Chapter 1
To repay a life debt, I, Seraphina Albright, daughter of the merfolk, had shed my tail and taken human form. That was how I became Damien Blackwood’s bride.
For a brief, intoxicating span of months, Damien showered me with such fervent affection that I almost believed in happiness. Within half a year, I was carrying his child.
But on the night our daughter was born, the man who had once whispered vows of devotion revealed his cruelty. Damien ordered his servants to drag me into the Crystal Confinement Chamber, forcing me back into my true form.
In one arm he cradled our newborn. With the other, he held Isolde Harrington–his mistress–around the waist. His voice was venom as he spat my name.
“Seraphina Albright. It was your accursed people who lured my sister to her death. Now that I hold your daughter in my hands, you can wait and suffer while I take my revenge.”
From that night onward, my world became a prison.
For three endless years, I was trapped in that crystal confinement chamber. Damien ordered my tail cut open again and again, leaving the wounds to fester in the brine until agony became my constant companion.
He claimed mermaid essence could heal and strengthen the human body. My blood, drained into crystal goblets, became a tonic for Isolde. I was forced to watch them laugh and embrace while I bled, powerless, my vision clouded by despair.
When our daughter Liora turned three, Isolde heard a rumor that the shimmering scales of merfolk soothed the mind. To please Isolde, Damien pressed cold metal tweezers against Liora’s small body, ripping her scales away one by one.
Then, like discarding a broken toy, he tossed her into the chamber with me.
I clawed desperately at the glass, my voice hoarse from screaming.
“She’ll drown–please, Damien, take her out! She’s just a child!”
But he merely blocked the entrance, a cruel smirk twisting his lips.
“A mermaid’s daughter, drowning? What a pathetic lie.”
I lifted my child above the water as long as I could. But her tiny body dissolved into silver foam in my arms, the last bubbles bursting against my skin!
Something inside me died with her.
With trembling hands, I tore away the Heartscale from my chest. It was the last gift my people had given me, the last link to the Abyssal Realm. If I cast it back into the sea, my brother Orion would come for me.
Lady Eleanor Blackwood burst into the chamber too late. She saw only the fading shimmer of bubbles where Liora had vanished.
When her gaze fell upon the Ocean Pearl forming in my palm–the proof of a mermaid’s death–she staggered back in horror, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Liora… she’s gone?”
Mermaids left behind a Siren’s Tear when they perished. That was all my daughter had become.
I nodded faintly Slowly, I placed another scale—the last of my preserved Heartscales–into her trembling hands.
“The three years have passed. The debt I owed for your husband’s kindness is repaid.”
Lady Eleanor dropped to her knees, her face pale with shock. Her words came out broken, her voice shaking.
“Seraphina, it was an accident. Damien never meant for this to happen. He didn’t know! Please, forgive him just once more. He is
Chapter 1
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the Blackwood heir–the only son of this generation. If you abandon him, our bloodline will end!”
She bowed her head to the floor in a gesture of utter desperation, her body shaking with sobs, just as it had the day she begged me to take human form and marry Damien. I had agreed then. And now, all that remained of me was ruin.
“I’ll summon him,” she said desperately. “I’ll make Damien come and beg you for forgiveness!”
She fumbled for her phone. The call connected, and Damien’s voice spilled through, brimming with joy.
“Mother, it’s wonderful news–Isolde is pregnant! You’ll be a grandmother soon.”
Lady Eleanor trembled with fury, her knuckles white as she clutched the phone.
“That vixen’s child will never be my grandchild! I had one granddaughter, and her name was Liora! You ungrateful bastard–get home this instant and beg forgiveness from Seraphina, and from Liora’s soul!”
Damien scoffed at her.
“You went to see that creature again? I told you, Mother, the merfolk killed my sister. You’re the only one foolish enough to cherish
a monster.‘
His tone turned colder.
“A few scales are nothing. They grow back.” he said dismissively. “Don’t let Seraphina trick you. Enough–I’m taking Isolde to watch the sunset by the Cliffshore Sea. Go home, Mother.”
The line went dead.
Lady Eleanor’s breath came sharp and shallow. My vision blurred, and once more I saw my daughter’s tiny hands clutching mine as she drowned, her lips whispering she would not cry because her father hated her tears.
Merfolk children could only breathe in the sea after their gills awakened. Yet for three years, Damien had never taken Liora to the ocean–not once. He walked those same beaches every evening with Isolde.
Lady Eleanor swayed on her feet, her strength finally leaving her. “Seraphina, there’s still hope. If you bear Damien another child, the Blackwood line will survive. I swear he’ll treat you better this time. Please–remember how our family saved you. Just endure a
little longer.”
I curled my fingers around the Ocean Pearl and closed my eyes. My voice was a whisper.
“The Blackwood family has no hope left.”
I opened my chest for her to see. Only one Heartscale remained.
“A mermaid carries three Heartscales. Each time we conceive, one vanishes. If I conceive again, I will die.”
Her face drained of color. She sank to the floor, eyes vacant, her lips shaping a single truth.
“This is the curse of our bloodline…”
She accepted the scale, promising to cast it into the sea. Then she left me to drift in the water, my silver–blue tail limp and lifeless.
For three years, this chamber had been my entire world. My cage. My hell.
The lid above me clanged open. I flinched instinctively.
“Seraphina Albright, stop pretending. Today is the day I draw your blood.”
Damien’s cold voice dropped from above.
His gaze swept the chamber. Suddenly, his hand shot out, seizing my tail. He dragged me from the water, scales tearing against the glass.
“Where is Liora? Where did you hide her?”
