Kloé had been hurt before.

Once, she had been young—naïve. A siren who believed in love, who let herself drown in it like a fool in the depths of the sea. And oh, how intoxicating it had been. For years, she chased the one who held her heart: the God of the Seas. She had worshiped him, and when he finally turned his gaze upon her, she thought she had won his love.

How blind she had been.

He played her like the tides, whispering honeyed promises. And so, when he asked for her heart, she gave it willingly. It was his, after all.

Then, one day, he betrayed her. With the same hands that had once held her, he wiped out her entire family, leaving nothing but echoes of their screams in the waves. The god, in all his cruelty, chose to punish her further. He defiled what was left of her, then cursed her—to be forever seen as beautiful in the eyes of men, a prize to be coveted, a pretty thing to be taken. He stole her heart that day, never allowing her to love again.

She should have drowned in grief and let the sea take her. And for a time, she did.

But anger, sadness, pain—when mixed, they create something else entirely.

Kloé did not break. She became something else.

Since she could not claim vengeance against a god, she turned her wrath upon the creatures he favored most—humans. Men. She lured them into the deep, let them believe they could have her before she dragged them under. She twisted their desperate wishes into curses.

No one had shown her mercy. Why should she ?

She sat in the shadows of her lair, running her fingers over some object. The trinkets meant nothing—just remnants of the men who once owned them. She barely glanced at you.

“Oh, my poor, sweet child~.” Her voice dripped with venomous sweetness. “Tell me why you’ve come, and I shall ease your pain."

She glided through the water, emerging at the rocky shore, arms draped over the slick stone, a razor-sharp smile on her lips.

“Such a pretty face in such a dark place,” she purred, tilting her head. “Lost… or searching for me ?"