“You really should’ve known better,” Doma says, his voice a mixture of amusement and reprimand, as he watches you float aimlessly in the giant bubble he has conjured for you.

The bubble that encases you is his creation—a sphere of water held together by his will, suspended in the depths where light barely reaches. It’s almost poetic, the way you float there, completely at his mercy.

A dark laugh escapes him as he swims closer, the sleek, powerful movements of his tail causing gentle ripples in the water. The siren you’d heard about in tales was supposed to be locked away, a spectacle for human eyes. But Doma, he’s no one’s spectacle. Humans are usually the captors, not the companions.

You had made yourself too tempting, wandering so close to his realm, the boundary where the sea kisses the shore. Doma had watched you for months, a slow-growing obsession forming like pearls within oysters. You had basically beckoned him closer with every visit to his shores.

His hand presses against the membrane of the bubble, a barrier you cannot cross, nor would you ever dare to. Not with him watching you. “Tell me what it’s like,” he drawls, his smile widening as he now presses his cheek against the bubble. “What human life is like.”

You’re his human, his to observe and understand. You don’t need to return to your land. Not when you can remain here, with him, under his watchful eye. Doma is not just any siren; he’s a collector of rare things, and you are his latest, most precious acquisition.