives beneath the surface like a predator. Gone. No trace. It’s easy to see how no one escapes them. How their enemies vanish into ocean myths, never to be heard from again.
I take my place at the helm, one hand resting on the worn wood. The sea stretches quiet and endless ahead. Her ship is approaching fast, like fate barreling toward me. I watch as thesails cut through the mist and the crew scrambles to dock, but all I see is her.
She’s here. A destined collision I would’ve given anything to avoid. My burden. My responsibility. The key to the fountain and the unraveling I never saw coming. And still, somehow, my newfound treasure.
Chapter six
Kai
Undone
The wind tangles through her long, curly brown hair, the strands dancing like wildfire, catching the last remaining beams from the sunlight as her ship draws closer. She really is a sight to behold, though I hate that my chest tightens when I look at her. My mind wages war against itself. One side urges me to end this,to seize the enchanted ship, to sever her bloodline and claim the power for myself, like my father before me longed to do. But the other hesitates. I know she's a vital part of this journey, one I can’t afford to lose. So she’ll live.
I still can’t help but have a certain pull towards her. When she's out of sight it's easy for my hatred to boil. But when she’s in front of me, the world turns on its axis. I felt it the moment I saw her at the pub on Magda. One glance and the world narrowed to just her. Touching her was like brushing flame, her skin burning mine, branding something ancient into my bones. I fought to keep my face unreadable, to wear a mask never taking it off. Not in front of anyone, anyway. But I slipped. Just for a second. And Neressa saw it. I caught the shift in her expression, the flicker of realization. She saw what I didn’t want anyone to see. Mira didn’t. She was too consumed by her fury. But her friend saw the truth. The part of me that doesn’t want to destroy Mira. The one split second of vulnerability.
I order my crew to stand down. They hesitate, trained to strike the momentThe Sirenappears. Mira’s bloodline has always been our greatest enemy. Generations of bad blood don’t die easily. But things are different now. I know who she really is.
What does inheriting the Soul of the Ocean mean for her? Will the sea one day swallow her whole, strip away her mortal shell piece by piece? Or will she live a full life on land until the tide calls her home? The answers are buried deep, but I need them. First, I need to find out how much she knows, by breaking down her walls one brick at a time.
Mira and her crew pull up alongside mine. No raised weapons. No battle stance. Just eerie stillness. Too calm. It sets something off in me and in my crew. Instinct screams trap, but logic presses pause. She must’ve ordered them to stand down. That means she knows. She knows we need each other if we’re going to get what we both want.
Our ships groan as they meet, wood creaking beneath the weight of silent expectations. Then, like a vision conjured by myth, she swings across on a rope, hair wild in the wind, sea-green eyes locked on mine. Her landing is fluid, too fluid, graceful in a way that shouldn’t belong on the deck of a warship.
I blink once, grounding myself. She doesn’t smile, nor does she speak. Just observes. Her eyes narrowing, looking at each member of my crew, watching their hands for any sudden movements. Smart, I’ll give her that. She’s tiny compared to anyone on board. I move toward her slowly, every step measured. Our crews fall in line behind us, like two halves of a brewing storm. Only a handful of her crew step onto my deck, handpicked, hardened, the kind who don’t flinch without orders and never move without purpose. She’s playing this smart. Calculated. And I don’t know if I should be impressed… or very, very worried.
“Captain Mira,” I say with a smirk, “what did I tell you about following me?”
She rolls her eyes instantly, sharp, unapologetic. “Kai, we need to talk. It seems we may need each other after all.” She stands tall, unshaken, meeting me head-on. There’s steel in her spine, but I can see the storm in her eyes. She doesn’t want to be here. That alone tells me she’s desperate.
I step closer, my shadow stretching over her, and watch as her gaze trails my movement, slowly, before rising to meet mine with sharp, measured defiance. I meet her challenge. “Captain Kai,” I correct, letting the title bite. “You’re on my ship. Address me as such.” She narrows her emerald eyes. So small, yet full of heat and fight. I half expect her to spit in my face or at my feet again. Part of me wishes she would.
“Okay, Captain Kai,” she snaps back, voice slick with sarcasm. “Anything else?” The fact that she gave in, just a little, sets something inside me burning.
