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Chapter One

MER

Six Months Later

“Tell me what you know!” Mer growled at the Scythian warrior.

The bulky man clenched his perfect jawline and continued to glare up at her with utter hatred.

Silent as the grave even when his life was at stake.

In her peripheral vision, the tip of a fin sliced through the water.

It would be so easy to feed him to the leviathans.

But he had information she desperately needed.

Mer tempered her emotions as a drop of blood ran down his cheek.

Soon enough, he’d pay for his crimes. Her gaze dropped to the coral knuckle cover on her right hand.

It was a beautiful weapon—smooth on the inside so it didn’t damage her own hand, and sharp on the outside.

The cream coral held scarlet stains that tugged at her conscience .

What are you becoming?

Mer brushed away the unwanted thought and stood from her crouch, the algae on the wet rock squishing between her toes.

The warrior pulled at the chains that tethered him to the large stone, muscles straining.

The iron seemed to groan, but it held. Even if he did manage to escape them, there was nowhere for the fiend to go.

The tide was rising, and the leviathans were hungry.

Even now, their hunting song grew in excitement.

Time for a different tactic.

Mer caught the warrior’s eye. “Your Warlord is gone. Scythia has retreated. What are you fighting for?”

A spark lit in his dark eyes. “Our lord will never die.”

Now she was getting somewhere.

She smirked. “He looked pretty dead to me when my friend slayed him.” The man bared his bloody teeth at her, and Mer leaned closer to run the tip of her coral brace along the warrior’s cheek. “It turns out your leader was nothing more than a common man. A dead man who will be forgotten.”

“Our Warlord will live on, you abomination.” His chest heaved with the declaration. “Your seas will fill with blood until you choke on it, but before your last breath Ceto will find you and destroy everything you hold dear.”

Ceto. That was the second time she’d heard that name whispered.

A flurry of excitement danced in her chest. Maybe this was the lead she’d been looking for. “I’m not worried about dear old Ceto.” Mer leaned into the warrior’s space. “I have nothing left to lose.”

The Scythian smiled through chapped lips, and it sent a chill down her spine. A tendril of fear wound around her chest as he tipped his chin up to her until they shared the same breath. Her fingers clenched the coral, and she fought not to take a step back.

You hold the power here. Not him.

“Ceto is creative.” A manic grin warped his features.

“Your fear is delicious. Run, little siren. The depths are coming for you.” He snapped his mouth closed so hard that something cracked.

The warrior’s body began to convulse, his chains rattling so violently that the leviathans began thrashing in the water.

Mer screamed, grabbing his face with both hands to pry his teeth apart. A black liquid slipped from the corner of his mouth. “You cannot die!” she hissed. “You will tell me the truth. Where are they? Where are the women? Where is Lysa?”

The Scythian’s eyes rolled back into his head, and all at once, his body went slack, feet slipping off the narrow ledge until he hung limply over the water. Mer’s hands shook as she placed her fingers at the warrior’s pulse point.

Nothing. He was dead.

Mer screamed again, the expanse of the empty ocean eating up her pain and frustration.

She cursed and pulled her hands away from his clammy skin.

Mer turned her back to the body, staring sightlessly out at the calm sea but for a dark fin slicing through the water before disappearing beneath the surface.

Of course, he’d been equipped with poison.

How could she have been so stupid? She yelled wordlessly, the frustration making her throat ache.

Mer tossed her hands in the air before sinking them into her silvery wet hair.

This wasn’t working.

She couldn’t keep abducting Scythian criminals and interrogating them.

Someone was bound to notice. Especially since their bodies were never found.

She nudged a clam clinging to the black rock with her big toe as tears blinded her eyes.

While Mer hadn’t killed them herself, she’d let the ocean decide, and the ocean was a cruel mistress.

Just how much further are you willing to go?

The answer scared her.

Angrily, Mer wiped the tears from her cheeks, hating how sticky they felt.

The monster didn’t deserve her tears. She lifted the key to the manacles from the long chain around her neck and knelt to unclip the chains around the dead man’s ankles first. Next, she reached across his chest to unlock his left hand, holding her breath when her face neared his own.

No one knew what the Scythians did in their laboratories, and she was taking no chances.

The warrior’s heavy body sagged toward her, hanging by one arm. She quickly undid the last manacle, and the Scythian dropped into the water. Mer swallowed hard as his body sank beneath the surface, his black hair floating around his face.

The leviathans’ haunting song rose into a crescendo a moment before a dark shadow slammed into the warrior.

The feeding frenzy had begun.

Mer backed away and moved to the other side.

She got to her hands and knees, thankful that the moon was out.

While her sight was better than most humans, the depths always proved tricky in the dark.

She dipped her face into the water and opened her eyes.

A large female leviathan to her left noticed the movement and swam Mer’s way.

Mer dove into the water, the moonlight causing streams of light to ripple like dancing ribbons.

Mer’s gills flared, forcing the air out and the water in.

It burned as her body adjusted to the seawater.

She reached out a gentle hand to the beastie’s snout and redirected the leviathan.

Her fingers drifted along the scaled side of the massive predator, making sure that it didn’t decide to investigate Mer again.

She glanced above, noting how high the moon was.

Blast it. She was late.

Mer spared the frenzy behind her one more look before darting forward.

She was going to miss her meeting with Sin.

That couldn’t happen.

Too much counted on what he was smuggling.