Page 3

Chapter One

Ledgers and more ledgers.

Night and day.

Jotting down inventory lists from his ships. Making mental notes of whenever he felt one of the merfolk cross the invisible barrier he had erected around the village. His paranoia had receded over the last decade, but his guard never dropped.

Two nights ago, that barrier hummed with warning. A creature of the sea had trekked ashore, and now roamed somewhere through the village streets. He hadn’t felt the hum of that creature returning to the water, nor had the tingle along the back of his neck ceased since that night. Sleepless nights.

A hesitant rap on the door drew his shoulders taut, but he continued to scribble inventory down. “Come in.”

The heavy wooden door opened on creaking hinges. He sensed the essence of his right-hand man, Brack, inch into the office. “Sir? I don’t mean to disturb you.”

He didn’t lift his eyes. “If it’s one of the women from the brothel, I’m not interested in entertainment tonight.”

The silence that ensued finally drew his attention from his writings and to the balding man nervously playing with a tweed cap between his hands. “It’s not one of the women, sir. I-I mean, she’s a woman, but not one ofthosewomen.” His wary gaze darted over his shoulder then back. “She said to tell you, ‘A siren’s voice and a generous heart.’ I’m not sure…”

Caspian straightened in his chair, Brack’s quiet mumble fading on the words he remembered from so long ago. From a time before turbulent emotions and seas.

“Sir?”

He blinked and pressed up to his feet. “Send her in.”

Brack nodded once and disappeared. Caspian tucked his pen in the spine of the ledger and closed the thick book as the door opened once again, this time allowing a cloak-clad figure to enter his dimly lit office. He caught Brack’s shadow as the man closed the door, leaving Caspian alone to face a ghost from the past.

Plastering on a smooth grin, he leisurely rounded his desk. “Well, well. If it isn’t the last person I’d expect to findwalkingthe docks.” He came to the front of his desk and leaned back against it, crossing his ankles. The woman had yet to lift that silly hood from her face, but the familiar salty scent of the ocean clung to her, threatening to return him to a time…a place… “You still have a bounty on your head in this part of the world. So, what brings you searching my wharf for a ‘mindless fool’?”

Parting words.

Only ten years ago, rage and disgust and hurt sharpened those two words into a verbal blade that left a scar on him. One that, gauging by the edge he heard in his own voice, remained all-too raw.

The woman beneath the oversized cloak finally lifted the fabric from her head. He had prepared himself for the sucker punch he knew seeing her again would deliver.

It delivered, but not in the way he was expecting.

Caspian tucked a hand under his arm and tapped a finger on his bottom lip as he scrutinized his long-lostfriend. Aria had certainly seen better days. Her deep red hair hung in limp tangles around a sallow gray face. Purple tinged her lips and the vibrant life in her green eyes appeared to have been snuffed behind a dull evergreen.

She looked nothing like the rebel mermaid he’d once known.

“It’s been a while, Casp.” The length of felt covered Aria’s hands, but he noted the way they twisted in constant motion beneath the fabric. “I was looking for you.”

Caspian snickered, settling his mask of laid-back cockiness firmly in place. He’d built himself a reputation in this village. He wasn’t about to let Aria be privy to anything to the contrary. In one easy motion, he pushed off his desk and crossed the small space between them. The closer he came, the stronger the scent of ocean, beach, and seaweed. And illness. Merfolk weren’t accustomed to nurturing a human form. He’d expect this from any other merperson, but not Aria. Not after her short stint as a human.

Shoving the near-instinctive concern for her aside, he circled her slowly. “What could possibly bring you to these docks? Surely you don’t seek to stoke an old flame. He’s since married and I believe his wife has given him three boys.”

He dared touch her hair, his connection airy and almost imperceptible. A flitter of magic fled his fingertips, weaving into the poorly kept strands. The princess of the sea had no clue of the danger she could find herself in on land. Tracking Aria, as much as he hated to have any connection to her, would ensure her safety. At least until he found out why she’d paid him a visit.

A decade later and you still care enough, no matter what she did to you.

“I heard you’ve made quite a life for yourself on land. And a name. But”—she turned only enough to catch sight of him over her right shoulder—“your place is not here. You’re a prince.”

Caspian laughed and swung out his arms. “A prince indeed! A prince of the docks.” He stepped back and dipped into a deep bow. “Welcome to my land, princess. I know it fails to meet the grandeur of your underwater kingdom, but this is my world. My piece of it, in any case.” Straightening up, he leaned close to Aria, taking a short breath of her scent as he noted the hollowness of her eyes. The woman needed a meal, or a dozen. “And no one can tell me what to do here.”

Aria let out an exasperated sigh. “Still the same carefree spirit you’ve always been, I see.”

He shrugged nonchalantly, circling her small frame once more before taking up his lazy stance against the front of his desk. “Why would I change, princess? I rather enjoy who I am and would change for no one. Unlike some.”

He leveled a hard glower at her as he crossed his arms over his chest, softening the edge of his words only with a tilt of his lips. Her sickly pale cheeks managed to conjure some semblance of a blush at his shameless dig. “I’m certain you didn’t seek me out to reminisce about our lost friendship. So, whydoyou seek my attention?”