Page 3

The thought pulsed through my mind, loud and unsettling, but I pushed it aside. Tonight’s focus was on the goddess, unity, and peace. Not… whatever this was.

I close my eyes, sensing the powers of the ocean beneath my skin. This ceremony is sacred, binding our pod’s strength to the lunar cycle.

The ritual was nearly complete. Just a breath left before we called her name, the goddess beneath the moon.

“Amphitrite.”

It was supposed to be a quiet, routine ceremony, and it was… Until the tall, muscular human en tered the cave.

Panic floods me, tightening like a vice around my chest. My heart races, each beat louder than the last as I glance between Elora and Sienna, searching their faces for reassurance as we cloaked ourselves from prying eyes.

It’s impossible. How could someone break through the magical barrier surrounding the cave?

It was dark enough for him to not see us, or anything for that matter, and with some luck, the darkness will dull his curiosity.

Except luck left me a long time ago, and the exact opposite happened.

Tripping on the uneven floor, the man crashed into the water, shattering the stillness. The splash echoed like a violent crack, disrupting the mystical energy that had filled the night.

My mind spins, desperately trying to grasp the reality of the situation. No one had ever breached the Moon Pond in recorded history. No one, not even the most powerful sirens or tritons, should be able to breach it.

Every instinct screamed to flee. To alert the pod. Call the guards. But I didn’t.

Instead, I swam toward him, a human, unconscious, drenched in sacred water. My magic hissed in warning. My blood… sang.

He was wrong. Everything about him screamed danger, accident, impossibility. But something older than fear pulled at me. And when I looked into his face, even asleep, I knew nothing would be the same again.

His features were striking, broad shoulders, strong jawline, and a rugged handsomeness that seemed so out of place in the serene tranquility of the moon pond. His tanned skin glistened with droplets of water, catching the moonlight in a way that made him appear almost otherworldly.

There was something about him, something…

familiar, a connection that I couldn’t explain.

It was as if the very waters that cradled us both recognized him, urging me closer.

My brain screamed at me to stay on guard, but there was another force, one more powerful, that tugged at my heart and the strings of my soul, compelling me to protect him.

This is insane.

How could I feel anything for this human? Yet, even as I tried to rationalize it, my gaze lingered on his face, his features softened by the moonlight. I sensed the power in him, something raw and untapped, something that called to me in ways I couldn’t yet comprehend.

What the hell was I supposed to do now?

“Of all the—” I started, frustration rising like a tidal wave in my chest. My voice caught, though.

How could this happen? A barrier shielded all Aetheria and its sacred places, and we often enchanted with spells to fortify the magic. How could it be? And in the Astralis? Perhaps it was a glitch? No, this is no accident. My thoughts swirled like a storm.

“This can’t be happening,” Sienna murmur, her eyes glazing and then wide with terror. She stood motionless, her fingers twitching as the air turned too thick to move through.

“We have to do something! And fast, before the others find out,” Elora hissed, her fiery hair ablaze in the moonlight, accentuating her fierce expression. As usual, her recklessness had gotten us into trouble. The very trouble I had warned her to avoid.

I felt the sting of anger rising in my throat. “El! I thought you told me the barrier was secure!” My words were harsh, but even I could hear the fear beneath them.

“First, get him out of the water!” But even as I barked orders, I could sense it. Something else was at play here. Something larger than a mere accident. It wasn’t a coincidence, the full moon, the sacred timing, and this man .

With their help, I pulled him out of the water, dragging him onto the rocky edge of the pond. Without thinking, I reached out hesitantly, my fingers brushing his soaked hair away from his forehead, a nasty cut making its appearance and blood smearing my trembling hands.

It’ll be fine, Iryen, I told myself, trying to calm the panic that thrashed inside me like a storm at sea. You just need to sort this out before the elders find out. But that thin hope shattered the moment I saw the ripple in the water, a presence I knew too well.

Emerging from the water, her form rising gracefully like a sea goddess herself, came my grandmother, Regent queen Nerina Vasillis. Her pale skin shimmered beneath the moon, but it was her eyes, cold and sharp as the deepest ocean, that made my stomach drop and my face lose its colors.

“Grandma…” I gasped, my voice barely above a whisper. “I can explain…” My heart raced, and my mind scrambled for words.

But how? How could I possibly explain this? The words died in my throat, a mix of guilt and dread choking them before they could form.

Her gaze bore into me, stern and unyielding. “Explain? Do you understand the gravity of this situation?” Her voice is icy, like the depths we came from. “This could jeopardize everything, our safety, our very existence. This could destroy us.”

Destroy us. The phrase echoed in my mind, hammering down on me. She was right. This man wasn’t just some random occurrence, he was a risk to everything we’d fought to protect. But there was something more… something that felt inevitable, like a tide we couldn’t stop.

“Yes, I do,” I stammered, though my heart pounded harder. The full moon. The sacred waters of the Moon Pond. This human man. The uncertainty, all of it, settled in my bones like a cold flood. “The barrier was breached.”

Nerina’s face softened, if only for a second, before hardening again. “I must inform the council. This is beyond what we can handle alone.”

Panic surged through me, tightening around my chest. I couldn’t let this happen. Not like this. Not when everything was already so fragile.

“Grandmother, please,” I begged, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. “There must be another way. We can fix this, just… Don’t inform them. This will give them the ammunition they need to oppose me.”

Elora’s voice trembled as she added, “Please, my queen. We never meant for this to happen… We’ll do whatever it takes.”

“I will do what I can to smooth the situation,” my grandmother said, her voice a shadow of the storm gathering in her eyes. “But they must know, and they won’t be merciful. Also, Iryen, as my granddaughter, you will bear the consequences of this mistake.”

The fear that I had kept at bay crashed over me.

Of course, I will. I knew it all too well.

Being the crown princess of Aetheria came with responsibility, and now that weight was sinking me deeper.

I looked at her, my voice steady despite the ache in my chest. “I’ll accept whatever decision they deem fit. ”

His breathing was the only sound in the cave.

The man—a fragile human—still lying there, oblivious to the chaos he caused, the sacred law he broke it.

His fate was now tied to ours in a way that none of us could fully comprehend.

The cave was supposed to remain hidden, veiled from human eyes.

It was our sanctuary, our secret, and he had found it.

But tonight, the full moon had brought something else with it, a new era. One none of us were ready for. And deep down, I knew tonight truly marked the beginning of chaos.