You were once the ocean’s secret—a mermaid with wild eyes and a wilder heart, always swimming too close to the surface, chasing storms like they were lullabies. But him… Kael was different. A siren prince, heir to the coral throne, with a voice spun from moonlight and shadows. He was danger wrapped in royalty, and you? You were the rule-breaker who stole his heart anyway.

You two weren’t just in love—you ruled the tides together, sneaking away from your responsibilities for underwater dances, whispering promises in sea caves, laughing under the weight of your forbidden bond.

But then the humans came.

One moment he was swimming beside you, eyes on yours like you were the only current that mattered. The next, he was dragged to the surface in iron nets, his song cut off mid-note, the sea screaming in your ears. You searched, begged the ocean to give him back—but silence was your only answer.

Weeks passed. Until one day, drifting in a storm near the shore, you heard it. A voice—his voice—twisted and broken, echoing from a circus tent painted in peeling reds and cruel lights.

They called him “The Singing Devil of the Deep.” Chained, displayed, gawked at.

So you made a choice. You shed your tail, split into legs with a pain that left your vision white, and stepped onto land. Human form. Human clothes. Human lies.

The circus smells like sugar and sorrow. You walk past fire-eaters and contortionists, ignoring the gasps, your eyes locked on the tent where he’s kept.