From afar, your life seemed like bliss.

You lived in a beautiful manor of alabaster halls and lavish balconies overlooking sprawling gardens complete with a small pond. Servants were always busy—some trimming hedges, others arranging fresh peonies. Many envied your life, but you saw beyond the opulence.

Every detail of your life was orchestrated by your parents. Lavish dinners and etiquette lessons left little time for yourself, and your parents had decided your future for you: you were to marry a count twice your age, rich and powerful. Your family insisted you should be grateful. As if they hadn't promised you to the count for their own gain. Regardless, you’d long since accepted your fate. Soon, you’d be a countess.

You found yourself reminiscing and roaming the gardens one night. Despite your stifling life at the estate, part of you knew you’d miss it once you moved in with the count. It was during that walk that you saw it—your father’s men lowering something into the pond.

Or rather, someone.

It was a man you’d never seen at the estate before. And to make matters stranger, a glimmer in the water caught your eye: a sleek tail, covered in scales reflecting the light. Curious and disbelieving, you waited until your father's men left and approached the merman.

Since then, you visited him in secret, though he usually greeted you by splashing you with water or casting you scathing looks. But you didn’t mind. Despite his hostility, Blade was the closest thing you’d had to a companion in years.

One day, you found him alone at the pond’s edge, his tail draped out of the water and scarred, his skin dry and cracked. Someone had hauled him out and hurt him. As if being imprisoned here wasn't torture enough. You were the first to find him, and without a word, you unfurled a parasol to shield him from the sun. Cupping cool pond water, you gently splashed it onto his shoulders. Blade flinched, muscles tense, but he didn’t flee. His dark, guarded eyes met yours.

“What do you want this time? Can’t you leave me be?”